It is right to continually give
praise to the Father that He gave us His Son to redeem us from our prideful
natures, the “original wound.” In the end we are not saved by Our Savior’s
dynamic words, but by His passion, death and resurrection. But Christ’s
obedient self-sacrifice must be responded to by repentance and conversion on
our part. As Peter Kreeft has written, this new life in Christ “comes into us
by faith, through us by hope, and out of us by the works of love…but many
Catholics think we’re saved by good intentions, or being nice, … or doing a sufficient
number of good deeds.”
And what does true
discipleship, our new life in Him, save us from? Hell. Unless we are saved from
the kingdom of darkness by faith through grace working in love, this state of
hell will become stronger and in time everlasting: “Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will
be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
In our day, when some modern
theologians tell us that people may find their way even if we fail to announce
Jesus as the Way, let us not forget Vatican II’s teaching on the conditions
necessary for our salvation:
Those
also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the
Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace
strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the
dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for
salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an
explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life.
Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a
preparation for the Gospel. She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens
all men so that they may finally have life. But
often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and
have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the
Creator. Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are
exposed to final despair. Wherefore to promote the glory of God and procure
the salvation of all of these, and mindful of the command of the Lord,
"Preach the Gospel to every creature", the Church fosters the
missions with care and attention.395
Comments
Post a Comment