If you’ve ever been to Southern Ontario in the middle of July, you would know how disgusting our summer humidity can be. Just over a year ago now, there was this one day that was particularly bad, and as I walked into a Fish n Chips shop near my work, I said to a man waiting in line: “Ugh, it’s so f***ing hot outside.” I could’ve gone without using the swear word, but it sparked a conversation. Well, I say conversation, but it felt more like I was being judged, and listening to a lecture because of it.

The man talked to me about damnation. This was back in the days when I was only sort of Christian: I had the beginnings of my faith, and I believed, but I was still working through it all. I’d heard a lot about hell and understood the idea that I was a sinner in need of redemption. Perhaps the man was a bit too “fire and brimstone”, but what really struck me wasn’t his emphasis on the real possibility of experiencing Hellfire. Rather, it was when he said, “You see, I’m good with God.”

I’m not here to condemn the man, by any means, but I was struck by this statement. After all, how can you know you’re totally good with God? St Paul’s words to the Philippians come to mind, when he writes:

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:12 (The emphasis is my own.)

When I was in RCIA, one of the things that catechumens from Evangelical backgrounds seemed to struggle with most was the idea of being uncertain about your salvation. In some traditions, there are those who believe you’re saved by reciting the Sinner’s prayer, while others believe your faith alone is what saves you (sola fide). On the other hand, the Catholic view sees justification not simply as an event (baptism; cf. 1 Peter 3:21) but also an ongoing process that requires we cooperate with God’s grace throughout our lives. Scripture says:

Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. … You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? … You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. … For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:17, 19–21, 24, 26

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this point further:

The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But “faith apart from works is dead”: when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

CCC §1815

Naturally, there are people that will disagree with the Catholic view of justification. I’m not going to suggest that there’s no controversy here, but it seems pretty clear to me that justification is more complicated than simply “believing” or saying a certain prayer. Thus, salvation can seem uncertain or perhaps far off. How do we know that we are saved?

The short answer, I suppose, is that we aren’t entirely certain even though we know we might have a good relationship with God. We are imperfect judges of ourselves, so there is always that doubt. Hence, why we work out our salvation “with fear and trembling”. We don’t entirely know where exactly we’ll end up, and needless to say this can be a cause for some concern. We’d like to know for sure, of course, and I, for one, hate suspense; and from my own experience, I recall a number of people expressing this concern in RCIA.

But despite the uncertainty and perhaps unease, there is one thing we do know because, well, God has shown it to us; and that’s who He Himself is. From the Gospel according to John:

God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:17

God’s rooting for you. Take comfort in that.