Pleasing Jesus
April 27, 2008

Readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Reading 1: Acts 8:5–8; 14–17

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 66:1–3, 4–5, 6–7, 16, 20

Reading 2: 1 Pet. 3:15–18

Gospel: Jn. 14:15–21

Link to Readings

By Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.

Ponder this very important promise Our Lord gives us in today’s Gospel: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. . . .” (Jn. 14:16)

The Greek word we translate “counselor” is parakletos, which we anglicize with our term “paraclete.” Parakletos was a Greek legal term meaning attorney, lawyer, advocate, intercessor.
Etymologically, the word means “called to be beside one,” “to accompany, console, protect, defend.”

Notice that our Lord Jesus says He will give us another Paraclete.

The fact is, Jesus Himself is our advocate, our “paraclete.” “We have an advocate [paraclete] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous . . .” (1 Jn. 2:1). Christ has entered into heaven, “Now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb. 9:24). Jesus Christ’s “power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him” (Heb. 7:25).

Jesus is our “paraclete” in heaven, and now He promises to give us another helper on earth: the Holy Spirit. Under what circumstances does this Counselor, this Paraclete, this Helper, come to us?

Faith and Works

Jesus lays His cards on the table right at the beginning of today’s Gospel. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (Jn. 14:15–16).

We must not be misled by the word “and” at the beginning of that second sentence. At first glance it sounds like Jesus is saying that if we love Him and keep His commandments, then He will reward us by giving us another “counselor.” That’s not the way it works. Faith has to come first. If we have faith in Jesus, if we entrust our lives to Him, He will send us His Holy Spirit who will enable us to love Our Lord and keep His commandments.

Love him, keep His commandments: this raises the perennial issue of faith and works.

In the Gospels Jesus speaks far more about the necessity of obedience and good works for our salvation than He does about faith. The Epistles speak far more about the necessity of faith for our salvation than they do about obedience and good works. Must we choose between these two emphases?

“Faith Alone”?

Martin Luther made that choice, and vigorously defended it. The sacred writer tells us, “. . . we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Rom. 3:28). In his translation, Luther inserted the word “alone” after the word “faith,” though the word “alone” is not in the Greek.

His response to those who criticized him for trying to add a word to Sacred Scripture was typically robust. He insisted that St. Paul really meant “faith alone,” though he did not say so. Besides, he advised, “If your Papist annoys you with the word [“alone”; that is if a Catholic criticizes Luther for having added this word], tell him straightway, Dr. Luther will have it so . . . .Luther will have it so, and he is a doctor above all the doctors in Popedom.”

Luther also wanted to remove the book of James from the New Testament because it taught that faith without works is dead. Incidentally, for all Protestants after him he did succeed in removing half a dozen books from the Catholic Old Testament because they taught contrary to his opinion.

Following Luther’s lead from their beginning, the Protestant traditions have indeed made the same choice. They greatly magnify the necessity of faith for salvation and slight, or even deny, that good works can avail for salvation. Indeed, our Protestant brothers and sisters often distinguish themselves from us on this very issue. They claim a person is saved by faith alone, but—they say—Catholics believe we’re also saved by good works.

Certainly, Protestants do a great many good works. But they tend either to subordinate good works to faith in the scheme of salvation, or to deny that good works play any important role in our being saved.

For example, take the Baptist traditions. (There are dozens of them in this country.) They so react against works having a role in our salvation that they deny even the possibility of a sacrament.

Their reasoning goes like this. If there were such a thing as a sacrament, which supposedly would contribute to our salvation, receiving it would be a good work. But, they claim, Scripture teaches we are saved by faith alone, not by good works. Therefore, there can’t be any such thing as a sacrament.

Loving God

What is the relationship between our faith and our good works? The truth is—as the Catholic Church teaches—that faith and good works are complementary.

What is faith? Faith is a personal commitment of one’s whole person to God through Christ. Faith is continual surrender of one’s own will to the will of God. Faith is belief and trust in God’s revelation of Himself through His Church.

What are “good works”? They can best be understood in terms of “obedience to God.” Obedience to God’s will revealed through His Church and through Scripture and tradition. Obedience as a response of gratitude to God for His infinite mercy toward us.

Faith which does not express itself in good works—in obedience—is “dead,” as the epistle of James assures us (Jas. 2:17). Common sense should tell us this. If a husband were to treat his wife very badly and at the same time tell her he loves her, what would we think about his so-called “love”?

Jesus speaks of faith and obedience as interchangeable terms. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15)—which is to say, “if you have faith, you will be obedient.” “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me . . . .” (John 14:21)—which is to say, “if you are truly obedient [in the sense in which we have defined “obedient”], it will be a reflection of your faith.”

Faith and obedience constitute one common reality, one basic attitude of life, viewed from different angles. Here is how Cardinal Newman explains the two facets of this one reality. “. . . viewed as sitting at Jesus’ feet, it is called faith; viewed as running to do His will, it is called obedience” (“Faith and Obedience,” Parochial and Plain Sermons, 532).

So Scripture uses the terms faith and obedience indiscriminately, as synonymous terms.
Sometimes Scripture declares we shall be saved by believing. Sometimes it says we shall be saved by doing our duty as members of Christ’s Mystical Body. Look again at the Sermon on the Mount. Three long chapters in St. Matthew’s Gospel are entirely devoted to Jesus’ telling us what we must do and what we must become,

So how shall we combine our faith and our good works?

Pleasing Jesus

For an answer to this basic question, we can do no better than to listen to an expert, St. Therese of Lisieux. The Little Flower sums up the living of our daily lives in this way: “If you wish to be a Saint—and it will not be hard—keep only one end in view, always do everything in order to please Jesus.”

Trying to do everything to please Jesus applies first of all to every single one of the humdrum duties and responsibilities of each day. It’s impossible for us consciously to do everything to please Jesus, but we must bring that determination to mind as frequently as we can. We’ll find that the more we practice this, the more of a habit it will become.

And what a difference it makes in our attitude toward our work!

Nothing need be tedious or monotonous or boring, if we continually keep in mind that we’re trying to please Jesus. Whether it’s cleaning bathrooms or working at the office or changing diapers—trying to do everything to please Jesus adds incomparable zest to our lives. Another thing: trying to do everything to please Jesus enormously sharpens our moral and spiritual insight. If when we think of something or start to do something and realize there’s no way that it could please Jesus, we know we must drop it immediately.

Doing everything to please Jesus as much as we can applies to how we respond to all the trials and sufferings which life brings. Sacred Scripture reminds us, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him” (Rom. 8:28). It will please Jesus if we offer our sufferings to Him, asking Him to use them for His purpose and our salvation. It will please Him if in that spirit we bear them as patiently as we can.

It never pleases Jesus for us to be morose or filled with self-pity or with faithless anxiety. St. Francis de Sales reminded us that “a saint sad is a sad saint [that is, not good saint].” St. Therese once chided a sorrowful novice with these words:

Our Lord loves the glad of heart, the children that greet Him with a smile. When will you learn to hide your troubles from Him, or to tell Him gaily that you are happy to suffer for Him? The face is the mirror of the soul, and yours, like that of a contented child, should always be calm and serene. Even when alone be cheerful, remember always that you are in the sight of the Angels. (Spiritual Childhood, 134)

And so are you always in the sight of the angels.

And so am I.

So let the joy of pleasing our Lord Jesus shine through!

Father Ray Ryland is CUF's spiritual advisor.

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