I don't really comprehend the Catholic concept of Justification?

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Pathway2

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I Find it hard to understand… it is getting there. any good allegories you have?
 
There are many considering it is a fundamental difference between Catholic and Protestant ideas of salvation.

Here is a place to start, from the main site.

Justification
 
Can you be more specific about where you are having trouble?
 
I know we are saved through grace though faith but reading the Catholic perspective that we are not saved instantly. I got confused.
 
If you have not read it already, here is a section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church concerning grace and justification:

Justification: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6Y.HTM
Grace: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6Z.HTM
Merit: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P70.HTM
Christian Holiness: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P71.HTM

Catholics see justification as not just a legal justification, not an imputation, but if God actually working through us and with our cooperation to make us holy. We cannot do it ourselves, but it is God’s will to call us to work with Him on it. If man can be likened to a dung pile, justification is not covering the ugly dung with pretty snow and calling it complete, but about turning that pile of dung into fertile soil and a fruitful flowerbed, that is, we are not just called holy, but actually change and become in ourselves Holy by our cooperation with God’s will. This justification and grace with God can be had, lost, recovered, and increased depending upon where we are in that journey. It’s a true transformation of ourselves that is only completed once we are in Heaven.
 
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Jesus’ work was so meritorious, it was actually infinitely meritorious.
However, what is lacking in Jesus’ suffering? Our own.

Essentially, sanctification is the same as justification and not really separate like protestants say.
 
Added more links to my last post as the original link only covered one smaller section.
 
TheCatechism of the Catholic Church is your best resource. It’s an excellent resource for this subject… The topic to be condensed to a message board would not do it justice.

It is available free online. I am not home so could a Catholic please post a link to the Catechism of the Catholic Church? (CCC for short!~)

It’s free on several sites.

God Bless.
 
I don’t have time to delve into it, but I think we’re aware of some common scriptural quotes used by Catholics and Protestants to support their respective positions. The Catholic view on the quotes favored by Protestants is that, when taken as part of a larger context (even just a Biblical context), the Catholic view is better supported. And that it also fits better with the Patristic position. It’s also not just a Catholic position, but the Orthodox one as well. That may be oversimplifying as East and West have different theological approaches at times, but the East is certainly closer to, if not more or less the same, than the Catholic view on justification than Protestant.
 
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If you become part of Christ’s Body (through Baptism), the Holy Spirit gives you many of Christ’s spiritual gifts (through Confirmation), and Christ feeds you Himself (through Communion), you are obviously going to become more and more like Christ, both in soul and body.

Like John said in his letter, “You are children of God now. What you will become has not yet been revealed.”

So yes, God gives us many graces suddenly. But since He doesn’t do anything to us against our wills, and since we have a lot of bad habits and concupiscence to get over, even when we are willing (as St. Paul complained of himself, when he talked about what he couldn’t do), we are also given many graces slowly – or at least, we are only able to make use of them slowly!

This is why St. Paul and all the early Christians, especially monks, were fond of comparing the Christian life to being an athlete in training. (The Greek for athletic training was “askesis”, so asceticism is being in training.) Whenever you faced temptation or persecution, and whenever you died or were martyred, that was an athletic event you were trying to win. God was the coach, and the angels and saints were the crowd of fans cheering you on.

If you didn’t die, then (whether you “lost” or “won” your race or wrestling match), you would train more, and then face more athletic events in the future. Hopefully you got better and better. If you didn’t, you just dug in and kept training. The results were up to God’s grace; the effort to try and fail and try again was the individual’s trusting response to Him.

If you keep trying again until you die, you win the prize! If at the end you decide you’d rather go to Hell… God will let you, and all that training will go to waste. So some parts of grace are sudden, some take time to unfold. But God will not force any gifts upon you.

As the Christian life progressed and your soul became more Christlike, there was every possibility that your body would also be filled with Christ’s grace. On the small scale, one would become less tempted by certain sins one had been training against, or one would learn to deal with temptation and go on. Some people, like the apostles, would have their bodies become so Christlike that Christ worked miracles through them, or even through things like handkerchiefs and their shadows.

So basically, justification is all about staying on the Vine and growing in Him. If you abide in Him, He will abide in you – more and more, every day.
 
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Pathway2 said:
I Find it hard to understand… it is getting there. any good allegories you have?
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I think you mean analogies, not allegories…and in that case, yes, I have one I use all the time:

Think of humanity locked in a big room. They can’t get out. Heaven is outside the room. Jesus comes along and sacrifices himself, which opens a door. Once the door is open, it’s up to you whether you walk out of the room or not. Note that you couldn’t walk out of the room before Jesus’s death (that would be Pelagianism–you earn your own salvation). Nor is everyone plopped outside the room automatically (Protestant version). So you needed two elements to leave the room: 1) death of Jesus to open the door 2) your own efforts to walk out the door.
 
okay ,so justification is doing the will of the father whilst he is transforming you from the inside?
 
Wesrock said:
If you have not read it already, here is a section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church concerning grace and justification:

Justification: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6Y.HTM

Grace: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6Z.HTM

Merit: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P70.HTM

Christian Holiness: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P71.HTM
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And, since the CCC can be difficult to slog through, especially on such a non-trivial topic as justification, here’s a link to the discussion on grace and justification from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults… 😉
 
OP Salvation is not instant in the Catholic Church. We see it as a process that takes place until our last breath. We are saved 2000 years ago on the cross, today when we say Yes to Jesus and also every single time in the future that we say Yes.

The concept of Free Will is emphasised stronger as well. We choose to separate ourselves from God and neighbour by sinning. That is why we go to Confession and confess our sins to a priest who acts in the person of Christ and also the Church. Confession is also commonly called the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Forgiveness.
 
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