Salvation

SALVATION. - The idea of salvation includes that of safety and preservation. It is also the sense of the Greek σωτηρία which often recurs in Sacred Scripture. Transferred to the plane of the spiritual life, it means liberation from evil and the attainment of good; particularly liberation from sin and its consequences and the attainment of the good that lies beyond this world. The yearning for salvation is in fact born from the sense of sin and of the human decadence that has followed from it; it gives rise to a set of problems, both in the face of the recognition of human insufficiency and of the difficulty of redeeming oneself, and because of the fear or dread of the one who has been offended, lawgiver and judge. Salvation therefore means healing from this pathological state of the human spirit, liberation from evil, safety and deliverance from the ever-impending danger of a definitive, eternal perdition.

I. THE CHRISTIAN SOLUTION

Christianity gives a solution to this problem that is a synthesis of opposites, and therefore stands at the center between the contrasting solutions, harmonizing the elements of truth they contain.

1. The Old Testament

Traces of the solution are already contained in it. To escape from sin, first of all observance of the Law is necessary, recommended by God himself or by Moses and the Prophets in God's name (cf. Deut. 4:1 ff.; 6:4 ff.; 12:28 ff.; Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 18:5 ff.; cf. Tob. 12:9). At the same time, trust in the God who saves is required, as the Psalms especially inculcate, and above all faith in God and in the One whom God will send to his people as Messiah-Savior (cf. Isa. 62:1; 11; 12:3; Zech. 9:9; Mic. 7:7). Circumcision is the sign of entry into the state of righteousness and is prescribed for whoever wishes to benefit, together with the rest of the chosen people, from God's special governance. But he becomes heir to the promises made to Abraham only if Abraham's faith passes into him.

Unfortunately, when the "night of legalism" fell, many reduced the way of salvation to ritualism and formalism, and their expectation of salvation became temporalized into political messianism. St. Paul waged a great battle against the idolatry of the Law, affirming the genuine sense of faith and upholding its essential importance and primacy. But even though the bulk of rabbinic Judaism closed its eyes to the true sense of the future Messiah's mission, there were always devout souls who feared God, living by faith and in righteousness, awaiting the Savior (cf. Luke 1:75 ff.; 2:25 ff.; cf. M.-J. Lagrange, Le Messianisme chez les Juifs, Paris 1909).

2. The New Testament

The mystery of salvation was revealed in its integral concept, according to the divine good pleasure, at the hour willed by God (Col. 1:26), with Christianity, which is a great announcement and message of salvation (Luke 2:11; Rom. 8:3; Col. 1:13-14; Heb. 1:1-3; John 1:29, 36). Jesus came as Savior (Matt. 1:21; Luke 2:25, 30), and presented himself as such (Matt. 15:24; Mark 2:17; Luke 19:10; cf. Matt. 18:12-23; Luke 15:1-8). This is the very substance of his mission: to heal, to save the lost sheep, to give his life for the world. In the Synoptics this concept of salvation is constant, corresponding in the Fourth Gospel to that of "life" and "eternal life." It is a concept intertwined with that of Redemption (v.) which, already latent in the poems of the Servant of Yahweh (Isa. 42:1 ff.; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:1-3; 53:12), but unknown to the Jews in its full sense, emerges clearly from the Gospel, both in Christ's affirmations that he has come for sinners (cf. Matt. 9:13; Mark 2:17), and in the parables of salvation, and in the explicit declaration of the offering of his life for "the many" (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; cf. F. Prat. La théologie de st-Paul, I, 19th ed., Paris 1930, p. 516), for the remission of sins (Matt. 25:27; cf. Mark 14:24; Luke 22:19, 20; I Cor. 11:24). St. Paul further developed these concepts, laying the foundations of the entire theology of Redemption and salvation (cf. J. Rivière, Le dogme de la Rédemption. Etude théologique, Paris 1914, pp. 46-70).

Salvation consists, then, in receiving from Christ the messianic goods, constituted not by a terrestrial kingdom re-established according to Jewish hopes, which Jesus rejects, but by the kingdom of God which is spiritual and transcendent (Luke 17:21; John 18:36) and by eternal life, in which perfect happiness is realized, but which is already initially realized on earth in those who believe in Christ (John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47). Here is the crucial point of the message and work of salvation. If according to Christianity salvation comes from Christ and consists in Christ, one spontaneously asks what is required on man's part, that is, what are the necessary conditions for being saved.

3. Errors

There is a position that may be called Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian (and which, translated into secular terms, is the rationalism and humanism that asserts human self-redemption), according to which salvation comes from man and his works, since by his natural powers alone he can attain faith and accomplish (Pelagius [v.]) or at least begin (Semi-Pelagians [v.]) the work of his perfection. The Church condemned this theory at the Second Council of Orange (529), affirming the necessity and gratuitousness of Grace, even for the "initium fidei," since without Christ one can do nothing (John 15:5) and all our ability comes from God (II Cor. 3:5) who works in us both the will and the action by virtue of his good pleasure (Philem. 2:13). According to the Church faithful to the Gospel, salvation cannot come from works alone, from man alone (cf. Denz-U, 174-200; 200 a, 200 b). For Socinus's theory v. REDENZIONE.

An opposite position is that of the Protestants, who hold that salvation is attainable through faith alone. Luther (v.) and Calvin (v.) distinguished a double faith: the dogmatic, intellectual one, which is adherence to revealed truths; and the affective one, or fiducial faith, which rests on the preaching of Christ and on the interior experience of salvation, and is the only one necessary to obtain divine forgiveness and be saved.

It may be said that almost from the beginning resistances and protests manifested themselves among Luther's and Calvin's own followers (cf. J. Rivière, Justification, in DThC, VIII, II, coll. 2149-52). Today, moreover, there is within Protestantism a strong reaction against this doctrine, to the point that some admit that sin is really erased (cf. J. Rivière, ibid., coll. 2203-2207).

4. Catholic doctrine

Fixed by the Council of Trent (cf. Denz-U, 792-843), it corresponds to the authentic message of salvation contained in Sacred Scripture, and is both appreciative of and satisfying for man. The substance of this doctrine is that salvation consists not in a simple non-imputation, nor even only in the remission of sin, but also in the "sanctification" and renewal of the inner man through the voluntary acceptance of Grace and of the gifts (cf. ibid., 792, 799). It is a matter of an infusion of Grace and holiness, not of a simple external divine favor (ibid., 821). It is certainly a divine work, but conditioned by a moral preparation on man's part (ibid., 797, 819), whose first and most important act is faith, "humanae salutis initium, fundamentum et radix omnis iustificationis" (ibid., 801; cf. 1793). It is not, however, merely a matter of fiducial faith in divine mercy (ibid., 822), but of the faith that consists in considering the divine revelations and promises as true, especially the promise that the sinner is justified by the Grace of God (ibid., 798). But beyond faith, the preparation of good works is also necessary, since faith neither saves nor justifies, nor can it give, as the Protestants claim, the certainty of salvation (ibid., 819; cf. 791, 798, 801, 804).

The principal function in the work of human salvation is in fact that of divine Grace, since all are justified freely by the Grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24). The Protestants wrongly accuse Catholicism of violating this principle. It is firmly held that "now, independently of the Law, a righteousness of God has been manifested... namely, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all believers" (Rom. 3:21 ff.; cf. Gal. 3:22). This doctrine is clearly fixed by the Council of Trent (cf. Denz-U, 793-94; 811-12), which summarizes and solemnly reaffirms (ibid., 797-98) the position already taken by the Church against the Pelagians, concerning the necessity of Grace for salvation (cf. ibid., 103-104), and against the Semi-Pelagians, on the derivation from Grace also of the "initium fidei," the first step of salvation (cf. ibid., 178).

As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, citing the words of Jesus who says: "No one comes to me unless my Father draws him" (Jn. 6:44), "man cannot prepare himself to receive the light of grace except by the gratuitous help of God moving him inwardly" (Sum. Theol., 1a-2ae, q. 109, a. 7), and that "man can do nothing unless he is moved by God," according to what is said in Jn. 15:5: "Without me you can do nothing. Therefore even when it is said that man does all that is in his power, what is meant is what is in man's power insofar as he is moved by God" (ibid., ad 2; cf. Cajetan, in h. l., n. VI; A. Stolz, Anthropologia theologica, Freiburg im Br. 1940, pp. 120-21; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, De Gratia, Turin 1947, pp. 67-71). The initiative of salvation comes from the Father, who eternally foreknows, and "those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Rom. 8:29-30), that is, brought to salvation in its integral and definitive form. "It is written in the Prophets, says Jesus: And they shall all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard the Father and has let himself be taught by him comes to me" (Jn. 6:45).

Protestants accuse Catholicism of detracting something from the merits of Christ by positing this requirement of free human cooperation. But the accusation is false, since it is within the order of the Redemption that salvation is accomplished with our concurrence and, on the other hand, our very concurrence, insofar as it is supernaturally exercised in a salvific manner, is already an effect of grace (cf. Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 49, a. 1; ad 2, 3; a. 2, 3).

Concretely, man's part in the work of salvation, according to St. Thomas Aquinas and the Council of Trent, is determined on the basis of the objective laws of human psychology: it is clear that the first necessary disposition is that of faith. Protestants are right when they inculcate its necessity (cf. S. Harent, Foi, in DThC, VI, coll. 512-14), but it is precisely the Council of Trent that defines that it is the "initium humanae salutis," the "radix omnis iustificationis," and that through it one is gratuitously justified, not by the merit of human works (cf. Denz-U, 801).

The integral concept of this faith certainly also implies trust, hope, abandonment, as well as obedience (cf. Rom. 4:20-22; 1:6, 15, 18; II Cor. 10:4-6). In order to justify, it must be "living" faith, accompanied by love. But it has fundamentally an intellectual character, as a correspondence to the preaching of evangelical truth (cf. Rom. 8:13-17; II Cor. 10:5; I Thess. 3:13; Heb. 11:1), which entails the submission of the mind to God, a rectification of reason, so that both the vision of life and moral practice become theocentric, finalistic, almost divine (cf. Vatican Council, in Denz-U, 1787; cf. Mouroux, Io credo in Te. Brescia 1950; R. Spiazzi, La civiltà cerca Cristo, Milan 1949, pp. 262 ff., 302 ff.).

Protestants hold that the "works" required for salvation are understood by us in a formalistic sense, of material observances, and that in any case, by requiring them, we place man in the place of God, in the work of salvation, like semi-Pelagians. But the Church proclaims that external acts have no value unless they are animated by faith and charity, that the primacy belongs to the spirit of faith and to love, which must vivify all works as well, including external ones. And all this human activity, this concurrence in the work of salvation, already comes from grace which, like a torrent, sweeps man along and elicits his adherence to Christ.

Protestants, however, appeal to St. Paul, whom they regard as the announcer of salvation through faith alone, in contrast with St. James, who insists on works. But one must not isolate St. Paul, nor give his words a meaning they do not have, nor remove from the Bible what is displeasing (such as the Letter of St. James). Note: "the faith" of which St. Paul speaks must be understood in the full sense, in harmony with his habitual thought, that is, as adherence to God and to the new economy of salvation inaugurated by Christ, in which "being circumcised or not being circumcised is of no value; what matters is faith working through love" (Gal. 5:6). And St. Paul adds: "If I had all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (I Cor. 13:2). There is no difference between these statements of St. Paul and that of St. James, when he says that "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (Jas. 2:26). When St. Paul opposes faith to works (Rom. 3:27 ff.), he does not intend to deal with the practical conditions of salvation as if he had set out to write a treatise on morals, but only to develop his theological vision of the plan of the Redemption, according to which, in his economy of faith, the Mosaic law with the works it prescribed is superseded. In substance, from St. Peter, who exhorted: "Be diligent, brothers, to make your calling and election sure by good works, for in doing this you will never fall" (II Pt. 1:10), down to the Council of Trent, the identical message of salvation announced by Jesus resounds in the Tradition and magisterium of the Church, asking men to correspond to his work as Savior, not merely by arousing in them vague sentiments or purely intellectual adhesions, but by appealing to their good will, to the ethical effort of sinners whom he wished to convert and of the just whom he wished to bring to definitive salvation in heaven.

With grace working in man, who is disposed by faith and works for its action, Christ works as an overturning of the human spirit, the μετάνοια, which is his work and man's work. Then he truly remits and cancels sins (Denz-U. 792, 799), since what matters to him is not exterior legalism, the righteousness of whitened sepulchres, but the interior renewal of man who, like a tree, bears good or bad fruit according to his interior state (cf. Mt. 12:33-35; 7:16-20; Lk. 6:43-46). The Lamb who takes away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29) certainly cannot be content to cover man's sins, but brings a true interior purification and works an interior sanctification.

The Catholic solution to the problem of salvation thus lies in this communication to the soul of the fruits of the Redemption accomplished by Christ. The Sacrament of Baptism accomplishes this communication, incorporating us sacramentally (ex opere operato) into him and giving us salvation, but beyond this sacramental incorporation there is necessary what St. Thomas calls "mental" incorporation, by which the Head communicates to the members "his spiritual sense, which consists in the knowledge of the truth, and the spiritual movement, which comes about through the instinct of grace" (Sum. Theol. 3a, q. 69, a. 5, and ad 1). Thus man, through the "institution of salvation," the Church as a visible society, organized for the realization of the plan of salvation, enters into the "community of salvation" which begins on earth and completes in heaven the work of our salvation. In the final analysis, the solution to the ancient and tormenting problem is found in the Church, founded and invisibly governed by Christ and vivified by the Spirit; in it and through it man receives the messianic goods, participates in eternal life.

Raimondo Spiazzi