Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Our Lord says in the Gospel today,
Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
But he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Our Lord here is telling us that it's not enough to call him,
Lord. It's not enough to call Jesus our Lord and Savior in order to be saved and go to heaven.
It's not enough to believe in, to have faith in Jesus in order to go to heaven.
That is, faith alone is not enough for salvation.
As St. James clearly tells us in his letter, chapter 2, verse 24,
Do you see that by works a man is justified,
and not by faith alone?
So we need to do works in order to be saved.
And what are these works that we must do?
As our Lord said in the Gospel,
We need to do the will of our Father who is in heaven.
First and foremost, of course, the commandments.
We know that the commandments are the express will of God.
The rich young man in the Gospel,
asked our Lord,
Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have everlasting life?
And Jesus said,
If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Do the will of the Father, the commandments.
And especially today,
we need to mention the third, the sixth, and the ninth commandments,
because they are so often transgressive.
The third commandment,
To keep holy the Lord's day.
To sanctify the Lord's day.
That is, we have to go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
If not, that's a mortal sin.
If there's no serious reason not to go.
A mortal sin.
And if one dies in mortal sin,
he cannot go to heaven.
But he is lost forever.
The second commandment,
The sixth commandment,
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not commit impure acts.
We know how imbued our society is today with impurity.
It's enough to look at the television for five minutes.
Or to know that, I think it's one-third of the websites that are visited on the internet
are pornographic sites.
One-third.
The ninth commandment,
Thou shalt not covet,
or desire thy neighbor's wife.
Again, here,
Willful consent to impure thoughts.
It doesn't even have to spill over into action.
It's enough to willfully consent to impure thoughts
for it to be a mortal sin.
St. Paul also has some important words regarding
doing the will of the Father
and the things that are necessary to avoid
in order to get to heaven.
He says in 1st Corinthians, chapter 6,
It is those who have premarital relations.
Again, how common is this today?
But St. Paul says,
Do not err,
because neither fornicators,
nor idolaters,
nor adulterers,
nor the effeminate,
nor liars with mankind,
that is, those who commit homosexual acts,
nor thieves,
nor covetous,
nor drunkards,
nor railers,
nor extortioners,
shall possess the kingdom of God.
All of these things exclude one from God's kingdom.
So we conclude,
in order to go to heaven,
yes,
we must have faith,
and we must call Jesus our Lord.
But then,
as St. Paul says,
we need to work out our salvation
in fear and trembling.
We need to work out our salvation
by doing the will of the Father.
We need to work out our salvation
by obeying the commandments.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
© transcript Emily Beynon
© transcript Emily Beynon