My sins/temptations and Salvation

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steamboatp2

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Hello!

This might be an annoying question because I over-think things a lot, but I wanted to get this community’s take. (I’ve searched other posts, but haven’t quite found what I’m looking for…) A Catholic church near me recently had a talk disputing the (in their words, “modern”) idea that everybody will be saved except for a handful of Hitlers and Stalins. This talk referred to St. Leonard of Port Maurice, who preached that only a “few” would be saved. Although I hold the former view (that most people will be saved), this whole train of thought got me pondering: how does this apply to me? To “lay my cards on the table”, in the past I’ve held onto some trashy sexual thoughts and angry thoughts, and spoke harshly in moments of frustration. I know temptation is lifelong, and you can never be 100% sure of how you’re doing, but I honestly feel that most of that is behind me. I’ve gone to Confession and moved on, and frankly I haven’t had much temptation in quite a while. When I hear the kind of “fire-and-brimstone” rhetoric in talks like this one, I start wondering, am I missing something? It doesn’t seem all that hard to avoid sin. Of course, I have a mostly-easy life right now, so maybe that’s it. Am I really just not getting it about sin and salvation?
 
I understand I feel that in some ways I’m in the same boat.
 
I have heard different things regarding salvation. It seems that now a days most people try to assume the best. We can not know for sure if there are people in hell and we do not want anyone to go to hell. I have always heard that hell is a choice. If you choose to reject God through mortal sin than you choose hell. We have no way of knowing how many are saved, but we can do our best to live holy lives and strive to encourage others to do the same.

Just because you may not fall regularly into mortal or even venial sins does not mean you are perfect. It is great that you do not find yourself struggling with many sins and temptations. I think as we grow in holiness we may not struggle so much with voluntary sins as much as with imperfections and weaknesses. Maybe you are being called not to focus on sin so much as growing in virtue and in your relationship with God.
 
That’s a good point. I think being as free from sin as humanly possible is just the first step. Then you need to grow in holiness, as you said.
 
steamboatp2 said:
… I’ve gone to Confession and moved on …
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Final repentance, to die it a state of sanctifying grace, is the determining factor for heaven. For greater glory in heaven, then one should do much penance and charitable works in the state of sanctifying grace, as much as possible.
 
Thank you all for your helpful thoughts! Will keep praying :pray:t2: 🙂
 
The short and the long is: we don’t know who and how many are/will be saved. That is for God to judge. This is why, with St Paul, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, doing as much as we can.
 
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