Book Recommendation: What's necessary for salvation?

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Bernie49

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Hello. I have a non-Catholic family member who was once told by a priest that the only things necessary for salvation are to love and forgive. This person has fully trusted those words for decades and assumed that he’s in good shape. He’s not actively seeking to join the Catholic Church (although he has Catholic family members including his kids so I don’t think it’s an impossibility down the road), but after a conversation I had with him a few days ago where I told him salvation requires more than that he’s somewhat interested in learning more about what one needs to believe/do in order to get to heaven. Can anyone recommend a book that I can give to him that’s not too dense or difficult for someone with little understanding of Catholicism/Christianity that would help him to understand Catholic teaching on the topic? Thank you!
 
I would advise your family member to keep talking to a priest.
 
Thank you. Knowing him I doubt he’ll be receptive to that at this point. Especially since priests can be inconsistent on this, evidenced by the last priest he talked to. Was really hoping for some reading material first. Appreciate your advice, though. Hopefully at some point we’ll get there.
 
Some responses include:
  • The requirements of “to love and forgive” are demanding requirements if we consider how Jesus Christ spoke about them. To love with all our heart, all our strength and all our being is quite demanding. To forgive all others completely is quite demanding.
The Greatest Commandment. 25 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” 27 He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

New American Bible. (2011). (Revised Edition, Lk 10:25–28). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

New American Bible. (2011). (Revised Edition, Mt 6:15). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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  • Your non-Catholic family member should really consider what the Church teaches on matters of salvation and morals and not just an individual priest or other individual.
2032 The Church, the “pillar and bulwark of the truth,” “has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth.” “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls.” (2246; 2420)

Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed., p. 491). Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.
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What the priest said is true, but can easily be misiniterpreted without unpacking it. To be saved, one must persevere to the end in faith and charity with the necessary help of God’s grace. Faith can be said to be part of loving God.

What is faith? The Church teaches that "By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, “the obedience of faith”. (CCC 143) And “At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.” (CCC 150)

Does this mean explicit knowledge and assent to every revealed truth is absolutely necessary? Not necessarily. First and foremost it means faith in Christ, who is the Word, and who declares Himself to be the Truth. Again, as the Church teaches: "He “is the Father’s one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” (CCC 65). Faith in Christ covers any innocent errors on specific points of revealed truth because He contains all such truth in Himself.

By the same principle, heresy–that obstinate denial of a revealed truth–destroys all faith since one substitutes his own authority for God’s. That’s why St. Paul says a heretic is “condemned by his own judgment” in his epistle to Titus.

Only the Catholic Church professes the fullness of revelation. That is why faith compels us to be Catholic and unites us to the Church.

Charity is summed up in the commandments. One in the “state of grace” is living in God’s charity. Deliberate, grave sin against God and neighbor destroys charity. Loving God and our neighbor as Christ loves us (which includes forgiveness) increases charity.

The sacraments are also very important. While God is not strictly bound by His sacraments, He has given the sacraments to aid us in persevering in faith and charity. Baptism, the sacrament of faith commanded by Christ, incorporates us into the Church, that communion of faith and charity necessary for salvation. The sacrament of Confirmation strengthens us in the Holy Spirit to help us persevere. The sacrament of Penance restores us to the grace and charity of God when we fall. The Holy Eucharist sustains us on this journey. Holy Orders is given to some to help others persevere in faith in charity. Matrimony provides aid to spouses doing the same for each other to raise children to the same. Anointing of the sick helps strengthen us for the final test. If one wants to be saved, one should seek out and take part in these means God has graciously given.

I hope that helps a little! A person with faith and charity should want to believe all that God has revealed, receive all the gifts He pours forth for our good, and to obey His commandments. The Catholic Church was founded by Christ to be the community that strives to do these things as one body with Him.
 
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Get him a subscription to Formed.org, you watch it yourself and discuss some of the things you watch/listen to.
 
Thank you very much. You’ve hit on much of what I want him to be exposed to regarding salvation: what faith means, the necessity of being/dying in a state of grace, the importance of the sacraments to salvation. It’s somehow practically both the easiest and most complex question that exists and the answer can’t really be found in any one resource as it eventually gets into apologetics and an understanding of scripture that I haven’t mastered well enough to teach him. I just wish there was a fairly understandable book or booklet that put it all together to expose someone, especially someone who at least initially isn’t going to do a bunch of research, to the basics from a Catholic perspective.
 
Relative to a book recommendation, for a short summary of Catholic belief and practice, I recommend this reasonably short and inexpensive book:

Handbook for Today’s Catholic: Revised Edition (A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication) Paperback – July 12, 2004​

by Redemptorist Pastoral Publication (Author), Francis George (Foreword)

Book link: Handbook for Today’s Catholic: Revised Edition (A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication) Paperback – July 12, 2004

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We do enjoy Formed once in a while. I should look at what they offer with him in mind. Thanks.
 
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