Objection: It seems highly implausible that good works are necessary for salvation. Suppose, for instance, that someone is baptized and therefore brought into a state of salvation. Further, suppose that this person is then immediately hit by a bus and killed, without having had the opportunity to do any good works. If good works are necessary for salvation, then this person would be damned, which is absurd. After all, he was just saved through being baptized. Or what about an infant who is baptized and then dies due to health complications? The infant in such a case has not performed any good works. But surely that infant will be in Heaven. Finally, we can take an example from Sacred Scripture. The Good Thief on the cross next to Christ repented, and Jesus told him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The Good Thief, therefore, was brought into a state of salvation, and Jesus assured him that he would be in Heaven. And clearly, he had not performed any (supernatural) good works at that point, and he would not have the opportunity to do so since he would soon die on the cross. For all of these reasons, therefore, it must not be the case that good works are necessary for salvation.
Response: The necessity of good works for salvation, much like the necessity of sacramental Baptism, is not an absolute necessity but rather a normative necessity (specifically, a necessity of means). That is to say, good works, like Baptism, are in the ordinary way of salvation prescribed by God. For those who have the legitimate opportunity to perform good works, they are necessary for salvation and indeed are the basis of the Last Judgement (cf. Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 2:6-8; 2:13, Revelation 22:12). For those who, through no fault of their own, are unable to perform good works, this will not be held against them by God. An analogy will be helpful here. Suppose that a father invites any and all homeless children to be adopted into his family as an entirely free gift. Suppose further that he promises to reward the children that he adopts for the good works that they do in his household. Given this covenant, if his children want the reward, they have to do good works. Suppose, however, that the father adopts a child with a disability that renders the child incapable of doing good works around the house. In such a case, if the father is loving and merciful, he will exempt such a child from the requirement of good works and reward the child even without the child having done good works, not out of justice but out of mercy. After all, it is not the child’s fault that he cannot do good works in his present condition. And if the other children who are capable of doing good works should complain of unfairness, the father can rightly reply, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matthew 20:15). And the only reason any of the children had the opportunity to get rewards in the first place is because the father gratuitously adopted them into his family with no merits at all on their part. This analogy illustrates the Catholic understanding of the necessity of good works for salvation.
So, to answer the objector’s examples, the man who is baptized and then is immediately hit by a bus and killed will go to Heaven. The baptized infant who dies due to health complications will go to Heaven. Finally, the Good Thief on the cross went to Heaven, just as Jesus promised. In all of these cases, these individuals were adopted into God’s family and were rendered by their circumstances incapable of doing good works. And just as the merciful father in the analogy rewarded his disabled child even without good works on the part of the child, so too does our heavenly Father reward His children whom He adopts and who are incapable of doing good works through no fault of their own. In line with this, St. Augustine teaches, “God is good, God is just. He can save a person without good works, because He is good; but He cannot condemn anyone without evil works, because He is just” (Contra Jul. III 18, 35; quoted in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, pg. 264). The same line of reasoning applies to the necessity of Baptism for salvation.
A final crucial point to be made is that dying in the state of grace suffices for salvation. One enters the state of grace (ordinarily) by Baptism. And good works have nothing whatsoever to do with entering a state of grace. Good works are only possible in a state of grace. Thus, if someone is Baptized and dies in the state of grace, he is guaranteed to go to Heaven, even if no good works have been performed. And the only way to forfeit the state of grace is by committing a mortal sin. Thus, another way of understanding the necessity of good works is as the necessity of perseverance in the state of grace by avoiding mortal sin (cf. Matthew 24:13, Galatians 5:19-21, James 1:12). In a sense, therefore, the only good work that is absolutely necessary for salvation is avoiding mortal sin. Other good works simply serve to merit a greater degree of heavenly rewards. Of course, if one does commit mortal sin and thereby forfeits the state of grace, all he need do is humbly return to God and beseech His mercy and forgiveness in an act of repentance by confessing his sins to Him, and he will be restored to the state of grace (cf. 1 John 1:9) on account of what Christ accomplished on the cross (cf. 1 John 2:1-2), which is ordinarily accomplished within the Sacrament of Confession (cf. John 20:22-23). To return to the analogy offered earlier, we can add that for the adopted children to get the greatest reward of all, it suffices to simply remain in their father’s house.
In summary, dying in a state of grace suffices for salvation regardless of good works, but, ordinarily, doing good works is going to be necessary in order to persevere in a state of grace (cf. Matthew 19:16-19, Mark 10:17-19, Luke 18:18-20, John 14:15; 15:10, 1 Corinthians 7:19, 2 Peter 1:5-11, Revelation 14:12); furthermore, good works merit a greater degree of heavenly rewards (cf. Matthew 6:20, 2 Corinthians 9:6). Thus, we can say that good works are ordinarily necessary as a means to our Last End, namely, eternal life with God. There are, however, exceptions, just as with Baptism. It must be further stressed that, even for those who are able to do good works, there is no legalistic set number that one must perform. The idea is simply that we must not merely believe in a Christian life, we must also live a Christian life. For, as St. James teaches, "[F]aith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:17). Similarly, our Lord Himself teaches, "Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). With all of this being said, it is all by grace that we enabled to bring forth fruit and persevere unto the end: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). "[W]ork out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). The objection, therefore, has been answered.
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