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Hi, Lindsay —
The Catholic view of salvation is
as follows:
All Salvation comes from and through
Christ and His shed blood. We are
saved by grace through Faith to do "good
works". (See Ephesians 2:8-10) — Salvation
is a complete and sovereign act of
God from beginning to end and it
requires our response to grace freely
given by Christ. In other words,
there is a paradox between man's
free will and God's Sovereignty.
We cannot fully understand this,
so we must simply accept it as a
mystery.
Now, with regards to those who have
not heard or fully understood the
Gospel of Jesus Christ,
we believe that God may,
in ways known only to God, Himself,
provide for their salvation, but
even in these cases, no one will
be saved because they have "earned" their
salvation by their own efforts. Their
salvation will come about because
they responded to the grace shown
to them by God, and because Jesus
Christ paid the price for their sins
on Calvary. So, to that end, we presume
that there may be
those, that if they heard and fully
understood the Gospel, they would
have accepted Christ and repented
of their sin. We call this "Baptism
of Desire". St. Paul hints at
this in the book of Romans when he
talks about those not knowing the
law but keeping it.
Also
in Matthew 25, Jesus talks about
a judgment where he will say to some,
when I was hungry you fed me, when
I was thirsty you gave me to drink.
These people responded by saying,
- "When did we do this?" (Matthew
25:35-37)
- Now that does not sound like
a response from a Christian, does
it?
Every Christian knows that when
he acts in charity to a fellow human
being, he is doing so for Christ.
Yet these people do not seem to know
Him in the way, we, as Christians,
know Him.
A really careful reading of this
text shows that this is a judgment
of the nations and not the Church.
Now, that is not to say that those
acts of kindness have earned these
people Heaven, as if eternal life
were a wage. Rather, these people
responded to the grace given to them
by Christ to show charity.
You see, Grace is more than unmerited
favor, rather it is an enabling power
of God in our lives which allows
us to respond in faith to the Gospel
and to do the "good works" for
which we were predestined for. Again,
see Ephesians 2:8-10.
Furthermore, faith is not a simple
matter of mental agreement. James
tells us that faith without works
is dead. (James 2:14-26) Therefore, if one claims
to simply believe, but does no actions,
then one deceives oneself.
Ultimately, in all cases we rely
on the Grace and Mercy of Jesus Christ
for Salvation. We never presume to
damn anyone; that is not our job.
Our job is to strive for personal
holiness by responding to grace and
to preach the Gospel in season and
out of season.
I hope this answers your question.
Under His Mercy,
John DiMascio
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