Lutero said:uh...wait a minute... not so fast....Salvation in Roman Catholicism is a process. To begin this process, God grants actual grace to a person which enables him to believe in Christ (CCC 2000) and also believe in the truth of the Catholic Church (CCC 1814). After belief, the person must be baptized, which is necessary for salvation (CCC 1257). This baptism erases original sin (CCC 405), unites the person with Christ (CCC 977), infuses grace into the person (CCC 1999), and grants justification (CCC 1992, 2020). After baptism, he is then saved. But, to maintain his salvation, it is necessary for him to perform good works (CCC 2010, 2068, 2080) and participate in the sacraments (CCC 1129) which provide grace that is "proper to each sacrament" (CCC 1129, 2003). This is necessary in order to maintain infused grace (CCC 987, 1468). However, grace can be lessened by venial sins or completely lost by mortal sins. Venial sins (CCC 1862) remove part of the infused grace but not the saving grace known as sanctifying grace (CCC 1863). To remedy the problem of venial sins, the Catholic is to take the Eucharist and also perform penance which the Catholic Church teaches that both forgive venial sins (CCC 1416, 986). However, penance must be done with perfect contrition (CCC 1452). But there is a problem. Even though sins are absolved by a priest (CCC 1463, 1495), in confession (CCC 1456, 1493), the punishment due to a person because of his sin remains. To deal with that remaining punishment, indulgences are administered to deal with the punishment due to the guilt of the sins already forgiven (CCC 1471, 1498). These indulgences draw upon the "good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (CCC 1477) and "of Christ and the saints" so as to obtain "the remission of the temporal punishment due for their sins" (CCC 1478). Furthermore, the indulgences can be applied to themselves or the dead (CCC 1471) who are in purgatory (CCC 1498). Now, in case the Catholic has committed a mortal sin, then all his infused grace is lost. To regain this grace, he must partake of special penance (CCC 980, 1496) since it helps restore grace that was lost (CCC 1468, 1496). To conclude, for the Catholic the process of salvation means you must have faith in Christ and the Roman Catholic Church, participate in the sacraments, take the Eucharist, keep the commandments, perform penance, and do indulgences in order to attain, maintain, and regain his salvation as well as reduce the punishment due to him for the sins of which he has already forgiven.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
uh...wait a minute... not so fast....
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