I am worried about my daughters who pray occasionally but don’t go to Mass. Can their faith save them?

Dear Father Angelo,

I read online that No. 1035 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that those who die in mortal sin go directly to hell.

I’m worried about my two daughters, 14 and 19, who have kept their faith, pray occasionally but no longer go to Mass.

If something were to happen to them, would God, in his mercy, not take their faith into account?

I always seemed to understand that those who reject God on their own will go to hell.

Kind regards,

Sonia

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Priest’s response

Priest’s Response

Dear Sonia,

1. Faith alone is not enough for salvation.

Salvation requires the grace of God, through which God dwells in us and we dwell in God, according to the beautiful expression of Sacred Scripture: “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

2. That faith alone is not enough is clearly recalled in the sacred text when it says that “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17) and “faith works through love” (Gal 5:6).

Saint Paul insists on the need for an active faith: “If I speak in human and angelic tongue but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor 13:1-2).

3. Jesus reiterates the same concept in the Gospel when he distinguishes between those who hear the word and those who do not put it into practice: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ” (Mt 7:21); “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name…drive out demons in your name…mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock… Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand…” (Mt 7:22-27).

Likewise, in the Gospel of Luke we read: “He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’” (Lk 13:22-27).

4. Various parables are also very eloquent in this regard. Consider the parable of the foolish virgins (Mt 25:1-13), in which the practical disposition for entering the banquet is generally identified with the charity that willingly fulfills God’s will in all things, represented by the oil, while the attitude of expectation common to all the virgins can be interpreted as a state of faith.

The parable of the servants also refers to active or inactive faith (Lk 12:35-48): some are vigilant and industrious and are praised and rewarded; others, however, give themselves over to eating, drinking, and getting drunk, and are severely punished.

5. Moreover, even demons have faith, as Sacred Scripture reminds us: “You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble.Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless?” (James 2:19-20).

6. Theologians, using the language of the apostle James, say that faith possessed in mortal sin is a dead faith.

Living faith is that which unites us to God.

Through this faith, we trust God, obey him, and abandon ourselves to his saving action.

True faith has a mechanism similar to that which we have, for example, towards doctors: we trust the doctor, we obey his prescriptions, and in the most serious cases, we place ourselves in his hands, under anesthesia, so that he can remove the disease from our body through surgery.

7. You tell me your daughters pray every now and then. This is a good thing. But it’s not enough.

In prayer without Christian practice, we seek God to give us what we need. It’s a self-interested prayer.

It’s not wrong.

But it becomes insufficient for salvation when communion of life with God isn’t important, nor are His word, His redemption and forgiveness (confession), His sacrifice and His beneficial action in ourselves and in the whole world (the Holy Mass), nor the sanctification He wants to accomplish in our lives.

Even more concretely: by not going to Mass, your daughters prefer, to say the least, their laziness to His presence, His communion, His grace, and His sanctification.

While they don’t become hostile to God, God is not the center of their lives nor their goal.

Even those who, according to the Gospel language quoted above, say, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets” (Luke 13:26) were not against God.

But they had removed him from the center of their lives. They did not seek him. They did not love him.

With the hope that your daughters will begin to savor the communion of life with the Lord, the source of all good, I bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo

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