Am I "saved"?

Are we all “saved”? Is Heaven guaranteed to us simply from one baptism in our earthly life, or by sometimes professing the name Jesus Christ? Why are we here, and is this it? A day like today beckons such questions.

 

No one on earth really knows the “true” meaning of life or why we are all born, only God knows, but I have some ideas. We were made for Heaven. We were made by the pure, unconditional, unfathomable, bursting-at-the-seams love from God. We were not made merely to perish, but to have Eternal Life. That means our soul. Our soul was infused into our material bodies through the Giver of Life, each of us endowed with free will but stained by original sin. Our aim is for Heaven, although God fully respects our decision to choose Salvation through our free will; and to choose it daily by acknowledging that we are sinners in need of a Redeemer and to make a conscious decision each day whether to live for Heaven or Hell.

 

So, again, am I guaranteed to go to Heaven just because I was baptized? How convenient that sounds! I did one thing and suddenly I can never be found with fault, my eternal salvation is secure, and I am off scott-free! This makes no logical sense because we sinners can abuse this idea to no end. Hitler himself was “born again” and baptized. Does that mean that his life and deep, deep mortal sins are negated by this one-time birth of grace? So many baptized persons use the rest of their lives for evil, even denouncing Jesus and rejecting their Heavenly home through their own free will. Upon death, if they still do not throw themselves at the Mercy of Jesus, God cannot force salvation upon them because God does not interfere with our free will, even to the point of watching His beloved children perish.

 

“So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12

 

Work out your salvation, because it is not a one-time punch of the “cruise control” button or a guarantee. Do it with fear and trembling, because God is immense and just, but all-loving and merciful. If our salvation was a guarantee, Jesus’ work would have been a lot shorter and far less complicated. All He would have had to say is, “Be baptized in My Name and then just live your life and wait for death. I’ll see you later.” If our goal in life is to attain Heaven, we must work for it, not just have it handed to us. That is why Jesus left us with: 

 

commandments to follow every day (to name a few...)

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me"

Luke 9:23 & Mark 8:34 & Matthew 16:24 

 

"Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.'" John 6:53-56

 

“Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15

 

"By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did" Luke 13:3

 

"But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" Matthew 5:44

 

"I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." John 13:34

 

the will of the Father

"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.” John 6:40

 

and the Church

^"And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'” Matthew 16:18-19

 

We can do nothing on our own. We must seek God’s help daily and offer up our struggles. We must continually focus our will and heart to Heaven, while admitting our shortcomings and purifying ourselves. Each time we sin, we incur a debt. God may forgive our sin, but we still owe back the debt. The Bible says, “[N]o unclean thing will enter [Heaven], nor anyone who does abominable things or tells lies.” (Revelation 21:27) Almost none of us are “clean” upon our death. We are marred with our past sins, riddled with that debt, still full of that desire to repay God for the pain and offense we caused. If any of us can gaze upon the Face of God on our Judgment Day, just waiting for Him to spout off our sins like a grocery list and then open those Pearly Gates, then we’ve got it all wrong. We cannot look into the Face of Love, hearing all of our offenses and transgressions, and not feel such a deep sadness that we would immediately throw ourselves to the Feet of Mercy, begging God for forgiveness and some means to make it all right again. God is Just, and for that, we have Purgatory. We purge and purify our souls, making retribution for our wrongdoing and making ourselves clean again. It’s as if throughout our earthly life, with each sin, we throw another dash of paint on our “angelic robe” that we are to wear in Heaven. On our Judgment Day, we see just how dirty our robe is, and spend our time in Purgatory to make it clean and fit to enter Heaven, where all is clean, bright, and white. Our human minds, with our understanding of what is finite and the linear nature of time, cannot fully comprehend "what" Purgatory is, but by faith, we are guided to understand that it is necessary for Heaven.

 

Why do I bring any of this up? Well, three years ago today, my father passed away. Of course it’s nice just to assume that our loved ones fly right to Heaven, but we can’t just assume that. To assume that is to paint Christianity as full of roses and rainbows, all happy-like where no one ever gets their feelings hurt and we are just bystanders even though we all get a trophy in the end. I am just as sure that my father died with the love of Jesus in his heart as I am sure that he also died with sins on his soul, like many of us would if we were to fall dead right now. So, is that it?--No way. Not if we believe in salvation, Eternal Life, and our participation in the Body of Christ, connected through the Holy Spirit.

 

 "He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin." 2 Maccabees 12:43-46

 

To cease praying for someone or to cease praying with someone (for example, asking a saint to pray for you, and then joining your prayers together to Jesus with that saint) seems to be an indication that one does not believe in Eternal Life, like they just don't exist anymore. I don’t know where my father’s soul is right now, so I pray for him. I pray for mercy and forgiveness. I pray that if he is in purgatory, that his soul may become so clean and white, that I may see him again someday, the way God made him. I pray for those souls in purgatory, as they feel the agony and weight of the debt they incurred as a child of God. We are all connected in the Spirit, and each of us can have a profound effect on each other through prayer. Jesus teaches us that life does not end when our mortal bodies die. So if you could, please pray a special prayer today for my father, and for all souls in purgatory. 

 

 

 

Eternal Father,
I offer Thee the most precious Blood of Thy Divine Son,
Jesus,
in union with the Masses said throughout the world today,
for all the holy souls in Purgatory.

Amen.