This is the last installment in our series on the Catholic economy of salvation.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus “began with the end,” that is, Our Blessed Lord gave us a glimpse of what He desires us to become, namely, perfect. He began with the Beatitudes, which are at once the highest acts of perfect Christian virtue and a foretaste of heavenly beatitude. It is in that same greatest of all sermons that the divine Master tells us, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (see commentary below). Here, He is saying, “be like Me, the perfect Son of the Eternal Father.” The Christian life is the imitation of Jesus Christ — who is at once the living Icon of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) and the model of perfected humanity.
In doing this, Our Lord was not commanding what is impossible or unreasonable. He was enjoining what His grace can accomplish in us if we freely and generously cooperate with His loving intentions. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain,” (1 Cor. 15:10) wrote Saint Paul, acknowledging both sides of “the bargain” that is the life of grace.
The call to perfection should not depress us. It should humble and encourage us to realize what we are called to be, even if we are not that yet — saints!
Be Perfect!
The previous entry in this series mentioned the necessity of perseverance to the end. But perseverance itself is not sufficient; we must also be perfect to be saved. By perfect, I mean sinless, spotless, clean, finished off, purified, made spiritually complete — in order to go to Heaven after we die.
Here are some direct commandments to be perfect, as well as descriptions of Heaven as a place for the perfect:
- Matthew 5:48 — “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Comment: In the context, Our Lord is talking about loving our enemies: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:43–48). Loving one’s enemies is evidently a high achievement in the spiritual life — something that Jesus showed us how to do on the Cross.
- 1 Peter 1:15–16 — “But as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.'”
Comment: We are not to be holy “while at Church” only, but “in all [our] conduct”! That call to totality is as radical as it is absolute. - Philippians 1:6 — “And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Comment: I include this verse to show that, if we are to be saved, our perfection is something that will happen by the time of the General Judgment (“the day of Jesus Christ”). Salvation is not a “one and done” event, but an ongoing process that ends in Heaven, which we will see described in the next two passages as a place for the perfect. - Hebrews 12:22-24 — “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.”
Comment: Heaven is not only a place for “the just men,” but for “the just men made perfect.” The Greek word is τετελειωμένων (teteleiōmenōn), a perfect passive participle, which means that the perfecting has been achieved. (A related word is found earlier in that chapter (Heb. 2:2), where Jesus is called the “perfecter [τελειωτὴν (teleiótés)] of our faith.”) This verb is related to the Greek noun, telos (τέλος), which means end, goal, purpose, or fulfillment. It is a very important concept in the study of philosophy and theology, and gives us the word “teleology,” which is the study of purpose or ends.
- Revelation 21:27 — “But nothing unclean [κοινός (koinos): common, defiled, impure] shall enter it [Heaven], nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Comment: This is a good reminder to us that we will eventually need to break our lying habits. We may as well start now! - Matthew 5:8 — “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
- Psalm 24:3–4 — “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.”
Our perfection is the work of grace, but it requires our cooperation:
- Ephesians 5:25–27 — Christ loved the Church “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
- Revelation 7:14 — “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
- 1 John 3:2–3 — “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
Comment: The fact that Christ cleanses us and gives us grace does not contradict what Saint John says here: we must “purify ourselves” by cooperating with grace. He says the same thing in the Apocalypse (Rev.) when he says that they “washed their robes … in the blood of the Lamb.” - I Peter 5:10: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you.”
Comment: The word translated “restore,” here is καταρτίζω (katartizō), meaning prepare, complete, finish, and perfect.
Saint Thomas’ division of grace into “operating” and “cooperating grace” is very helpful here. The former is God’s grace working in us without or prior to our cooperation; the latter is God’s grace working in us with our full cooperation. Both are necessary in adults.
Purgatory
If we have not been perfected by the time we die, there is a purifying fire after that death which suits that purpose well:
- 1 Corinthians 3:8–15 — “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the commission of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”
Comment: To read three of the Fathers giving a Purgatorial interpretation of this passage, see “Proving Purgatory.” (See also a lengthy passage of Saint Gregory the Great on this same passage at the Eternal Christendom site.)
If perfection is not necessary, then the Bible not only commands something that is superfluous, but it is factually errant in its description of Heaven as a place inhabited by the “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23).
What happens if we die before we are “perfected” or “completed”? Do we go to Hell? Can we still be saved? Here again, the Catholic teaching is the only one that makes sense. If we die before achieving perfection, there is a place to be perfected. We Catholics call it Purgatory.
I would like to reiterate and amplify something I said above. In the reference from Philippians, as we saw, Saint Paul says that the good work Christ begins in us will be perfected “until the day of Jesus Christ.” This is the day of the General Judgment. Saint Paul was talking to people in the first century and referring to a process of perfection that could last until the very end of time! This corresponds perfectly to the Catholic teaching that Purgatory will end at the General Judgment, its function of purifying the elect now being brought to completion.
Before I close out this final installment of “What Must I Do to Be Saved?” I would like to recommend the first four chapters of Dom Mary Eugene Boylan’s masterpiece, This Tremendous Lover for a beautiful exposition of the Catholic economy of salvation. The book is available online as a free PDF, but you can purchase a real book in one of several editions here.
The End!
We have spoken quite a bit of our telos, that is, our end, goal, or purpose here. In the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri describes Purgatory as a mountain. This is a fitting image to illustrate a man reaching perfection (if he has not already reached it in this life), for it is an image Jesus used in the Gospels. God loves mountains, and He proved this many times in both Testaments. Let us close by considering only three of them, from the New Testament: On the Mount of Beatitudes, Jesus revealed the end for which we were made; on Mount Tabor, He gave us a perfect image of that end; and on Mount Calvary, He gave us the way there.
Happy climbing!
