"That Person Keeps Going to Mass, Maybe He/She Will Change." vs. Genuine Salvation

I remembered how people would tell me something like, "At least he/she keeps going to Mass! Maybe, he/she will change!" Again, I'm not writing this article to demonize some humanly speaking, good Catholics who are faithful to attend mass and live as good as people with other people. However, one of the reasons why I lost my faith in Catholicism was the amount of hypocrisy among my Catholic relatives. It was common to live lives that sin from Monday to Friday, go to confession on Saturday, attend mass on Sundays then it becomes rinse and repeat. I'm not saying that there aren't decent Catholics who shake their heads at hypocritical church members. Some have even questioned why so-and-so hasn't been excommunicated even with all the scandals like living in sin (ex. living-in without the benefit of marriage), habitual gambling, womanizing, drunkenness, and the list can go on.

Take note that some of them even attend masses daily whenever possible. The problem with attending the Catholic Mass is that it's built on rituals over an exposition of the Word of God. How often are the rituals focused on the eucharistic celebration, stand-kneel-sit exercises, and responsorial psalms? Yet, you've got some Catholics who ignorantly think that "Protestant and Catholic? It's just the same!" never mind that born-again Christian services are focused on the preaching of the Scriptures over ritualism. The whole Mass becomes a rather dull ceremony with "Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy!" in the responsorials or how often people spend more time chanting than the Word of God. True, Catholic Masses do have homilies but the priest hardly does any exposition. It's really way too different than the Baptist worship services I've attended in my whole life. The mass goes with ceremonies and it really ends up just another ceremony. In short, it has become just another ceremony to supposedly save your soul for that Sunday with some bread that supposedly became the "body and blood of Jesus" in essence.

Romans 10:3 really expresses Paul's sorrow over his people. The problem Catholics have is that they're trying to build their own righteousness while they're ignorant of God's righteousness. The Good News Translation (GNT) renders it as follows: 

They have not known the way in which God puts people right with Himself, and instead, they have tried to set up their own way; and so they did not submit themselves to God's way of putting people right.

How can that be really true for attending Masses? The belief that priests save souls has resulted in so much confusion with Catholics regardless of lifestyles. The confessional makes tape recorders out of people whenever they're told to pray a specific number of prayers. One can be told to pray a certain amount of one specific prayer. One even had to memorize and recite the act of contrition. I could remember how I prayed a certain amount of Our Fathers, Hail Mary's, and Glory Bes after I made my first and second confession. James 5:16 is talking about confessing your sins one to another, not to a priest. We're supposed to confess what we did wrong to those we had wronged. It's been never about confessing your sins to a priest. The Mass also has repeated words about forgiveness of sins and the necessity of the sacrifice of the eucharist. It ends up with Catholics becoming reliant on the rituals rather than on God for the forgiveness of their sins. That's why Martin Luther angrily protested against the sales of indulgences. Salvation has never been for sale. Many pre-Reformation martyrs were also put to death because they just wanted to be biblical. 

This is a far cry from receiving Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior. Receiving Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior is not about a sinner's prayer - it's about putting your trust 100% in Him. The life of the person changes with a real born-again experience. Nobody is ever born again through infant baptism. Rather, becoming born again is about entering into a real, loving, extremely personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior. It's all about recognizing your guilt and inability to get saved. This isn't done during infant baptism, confession, first communion, and confirmation. Instead, it's all about repenting of your sins and receiving Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior. The change comes after and not before. This salvation may not require works to stay saved but it certainly will produce good works as a result of it. The believer's salvation journey from sin to service is all about the grace of God. It's not human effort plus God's grace. That's what the Catholic mass can't do resulting in some people inadvertently turning the rituals into a license to sin.