[A]nd while I accept that a good father should encourage and, if necessary, push his children to do more than they might otherwise do alone, once we get into the concept of “good works”, a horizon so vast opens up as to be uncrossable.
Look again at the wording of the parable that troubles you. It starts with building a proper relationship with God in ‘small matters’. A director of spiritual development once explained it to me this way. It is a sliding scale, with a life of selfishness on one end and life of pure service to others, the example of Jesus, on the other. No one expects you to jump to the end, or even ever reach it. Growing in faith is a series of small steps, every day, in the right direction.
Should I help the poor? Oppose abortion? Preach on street corners? If I concentrate on one of these things, am I guilty of neglecting the others?
In order to respond in another thread I recently re-read a pastoral document from the US bishops and found myself highlighting this quote:
Clearly not every Catholic can be actively involved on each of these concerns, but we need to support one another as our community of faith defends human life and dignity wherever it is threatened. We are not factions, but one family of faith fulfilling the mission of Jesus Christ.
usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/forming-consciences-for-faithful-citizenship-part-one.cfm (#29)
You seem to be looking for a special formula, what, precisely, do good Catholics do to maximize their chances for salvation. But look at the parable that troubles you, we don’t all have the same gifts from God. We should all try to grow and develop in all aspects of the faith, but certain things are going to resonate more clearly with your own moral conscience, a personal connection we each have with God (CCC 1776). I, myself, feel a deep calling to the disabled and the poor. Some people very close to me have different callings, one ministers to prisoners another is very involved in hospice care for end of life.
As a collective group, Catholics need to be concerned with all these things, and more, but as the Bishops say, we can’t all do everything, so we have to support each other as a single family, fullfilling the missions of Christ.
There is a natural human tendancy to argue that the items most pressing on one’s own idividual conscience are the most pressing matters of faith, and that anyone whose calling is elsewhere is somehow less devoted or “serious” about the faith. But this is spiritual denial, not spiritual growth, both for the people making such arguments and the people they are trying to convince. Again, the bishops’ document above, quoting a Doctrinal Note from Rome:
“The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine. A political commitment to a single isolated aspect of the Church’s social doctrine does not exhaust one’s responsibility towards the common good.” #30, quoting CDF 2002, #4
Returning to the parable you brought up. Yes, abortion is always a “grave moral disorder” (EV), but if someone takes it up as a public cause because of it’s perceived prominence in Church doctrine while they are blessed with special gifts that serve God in other ways that are left unused, who are they in the parable? Life is a very broad issue, seamlessly entwined with many Church teachings. Collectively, we need to serve and support it in every way.
It is much easier to grow in faith if you build on the parts of your own moral conscience that are already most properly developed. In other words, it is easiest to better understand God’s plan for you if you start by taking small steps in the areas that you already most clearly hear His call.
Also I could not give an offering to my parish because my pay has been reduced and my pay doesn’t fit my needs any more.