You are standing before the judgment seat of God and He asks you the question” Why should I let you into My heaven?”  What are you going to say? Take a minute and think about your answer. Got it? OK, just keep it in the back of your mind. In looking at the Judgement Day, Jesus doesn’t say “You didn’t do enough of this or too little of that.” But, He will say to some, “Depart from Me.  I never knew you”. This reveals an all important point: that salvation is extremely personal. So how do you get to heaven: pray the right prayers, do more good things than bad, be sincere? The Bible is pretty clear that it involves faith in Jesus Christ. I hope that was at least part of your answer. However, faith is a tricky thing.

First, saving faith is not only an agreement with church teachings. While orthodoxy is essential to laying a firm foundation for belief, it is only head faith. You need heart faith, the kind that you see in the people at Mass that seem to have that “extra dimension” while others just drone on through it all. So, how do you become a Catholic that “gets it”? Let’s look at the sacraments for help.

There are three things needed for a sacrament to be valid:  elements, words and faith. When we baptize an infant, for example, there is the element of water, the words: “I baptize you”…and faith? Since the baby currently has no faith, the faith of the Church stands in for the infant. But even with the Body of Christ backing him up, this person must in time apply the learned truths of the Faith to have a “Come to Jesus” moment or Second Conversion (CCC 1427-1430).  Which must occur in the spiritual part of ourselves.

1428 Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, “clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.” This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a “contrite heart,” drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.

1430 Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion.

The Pope and the Catechism are two of the highest authorities in the Church. They are telling us to get personal with Jesus

The first sacrament of faith in our spiritual selves is Matrimony not Baptism. Jesus comes to you and asks “Will you marry me? I offer you suffering, sacrifice, a cross, and death, but also eternal life and glory.  Will you marry me”? You say, “Yes. Yes, Jesus, I will marry you”. Then you two come before the Father by faith and become one in an eternal marriage. You are in every sense of the word the “Bride of Christ”. Since you are now bound to Christ, all that is His is yours and all that is yours becomes His; including your sin. 

Now the Eucharist comes into play. Jesus takes all of your sins upon Himself physically upon the cross, but you also in a spiritual sense die with Him. You both are laid together in the tomb because the penalty of your sins is death. Since Jesus was successful in obtaining forgiveness for your sins, a just God can now offer you forgiveness and Reconciliation: the third sacrament. 

The evidence of this reconciliation is His resurrection on Easter Sunday. We too then rise with Him to new life by the washing of regeneration and the power of the Spirit. God, Himself, baptizes us. The Holy Spirit indwells us also at this time to give us the ability to live this new Christ life. We are born again of water and of Spirit in our spiritual selves. Baptism and Confirmation take place here in the spiritual realm and our heart faith becomes complete. Baptism and Confirmation are the last sacraments in the spiritual dimension, but the first in the physical dimension.   

All the sacraments in the physical world have validity because they have already occurred in the spiritual world of faith. Our infant baptism now becomes the sacrament of testimony of our new birth. Confirmation also activates us as the Holy Spirit moves in our lives here on earth to change us into the image of Jesus. As we grow in our Christian life we have the sacrament of Reconciliation to keep us on the road of grace and the Eucharist to renew our souls in the journey. There is a new life of joy and peace.  All of our sacrifices and works are done out of love for God. Because our heart faith is real, we “know” that we are on our way to heaven. When this world ends it will all be completed at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and we will live forever with the One whom we love.

Salvation is extremely personal. So where are you? Do you have the heart faith or just head faith? Do the things of God excite you: prayer, worship, meditation, Bible study or are they boring? Do you want to go to heaven and be with the Lord or do you just want to avoid going to hell? Not sure? Then pray.  Seek God like a lover. He is already looking for you. Find Him! Embrace Him! Be known and be saved!