Grace vs. Works?

Today in the Byzantine Catholic, and Orthodox churches we have the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.  You know that scripture well, don't you?

Luke 18:9-14

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:¹⁰‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector.¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector.¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”¹³But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’


I haven't studied in a seminary, and I don't have a Masters or Doctorate in Theology.  I am baptized Roman Catholic, and practicing in the Byzantine Catholic rite.  My understanding, and you are invited to question, or correct me as you wish in the comments is that we can only be made holy, or righteous by God.  Nothing we can do, however good, charitable, self-forgetful, or sacrificial can restore the holiness, purity and beauty that the Creator endowed our souls with when He created them in the image of God.

My understanding is only God can create that which is good and loving.  God created Adam and Eve with untainted souls.  Then through the original sin of idolatry, Pride, the same sin that cast Lucifer and the thousands of fallen angels from heaven, tarnished the souls of Eve, Adam and of all their children save 2:  Mary, the Immaculate Conception, and Jesus, the Incarnation of God, true God, and true man.

Only God can forgive sins, and only Jesus, as our Savior, through his love and obedience and sacrificial death on the cross, could pour out his Precious Blood to cleanse us and make our souls brilliant with the light and love endowed by our Creator.

So we find in this brief Gospel passage several really important teachings:

• Don't trust in one's own righteousness, no matter how good our works might be.  The pharisee fasted twice a week, gave 10th of his income; i.e. tithed.
• Don't pray to God in a way that is prideful and boastful, offering thanks focusing on what we like and take pride in about ourselves, rather than focusing on God's attributes, especially his Mercy
• Don't judge others, and regard others with contempt.  We see in this passage the pharisee is the archetype of someone that is doing the right things, on the surface, but maybe his motivation is a bit off. He has a species of moral relativism going where he is feeling pretty good about himself so long as he compares himself with thieves, adulterers, or government workers padding their own pockets at the financial detriment of those that are paying the taxes.  This is where the Protestants like to remind everyone, sometimes especially the Catholics, that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
• Do humble yourself before God.  The picture above is from Calvary Curriculum that I used for my 1st and 2nd graders is a coloring page showing the Publican prostrate before God.  I like this one better than the etching at the top, because this is my favorite way to pray when I am most in need of God to act in my life, and to fill me with his peace and love.
• Our pastor, priest today told us it is so important to work on the virtue of humility because if we don't, Pride, at the orchestration of Satan, just like with Eve and Adam, will work and become predominant in its place.  He recommended we pray the Litany of Humility daily to grow in this virtue.  I do love this prayer, but am WAY far from modeling this virtue.
• My favorite lesson from this is The Jesus Prayer.
• Jesus, "I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other."  Hmm, what does that mean?  I would suggest reading from The Diary by St. Faustina to find out.  One of God's greatest attributes is Mercy.  Mercy is undeserved, ineffable, love and forgiveness that restores our soul to the purity, holiness, and beauty that the Father created in us.  How is this mercy available to us?  How was there no priest involved, and no work completed on the part of the penitent, other than falling prostrate before God, and pleading for his Mercy?
• These answers are there in God's Word.  As our Pastor also reminded us today, the closer we grow to God, the greater we perceive our imperfections, and the more we implore God's mercy on  us.  We also grow more keenly aware of the great love and goodness that is God, that is the source of this Mercy, and the more we desire to grow in holiness, more toward the communion with the Divine for which we were created.

I am a Catholic, and I do believe that faith without works is dead.  Essentially I believe Proverbs 9:10,
"¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."

Similarly in Psalms 111:10 we read, "¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practise it^* have a good understanding.  His praise endures for ever."

Good works lacking the grace of God in the soul will not make a person holy or good, or save that person's soul.  Rather, my belief is as in James, good works are the good fruit that should come from a heart humble before God, conscious of the need for God's mercy, for Jesus as Savior.  

I think that good works, including a forgiving, compassionate, non-judging heart are the good fruit that comes from a soul in the state of grace--the state of God's presence in the soul.  Not that that soul is as brilliant as the souls in heaven after they are washed in the Blood of the Lamb, but that they are rooted in the fear and Love of the Lord, and that the Holy Spirit is at work within them, taking their inadequacy, and weaknesses and through his Grace making the good will, love and humility bear abundant fruit that gives thanks to God, and attracts others to the source of the goodness-->God.

James 2:14-19, 26

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,¹⁶and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.  18 But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

When Luther translated the Bible into German he put James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation at the end and doubted their authenticity.  There are plenty of other verses in the books he did not doubt that echo the teaching above in James.

Let's listen to the Lord himself in Matthew 7:
21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven.²²On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?”²³Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

What do you think?
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1/30/12 Update:
Just found this great quote from the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI from in Deus Caritas Est:
in addition to their necessary professional training, these charity workers need a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others. As a result, love of neighbour will no longer be for them a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6).