Not pointing fingers at anyone here, but I just read a beautiful post today by Brother JReducation that would be helpful in this thread.
Salvation does not exist outside the Church, but elements of the Church can be found in some very unexpected places. This is a part of that dogma that was never clearly developed until more recent times. It’s a perfect example of what Bl. John Henry Newman wrote when he wrote about the development of Christian doctrine, what St. Bonaventure means when he speaks about a theology of history, what Bl. John Paul meant when he said that in the past, neither Catholics nor non Catholics were very kind to each other and both sides conveniently failed to mention some truths out of sheer anger and frustration.
Pope Benedict, at the opening of the celebration for the anniversary of Vatican II spoke about Jews and Muslims and repeated, that they do not need to be proselytized by Catholics, because God has a plan for their conversion. What they need is our prayers that they will see and follow the plan.
He also made mention that the Church can extend herself to those outside of the physical boundaries, because she is also divine, not just temporal. God lives outside of space and time. We have no way of knowing how far the Church’s “umbrella” extends.
In essence, he is saying that salvation comes through the Church, even for non Christians. we don’t know how; but we must never put handcuffs on God. It is the duty of every man, including non Christians to walk the journey toward union with the Divine as best he understands it. A dereliction of duty is not a pass, nor even for those who are baptized.
The problem that we have right now is that there are two extremes among Catholics and both are equally dangerous. The one extreme is indifference toward the salvation of souls, including one’s own. It’s an attitude that believes that God is not too concerned about our deliberate sins.
The other extreme is an excessive preoccupation with Jews and Muslims among Christians. It borders on an obsessioin as if to say, “We’re right and you’re wrong.” The problem with such obsessions is that people who get into that mode of thinking often spend more time destroying people’s faith, as weak as it may be, rather than building it up. Instead of finding the good in that other person’s faith and building on it, they find the weaknesses and chop at it at the risk of pushing the person into agnosticism at best and atheism at worse.
It is often best to evangelize through prayer and living example and keep one’s mouth shut, unless one know HOW to evangelize. Many of us know WHAT to say. But we’re like bulls in china shops delivering the package.
If I had met 20 of the people on CAF when I was Jewish, I would have remained a Jew, because of the arrogance and judgmentalism that so many Catholics project or I may have been convinced that Judaism was a bad thing, but would not have bought into Christianity either, because from the standpoint of the Jew, Christianity is a child of Judaism. Based on some observations, it comes across as the wayward child.
I thank God that I was exposed to the Capuchin Franciscans who used their Franciscan charm, kindness, silence, witness, and above all the example of their father Francis to draw me closer to the Church. Once I bought into them, they could sell me Solomon’s temple and I would have purchased it. They earned my trust, my respect, my affection, and above they awakened in me a curiosity about what made them tick the way they did.
Once I learned about Francis, then I understood everything I had ever heard about Jesus. No one ever told me what was wrong with Judaism. On the contrary. I was told of how much Francis loved the Jews and Muslims and how the friars have served Jews and Muslims for 800 years. I was taught that they were my brothers and I did not have to be Catholic to be their brother. Their brotherhood had no boundaries. They protected me from segregation and its evil effects. They gave me an example of prayer, faith, austerity, fidelity to their creed without ever complaining about anyone or anything.
I felt as if I had died and gone to Disney. I wanted to know more. That’s how you evangelize.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=9982342&postcount=45
i have been wondering this too.
