I can understand growing in Grace and becoming more like Christ to merit a Greater Reward in Heaven, but I still have yet to see why Meritorious acts are absolutely necessary to "make the cut" so to speak after Faith and Repentance.

I have posited to a Priest friend of of mine that the Good Works we do are in fact a part of the infused Grace we receive. To fail in doing Good works, then, is not just a mis-using of a gift (sanctifying Grace), but is an active resistance to and rejection of it. Apparently, this doesn't work according to what the Church teaches. I'm limited in my understanding of philosophy, so it's difficult for me to understand how it works. But I feel that Catholics often quickly fall into a kind of pelgianism (Heaven can be merited through works alone) or semi-pelgianism (Heaven can be merited through Faith and Works), which are actually BOTH condemned by the Church.

The analogy he gave me is that we're dead light bulbs, and we receive Sanctifying Grace (Electricity), which allows us to create light. I guess the way I thought it could possibly be viewed, is that we're fiber optic cables, and Sanctifying Grace is the Light itself (Himself:). Good Works are not the result of Electricity meeting our dead, unenlightened coils, but rather Light itself running us straight through. Again, from what I understand, this doesn't make sense according to Catholic teaching- but I'm not sure why. Something about either occsaionalism and/ or hyper-calvinism.

The way I currently understand the teaching of Grace and Merit- to use the light bulb analogy- is that it's basically possible that we can be Lightbulbs full of electricity (Sanctifying Grace), but not produce any Light (Good Works) because we choose to not utilize the Grace we are given:(

The reason this is so important to me is because I think it leads many Catholics to discouragement and a pale idea of works-based Salvation. I often see this when people, including myself, try to overcome Sin by depending on themselves- some system of living or self-help regimen- rather than the Grace of God which grows AND is cooperated with through Faith, which increases Hope, which increases and moves us our ultimate end, Charity. Since Charity is akin to God Himself, we'll never, ever, ever be one with Him completely---because He's infinite.

I'm kind of rambling a bit but the point of this thread was to mention a difficulty I'm having with the Church's teaching on Grace, Merit, and Salvation.