14th Sunday, No Salvation Outside the Church "The Church is Necessary for Salvation"

 

Do Not tell your non-catholic friends, that unless they become Catholic, they can’t go to heaven!

Do Not tell your non-catholic friends, that unless they become Catholic, they can’t go to heaven!

Example 1: A child is baptized as an Episcopalian, but when the child is 4 years old, she dies from leukemia. Since she never became Catholic, would she go to heaven? Yes.

Example 2: A 50 year old down-syndrome man is told that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, and he is told about the 7 sacraments, the 10 commandments, but due to his mental capacity, he doesn’t understand what you mean. He dies from a heart attack, will God allow him to enter heaven, if he never even knew what sin was? Yes.

Example 3: A 25 year old man is Baptist. He has Catholic friends, who told him that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ. He takes the classes to become Catholic, and believes everything we believe, but when he finds out his family will be angry at him for becoming Catholic, he changes his mind. If he dies in a car accident, will he go to heaven? Most likely not. He knew the truth and refused to follow through due to fear and not placing God above family.

In the first reading, the Lord makes it clear Ezekiel is sent as a prophet to a rebellious people. In the Gospel, Jesus is the prophet of prophets, but those in His own native place and His own relatives, reject Him.

Today, if I come to you as a prophet, teaching, “Outside of the Church there is no salvation.” will you reject what I say? Some say it means you must be a card carrying Catholic to be saved. But there is a difference between “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” and “One must be a card carrying Catholic to be saved”.

St. Cyprian was first to teach “outside the Church, there is no salvation” when he was attempting to prevent people from leaving the Church and entering into schism. He wasn’t referring to aborigines, who never heard about Jesus or the Gospel.

In the 1940’s Fr. Leonard Feeney insisted all who don’t formally enter the Church and formally register in a parish will go to hell. Even if they never had a chance to hear there was a Church. He also erroneously thought unbaptized babies go to hell.

Feeney taught millions go to hell, even if not given a chance. It later became known as the Feeneyism heresy. Feeney makes God a monster and incredibly harsh.

The Holy Office in 1949 condemned this false view saying,"It is not always required that one be actually incorporated as a member of the Church, but this at least is required: that one adhere to it in wish and desire. It is not always necessary that this be explicit... but when a man labors under invincible ignorance, God accepts even an implicit will, called by that name because it is contained in the good disposition of soul in which a man wills to conform his will to the will of God."

God is not a monster. God is infinitely merciful, but He also is our judge and requires punishment for sin. But if one never sinned such as an infant, the Catechism #1261, states, "Let the little children come to me, and do not prevent them,", "[this] permits us to have hope that there is a way to salvation for infants who die without Baptism." All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism.”

For those who have sinned, the document Lumen Gentium states, “For they who without their own fault do not know of the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but yet seek God with sincere heart, and try, under the influence of grace, to carry out His will in practice, known to them through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal salvation."

Therefore, three things are necessary for those who do not explicitly join the Catholic Church and can attain eternal salvation 1. It must be through no fault of their own, do not know the fullness of Gospel. 2. They must seek the Gospel with sincerity of heart. 3. Under the influence of God’s grace, they must try to carry out His will in practice through the dictate of conscience. It seems, for a person to have all three may not be common. The average person, Catholic and non-Catholic goes through life not interested in learning more about their faith and live their life without practicing what they believe.

A more positive way of looking at this dogma is to say “No Salvation outside the Church” means “The Church is necessary for salvation” and those who through no fault of their own--don’t join the Church, and who try to carry out His will through their conscience, can be saved by the Church. But the ordinary manner of being saved is to be a member of the Catholic Church and receive the sacraments.

The Church also teaches, God can save outside the sacraments, but only in an extraordinary way. For example, baptism of desire (wanting to be baptized, but not in fact receiving it before death) or baptism of blood (dying for Jesus, as a martyr).

The ordinary way to be saved is to have faith in Jesus, be baptized, always attempt to do God’s will, receive the sacraments, and die in the state of grace. Jesus said, “Unless you are baptized you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven.” He also said, “Unless you eat the flesh and drink His blood of the Son of Man, you will have no life in you.”

But, when He said these words, He did not exclude other ways of being saved, such as baptism of desire and baptism of blood. Baptism by water and the Eucharist are necessary and the ordinary and easiest means to salvation.

In other words, every human being ever saved-- is only saved through Jesus and His Church and most of the time that is explicit. But since God is not limited in His grace and power, He can save through the Catholic Church and through Jesus in ways we don’t see or know. No one can obtain heaven without Jesus and His Church. We can’t separate Jesus from His body, the Church. They are one. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to Father, except through me.”

The Catholic Church is the only church founded by Jesus Christ. It is God’s will everyone become a member of the Catholic Church. Jesus founded the Church to teach and govern and lead all men to salvation. Everyone has a moral obligation to seek out and find the Church Jesus founded. If through serious fault or neglect, one does not seek it, one cannot go to heaven. Once he finds the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church, he must enter it, and strive to live up to its requirements, lest he be lost forever.

The easiest way for a person to be saved is to be directly saved by the Catholic Church and through the seven sacraments. Protestants have only two sacraments, baptism and matrimony. It is more difficult for them to be saved.

How sad it is for a non-Catholic, who was dying, and was never told about the Sacrament of the Sick to help them endure their sufferings. They were never told about Confession knowing for certain, they could have their sins forgiven. They were never told that they could receive Jesus in Holy Communion and were deprived of the sacraments, because no Catholic ever told them, about all these gifts. How sad for the person die without knowing the fullness of truth about Jesus and His Church, perhaps they would have become Catholic had they known the fullness of truth.

Catholics have an obligation to help their non-Catholic friends to obtain the easiest and most sure way of gaining heaven. Woe to us, who fail to help our non-Catholic friends the surest and easiest way to get to heaven.

Non-Catholics convinced their own sect is the true church, provided they are in the state of grace, repenting of their sins and truly attempt to do God’s will, are spiritual members of the Catholic Church by way of extension.

The actual members of the Church, have a major advantage over-- just her spiritual members. They can partake in the seven sacraments. Have their sins definitively and unmistakably forgiven in confession and can be truly united body and soul with Jesus Christ in Holy Communion.

Actual members can also be at peace on the promises, that Christ gave to St. Peter and his successors, that He would protect them from error in matters of faith and morals.

The spiritual members, who don’t explicitly join the Church, don’t have these advantages. How many non-Catholics are actually seeking the fullness of truth? That is where the danger lies. By serious neglect, of failing to discover the truth, they most likely will not be saved. This is where we must do what we can to help them to know the truth.

Jesus wills all to enter the Catholic Church and He wills all to confess His faith. He wants all to have the same benefits of the sacraments and to share in the graces that flow to her actual members, through His Church’s ministry. Catholics should realize the gifts they possess, and they should desire to more fully assure their neighbor’s salvation, by inviting them to become Catholic. We do our non-Catholic friends a disservice by not helping them to know the fullness of truth of what they could have, if they became Catholic.

Lumen Gentium, warns non-Catholics, they can be more easily lost. “…. 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.”

In conclusion, because only God knows if someone is ignorant of the truth, through no fault of their own, or whether or not, they are truly attempting to do God’s will, we can never judge another person’s soul or their eternal salvation.

We trust the words of St. Paul’s letter to Timothy, “This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:3-6)

Don’t tell non-Catholics, they cannot go to heaven unless they become Catholic. Rather, help them to know God desires all to be Catholic. Invite them to join the Church Jesus founded to receive everything God has given to man to be saved. We have the 7 sacraments, we have the Virgin Mary, the saints, the fullness of truth revealed by God, we have the Magisterium of the Church which guides us to know moral and teachings to protect us from going into error.

May the Virgin Mary, the Star of Evangelization, make us witnesses to the truth, “There is no salvation outside the Church”, because “the Church is necessary for salvation”.

And those who are ignorant of it, through no fault of their own, who strive to do God’s will at all times and seek God with a sincere heart can obtain salvation. But the easiest and most sure way to obtain salvation is to be a member of the Catholic Church and live a life of grace through the sacraments.