How I Became Mrs. Watts ✓

How I Became Mrs. Watts (23)

CHAPTER 23

On Friday morning I received another letter from Taylor. This one said, “Dear Ella, yeah, I think I can manage that. I can't believe that Christmas is so soon! Thanksgiving is only in two weeks! I can't wait to see you again. I've missed my bestie so much! That sounds like a perfect title for the story, because she seems like the hopeless romantic, fairytale type of person. Don't ask how I already know that. It's Mahogany Jane Sullivan. I know, it's really weird, but her middle name is our mother's first name. It was Blake's idea. As for the boy, ignore him completely and avoid as much as possible. It'll turn out just fine. If not, I'll come down there myself and beat him up for you. Love ya, Taylor Murphy.”

I laughed at her letter. It definitely helped cheer me up. I was in the mood for Andrew's class now. I looked at the clock and I noticed I had some more time to kill, so I wrote my reply, “Taylor, I can't wait to see you either! It feels like it's been forever! And Mahogany Jane kind of has a ring to it, don't ya think? I can't ignore him, sis! He's my teacher! Yeah, I know, I left out a very important little detail there. I won't ask how you know that because I know you have your ways, though your way at spying really sucks! Haha. Please don't kill me now! I'll give you an update soon, as soon as something changes, but don't forget to write me back! Lylas (love ya like a sister), Ella Fitzgerald.”

I followed my classmates into the class and sat in my seat. Andrew stood up and didn't go to sit on his desk, probably because that was directly in front of me. Instead he went and stood off to the side, by the board. “We're going to discuss the concept of works, not faith. That is what protestants believe we believe. The question in this case is, 'Why does your Church say you're saved by works, not faith?' Anyone want to take a stab at it?” he looked around. No one said anything.

“No one? Okay then,” he seemed kind of disappointed in us, well, them, because he did not once look at me. “This all started with Martin Luther, when he read Paul's Letter to the Romans, 'For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”'1

“Luther realized there was nothing he, or anyone, could do to 'earn' God's forgiveness. It's freely given, even though it's undeserved. God offers us His love unconditionally, simply because He is Love.

“The people in Luther's time were doing some things that said otherwise, like selling indulgences. That was not authorized nor supported by the Church itself, and 'Faith v. Works' was born.

“The Catholic Church has never taught anything contrary to this, 'Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion,'2 or 'Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.'3 about forgiveness.

“The Church teaches that we are saved by grace alone, but not by faith alone. Like Saint Paul said, 'By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God [that is] with me.'4

“God's grace is responsible for our salvation, yes. But is our faith in that grace all that is needed for salvation? The answer lies in the Letter of James, 'See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone...[F]aith without works is dead.'5 Yes, 'faith without works is dead.' Very strong wording there.

“So what you need to remember is that Catholics believe that salvation comes through acceptance of and cooperation with God's freely given grace: that's faith. Catholics believe that what Jesus told us is true: our actions affect our salvation. Catholics believe that the good that we do is important in regard to our salvation. But we also believe that our 'power' to do good has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with God. There's simply no support for the fundamentalist view of faith and works in the Scriptures. Jesus and Paul both indicate that we'll be judged, in part, by our earthly actions. And when Paul speaks of obedience to the Law as being powerless to save, he's talking to Jewish Christians about the replacement of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant through Jesus.”6

We were dismissed and I started filing out with the others. On impulse, and without thinking about it (because if I would have thought about it I wouldn't have followed through with it), I stormed up to Andrew. I was angry, and demanding answers for his actions. I said, “How dare you!” and smacked him across the face. Actually I said, pleaded, “I can't take this anymore, I can't stand not having any kind of relationship with you at all! Please don't do this to me, Andrew!” I wrote the other to add some more drama to this, like there isn't already enough.

“Thank goodness you said something,” he said. I looked at him with a question in my eyes. “I couldn't take this either.”

“You-you were as miserable as I was?” I was skeptical, but voiced my thoughts anyway.

“Yes,” he whispered the one, simple word and pulled me closer to him. I held my breath, but laughed when I felt the warmth of his breath on my face. “You kind of just ruined the moment,” he said, then laughed.

I blushed and said, “Whoops! I have a habit of doing stuff like that.”

“I wouldn't have it any other way,” he said and kissed me.

1Romans 1:17

2 or 'Our 2010

3 about fo1996

41 Corinthians, 15:10

5 Yes, 'fa24, 26

6Prove it! Church, chapter 9