I am grateful for all the replies I have received.
My position is clear. We cannot grow in God’s love by our own efforts. We are not sanctified by carrying out our normal duties. Did the priest, a long-time member of Opus Dei, misinterpret OD teaching, or did I misinterpret what the priest actually said? However is OD teaching different from Catholic belief?
What a pupil claims a teacher said, and what the teacher actually said, may differ, so I may not be fully correct in what I report.
Approximately four replies claim we are not justified by works (using Reformation language), two disagree with this, while the remaining replies were off-topic.
The discussion between Brendan 64 and frangiuliano115 is interesting, but is not relevant to my concerns. The authority of the Church to teach is an interesting question, but is not the focus of my thread.
So could I ask again for clear replies to my original queries?
Thanks and regards.
Opus Dei is a Catholic branch (can’t think of the word right now). Why would its teaching be any different than catholic teaching? Its members might live their faith in a different, or even fuller way, but the teachings are the same.
Your question would require that someone from O.D. post.
Here’s what I got from Wikipedia:
Opus Dei has been described as the most controversial force within the Catholic Church.[8] According to several journalists who researched Opus Dei separately, many criticisms against Opus Dei are based on fabrications by opponents,[8][12][13][14][15] and Opus Dei is considered a sign of contradiction.[14][16] Several popes and other Catholic leaders have endorsed what they see as its innovative teaching on the sanctifying value of work, and its fidelity to Catholic beliefs.[17][18] In 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized Escrivá, and called him “the saint of ordinary life.”[19]
Criticism of Opus Dei has centered on allegations of secretiveness,[20] controversial recruiting methods, strict rules governing members, elitism and misogyny, and support of or participation in authoritarian or right-wing governments, especially the Francoist Government of Spain until 1978.[21] The mortification of the flesh practiced by some of its members is also criticized. Within the Catholic Church, Opus Dei is also criticized for allegedly seeking independence and more influence.[22]
In recent years, Opus Dei has received international attention due to the novel The Da Vinci Code and its film version of 2006, both of which prominent Christians and non-believers criticized as misleading, inaccurate and anti-Catholic.[23][24][25][26]
I’ve said many times that I don’t really like learning from the ineternet. But if no Opus Dei are willing to post, then you just have to do the best you can.
They believe in work. Holiness and working for sanctification. Now, in a way they’re right. Once you come to know God through faith, works do flow from this faith. Faith without works is dead, as James said in his book.
However, we have to make sure we don’t mistakenly believe that it’s our works that are saving us. First comes faith and then works. So now we’re justified.
Now comes sanctification. This is a lifelong process. If you ask an O.D. person, of course they’re going to tell you that works sanctify you. It’s not wrong. What are you going to do, just sit around the rest of your life and not add anything to the Kingdom of God?
We just have to be careful to understand that God sancitifed us at baptism and when we accepted our faith as adults and this grace is going to give us the strength to continue on in our sanctification - not the other way around.
Sanctification involves transformation. We become more and more like Christ. If they want to believe it’s works that does this, I wouldn’t be very bothered by it. It’s an INTERIOR supernatural change that causes us to want to do these works.
Here’s something from catholic teaching:
- Sanctity
The sanctity of the soul, as its first formal operation, is contained in the idea itself of sanctifying grace, inasmuch as the infusion of it makes the subject holy and inaugurates the state or condition of sanctity. So far it is, as to its nature, a physical adornment of the soul; it is also a moral form of sanctification, which of itself makes baptized children just and holy in the sight of God. This first operation is thrown into relief by the fact that the “new man”, created injustice and holiness (Ephesians 4:24), was preceded by the “old man” of sin, and that grace changed the sinner into a saint (Trent, Sess. VI, cap. vii: ex injusto fit justus). The two moments of actual justification, namely the remission of sin and the sanctification, are at the same time moments of habitual justification, and become the formal operations of grace. The mere infusion of the grace effects at once the remission of original and mortal sin, and inaugurates the condition or state of holiness. (See Pohle, Lehrb. der Dogm., 527 sq.)
I think you’re right. Sometimes it’s just misunderstandings - there isn’t enough time to really talk about the subject - we each understand it a bit differently.
Anyway, the teachings are up above.
Fran
