Posted on 03/11/2008 3:41:39 PM PDT by Salvation
I get where you are going and agree - it is through Christ we are saved, not practicing the virtues (though the virtues should be the gradually increasing visible fruit of a life of faith dedicated to Him). The difference between the virtuous Catholic and the virtuous Muslim is the root: faith in Christ-crucified and resurrected and knowing salvation is through Him alone. We must be cautious to ensure our striving for holiness is out of adoration for Him for Who He is as revealed in His Word and not to become subject to the Law once again. The virtues must spring forth from a heart crucified to Christ, in that for love of Him we choose to crucify the desires of the flesh which do not honor His Way and not seek to perform the virtues for the virtues themselves.
May He grant you a day richly blessed in His grace and His love in a way which all around you can see!
>May He grant you a day richly blessed in His grace and His love in a way which all around you can see!
Thank you!
Christ is the root, the cause of our salvation! Without Him we are not going to do anything but burn for all eternity. Thus the Muslim, as a Muslim is on the broad road, and those that believe that virtue itself is a way, without faith in Christ, is walking beside the Muslim.
Works without faith cannot produce salvation, and this is generally not taught in the Catholic Church, outside some universalists, such as suggested by Mother Teresa’s writings and some interpretations of Vatican II.
Catholics have the Sacraments of the Church. Moslems do not.
‘Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’
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