1st Week of Advent, Thursday, 12-7-23, Year B
Readings: 1st Reading Is 26:1-6; Ps 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a; Gospel; Mt 7:21, 24-27
Memorial: St. Ambrose, Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Theme: Faith and Works
The man on the corner of the street was handing out cards and in a loud voice saying, “all you have to do to be saved is believe in Jesus Christ!” As he was saying this a woman was passing by and he handed her a card containing his church’s information. She politely declined the card he was offering but acknowledged him and his efforts with a nod. As she walked away the man yelled after her, “Having faith in Jesus and His salvation for you is all you need to do!”
The woman stopped and turned to look back at him. She said, “Don’t you need to do good works, too, in order to be truly saved? He replied, “No, just believe that Jesus is your Savior, and you will be saved.” With an expression of disagreement on her face, she smiled and went on her way.
The woman was right. The man only had half the truth to salvation. Faith alone will not necessarily save us. We must also do the works that the father gave Jesus, who in turn, gave to us to be saved. The letter of James corroborates this in 2:14,17:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? So, also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
If we really have faith in Jesus, then we will naturally do good works because, through that very faith, we live out Jesus’s teachings in our daily lives. If we are not living out those teachings, then we really do not have true faith in Christ.
By the same token, doing good works must be backed up by a good life. Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is really chiding the false prophets of His time. Those false prophets created good works for their own benefit and then lived a corrupt and disingenuous life outside of them. Their good works were false because they did not practice what they preached or benefited from their “good works” at the expense of the very people they did the works for.
So, faith and works are really one and the same. For a person to be truly saved, they must believe in Jesus Christ and His Gospel and then do the good works in his name for the benefit of others and not themselves. There must be no recompense expected for their good works because they do them out of love and not gain.
During this Advent Season of reflection, penance, and almsgiving, think about your motives behind your good works. Is it for others, or for you? Do you do these things for recognition, peer pressure, or some gain down the road? Or do you do them out of love, expecting nothing in return, but looking forward to the next good work to be done?
St. Ambrose, Bishop and one of the four great Doctors of the Church, who was born in the year 340 in Trier, Germany, was a man who lived both faith and works in Christ. His faith is attested to by his ordination as a priest and then his installation as Bishop of Milan, Italy. His good works were of the defense of Catholic orthodoxy, his defense against the Arian heresy, his many writings, and all his works of charity he performed for the poor. He died in the year 397 in Milan, Italy. No one exemplified how to have faith and do good works more than St. Ambrose.
Through the example of St. Ambrose, who lived and died in Christ, salvation is wrought only in the dual acts of faith and good works which is a foundation set on rock.
Saint James Catholic Church 