Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent, March 10, 2024. Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10/ Theme: Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith!
One short 8-word-phrase from today’s second reading was a hot button issue back in the 16th century. It caused a volatile, and at times even violent, conflict among Catholics and the new phenomenon of emerging Protestantism. I suppose such a passionate debate shouldn’t be all that surprising because those 8 words ,“by grace you have been saved through faith”, deal with one of the most vital questions of Christianity: how are human beings saved? In other words, how is a person freed from the spiritual alienation from God that is caused by sin and leads to eternal death and put into a right relationship with God that leads to eternal life?
The Protestant reformers erroneously argued that the Church had corrupted the meaning of this verse by teaching that people could earn salvation by doing religious works. In response, Catholic leadership condemned the Protestant position as heretical, pointing out that Jesus called for a personal response to His invitation to salvation. Both sides were so adamant on proving the others wrong that neither stopped to really listen to what the other was saying. And sadly this led to the scandal of a hostile division of Christianity that caused a bleeding rupture in the Mystical Body of Christ which is still an open wound in the Church today.
Fortunately, by the mid-20th century both sides of the conflict began to walk together on a pathway towards reconciliation. For the first time in nearly 400 years, the Catholic hierarchy was willing to listen instead of argue and because of this openness prompted by Vatican II many Protestant leaders became willing to engage in mutual dialogue. Both sides sent representatives to theological meetings and it was discovered that, while differences remained, there was a significant amount of common ground on this fundamental Christian teaching after all. In an extremely simplified form here is what that all-important 8-word-phrase “by grace you have been saved through faith” means:
By grace... means that salvation is a totally free and unmerited gift from God. And while we cannot and do not earn it in any way, shape or form, we obviously do have to respond to God’s invitation to accept salvation in one way or another. How we respond is still a matter of debate, but all agree that even our response is made possible by the grace of God because we cannot save ourselves. It is something beyond our limited finite human capabilities.
You have been saved...in Biblical language, the word "salvation" has the same root word as "healing". To be saved means to be healed. Healed of what? Of sin and its effects on us, such as a tendency towards selfishness and its ultimate consequence of spiritual death. So the words "you have been saved" can also be understood as "you have been healed from your terminal sin-sickness and can live a spiritually healthy life here and hereafter." Both Catholics and Protestants agree that this healing is only possible through Christ and that it is a necessary supernatural remedy for our sin-affected human condition.
Through faith...whenever we encounter the word "faith" in the Bible it can and should be understood as "trust" because they are both the same word in biblical language. To trust (or believe) in Christ means to wholeheartedly turn to Him as Savior and to have confidence both in what He has said (the Gospel) and what He has done for us (the Passion and Resurrection). A difference that remains between the two sides is that we Catholics hold that the ministry of the Church established by Jesus Christ is a non-negotiable part of our relationship with Him. Protestants, on the other hand, vary on this role of the Church depending upon their denomination’s particular interpretation of Christianity.
But when all is said and done, does salvation-grace “work”? Or to put it better, can we see tangible evidence that salvation-grace truly overrides the selfishness of sick-sickness in the human person and enables them to become more like Jesus Christ? Well as we say, the “proof is in the pudding”! All we need to do is look at the lives of those who “by grace have been saved through faith” and have embraced Jesus and his Gospel wholeheartedly. They can be found in all branches of Christianity. We can see in their lives how sin and its influence becomes neutralized and the grace of God takes its place through their deep relationship with Jesus Christ.
By grace through faith these heroic Christians put their own well-being on the back burner, so to speak, and modeled their lives after the pattern of Jesus in so many different ways. They cared for the sick despite danger to themselves even in the midst of contagious epidemics. They stood up for the rights and dignity of the poor and oppressed in the face of death-threats and violent opposition. They proclaimed the primacy of God and His Law in civic life above the tyrannical rule of politics and economics. And many of them gave the ultimate witness to the transforming power of salvation-grace-by-faith in the shedding of their blood, the offering up of their lives for the sake of Christ and on behalf of others.
This inner transformation of the human person, which is the fruit of being saved by grace through faith, is precisely what the Gospel is about today. Jesus is reminding us that He, the Crucified Savior, is the remedy for sin-sickness and that the salvation-grace He won for us by His Cross and Resurrection is the only sure cure. He assures us that He comes to each one of us out of a motivation of love as our merciful Savior not as a condemning Judge. He gives eternal life in place of spiritual death to anyone who will turn to Him in faith, that is, in trust. Today’s Gospel contains such a consoling and comforting message that it’s no wonder a passage from it has become the most quoted verse of the New Testament, if not of the entire Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
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