“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven”

St. Hilary of Poitiers wrote that the true joy that leads all of us to heaven is following the will of God here on earth, and by this “obedience to the divine will, and not simply repeating his name”,[1] we can obtain everlasting life.

So if we call on the Lord, He will not answer us? No. Christ is challenging our intentions for calling on the name of the Lord. Do we turn to Him only in times of distress? Is it only to look pious in front of people, but not really meaning it? Jesus is telling us that we must walk the walk and talk the talk.
 
How are we praying our prayers? Jesus was speaking to many who had turned prayer into a mere recital of words and formulae totally unrelated to their hypocritical and malicious behavior. [2] Our prayers should be linked with a many different ways throughout our day to a desire and an effective effort to fulfill the Will of God. [3]
 
Is prayer all we need? No. Prayer is vitally important to our faith, but to put faith in practice, we should be willing to do work for the Lord. As Christ said in today’s Gospel reading, though you may do works in His name, if you are not connecting your life to Him completely, then you are not doing His will. By not doing His will, He will say, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.” You may have seen televangelists that will cure someone by the name of Jesus, but are they united with Christ and giving Him all the glory, or are they putting on a show to earn money for their cause and not that of Christ?
 
What are good works?“All the actions of man which are performed according to the will of God, while in the state of grace, for the love of God.” [4] The principles of good works are prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. These specifically can be found in the Scriptures (Tob. 13:8).
 
How many works of charity are there? Spiritual and corporal.  What’s the difference?Spiritual focuses on the soul. It has a lot to do with the beatitudes; Forgive the sinner, teach the ignorant, console the afflicted, show mercy to others, bring peace to others, console the suffering, and pray for the dead. The corporal works are those that were referenced by Christ in the parable of the “Sheep and the Goats”. (Matthew 25:31-46) We are called to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the captives, sick, and homebound, and to bury the dead.
 
So which is it? Prayer or deeds? It’s both! Prayer must be backed up by deeds, by a firm desire to carry out God’s Will, which is revealed to us in so many different ways. [5] Out whole life should be a prayer of devotion and following the will of the Lord by acting out our faith in the day to day works we do.
 
Our prayer should be: “Lord, I want to do only what you want me to do, the way you want me to do it. I don’t want to do my own will, following my silly whims, but your divine Will. Lord, I wish that my life were to be just that: the fulfillment of your Will in everything, so that I could say, as you said, in big things and in small: my food, what gives meaning to my life, is to do the will of my Father God.” [6]
 
There is a heresy (false teaching) called “faith alone” or “sola fide”.  It is a basic principle of the Reformation Protestantism. It declares that humanity is justified only by a confident trust in God through the saving merits of Jesus Christ. This confident trust called fides fiducialis (trustful faith) is present in those who are predestined to be saved. It is, therefore, a work of predestination and excludes the possibility of good works that, on Catholic premises, are also necessary for salvation. [7] Ephesians 2:8-10 says it all; we are saved by grace, through faith, which is acted out in charity (good works). Grace is primary, as it is only by God’s grace that we are capable of attaining salvation. We accept this grace through faith. Faith, which includes the Liturgy, Sacraments, prayers, teachings, and much more, is the dispenser of grace. This grace, accepted through faith, is acted out and must be acted out in charity (good works). For Jesus tells us that to whom much is given, much is expected, and that we must love others as He has loved us. He has loved us by giving us grace and faith. One of our obligations then, is to give the grace and faith we have received to others. We do this through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy mentioned above.
 
ACTIVTY – What does the Bible says about Good Works
Many will say that good works are not necessary for salvation. Grace, faith, and works are necessary and this is supported in Scripture. Make seven cards with the following Scripture verses on them.  Romans 2:6-8. Romans 2:13.  Hebrews 10:26-27.  James 2:14.  James 2:17.  James 2:18-20.  James 2:24.  Hand the cards out to individuals or to groups and then have a discussion over the Scriptures. At the end, ask the question: Why did Martin Luther want to take the book of James out of the Bible?

ACTIVITY – Grace, Faith or Works
This is a simple activity. Give everyone a card or post-it note and have them write GRACE on the first, FAITH on the second, and WORKS on the third. On the wall, window, or board, make three columns in which you put FIRST, SECOND and THIRD. Have the group put the cards or post-it notes in the order that they feel they are most important. If they feel that FAITH is #1, they put faith in the first column by sticking or taping their card or note on the wall, window, or board. This is a great activity for groups of 30 or more. It is good if you have everyone post their notes or cards at the same time so people don’t vote based on others opinions. After the activity, a discussion can take place in which Ephesians 2:8-10 is read, as well as why all three are necessary for salvation and what happens if any are taken out of the equation.  Also, it is important that all three go in the correct order, as there is a proper hierarchy of importance, and works flow from faith, which flows from grace.  If you want to take this activity a step further, you can also have cards that say Prayer, Belief, and Life, which correspond with Grace, Faith and Works.  You can also have cards that say Know, Love, and Serve, which correspond with Grace, Faith and Works. In other words, we must know that grace is there and pray for it daily.  We believe our faith, which is loving God, a response to the grace we received and we live out through service and good works.
 

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[1] Catena aurea, vol I, p. 449
[2] Fernandez In Conversation with God vol. 3 70.1
[3] J. Escriva, The Forge, 358
[4] The Church’s Year pg. 367
[5] Fernandez In Conversation with God vol. 3 70.1
[6] Fernandez In Conversation with God vol. 3 70.1
[7] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 511