Today’s second reading can help us to answer the question if we are good enough to get to Heaven. The reality is the minute that you decide that you are indeed good enough to be saved, you probably are not. The reason is something the saints knew all along, we are all saved through God’s grace and our response to it. The minute you can feel that your efforts at being good are enough to enter Heaven, you can assure yourself that you have no understanding of the relationship between God’s grace and our response. Meanwhile, the saints recognized the closer they came to God, the more they were aware of their own sinfulness and the more they understood God’s mercy in leading them to salvation. That is why the often considered themselves the worst of all sinners. Ultimately, we realize that our salvation begins at God’s initiation. Our gratefulness comes from God’s infinite mercy calling us to a deeper relationship with Him constantly.

We can see that, clearly, in today’s second reading. This is the famous passage from the second letter to the Corinthians, where Paul talks before this about a gift of mysticism he had in which he had a deeper revelation of God’s plan of salvation to a profound level. Indeed, he talks about being  brought up to the Seventh Heaven. Here, in light of these powerful revelations, he talks about the other side of that gift. An angel of satan that becomes a thorn in his side. This keeps him dependent on God and humble.

This is a powerful message and one that needs to be looked more closely. Many have speculated what  this angel of satan is. Some have said it was a sin he repeatedly fell into, others, however, suggest it was a malady he had. I would guess it was a combination of the two.

First, Paul does admit falling into to sin in the letter to the Romans where he said that he does things things he does not want to do and does not do what he wants. So, we know that he admits to being a sinner. He also describes himself as the worst of all sinners. Here, however, some say he does the same others say he does not. We can, however, find a clue in his words.

In the book of Job, Satan is sent to this holy man with the permission of God to afflict him. This is a form of temptation by Satan to get Job  to reject God in his affliction, he never does.

Using the same imagery, from a man who would have  been a scholar in the book of Job, we can assume that what he is talking about is an affliction that is tempting him to turn from God. This is what the thorn in the side is all about in Job, this can be assumed to be Paul’s issue. Some sort of malady that tries his faith. The important part of this reality, however, is that he understand the deepest teachings the saints know, it is in God that we find holiness despite and through our temptations. Therefore, it is God on whom we rely for growth in holiness and salvation.

This is sometimes lost on many Catholics, particularly in the United States. For decades there was this horrible teaching that was virtually Deistic. We have to work to be free of sin, so that when we get to Heaven God will judge us worthy to enter the gates of Heaven. However, this implies that God has nothing to do with us until we meet him at the end of our lives. This is not Catholicism, at best it is a Christian form of Deism taht teaches us that we are completely on our own until we meet God. This contrasts strongly with an image by Benedictine Monk Thomas Merton who says that we are surrounded by God’s grace sending seeds of contemplation constantly in our lives. God is in touch with us everyday and calling us to grow in holiness and love. It is his grace that leads us  and his grace that calls us away from sin and into the path towards holiness. We do nothing on our own and so in our weakness we recognize, as Paul does, our need for God’s grace. Therefore, our greatest strength is not when we think we are free from sin, but when we recognize the power of temptation and sin in our life and we ask the Lord to help us in our journey to overcome it.

If we were to use a common image of the saints which is that God’s grace is to us like water is to fish. It surrounds us and permeates us. We can imagine temptation is like that current that makes it difficult for us to reach our destination. But as long as we are aware of the overwhelming amount of grace about us, we can trust that our struggles will bring fruit toward our destination. It is when we give up that we continue along with the current until we have died of whatever never reaching our destination.

Therefore, our recognition of our sinfulness and our need for God’s grace  are what leads us to repentance and allows God to draw us into Salvation. When we think we are sinless and holy on our own, then we are really just blind to our own sinfulness and unable to experience God’s grace in our lives. This is because we are so filled with pride at how holy we are, we lose a sense of our need for God’s grace to save us. However, when we recognize our sinfulness, we recognize our need for God and that is the door to holiness. Hence, those who know Christ have discovered their need for Him. Those who feel they don’t need Christ, have no understanding what they are all about, nor what we are all about.

Let us acknowledge our sinfulness and recognize our need for the Grace of God that permeates us.

God bless you.

Fr. Robert J Carr

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