Since my childhood I have been told that the right belief is necessary for salvation. But lately, there emerged in me certain questions like the following: If the right believing is essential to acquire salvation, what about millions and millions of Catholics who have not followed any systematic course on theology? My mother and father were ardent members of the Church, but to my knowledge, they did not know how Jesus could be fully human and divine simultaneously. They obeyed the priests, followed the commandments of Church and led rather a good life. The situation of a large number of Christians would be the same. If one can be saved without having the true belief, shall it be right to hold that the perfect belief is a pre-requisite for salvation?
According to the New Testament, when the disciples followed Jesus, they did not really know who called them and what they were called for. They had only an ambiguous idea that they would become the fishers of men. Yet they joined the fellowship of Jesus. The situation was almost the same with their life. Even after living three years with Jesus, they were quarreling for supremacy and they abandoned Jesus when he was caught. Peter who professed the right doctrine – you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Mt 18, 16) – even denied him. Only after resurrection, their belief and life became consistent with Jesus’s teachings. Does not it show that the perfect belief and the perfect praxis are not imperative to belong to Jesus’s fellowship? They may grow to such a level at a later stage. If so, can the Church consider Christian faith as a pre-requisite to associate with someone in her efforts to build up kingdom-values on earth?
The gospel passages are plenty, which make us think that right praxis is more important in the eyes of God than the right belief and the adherence to the Church laws. Take the case of last judgment (Mt 25, 31-46). When the Son of Man shall invite those who will be at the side of his right hand to inherit his kingdom, the righteous shall ask: ‘Lord when was it that we saw you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned and as a stranger?’ Then Jesus’ reply is: ‘just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me’. Jesus’ reply leads us to make two comments: firstly, Jesus, the judge of nations, does not ask anything about the belief of people. Put it naively, He does not ask them whether they followed licitly the faith-tradition of their sui juris church or their religion or the movement they follow. His only concern is whether they did recognize Him in the suffering ones. It means that the necessary thing is to live like a Christian with all the fruits of Holy Spirit, detailed in Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5, 22)
Another event in the Bible that confirms Jesus’ priority for the right living than the right believing is the answer he gave to those who reminded him about his mother and brothers waiting outside to speak to him: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt 12, 47-50). The reply shows that the spiritual ties supersede the physical ties. The essential thing a disciple must do to belong to the family of Jesus is to fulfill the will of the Father. The crux of Christian bonding is the commitment in the proclamation of the reign of God.
To conclude, even if people of other religions or non-believers do not know the subtleties of Christian theology, they can also adhere to the community of the faithful, although it is not in the same level of the baptized Christians. What matters is that they behave according to the Christian values and live under the guidance of the Spirit. If witnessing the gospel is more important than believing in the right doctrine, Church need not hesitate to cooperate with the people of other faith traditions in their undertakings to realize the will of God in the world.
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