ByFrancis X. Maier

But first a note from Robert Royal: As Fran Maier makes clear today, one of the principles that distinguishes Catholics from many Protestants is a theological point with practical consequences. All Christians should know that our salvation is a free gift from God. None of us earns Heaven. But Catholics believe that accepting God's grace should also lead us to become doers of the word as well as hearers. It's like being a reader of The Catholic Thing but. . .well, best not to draw a humble parallel with the greatness of the Faith. Still, we need those of you who can do something to do so. We welcome readers who cannot contribute financial support, but those of us who can give to make up for those who cannot help others to the Way as well. But you know all this. So what are you waiting for? If you haven't already, please do what you can for The Catholic Thing right away.

Now for today's column...

Words matter. They express but also shape our thoughts, which in turn frame the way we live. Here's an example: The words of the Nicene Creed are crucial to Christian belief. They've summarized and guided the Christian faith for 1,700 years. We recite them routinely every Sunday at Mass, but there was nothing routine in their origin. Good people argued, fought, and died in formulating them, and their influence over the centuries has been massive. Simply put, words matter for two reasons. They convey or distort reality, and they enrich or mislead both the persons who hear them, and the persons who use them.

As a result, if words become corrupted, wrote the philosopher Josef Pieper (in Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power), "human existence itself will not remain unaffected and untainted." He described the intentional abuse of language - so common in modern politics - as "an instrument of rape" because it violates the human right to truth. But sloppiness, inaccuracy, and well-intended compromise in the use of language can be just as damaging as deceit in their effects. We can gradually lose our convictions by draining away the strength of the words we use to express them.

This is why I've always found the Epistle of James so compelling, especially during Advent. Written by James the Less, chief elder of the early Church in Jerusalem, the text makes for a bracing read. It's clear. It's forceful, It's practical. And it's brief.

While his spirit is fraternal and his intent is to encourage the faithful, James has very little time for ambiguity or excuses. There's an urgency, a zeal, to his words that flows directly from his witness to a world-changing event, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His message is simple: The "before" and the "after" of Christ's mission are two radically distinct realities. And unless self-described Christians want to lie to themselves and everyone else, they need to act in accord with what they claim to believe.

The letter's central message is found in verses 1:22 through 1:25:

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.

The theme is reprised in verses 2:14 through 2:17:

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

For James, "even the demons believe - and shudder." The faith of demons is lifeless because, in their pride and treason against God, they refuse faith's obligations. James's point is not that good works can somehow ...