“Outside the Church, there is no salvation.” This is a very harsh and hard to accept doctrine. It came from a time when the Church was beset by people leaving its fold. I do not believe that the Church was meant to be exclusive. I believe that the Gospel message is all inclusive. When Christ performed the miracle of the loaves, he fed everyone. The apostles, in distributing the loaves, did not first ask whether a person believed in Jesus or not. They simply gave everyone what they needed.
The original meaning of Church refers to the community of those who have been called. Just as God called out to Abraham and made him a great nation, each one of us is called and invited into the community of love. This call and invitation is both personal and communal. We all have intrinsic value as individual persons but our person-hood is always defined within a community. From the very beginning, God has said that it is not good for man to be alone.
And outside this community of love (the Church), there is no real meaning and happiness (salvation). It is only in communion and unity (community) that we will find our happiness and salvation. Lacking communion and unity, there can only be hatred, anger, greed, selfishness and lust. And all of these lead only to misery and pain. We know that things do not work out well when it is every man to himself.
Now, it is not us for us to say who is going to be saved or not. Only God, on the last day, will do the judging. How will I be judged? The question I will be asked will not be “Was I a bona fide member of the Church?”; but rather “Did I fill the world with love? Did I feed the hungry? Did I clothe the naked? Did I visit the lonely? Did I welcome the stranger? What did you do with and in your community?”
And I can imagine an non-believer coming before the Lord. And the Lord will ask not the questions he would have asked a believer but rather this one: “Did you hear about Jesus Christ?” And the non-believer would answer: “I did but I thought he was but a myth.” And Jesus would say: “I am he.” And then the non-believer would say: “My Lord and my God.” Or the non-believer would say: “No, I never heard about you.” or “No, no one ever told me about you.” or worse “I heard of people talking about you. But if you saw how they were leading their lives in your name, I thought it was all a bad joke.” And then, it would have been our fault and shortcoming as Christians not to have preached and witnessed to the the Gospel as Jesus has told us.
I pray that I will do my share in preaching and witnessing to the Gospel of Christ. I call to mind the words of St. Francis of Assisi, who said with humility and simplicity: “Always preach the Gospel and when necessary, use words.”
Then Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’
Mark 10:32-45