God’s Universal Salvific Will

        Christ is the one mediator between God and mankind. Salvation is only brought about by Jesus, the God-man, who died on the Cross and was resurrected from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God. Christ died for everyone. Thus the salvation brought about by him is not limited to one particular nation, but is open to all. Christ established the Church on earth as the “universal sacrament of salvation.” Through this universal sacrament of salvation, “all are called, and they belong to it or are ordered to it in various ways, whether they be Catholic faithful or others who believe in Christ or finally all people everywhere who by the grace of God are called to salvation” (Redemptoris Missio 9). People become members of the Church through Baptism who “receive the fullness of new life in Christ.” Baptism is a sacrament which “signifies and effects rebirth from the Spirit, establishes real and unbreakable bonds with the Blessed Trinity, and makes us members of the Body of Christ, which is the Church” (RM 47).

        However, not everyone has the chance to encounter Christ in his life and be baptized as a Christian. Indeed, many people do not have such an opportunity. As Christ has brought about salvation which is universal and open to all, it must be made available to all, including those who have never known him. This means that salvation is “granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church.” For people outside the Church, salvation can be brought by virtue of a grace that comes from Christ and is communicated to them by the Holy Spirit. “It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation.” In other words, the economy of Christ’s salvation “applies not only to Christians but to all people of good will in whose hearts grace is secretly at work.” It is the Holy Spirit who “offers everyone the possibility of sharing in this (Christ’s) Paschal Mystery in a manner known to God” (RM 10).

        Each of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity is fully God. “When we encounter God we encounter the Trinity; when we encounter One of the Trinity we encounter God” (Lecture Notes of Lesson 13). Yet, the divine roles and missions of the Son and the Spirit are not the same, and “neither one is superfluous.” Christianity began as a “Christocentric religion.” However, we must not forget the mission of the Spirit who sanctifies the world and bestows divine gifts and charisms on men. Frederick Crowe used the image of an ellipse of two foci to describe God’s universal salvific will with a dual center. “In the image of an ellipse, the two foci of Son and Spirit are distinct and complementary” (Crowe 8-9). With Christ, the Father sent his only begotten Son to die on the Cross for our salvation. Through the Paschal Mystery, Christians may live in the life of God. This is “God’s full avowal of his love.” The other religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, as they are also revealing the nature and love of God to some extent to mankind, can likewise be interpreted as “the fruit of the gift of the Spirit.” This may be understood as “God’s love not yet avowed in full, for there is a notable anonymity to this gift of the Spirit.” In a certain sense, the followers of other religions could be considered as “anonymous Spiritans” rather than “anonymous Christians” (Crowe 13). In fact, the Second Vatican Council recalls that “the Spirit is at work in the heart of every person” – regardless of whether he is religious or non-religious to “attain truth, goodness and God himself.” The Spirit, like the wind which “blows where it chooses” (John 3:8), was “already at work in the world before Christ was glorified” (RM 28-29).

        Since the work of the Holy Spirit is not solely accomplished within the Church, inter-religious dialogue is also part of the Church evangelization mission as it allows her to discover the signs of Christ’s presence and the working of the Spirit in other religions and even non-religious communities. Such a dialogue should not be originated from “tactical concerns or self-interest, but is an activity with its own guiding principles, requirements and dignity.” Although the Church should continue to insist that faith in Christ and Baptism are necessary for salvation and that she is the “ordinary means of salvation,” she should also recognize that “the followers of other religions can receive God's grace and be saved by Christ apart from the ordinary means.” On the one hand, Christians should not stop short of proclaiming the good news to other men in accordance with the Lord’s command to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). While on the other hand, the Church should also respect and acknowledge “whatever is true and holy in the religious traditions” of other religions so that inter-religious dialogue, which is based on “hope and love, may bear fruit in the Spirit.” Engagement of inter-religious dialogue at all levels will enable Christians and followers of other religions and beliefs to share one another’s religious experiences and spiritual values and work together to build a more just and fraternal society and world in fulfilment of God’s universal salvific will. It is believed that inter-religious dialogue, with openness to the presence of the Holy Spirit in others, is “a path toward the Kingdom and will certainly bear fruit, even if the times and seasons are known only to the Father” (RM 55-57).

Bibliography

Coogan, Michael D. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha. N.p.: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

Crowe, Frederick. “Son and Spirit: Tension in the Divine Missions?” Lawrence, Fred, ed. Lonergan Workshop 5 (1985): 1-22.

Hammond, David. Lecture Notes for TH 530 Lesson 13 – Redemption from the Reformation to the Present

John Paul II. Redemptoris Missio. Vatican, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.