Belief in Forensic Justification permitted in the Catholic Church?

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Ruthie said:
I’m too fuzzy today to do much deep thinking… but what struck me right away about this is that it denies Purgatory. The existence of Purgatory is dogma de fide, and must be believed!

Hope that helps,

Ruthie, who caught the crud and is mizzable.
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How does it deny Purgatory ? It can do that, only if Catholic soteriology requires us to believe in a righteousness of our own, apart from Christ’s: a thing to which St. Paul objects very strongly.​

 
jmcrae said:
What are we as Catholics allowed to believe with regard to forensic justification (the idea that God, as Judge, looks at Jesus instead of at us, when we go to the Judgment Day).
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I think this is ok. The Catechism says something along the same lines when it quotes St. Thérèse of Lisieux:

“After earth’s exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone. . . . In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. ***All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice ***and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself” (CCC, 2011).
jmcrae said:
The reason I ask is that I was at a Youth event recently, where one of the skits that was presented to the Catholic young people (ages 11-17) was a courtroom scene where the guilty are all lined up, and then Jesus comes along, says, 'Yes, they are all guilty, but I have taken their place on the Cross, so they are free to go."
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As Hebrews says, “without the shedding of [Christ’s] blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (9:22). Without Christ’s death on the cross, we will have to die the death of God’s judgment on our lives on account of our sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23), but “the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6), for “He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (1 Pet 3:24). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal 3:13), and “for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

A quote from St. Augustine might help:

“But as Christ endured death as man, and for man; so also, Son of God as He was, ever living in His own righteousness, but dying for our offences, He submitted as man, and for man, to bear the curse which accompanies death. And as He died in the flesh which He took in bearing our punishment, so also, while ever blessed in His own righteousness, He was cursed for our offences, in the death which He suffered in bearing our punishment” (Against Faustus, Bk 14, 6).

The LORD be with you!
 
Ruthie said:
I’m too fuzzy today to do much deep thinking… but what struck me right away about this is that it denies Purgatory. The existence of Purgatory is dogma de fide, and must be believed!

Hope that helps,

Ruthie, who caught the crud and is mizzable.
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I don’t see how it denies purgatory. Purgation is a process which takes place AFTER final judgement… only those who were saved in the first place may experience purgatory.
 
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