A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus said, what does the reign of God resemble? To what shall I liken it? It is like mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. The seed grew and became a large shrub, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.
And then Jesus went on, to what shall I compare the reign of God? It is like east, which a woman took to knead into three measures of flour until the whole mess of dough began to rise. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise to you, holy spirit. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
I have no way of knowing what particular interest or theological problems you have with this matter of faith and good works, which of course is the great theme of this letter of Paul to the Romans, which is I suppose well, it is certainly one of his most important letters. And if you take a pragmatic view of the situation, there's probably no text in the bible, old and new testament, which has had the practical consequences that this letter of Paul to the Romans has had, and specifically on the relation of faith to good works relative to salvation. How does it work? Now, it's a this is a very serious problem. Because in our day, I mean in right now, but but not so much now as say half a dozen years ago and then more than that in the sixties and seventies.
See, we've gotten off on it on the activist kick. You can read as I have books of articles about missionaries where the word God doesn't appear at all. You get the distinct impression that before you can save souls, you have to save bodies. That before you can you can bring message, the message message of God of Christ's good news to people, you have to make them into a democracy with equal rights and equal distribution of wealth. Now I'm not exaggerating this picture.
So today, as in the sixteenth century, the century of reformation, we are today very much on the activist kick, or if you wanna be a little more theological, on the Pelagian kick. Now in the time of Saint Augustine, if this bores you, that's alright with me, but it certainly doesn't bore me and I'm the one who's delivering it. Saint Augustine, remember this is March to 04/30. Here you have the Pelagians and they were so impressed with man's inert dignity, his his worth, his value. After all, God made him.
He gave him these wonderful gifts that you didn't need God's grace. All you need to do was to do the right things, action. And of course, Augustine who also was a great follower of Saint Paul, that is to be Paul Augustine picked that up immediately and insisted that you can't have it that way, that we are saved not by our works, not by what we do, but by faith. Now, Augustine didn't remember, let's let's admit it. Augustine was the great a great favorite saint with Martin Luther because Augustine emphasized, not as Luther did, but Augustine emphasized the part that God plays in our salvation.
Well, now, of course, you can't have a discussion of this sort without it without both sides agreeing that we have salvation as our goal. And that's where the twentieth century differs from the fifth and the sixteenth. Because today, there are plenty of people who have no conception of salvation outside of being a good, well fed, well developed, well, identified person in this life. So there's there's no discussion on these matters unless you take a view of man which has a little bit to do with God and immortality and salvation. But this problem of good works versus faith.
Now you see, we say versus. That means against, doesn't it? But it's here's where the problem comes. Should it be that way? Well, now on the one hand you have this thinking which emphasizes good works.
On the other hand, you have the thinking which emphasizes faith in God as the only source of salvation. And then you have a man like Thomas Moore, just to give you one tiny concrete example, who tries to hold the two together. Now, when you try to hold two things which are different together, that generates tension invariably. And to resolve that tension and to slide to either side or the other side relieves the tension for a time, for a time. See, that is the and to be a Catholic means to live for the most part in this atmosphere of tension.
Because in so many instances, it's the Catholic doctrine, it's the Catholic faith, it's the Catholic truth which holds together what seems to be contraries pulling apart from each other. And there's no better example of that than this matter of faith and good works. It is so easy to lose ourselves in good works. It is so easy to set man up in such a way that we forget God. It is so easy to be so completely overwhelmed with the sadness, the evils, the tragedies, the misery of the world, and a lot of this has been depicted very recently on your TV screen.
It is so easy to be completely immersed in that and to be trying to do something about it that we forget God almighty. And yet God said the first commandment is to worship him and to love him. And so to be a Catholic, it means to live in a kind of an atmosphere of tension where we hold the opposites to trying to hold them together because that's what we have to do. On the one hand, we have to agree that we cannot be saved by ourselves. Our blessed lord said, without me, you can do nothing.
Our Christ said that and it's absolutely ambiguous. Without me, you can do nothing. Do we think about that seriously? Do we do we try to realize that? That even even the action of thinking about God has to in some way originate with him.
Do we ever give a thought to this? Now as soon as I make that statement, I'm generating a problem for myself. Because if I say that and believe it, what part do I have in an act of faith or love of God? If I have to wait for God to pull the trigger, that's a Pelagian concept. See, you see, you see how this problem is is is so ingrained in our very living And no words of mine are going to make the problem evaporate, I'll tell you that.
But as a very recent writer, mister Derek, doctor Derek from England, who's one of our outstanding apologists in England, who was a student of Clive Staple Lewis, what he points out very clearly in a lay in a in a recent book about Lewis, why Lewis did not become a Catholic. Derrick points out that this you see, this spirit of tension is part of being a Catholic. And that's the reason when you have a heresy everything's it does seem to be a liberation. Because what you're doing is you're resolving the tension by concentrating on one or the other side of the factors which created the tension. And so for the time being, there is a spirit of liberation.
That's exactly what followed Luther. That's exactly what fathered cow. That's exactly what followed Knox. Now notice England's a different question. So that there is this spirit of freedom for a time for a time.
Because let me let me show you very one very little thing. If you say with Luther that we're saved by faith alone and that good you're bound to ask yourself, well, what about good works? Don't we have to do good works? Notice Luther threw out James so I can't quote James that the faith without good works is dead. Luther said that's just a straw epistle throw it out.
So here you see right on not at the beginning, not at the beginning, but within Luther's lifetime and certainly in the next generation, you had this very serious problem. If we're saved by faith alone, why do good? Why sacrifice myself for my neighbor? And yet look at the good Samaritan. Look at our blessed Lord telling us that if you give a cup of cold water to a to a thirsty person in his name you're giving it to him.
How you do justify that? And Lutherans certainly historically have been have have been prominent in acts of charity, hospitals, orphanages, schools, and still are. How do you put these two things together now, Now Lewis treats of this very well in one of his books. It's a real serious problem you see. So as soon as so that they you when you resolve the tension by becoming a heretic, you you are fine for a while but that spirit of liberation liberation kind of evaporates.
And then you come back to some tensions again because this is the God's honest truth. To pursue truth is not an easy thing. To pursue truth often means that you are generating conflict. It doesn't lead to a quiet peaceful existence in an ivory tower. Quite the reverse.
Quite the reverse. And anyone who's tried knows it's absolutely true. And this goes for science or any other field. And so this letter of Paul, I I hope you will take it and read it as a whole. It's not easy reading, folks.
It's not. I'm not recommending it to you in the place of the sports page or the style section of the Washington Post. But I'm saying you've sat here morning after morning listening to these dribs and drabs of it, which can give you a very false impression. I urge you to read it and it won't this is a letter. It won't take you long to do it.
Paul's epistle to the Romans. It is one of the most important and influential documents we have for our Catholic faith. And if you don't believe me, read history and be a pragmatist. In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Amen.