"Do work, son!" is my favorite catch phrase, and that is an understatement. I write it on letters to friends, schedules for co-workers, and I actually imagined my guardian angel giving me this encouragement on my run to Camp Abbey and back today. There is so much theology behind the phrase, and I pray that one day I will know enough to write a book about it. But over the past week, the importance of my most beloved saying is falling prey to doubt in the first readings at mass. The first readings of almost this entire past week speak of faith and works.

Wednesday, Romans 2:6-7
[God] will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works
Thursday, Romans 3:27-28
What occasion is there then for boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Friday, Romans 4:2-3
Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Saturday, Romans 4:16
For this reason, [righteousness] depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us

I don't know about you, but that succession of readings sent me for a loop! St. Paul begins by saying that God will repay everyone according to his works but then seemingly bashes works and advocates faith alone. Any contradictions that we come across in the Bible are cleared up by being attentive to the unity of the whole of Scripture. There is an important distinction to be made between "works" when it refers to the works of the law and "works" when it refers to the good works of charity.

Jesus came to fulfill the law prescribed in the first five books of the Bible and set us free from that law. Praise and thanks to God that he did, for we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; not one of us could earn our way to heaven by our works alone. It is through grace, which comes from faith, that we are justified. The Gospel readings this week contained several "woes" to the Pharisees, who Jesus reproached for their belief in justification through works of the law. The Pharisees are much like the hypocritical kings, false prophets, and leaders of the Old Testament who gave lip service to God through lawful sacrifice in liturgy but who believed that they could deliver themselves from their enemies without God's help. The result of that belief was the destruction of the Israelite at the hands of the Babylonians and the Assyrians. We too will be destroyed by our enemies, evil spirits (Eph 6:12), if we don’t have faith in God as our protection. The armor of God does not include the breastplate of self-righteousness, but of righteousness, which was credited to Abraham through faith.

But not faith alone. Abraham's faith was shown by the act of offering Isaac on the altar. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matt 7:20). Jesus' woes to the scholars of the law included not helping those who are burdened, much like the true prophets of the Old Testament who condemned the kings and leaders for acknowledging God's existence but neglecting the poor and needy. Jesus fulfilled the old law with the new law of love. Loving one another as He has loved us is now the basis for good works which must accompany faith. "For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). We are not souls, and we are not bodies; we are souls incarnate. Let us not have mere intellectual knowledge of God's existence or works apart from faith, for justification does not come from merely acknowledging Christ as Lord, but in faith made incarnate by doing the will of the Father through good works of charity.

I was reading a blog who quoted Martin Luther. He who took the book of James out of his translation of the Bible because of how he spoke of works as necessary, spoke thus of faith and works:
"It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are."
Br. Jude, our Scripture professor, said that if Martin Luther were born after the Reformation, he probably would have been a doctor of the Church. His understanding of faith and works, which remains a point of disagreement between Protestants and Catholics, doesn't seem too far from the truth. What a tragedy that the Church had to split over what hardly seems like a difference at all.

The concept of faith and works is one that I did not understand, and one that I hope to fully understand soon. Sometimes I entertain the idea that I am writing to teach, but I know that it is through writing that I learn. And it is through writing to an audience that I grow. So thank you. Do work, son! But never entertain the idea that you can do it alone. Know that you are in my prayers.