Hi, Jim —

The simple answer is you don't. St. Paul tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, (Philippians 2:12) and also reminds us it begins with faith in Christ. It continues with cooperating with His Grace and doing His Will as the Church teaches.

• Are we ever absolutely certain we are going to Heaven?

Not in this life. We hope in His Mercy, especially though the sacrament of Confession; but only God infallibly knows the answer to that most important question.

Paul

Hi, Jim —

Just to add to what my colleague has said, it's very, extremely important that the verse quoted by my colleague Paul is accompanied by the verse that follows it. Otherwise we wind up with Catholics who think they can earn their salvation.

Here are both verses:

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Philippians 2:12-13

Our salvation comes to us by grace, through faith, and leads to us fulfilling the good works that God has planned for us to do. (See Ephesians 2:8-10)

Salvation is a complete work of Grace from beginning to end which requires our cooperation.
That cooperation comes in the form of surrendering to the Holy Spirit through whom we can overcome sin.

That said, the first and most important thing you tell your son, about getting to Heaven, is that God loved Him so much that He sent Jesus to pay the ransom for our sin. If we trust Jesus and His Love, He will give us the ability to overcome our sins so that we can become Holy but it's only through His Strength that we can do it.

We are saved by grace alone. We are justified by faith and good works, both of which are, in and of themselves, free gifts from God.

Don't, under any circumstance, have your child walk away from that conversation thinking he can earn Heaven with brownie points.

• Yes, we do our good works, but we do them in and by the Holy Spirit.
• Yes, we must overcome sin, but again, just as Paul writes to the Romans:
  if by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the flesh.(Romans 8:12-13)

I hope that clarifies things. I'm sure my colleague Paul didn't mean to imply otherwise, but we come from different backgrounds and I've seen too many people completely misunderstand what the Apostle Paul is saying in Philippians 2:12. It can't be read out of context.

God Bless,

John D.

Jim —

We know that God loves everyone and wants all to go to Heaven. We know that if we rely on Him and stay in friendship with Him, He is faithful to His promise. We hope and pray for the grace to do that, but we do not presume that we will go to Heaven without doing it. We work out our salvation every day with God.

Mary Ann

Jim,

We don't, but it would be to our detriment if we didn't.

If I'm driving on a beautiful mountain cliff and there a flashing warning light ahead telling me I should slow down to 20 MPH, I am very grateful for that sign reminding me to proceed there with great caution. That may be why Jesus spoke of Gehenna so often to so many, to give them the appropriate boundaries to be properly fearful.

On the other hand, although the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom (Psalms 111:10), prefect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). God's love, and loving Him back, is all we need.
It brings great peace and joy, but until I have perfect love, I think I should retain a little fear of the Lord too.

Peace,

Paul

Jim,

Let me try and put a slightly different twist on Paul's answer.

There are many verses that talk about eternal security, but there are also many verses which make it clear that our eternal destiny is conditional on our perseverance to the end. The Bible uses the word if many times in conjunction with salvation.

We do, however, have a moral assurance of salvation. That is we know for certain that God will do everything possible except thwart our free will in order to see that we have eternal life.
Nevertheless, we can't be sure of the choices we will make so we pray that we will make the right choices. We don't pray out of fear of damnation, or at least we shouldn't. We should be praying out of faith that God will complete the work in us that He has started in us. (Philippians 1:3-6)

As Paul has said, we have hope and biblical hope is the Greek word Epidso. It means a joyful expectation based on knowledge and a promise. So when a Catholic says I hope to have eternal life, it's not as if he's saying I hope someone gives me a new car for Christmas. Our Hope is more than just a wish or wishful thinking. It is a sense of expediency that motivates us to action . . . . or at least should motivate us.

Maybe we ought to hear more about this from the Pulpit but the flip side is also true. We can't be living on a steady diet of everyone is going to make it to Heaven, because then people have no reason to cooperate, or better put, surrender to grace. St. Paul, tells us in Romans 8:1 —

1 There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

Well, Amen brother, that sounds really good but later in the same chapter we read.

13 if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh. (Romans 8:13)

Put another way, Jesus has made the reservations for us, he's chartered the plane, he's the pilot and he's given us the ticket but we gotta let Him carry us onto the plane and once we are on it,
we gotta let Him fly it and can't bail out.

I hope that helps.

God Bless,

John