Are we saved by the cross, by faith, by daily mass, by baptism or by the Holy Spirit?
It’s not either/or though I think. Maybe your question is a bit like asking for the cause of the saving of a drowning man. Was he saved by the will of the one who threw the life-preserver, or was it by his act of throwing it, or was it by the preserver itself, or by the will of the victim to reach for the preserver, or the act of the victim grasping it? Trent lists the causes of justification this way:
“…the final cause indeed is the glory of God and of Jesus Christ, and life everlasting; while the efficient cause is a merciful God who washes and sanctifies gratuitously, signing, and anointing with the holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance; but the meritorious cause is His most beloved only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when we were enemies, for the exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, merited Justification for us by His most holy Passion on the wood of the cross, and made satisfaction for us unto God the Father; the instru-[Page 35]mental cause is the sacrament of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith, without which (faith) no man was ever justified; lastly, the alone formal cause is the justice of God, not that whereby He Himself is just, but that whereby He maketh us just, that, to wit, with which we being endowed by Him, are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the Holy Ghost distributes to every one as He wills, and according to each one’s proper disposition and co-operation. For, although no one can be just, but he to whom the merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are communicated, yet is this done in the said justification of the impious, when by the merit of that same most holy Passion, the charity of God is poured forth, by the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of those that are justified, and is inherent therein: whence, man, through Jesus Christ, in whom he is ingrafted, receives, in the said justification, together with the remission of sins, all these (gifts) infused at once, faith, hope, and charity. For faith, unless hope and charity be added thereto, neither unites man perfectly with Christ, nor makes him a living member of His body.”
So my clumsy interpretation: the final cause has to do with God’s purpose in justification, the reason behind the whole plan to begin with, the efficient cause is the primary movement of God in getting the deed done, the meritorious cause stems from the intrinsic need for correcting and reversing a moral aberration in creation in order to make possible the effect, the instrumental cause is secondary; our response to God’s plan whereby the merits of Christ are actually applied, and then the formal cause is the justice itself that God infuses into us.
So man’s justification all originates with God’s will, and ends with the deed accomplished: authentic justice actually being realized within man. God wills and initiates it; Jesus performs the actual work according to the Father’s will that enables it, man receives or appropriates it by his own cooperation or response by believing and then acting on that faith in the sacrament of Baptism, the result is God’s justice poured into us. He ‘puts His law in our minds and writes it on our hearts’.
From there, depending on the time and opportunities given (every person’s lot is different in this respect), we’re expected to work out our salvation (Phil 2), investing our talents as per the Parable of the Talents, keeping our Baptismal vows but even increasing the justice that was given there, primarily as we follow Christ and advance His Kingdom in whatever way He would have us do.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph 2:10
And some of those works are outlined in Matt 25:31-46. Performing them doesn’t save us-and yet ignoring or turning from or “burying” the grace and justice that prompts them should cause us to lose place in the kingdom.
