Assurance

CHURCH OF ST. JOHN NEUMANN
A ROMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY CENTERED IN PRAYER AND EUCHARIST

16271 Pearl Road Strongsville, OH 44136
(440) 238-1770
Fax: (440) 238-2030

Question: Can you explain the Catholic position on "assurance of salvation" and just how we get to heaven and when?

Answer: The Catholic position on "assurance of salvation" is that we are assured of salvation if we remain in Christ and assured of damnation if we do not. As Jesus says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." (John 15:4-10). This means that it is possible for us, even after baptism, to exercise our freedom in such a way as to cut ourselves off from Christ. At the same time, the Church does not believe anybody goes to hell by accident. It takes considerable concentration of will, not a blunder, to get you there. And Jesus is always active, calling us back when we sin.

The basic difference between this conception and common Evangelical "once saved always saved" notions is that it is relational and personal, not legal, abstract and mechanistic. Most Evangelical language about assurance of salvation is born of the fear that we can "lose" our salvation if our relationship with Christ involves our participation in any way ("If it depends on me, I'll just blow it."). The Catholic confidence, like the Evangelical conception, is that salvation does indeed "depend on Christ" but also that Christ, by giving us his Spirit and empowering us supernaturally in baptism and the other sacraments, actually entrusts us with the dignity of being active participants in a real relationship, not merely the passive recipients of an unbreakable legal decree which operates mechanistically no matter what we do, say, or think. In the final analysis, the claim that one "cannot" lose one's salvation is a claim that one has no participation in relationship with Christ. By contrast, in Catholic (and biblical) theology, we become, as 2 Peter 1:4 says, "participants in the divine nature." But because we are real participants, we remain really free.

The paradox of this is that an educated Catholic seldom asks about "assurance of salvation", not because he is "certain he is going to heaven" but because he is not "worrying about tomorrow" (Matthew 6:34). Jesus calls us to hope, not certitude. Hope lives in a present relationship with Christ today and trusts him to order all our tomorrows when they get here. The demand for "assurance of salvation" is really a fretting about the future. It is related to presumption and its evil twin, despair. In Catholic theology, both presumption and despair are the enemies of true Christian hope, for they pre-empt hope by claiming certain knowledge of the end, (i.e. that things will turn out well for us, no matter what, or that things will turn out ill for us and we are doomed). Catholic faith rejects both claims of knowledge and refers us to Christ, not to some theory about what is going to happen in the future. For further reading, we suggest Josef Pieper's On Hope.