Merit

We are in the week of prayer for Christian unity. Early on in my grappling with the claims of the Catholic Church (I was a non-denominational Christian with Lutheran upbringing) I realized that language was a significant player in both causing and perpetuating Christian disunity. Protestantese – the language spoken by my former tribe, with varying dialects – relied on certain terms and concepts which were emotionally laden in a positive way. I felt safe and able to trust when I heard people talk that way. Catholicese had terms and concepts that were foreign and negatively emotionally laden. This kind of thing goes both ways. For example, if you’ve been in any Christian Facebook discussion groups for more than a couple of months you’ve probably seen the “relationship vs. religion” debate rehashed several times. Since the conversation happens in English, both sides think the other is just blind to truth. What would happen if we both stopped to understand each other’s actual words as the other person understands them?

One of these theological words that can be a real bugaboo in ecumenical dialogue is merit. Protestants hear merit and think Catholics are back at trying to earn salvation by being good enough or by clocking in enough works for God to forgive them, as if Jesus were no part at all in Christianity. Catholics hear this standard backlash and might get defensive, maybe confused about whether maybe that is what the Church teaches, or maybe go for the ad hominem attack, or decide then and there that apologetics is not for them, and refuse to engage. 

The key is to translate the concept into terms your conversation partner can understand, and that you also can grab onto with both hands.

I think many people, both Protestant and Catholic,  will understand the concept of receiving, as in receiving Jesus as Lord, receiving salvation, and receiving grace. 

And here, we really are talking about the same thing.

Jean-Charles Nault, OSB, addresses this in The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of our Times. After discussing how the Incarnation and death of Jesus delivers us from every sin and grants us full salvation, he says this:

What remains for us is to receive this salvation. This is precisely what Catholic doctrine calls “merit.”  Let us look at a little example inspired by Saint Thomas [Aquinas].

Imagine a small child standing beside …a mantelpiece.On top of that mantelpiece there is an excellent remedy that will cure him of all his ills…[D]espite all his efforts he will never be able to get it. His mother who loves her child very much wants to give him this remedy because she knows that it is good for him. The mother has two options either she takes the remedy on the mantelpiece and gives it to the child, or else she takes the child into her arms so that the child can take the remedy himself. The first option shows much love… but the second option shows even more love: indeed the mother allows the child to reach by himself for what she, in reality, is giving him quite gratuitously. (p. 87-88)

This explanation is from St. Thomas Aquinas! This was the Catholic understanding of merit long before Protestantism even existed. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this: 

The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good words is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man’s merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit (CCC 2008)

Over and over the Church reiterates that our merits are God’s gifts. We receive from Him, HIs own gifts. 

But we do have to receive them. We have to merit them – that is, when God lifts us up by His grace for what we are actually made for, relationship with Him, eternal life, faith, salvation – we have to take them to ourselves. That’s what we mean by merit. 

When I think of this principle, I’m reminded of this story from my own experience, when I was still a Lutheran. Some friends were telling me and another friend of their own experiences of praying for and receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, according to Luke 11:13. One day the other friend they were witnessing to herself testified to an incredible spiritual breakthrough of receiving an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in prayer. This made me sad and depressed. Really, I was envious. God seemed to love her more than me, and I slid into self pity. After some time of wallowing in this, it occurred to me that I had never myself asked God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. I saw that the promise was in the Bible, and I believed God could do it, but I never connected the dots in my own heart that God commands us to ask. After a ridiculously long time restudying all of the passages about the Holy Spirit from Scripture, I then finally asked the Father for this gift, and I too had a similar incredible breakthrough, where I knew for the first time that God was a Person and wanted me to ask of Him as such. He held me up to that mantlepiece, and held and held and held, until I finally reached out and took His gift.

I hope this helps, the next time you find yourself stuck in a conversation about merit, or our need to receive Jesus.