“The greatest of these is love”: cultivating faith, charity, and love through prayer
Here is a seeming contradiction of the New Testament, given with the caution that prayer is just as important for this topic as catechesis, for it has been a sore argument for centuries. What is the argument, and what is the contradiction? Saint Paul says we are “saved by faith and not by works” (for example Rom 11:6). But Saint James says we are not saved by faith alone, but that works are necessary (Jas 2:24). Obviously, we try to give a Catholic answer to this question, with theology informed by our tradition, and by scripture.
Starting with the passage from James, it helps to think of the word “charity” for “works.” There are also broader passages in Paul that are helpful. Mainly, we have beautiful passages where Paul lists all three theological virtues as essential: faith, hope, and love. Read 1 Thessalonians 1:3, or Romans 12:9-15. Most famously, the chapter about charity in 1 Corinthians 13 affirms that faith will not be needed in heaven, but that love is essential and eternal, both here on earth, and in the life to come. Yet we know Paul’s great insistence that faith is needed in this life. This is all summed up in one verse for Paul, when he uses the phrase “faith working through charity.” He says faith itself is doing a work. And when we read all these passages, we see there is a great harmony in the picture of salvation received by human beings from Jesus, as interpreted in the Epistle of Paul and James.
There are still some important lessons to cover though. I’m immediately reminded of the ancient heresy of Pelagianism. The fatal error of Pelagius was to say that faith and charity are good accomplishments of our own, which earn for us the reward of eternal life in heaven. If we just turn ourselves into “good people” then God has no choice but to offer us a reward. But it is not like that! Neither James nor Paul would affirm this, although a bad interpretation of James could lead a person to this false self-confidence. Even the love we have for others is the work of a grace of God, transforming us by His gift to be more like Christ. Our entire dependance on God, for our salvation, is most beautifully seen when we turn our eyes back to the Gospels. Of course, our Lord Jesus is the perfect model of love.
But Mary becomes the perfect model of “faith working through love.” Think of Mary living out the words of Romans 12: “contributing to the needs of the holy ones, exercising hospitality, blessing those who would wish her harm, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, having the same regard for others as herself; not haughty, but associating with the lowly.” Was this an accomplishment of her own?
Her Magnificat gave the answer, that this was all due to the grace of God. Make her prayer the model of your prayer. As you seek to live in faith and love, join Mary, “rejoicing in hope … persevere in prayer”(Rom 12:12)! – Fr. Timothy Naples