When the Homily is about Immunology

Grandma’s Redmption

In short whisperous bursts, several mini-conversations were had in which was asked the “hush-hush” evangelically based question: “Was Grandma saved?”

You see she was a Roman Catholic and so this naturally begged the question in the protestant mind: Did she know and believe the right things to get into heaven? Hmmm…this line of questioning and ultimately the affirming that most people felt she did have these sorts of theological issues sorted out properly in order to have a “saving personal relationship with Jesus Christ” were a bit disturbing to me. Do we really think that what Grandma thought would make the difference between eternal damnation and bliss?

I feel, given my present theological condition, that we ought not to sit about and pontificate on her salvation, but rather to pray for her. But the whole issue leads me to ask: What must we do to inherit eternal life? Jesus was asked this several times, right? Not once did He answer simply and directly. “Believe in me as Lord and savior.” Rather He was always a bit cryptic or sideways in His reply…but not for the individual who asked the question, because to that person the answer cut right to the heart.

It seems that we who were raised in the protestant mindset preach (or preached as the case may be) that what we must do, is believe a certain number of things, the most important of which is that we can do nothing to inherit eternal life. I don’t buy it…it seems to my puny and under-educated Orthodox mind that salvation has much more to do with WHO we are and not what we think. (As a side, you might read the wonderful and lengthy series that John has been posting.) I mean, seriously, do we really believe (or did we believe) that salvation is akin to answering the questions right and obtaining a driver’s license?

I suppose each of us must ask the question (What must we do to inherit eternal life?) of Jesus individually in a sense. So that His reply may cut directly into our hearts…and not so much into our minds. Who we are and not what we believe, I think, is the realm where the mystery of salvation is revealed.

Was Grandma saved? Hell, am I?