I’m Catholic, but I am new to the faith so I’m still kind of confused and it’s frustrating me. I know the Church teaches that grace is free and we receive it by faith. But what does the church say about works after that? Do we need works? What if we don’t have works? What f we have works at first but no longer have works after? What role does works play in salvation. I’ve been looking on Catholic sites but somehow it has made me more confused… what role does works play? What do you mean when you say works is a way of co-operating with grace? I have been catechized, but I was still confused even after but never really mentioned it. What do you mean when you say faith working through love???
Here is my understanding - which grew out of similar confusion and lots of reading, so hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong. There are lots of technical terms, but I can never remember what any of them mean, so I won’t use any. I also won’t use the word “works” until the very end. Since there is confusion on what “works” means, I think it is best to simply explain the process and put that label where it goes at the end, so as to avoid some of the accusations that people who don’t understand our terminology (something I sympathize with, as I can never remember it either) level at us. To get started:
At Baptism we are put into a state of friendship with God, what is known as the state of grace. If we die in that state, we go to heaven, if not, we go to hell. There is absolutely no way we can achieve that state ourselves - it is a pure gift from God. The grace (gift) of being put in that state has a name, and I don’t know what it is.
Then, throughout our lives, as situations arise, God grants us the the ability to respond in each situation in one or more ways that are pleasing to Him. This ability is another gift, another grace from God, and it also has a name. I don’t know what it is. But we can either accept these graces or not, as we choose. If we accept them, and thus (by the gift of God) act in a way pleasing to God, then we grow in holiness.
If we reject these gifts, these graces, then depending to what degree we reject them, various things can happen. A minor rejection - that is, an action in opposition to one of these graces - hurts us, and enough of them can lead us into habits that lead us into more major rejections later, but relatively minor rejections do not in themselves destroy the state of friendship that God created earlier - much like one can get angry and insult a friend but still remain friends. Too much of such petty insults will of course be pretty harmful to the relationship, but one minor instance in and of itself will not destroy the friendship. (And even many are harmful because they further get us used to rejecting God, not because God will give up on us.)
If, on the other hand, we reject these graces in a grave way, if we look at a gift from God that is core to what it is to do/be good and decide to oppose it entirely, willingly and knowingly, then we have just rejected the core of what Goodness is. And since God is Goodness itself, and the gifts God offers us is to become aligned with this goodness, then we just, in rejecting what is Good, have rejected God - we have totally rejected and destroyed the state of friendship God put us in back at baptism. Again - God’s side is still open, and God still always offers us the grace to come back, but we have closed our side.
It is my understanding that “good works” are accepting these graces to do what ought be done, and hence allowing God to make us more holy, and that “bad works” are rejecting and opposing these graces. It is further my understanding that even the state of doing things morally neutral - not doing a something morally praiseworthy when it is not morally required, but neither doing a evil - is also in fact accepting a grace from God, just not the highest one He has offered us, and is so in some sense the lowest form of good work. Thus God can truly say that in all things with any moral weight, which is nearly everything beyond choosing what order we put our socks on in the morning, we are either with Him or against Him. And so, if all of this is correct, then good works are accepting the graces God offers us, and not spitting in His eye and turning our backs on Him. So in this sense, good works are necessary because the alternative is evil works, leading to mortal sin, which is damning. But again, it’s all about cooperating with God - we do not earn even the ability to do good that He gives us, we simply cooperate with Him to one degree or another, or reject Him.
Again, I think this is all correct, but please feel free to tear it apart if it is not.
