Heaven Promised

[8amMass]

Hi gang…This is my first post here and I really would like to put my mind at ease.Aftwer reading the posts here I just knoe I’ll get an answer.

Here is the problem. My brother is 50 and I am 45.He was married for 13 years (no children) and his marriage is in the process of being annuled but it hasn’t been yet. He is living with his fiance and they are waiting to get married in the Catholic Church but need the annulment for this to happen.I asked him what if the annulment doesn’t go through for whatever reason.He says then they will get married outside the Catholic Church and he isn’t worried because he says he was "cheated"out of a marriage and God knows this.It is a very long story but his ex is to blame for the divorce and I’m not just saying that because he is my brother. He says he knows his salvation is secure because in the past he has done several devotions where the Lord promises heaven if you do certain things. He has done the 5 first Saturdays,the going to Mass 30 days in a row for the salvation of his self and 1 other person,he has also said the 15 prayers of St Bridget of Sweden (I have done the prayers as well) 3 times in his life for one year each time as is asked.He did all this in the state of grace with no intention of getting divorced.

My question is I know God doesn’t lie so I know his eternal salvation is secure but what if the annulment doesn’t come through? He says he will still go to mass,receive communion,and go to confession anyway as he has God’s promise of salvation!

Is he assured salvation?? I’m sooo scared for him

 

[Equites_Christi]

I know his eternal salvation is secure

Er…what you describe sounds very similar to the Protestant concept of OSAS (once saved always saved) which simply is not true. Protestants believe they are saved by faith, it sounds like your brother believes he is saved by works.

I have never heard of these devotions, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable can address them.

If he cannot get an annulment, then the Church still sees him as married to his first wife. To ‘marry’ the second woman would be adultery. His judgment is not above the Church’s.

God Bless

 

[bbentrup]

Hi 8amMass, welcome to the boards.

Your brother is in a state of defiance of the church. God gave Peter the keys to heaven and told him that whatever he binds or loosens in earth will be bound or loosed in heaven. If that is true, then the church can prohibit your brother from remarrying, a necessary prerequisite to avoiding the sin of fornication. It might even be adultery if your brother was validly married beforehand.

Your brother may or may not have been married previously in God’s eyes. The Church will try to determine the objective answer to that question, and, though very skilled in analyzing the answer, the canon law experts might even get it wrong. If your brother was never validly married before, but they get it wrong and will not grant a decree of nullity, that is not a license for your brother to remarry. He has to have spiritual deference to Mother Church. His attitude is one of rebellion which is certainly Satan-esque, who also rebelled against God. He has no divine right to marry that other woman. Marriage is a gift from God. His duty is to serve God and do God’s will for him in this life. God permits his will to be filtered through Peter’s successors, the Church.

Of course, if the Church says that he was validly married the first time, and is correct in that assessment, he needs to recognize his first wife as his wife. The girlfriend would then be someone with whom he must defer spiritual and bodily communion until either his first wife dies or until they can bond in some special way in heaven (if possible, and if it’s good, it’s likely possible).

Marriage is also a calling from God. So, if it is God’s will, it will likely happen. Yet, even if God permits it to be denied unjustly in the Church for whatever reason, God may still be calling him to marriage with that woman. Yet, your brother must follow the Church, as an absolute. Perhaps he could appeal the decision, get a special papal bull (like Henry VIII), or wait and pray until the Church creates a new law that allows for a rehearing, even if he has to wait faithfully for life. More likely, if he is denied the annulment, the putative second marriage was not his true calling and he will realize it.

No matter what the result of the annulment process is, your brother should turn away from this rebellious attitude, ask God for mercy who wants to grant it, and be humble before God’s will from now on. Anyways, it defies logic to want to get married in the Church under God’s grace, if he considers himself to be the final arbiter of what is right.

This may turn out to be a very great cross for your brother. Have patience with him, and pray for him, even if he furthers his unwise choices and attitude. Who knows, he may repent in the future. (Though if he is counting on making a deathbed confession, that would be the further sin of presumption.)

If he is currently living with this girlfriend, he needs to stop that too for reasons which I hope are obvious, but are otherwise mentioned in the Q+A countless times.

Bottom line: love and obey God first and through God, the Church. From that love, comes the essence of the love that any man will share with his wife.

I will pray for him. God bless!

 

[bbentrup]

Er…what you describe sounds very similar to the Protestant concept of OSAS (once saved always saved) which simply is not true. Protestants believe they are saved by faith, it sounds like your brother believes he is saved by works.

I have never heard of these devotions, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable can address them.

If he cannot get an annulment, then the Church still sees him as married to his first wife. To ‘marry’ the second woman would be adultery. His judgment is not above the Church’s.

God Bless

Any indulgence granted (remission of the punishment that is justly owed for our sins) only applies to past sins. The brother (or anyone of us) still has the free will to reject God eternally in the future. So, his past efforts, simply have no bearing on his will to remain in future sin.

Also to receive an indulgence, if I remember correctly, you must have made a valid Confession, received Holy Communion, prayed an Our Father for the intention of the Pope, all of this usually within a week previous or after the events that provided the indulgence. There is a final requirement, very relevant here, which most people usually forget, that is you have to have the complete detachment from sin, even venial sin. If you think about it, this is an incredibly tough standard, which your brother may not have possessed. God bless!

 

[Joe_5859]

Welcome to CAF!

I think your brother has misunderstood what Catholic devotions are for. We are not to be superstitious. Devotions aren’t some sort of magical incantation where all we have to do is say exactly the right words and perform exactly the right acts so that God (that Divine Pez Dispenser in the Sky) will spit out salvation on command. It doesn’t work that way.

Certainly, salvation is not a crapshoot. It’s not as though we are completely clueless regarding our eternal destiny. We should strive to be in a spiritual state of grace (frequenting the sacraments and living in conformity to the Church’s moral teachings) so that we have confidence that we would go to heaven provided we keep on the right path. But you cannot “secure” your salvation by some specific act and then proceed to do whatever you please for the rest of your life. Does your brother think he could go out and kill someone and still be guaranteed heaven? I should hope not!