Creation Sin Escathology

The Catholic Church claims that ours is the true religion, there is salvation in the Catholic Church and it is also available to those who do not know Jesus Christ but have goodwill equivalent to what Jesus teaches. She used to claim that “there is no salvation outside the church” but Vatican II changed that church’s statement. She added and removed words from that statement making it “there is salvation inside the Church.” This salvation is effected by the grace of God through the redemptive action of Jesus Christ who had become one with us, crucified, died, raised to life, and exalted. The eschatological and stereological[1] meaning of his death explains the claims of the Catholic Church for its salvation.

There had been a lot of questions raised by well known theologians down to non-Christian believers and much has been said about salvation. Much has been said too in the classroom regarding salvation of Muslims, Hindus, etc. I am curious about the salvation of communists, from leaders to people of communist countries considering the eschatological claims of Marxism. This has brought into my attention when a brother Vietnamese asked me the question “How about our family in Vietnam as well as my friends who are communists?”

Communism believed that it was the great goal, the vision, the desideratum, the ultimate end that would make the sufferings of mankind throughout history worthwhile. For them history is the history of suffering, of class struggle, of the exploitation of man by man. In the same way as the return of the Messiah, in Christian theology, will put an end to history and establish a new heaven and a new earth, so the establishment of communism would put an end to human history. And just as for post-millennial Christians, man, led by God's prophets and saints, will establish a Kingdom of God on Earth (for pre-millennials, Jesus will have many human assistants in setting up such a kingdom), so, for Marx and other schools of communists, mankind, led by a vanguard of secular saints, will establish a secularized Kingdom of Heaven on earth.[2]

Msgr. Vengco, in one of his lectures in Christian Initiation said that salvation is available and effected to everyone even to those who had not heard of Christ because they are one with us through God. Salvation is effected and received in being one with Christ, through being one with the church by virtue of baptism. Those who had not been baptized, therefore not incorporated in the church, therefore no union with the mystical body of Christ, may or may not have heard of Christ but Baptism is impossible or not available for them, are still saved because of the loving mercy of God and the effect of Christ saving act that affects all. But for those who had been baptized or not baptized but rejects Jesus Christ, in my opinion therefore, are not saved. The communists reject Christ as the saviour by virtue of their eschatological principles and their ideals. Therefore, there is no salvation for them if I would follow logic. No matter what the position of Karl Rahner maybe, and no matter how enlightening the Word may be, reaching out to every person in the world (D. Mollat) and no matter how the eternal Logos could manifest itself to other peoples through other religious symbols (Avery Dulles), unless salvation would always mean “deliverance from” and not “healing, wholeness and harmony”[3], there is no way to dialogue with the communists and millions of people under communist rule (not belonging to any religion) will never be saved, can never be saved, are not worth of salvation. Besides they reject the eschatological action of Christ.

At first I thought there could never be a dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Communists. Surprisingly, there had been such one as reported in the Time Magazine of May 1965 that involved Karl Rahner and some other theologians[4]. Nevertheless, this great gathering never answers the question will they be saved too. With the principle of eschatology that they have, it’s too narrow for a real dialogue to happen.

According to a number of Vietnamese from ICLA and our own community, communists do not believe in the Catholic Church’s eschatological claims just as I have stated above and yet despite their unbelief, they, like many of us Filipinos, who are Catholics but believes in many superstitious beliefs. Maybe somehow through these hidden beliefs the church could dialogue with these unbelievers, Vietnamese communists in particular. These people do not look for deliverance but harmony with people and with nature.

I wrestle not with the question “who will be saved” but with the question “why do we have to be saved,” “from what do we have to be delivered from?” Why don’t we just believe the New Age religion? They explain away sin; they have no need for salvation in the biblical sense. In their minds, any salvation would simply be a more complete unification with the One.[5] Being in harmony or being in good relationship with God and with people would be better than to seek of being delivered out of “sin,” out of the distorted freedom of man.

Cardinal Ratzinger in one of his written books commented that the question of “who will be saved” or “are other people of other religions are saved” is already obsolete and irrelevant in our times. I agree with him. He said that the central question is to have an intuition of the Church’s position and mission in History under a positive new point of view that would allow one to believe in the universal grace of salvation. He said that the concerns have changed. We have to leave to God how people are to be saved. He insisted that what we are supposed to be concerned of is the necessity of the Church, its role in being one of the sources of faith and life.[6]

I think and suggest that there is no need for dialogue in order to accommodate other religions, non-believer’s salvation if we include in our dialogue “the need to be delivered out of.” If it is for the sake of harmonizing and having good relations with them, it might be better.

I prefer to state that there are two or more parallel revelations contrary to what the church claims. There may be many revelations but it only happened in one single history, it happens in one single history. This “revelation” is not defined as “that which comes from God” for there is only one revelation from God (wether it is our God or Allah, etc) but rather, what I mean is that there are many parallel ways of “perceiving” the only one revelation from one God. Asked about how it is revealed or at least how it is perceived by the communists - I do not know.

There is “no need” and “a need” to harmonize with other religions or non-believers. If revelation of God is the same for one and all yet perceived in different ways though received in one history, there is no need for dialogue or to be in harmony with them and to insist the Church’s claim that only through Christ that every one will be saved. On the other side of the coin, there is a need for the Catholics to dialogue and be indulged in ecumenism - for the road to salvation for those who had heard about Christ - entails being a witness to the teachings of Christ and the Church. Witnessing entails not just rituals and being related with God and but also in relations with the church, other people who also believe in Christ, and even to those who doesn’t believe.

In relating with others, it isn’t necessary to oversimplify the situation humans need saving from. Escaping our bodies as practiced by the Gnostics and the present-day counterpart of Gnosticism (New Age), or by changing our social structures as suggested by liberation theologians and realigning our theological framework as suggested by Amalados because it does not address the “real issue of sin,” that which we are to be delivered from or saved from. Salvation is not about becoming good or getting the “right knowledge of the self,” nor about creating the right political order but it is about being in the right relationship with God.

Just as I have stated in my previous paper that Jesus can be seen as “a model” in moving away from sin, in the removal of original Sin, I suggest again here that we can take a look at Jesus as “a model” in transforming human freedom so that we may be in the right relationship with God and with each other. I do not suggest anyhow that he does not save. He saves. But for the sake of those who are non-believers he can be seen as models not just a mode of salvation. And for the communists perhaps, though they may acknowledge Jesus, if they do their best to have the proper relationship with their people and truly looks for the common good of the people, then they are saved from the distorted freedom of man, from sin, salvation then is right here and then on earth. The Kingdom is here on earth little by little being established by men itself.

Salvation is relational. To be in right relationship with God demands also to be in right relationship with the world, beginning with our own communities that live by the mind of Christ, this means that each one looks not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others.[7] Here, the communists can in a way relate with us or we relate with them without insisting our own eschatological principles. There is no need to dialogue but there is a need to change our mentality about salvation. There is a need for us to respect their beliefs and principles of life of others. If we are to look at Jesus as model for transformation, if we’ll hold on to the claim that in, through, and with Jesus all men can be saved, then just as he shows us a God who saves all humanity by entering fully into this world and just as he showed us as a brother whose faith in God and love for others reveals the right direction of human freedom out of the social realities of the world, out of sinfulness, then we should do the same as he did.

Borrowing form the communists’ eschatology, mankind if lead by a vanguard of secular saints – those who are related in God through its proper relations with people, not by realignment of theology nor by just dialogue, by contextualization nor by creating a political order but by simply and properly relating with God and with others – we will be able to establish not just a “secularized Kingdom of Heaven on earth” but a Kingdom of God as defined by Fr. Jim Kroeger for his Christology classes. Salvation is at hand for everybody.