The Church has always taught that we are saved by God's grace -- that is the initial grace that allows us to accept His salvation.
Yet scripture says that we must work out our own salvation and we know from Ezekiel 33:12-16 that we can lose our salvation
So let's put it together -- Christ's sacrifice is what saves us. We must accept this salvation. Yet we can lose it (Eze 33) and scripture tells us to work out our own salvation and that salvation is not by faith alone. So that means we must work to accept this salvation provided by Christ
If we do just works and have no faith, we are not saved. If we do just works and do not accept the salvation of Christ, i.e. believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and God and Savior and died for us, we are not saved.
Our works cannot save us -- only Christ can save us -- that is Church teaching
The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit. The Catechism confirms this as
Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men.Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.
The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:
Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit."53 Whatever their character - sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church
Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith.
“believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved-and your house.”
The minute you add to that or distort that simple message in any way you risk the wrath of God. Salvation is a simple message. No one organized religion can save you nor can they assure your salvation. No membership in an organized religion is necessary.
I don’t care what the “Church” teaches. Follow the “Church” if you like. Follow some guy or mystic if you want. I’ll continue to trust Jesus words that there is only one way to the Father and life eternal with Him.