Faith and Works

At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
But he did not say a word in answer to her.
His disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me."
He said in reply,
"It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And her daughter was healed from that hour.

Faith is what we need to have before we can claim any allegiance to Jesus.  Without faith, we can do nothing because we do not know Jesus.  So, the first step, as the Protestants well know, is to believe in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.  But we cannot stop there. Faith will take you so far.  But to really enjoy all of the benefits of being a Christian, we have to take what we know or rather who we know, and bring Him to the whole world.  We do this by preaching, teaching, and by selfless works of mercy.  You cannot separate faith and works, they are the two parts of the one whole.  Jesus looks for us to be generous so that He can be generous to us.  Jesus looks for us to extend mercy so that we can be shown His mercy.  Jesus looks for us to love others so that He is sure that we acting out His charge to us that we read in the Gospels. 

Please remember our brothers and sisters in Purgatory, especially those souls abandoned by their loved ones because they do not believe in Purgatory.