Qorbono Q&A

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Welcome to this uh new Q &A in the Korbono series. And today we're considering in this question if my salvation can be guaranteed if I raise the dead. In other words, if I help others does this mean I am guaranteed salvation? And the short answer is no. Raising the dead would not guarantee your salvation. Now that may sound shocking, but it is exactly the warning given by our Lord

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and St. Paul. Miracle can truly help another person without proving that the miracle worker is holy. God can give certain graces to a person for the benefit of others, while that person himself may still lack charity, sanctifying grace and covenantal fidelity. St. Paul says it plainly, if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have

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all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love. I am nothing. That's in one Corinthian chapter 13, verse two. And again, if I give away all I have, but have not love, I gain nothing. Corinthians, first Corinthians 13, three. Now I'd like you to notice the force of Paul's words. He does not say,

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The prophecy is fake. He does not say the mountain was not moved. He does not say the poor were not fed. He says that without love, the person who performs these works gain nothing. Now in Catholic terms, that love is sanctifying grace.

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And that's the key distinction we have to make between sanctifying grace and graces grotesquely given. Or if you've heard me in other talks, I've used the expression accidental grace, which is more Aristotelian, but it refers to the exact same thing. of those are sort of, if you want graces that God gives you an impetus to help you make or perform a good act. Now, sanctifying grace is the grace that makes us holy. Let me repeat that.

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sanctifying grace is the grace that makes us holy. It heals the soul, elevates it, makes it pleasing to God and enables us to live in communion with him. The Catechism says sanctifying grace is the gift by which God gives us his own life infused by the Holy Spirit to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. That's paragraph one.

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999. 1999. It is, as paragraph 2000 says, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by His love. Notice the word stable and disposition. Think habit. Think virtue.

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but they're also graces given not primarily for the sanctification of the person receiving them, but for the good of others. The Catechism calls these charisms or special graces. They may include extraordinary gifts such as miracles, healings, prophecy, tongues, teaching, or other gifts ordered to be to the building up of the church. And you find all this discussed in paragraphs 2003 and 2004.

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St. Thomas explains the distinction with great precision. One kind of grace, sanctifying grace, unites man himself to God. Another kind of grace enables one man to help another to be led to God. This is gracia gratis dara, grace, great, graticiously given. Such grace may pass through a person without making that person holy.

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That is why our Lord gives this terrifying warning. One day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evil doers. That's in the gospel of St. Matthew chapter seven, verse 22 and 23. Notice.

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these people did these things. The Lord did not say liars. They did these mighty things and still the Lord calls them evildoers because they did not have love in them.

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These people performed mighty works, they prophesied, they cast out demons, they acted in the Lord's name. Yet Christ rejects them because they were not truly united to Him. Their works were impressive, but their hearts were not converted. So, if you raise the dead, that miracle might be a real work of God. The dead person might truly be restored to life. The witnesses might truly be moved to faith.

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God's mercy might truly shine through the event, but that would not automatically mean you are saved or sanctified or made holy. Why? Because salvation requires more than being used by God to do something. It requires being united to God in faith, hope, charity, repentance, obedience, and perseverance. I'm gonna repeat this. It requires us being united to God in faith, hope,

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charity, repentance, obedience, and perseverance. The decisive question is not merely, did God work through me, but do I belong to him? And notice sort of the marital language, do I belong? So that's the difference between someone who comes to your house and fix the plumbing versus someone who is your wife or your husband.

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You need that union with God to be saved and that union is what sanctifying grace does.

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Judas is the grim example. He was chosen as one of the twelve. He walked with Christ. He heard the teaching. He was sent with the others when Jesus gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases and send them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal. That's in the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 9 verse 1 and 2. Yet Judas did not persevere in love. He became a traitor.

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His tragedy is not that he was far from holy things. His tragedy is that he was unbearably near to them and still hardened his heart. Catechism teaches that charity is the theological virtue, theological meaning given by God, it's supernatural, by which we love God above all things and our neighbor for God's sake. Watch our neighbor. We love our neighbor for God's sake, not for our neighbor's sake.

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That's in the Catechism, paragraph 1822. Charity is the form of the virtues. It gives life and supernatural worth to Christian action. Again, the Catechism, paragraph 1827. And when speaking of merit, the Catechism says, the charity of Christ is the source in us of all merits before God. Let me repeat that. You'll find that in paragraph 2011. The charity of Christ.

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is the source in us of all merits before God. In other words, the only thing that matters, the one thing that matters is how much you love God, how much you're united to Him.

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So that would explain, for instance, why someone like St. Joseph and Our Lady, who during their lives did not raise the dead, not feed the hungry, didn't perform any of these mighty actions. I mean, they didn't do anything compared to say someone like St. Anthony of Parva or St. Charbel. Or you can even consider the case of St. Charbel himself was a hermit during his life or St. Thras, a little child Jesus, who was just a nun.

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living in a closed-zipped life, none of them performed any markedly noticeable action during their lives.

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but they're the greatest in heaven.

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So the answer then, no, your salvation is not guaranteed if you raise the debt. A charism, a gift can benefit others without sanctifying you. A miracle can be real without proving you're holy. A good work can help your neighbor without meriting eternal life for you. Only charity makes the work living before God. Or if you want more sharply, God may use a crooked stick or a crooked pen to draw a straight line.

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So that's me, I'm a crooked stick or a crooked pen. But the line's straightness does not make the stick straight. The fact that the work I do benefit others does not immediately imply or automatically imply it's benefiting me. The miracle is not the guarantee. Charity is the question. Union with Christ is the question. Perseverance and grace is the question. All of these things are secret in the heart.

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and cannot be necessarily or readily seen even by the person who loves God. Even the person who's on this journey may find it very difficult. They may think, I don't love God at all. I'm so far away from Him. Which is why St. Paul says, I do not judge myself. But what is key is to always guard yourself against thinking that anything you do, any outward action you take is a proof.

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your holiness. That would be folly. Do not ever fall for something like that. In Lebanon we had a saying which I'm going to share with you and I want you to memorize it. The saying is do good and throw it in the sea. Do good and throw it in the sea. The idea is that when you do a good action forget about it. Don't let it even come to your mind let it go. Instead keep focusing

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the cross. Keep focusing on your virtues, on your vices. Keep focusing on your shortcomings. Keep focusing on the journey you still need to cross in order to love Christ. That is the only path to salvation. So if a man raises the dead but has not love, he is nothing. But if he lives and dies in charity, though he may not do any outward work,

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even the smallest cup of water given for Christ's sake in authentic love will not lose its reward. God bless you.