The power of Love

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13

A couple of weeks ago the church we are now going to started to watch an episode of Father Barron's "Catholicism Project" every Friday. These episodes are amazing and I highly recommend them to you! Today the topic was Peter and Paul. Now, if you've read my past blogs you'd know that I had quite the heated discussion with my Presbyterian friend about "Peter and the Rock" and "Faith and Works" so this weeks episode brought back that memory and I was able to talk a little bit about it in the discussion we had after we watched the episode. Since I have already covered Peter and the Rock in one of my previous blogs, I want to talk about Faith and Works.

Back in the days of my heated discussion with my friend he was fully convinced that we are saved by Faith alone. Now this is not what we as Catholics believe. We believe that by both Faith and Works we are saved.

I showed him the verse in James, 

"Faith without works is dead" 

James 2:26

he then pointed me to Galations, 

"...knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ." 

Galations 2:16

I then asked if he believed if there were any contradictions in the Bible, he quickly said "No." then I asked how could these two verses exist and how could they only pick one to follow. He said that when you have faith you automatically do work...but you don't have to. (If that makes any sense.)

I then told him that if that was so then we are saved by Faith and Works. We are saved by Love which God is! I explained it like this "Love is an act. An act is a work. If we are saved by our faithful love then would not we be saved by our faithful work? Thus both Faith and Work."
I also said this in today's discussion and Father again agreed with me! It made me feel so absolutely great!
Also, one verse that really stood out to me that can be added to this discussion, was 1 Corinthians 13:13, which was in the video by Father Barron. This verse is, 

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 

1 Corinthians 13:13

Also I told my friend about this verse, in Romans 2:5-6 it says,

"But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds.” 

Romans 2:5-6

And two others I've found for this blog are, 

"…we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 

Cor 5:10

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

Mattew 7:21

Also in the video Father Barron said something wonderful. When we get to heaven we no longer need faith because we are there in what we had faith in. We no longer need hope because what we hoped in we have now achieved, but love remains because God is love and his kingdom is love.
So if love is an act, and an act is an action which is also a form of works, are we not then saved by both Faith and Works? I am not saying one is more important than the other. You heard the verses; without one, the other is worthless. It is like the Earth and day and night. If we were forever lit up with the sun nothing would grow; everything would burn up before growing. If we were forever kept in the darkness of the night nothing would grow because it would be too cold.
But with both, a coexistence of each other, the Earth flourishes with life. Thus, with faith and works we flourish in Jesus Christ.

I hope that makes sense. Sometimes I get into the moment and just write whatever comes to mind and then don't read it again. I come back later and realize nothing makes sense!

So...I guess I'll end here with just a quite saying one of the older folks said about protestants. "Without Catholics there would be no protestants."
Today's discussion was truly amazing. I felt reassured by the people there. Even at the end when everyone was leaving, an old man who was a Catholic convert thanked me for bringing up the topic! I feel so at home at this new parish. The people are friendly (although not quite my age group, I admit) and the priest there is superb! He is young, he understands both the old and young, he's humble and hilarious and smart! He is definitely one of a kind and I feel blessed to have ever met him.

May the Grace and Peace of God remain always with you!
God Bless, 

~Katherine