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Let's Not Take Our Salvation for Granted At the beginning of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom we say, “For the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.” Pay attention to this, because we cannot take for granted the salvation of our souls. I have said this many times and i still say it. People who take the salvation of their souls for granted, put the salvation of their souls in serious jeopardy. I watched a program on the danger of sharks. In the ocean, those people who become over-confident, who go swimming around where there are sharks, are usually the ones who get caught. The ones that are careful don’t get caught. Perhaps you know of someone, a relative or friend who was at one time a good, dedicated Catholic, but took his Faith for granted. And then, how easy it becomes to leave the Faith. This is tremendously dangerous. We live on this earth to save our souls. These are times of trial and everything in our lives is supposed to be aimed to that purpose. What good is it for a man to conquer the whole world if in the end he loses his soul? What good is it for that man? Our Lord says this many times in the Bible. In Miles Jesu we pray every day for the gift of final perseverance. The Church teaches us that the gift of final perseverance cannot be merited. We cannot gain it. It is a gift freely given by God, and we cannot play around with it. Eternity depends on it. You may say, “Well, eternity? Come on. That is too far away to think about.” Well, we need to start thinking about it. Look at the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and the Latin Mass. Each start with prayers for the salvation of our souls. See how many times in the Latin Mass we say, “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.” Many of the prayers that we say are asking that we will not be condemned, and we say them every day. Why the insistence? Because we cannot take our salvation for granted. It is something very serious. It is really easy to blow our tops and let our Faith cool. “Well, now i’m a Presbyterian; now i’m a Mormon; now i’m this or that.” There are so many cases like that. The other day i ran across a book written by a priest who left the Church about 25 years ago. The book criticized the Church up and down. I saw him about 15 years ago on a television interview. By that time he was not a priest. He had not only left the Church, but he said he was an atheist! The amazing thing is, he kept talking about hell and the devil the whole time. He doesn’t believe in God but he certainly believes in hell and the devil. Do not take your salvation for granted. Not at all. There is no assurance of salvation for anybody. We cannot play around with our Faith and Salvation. I don’t know what other words to use to explain it to you, but i hope that you do take it seriously. And whenever in the Mass when we say “Lord, have mercy,” say it meaningfully! It is not just a nice sentence. It is a deep prayer that comes from the bosom of the Church for the salvation of our souls. |