We heard in the first reading of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, he says,
work out your salvation with fear and trembling. This, of course, means that we can lose our
salvation. That is, the salvation that we received in baptism, God's sanctifying grace
that comes into the soul. We can lose this by committing mortal sin. And if we die in mortal sin,
then we are eternally lost. And for this reason,
St. Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, so as not to lose God's grace
and die without it and be lost. And probably the most common mortal sins among Catholics today,
which are the cause of their eternal loss, is missing Mass on Sunday without a serious reason,
contraception, and divorce.
Divorce and remarriage. And not only are Catholics falling into these sins, but they're not even
recognizing them as sins anymore. In fact, there was a recent survey done by a Professor Davidson
and written in his book entitled American Catholics Today. There was a survey done in the
year 2005, and it found that 76% of Catholics in the U.S.
said that someone could be a good Catholic without going to church on Sunday. That's the third
commandment. They're saying you can be a good Catholic without observing the third commandment.
That's a mortal sin. Seventy-five percent said that good Catholics do not need to observe the
church's teaching on contraception. Again, that's another mortal sin. Sixty-seven percent
said the same thing regarding divorce and remarriage. Now again, what is this all a sign of?
It's a sign of the loss of faith. It is 70, we could say 70 or 75% of American Catholics have lost their faith
and are going down the road to perdition. That's quite a large number. And we see how that corresponds to our Lord's words of the Gospel.
When he says that the way to perdition is wide and easy, and many there are who go down that way.
And the way to salvation is narrow and straight, and few there are who find it.
So let us take to heart St. Paul's warning today and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Let us take to heart St. Paul's warning today and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Let us take to heart St. Paul's warning today and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.