The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. This last sentence of Saint John is a bit staggering. Notice that the crowd says, well, what must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus replies, this is the work of God.
Have faith in the one whom he sent. Now this matter of faith is a tough question because if you supposing you take that literally, just as it says that, that all you have to do is believe in God, that nothing else matters, well, then the first question you have to ask yourself, what about good works? Is there such a thing as a good work? Now by a good work, I don't mean mere philanthropy or or just being kind hearted or we're not talking about that. We're talking about an action that a human being does which has, let us say, a supernatural consequence or that has to do with his salvation, that has to do with the, let us say, the forgiveness of sins, that has to do with his redemption.
This is what we're talking about. Now how do you put the two things together? If you take that sentence literally, you're going to say, well then, all that matters is is to is to have faith and nothing else really matters because Christ himself says this is the work of God, that you have faith. This is what started Luther off. He had a some kind of a religious experience when he was in a great turmoil of inner confusion.
He was a very, as we would say today, a complicated and unhappy and unquiet man as a religious monk, Augustinian monk. And then in the midst of his confusion and anxiety, in the midst of a life where there were great peaks of exaltation in serving God, and then the deep troughs where he felt lost and almost in despair, one day something happened. We know something happened. He says something happened. He doesn't say what it was.
But when he says something happened and something did happen because he was a changed man. It had to do with his reading of Saint Paul, where Saint Paul says and you could take a lot of texts out of Saint Paul, but this was the text where he's where Luther read Saint Paul as saying that salvation is by faith alone. Catch that word alone because that is not in Saint Paul. That is not in Saint Paul. Luther put it in there.
And that text of Luther I mean, that text of Saint Paul, I'm not guessing at this. This this is we know this from what he's told us. This was the great key that Luther grasped that unlocked the kingdom of God to him. That he didn't become a Protestant the next day or anything of that sort. But the thing is this was the beginning of an enlightenment for him.
This was the beginning of a certitude, of an absolute trust and confidence that what mattered was faith and nothing else mattered. Well, this is the beginning of trouble because in the sixteenth century, the age of reformation, at least in the as regards Western Europe and England, this was the great question. This is for this question, men and women put their lives on the block on both sides of the question. They weren't just Catholics. They were Protestant martyrs as well, And many of them laid their lives down on this question about faith.
Now, of course, you'll say, well, how about James when James says, well, that the faith without good works is dead? Well, Luther handled handled that very nicely. He kicked James out. Said it was a spurious text. So Luther hadn't any trouble with it.
But remember, keep this in mind. The the reformation in England was not so much Lutheran as it was Calvinistic and Presbyterian. Always keep that in mind. Henry the eighth was a very strong opponent of Luther. Now, so that this question, how do you reconcile faith in God, which is absolutely and essential with good works?
Do you accept one exclusively? Which one? Or do you try to put the two together? If you try to put the two together, how do you do it? Because you see, one of the great points that Luther made when he got going in in in opposition and in open warfare with Rome across the Alps was this matter of good works, indulgences, building the great Basilica Of Saint Peter.
You have to tie all this stuff together, you know, it's a complex picture. But this is the issue. And here, you take a text like Saint John, if you take that text alone, what's your conclusion? Well, as I've said many times, when you're dealing with a book, beware, it's dangerous. You can get anything you want out of a book, really you can, by picking and choosing.
And that, of course, is the trick of the trickster and the softest and the cheat and of the ignorant and of the careless and of the propagandist. It is not done by the seekers of truth because truth is complicated. It's hard to get for humans. And when people get it all of a sudden, like Luther did, like Descartes did, like Pascal did, like many others, for example, John Stuart Mill, these men all had some kind of an instantaneous revelation of truth. All I can say about it, beware.
The red lights are flashing. Sit tight. Put your sit on your hands. Do something. Don't move.
It's dangerous. Rightfully dangerous. And so today when we hear the saint John saying this, I mean, our Lord saying this, and saint John is quoting him, let us think about this. How do you put these things together? Today we are in danger of forgetting what our lord says.
Today, we are overwhelmingly dedicated to good works, and faith doesn't seem to matter too much. What difference does it make with what you believe? It's what you do. It's how you live. Have you heard that?
How many people today will openly stand up and have a difference of opinion about religion. Why don't they? Because they say, what's the difference? It divides us, and we ought to be together. Let us be united.
Let us not be separated by these, oh, these academic discussions about faith and good works and all that sort of thing. Let us forget. Let us just be good to one another and love each other. That's the temper of the times and it's dangerous. It's it's it's not even good paganism because a good pagan believes in God and this is rejection of God.
So what we need to take to heart with what our Lord's saying here, and it's difficult. It's very easy to lose ourselves in good works and to forget God in them. It's very easy. It's easy to lose ourselves in our neighbor and to forget God in our neighbor. It's very easy, almost inevitable, almost inevitable, unless we fight against it.
We have to keep that burning light clear before us That whatever you may say about works and faith, the essential thing is faith. It's what saves us. Works never saved anybody unless they be transformed, metamorphosized by the saving merits of Jesus Christ. That's the heart of the matter. And that's the great truth of Luther.
That's the great thing he preached. And to that extent, he was right. And so let us take it to heart and pray pray. Faith is a gift. Let's not forget that and praise God that we have it and do something about it.
Let it illuminate our lives. Let us do good works, but let them have the stamp and the character of Jesus Christ upon them, our savior. In the name of the father, and the son, and holy spirit. Amen.