Who’s saved?

Deacon Lee Hunt

 

Sometimes we hear the statement, “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” This usually brings up interesting discussions within groups of people sharing their faith. Just what church do you have to belong to be saved? The Catholic Church? Any Christian Church? What if you never heard about Jesus? What if you were from a tribe in the middle of nowhere?

 

Putting this statement more positively, “it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his body.” (CCC 846)

 

“This statement is not aimed at those who through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church , paragraph 847, quotes directly from the Vatican II document The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium):

 

“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation.”

 

Even though God, in ways known only to him, can lead those ignorant to the Gospel to a faith that pleases him, the Church still has the obligation and sacred right to evangelize those who do not know him.

 

All Christians have a unique opportunity in Oklahoma because one third of our population in unchurched.

 

Someone said that when we get to the heaven, the first question St. Peter is going to ask all of us is, “Who did you bring with you?” Hopefully we’ll all have a list.