What You Should Know about ULTIMATE REALITY
smokey-only-you.gif
What You Should Know about YOU
THE BIG QUESTION:
"CAN I BE SAVED WITHOUT BEING A
CATHOLIC?"
YOU are asking a very good question. And it deserves the best possible answer. Even if you eventually disagree with me, I
can tell by the way that you are wording this question that you and I already agree on quite a bit.

Yes, there is an afterlife. We need to be saved in order to enjoy it. Someone (God) is able to save us. But, when all is said and
done, we still might not be saved! And so we need to get all the necessary facts and ask good questions.

"Can I be saved without being a Catholic?" Most people who ask this question are serious Christians, people who accept as
true everything that our Lord Jesus Christ taught.

Jesus taught His disciples that He is the way to the presence of His Father. He once said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). Notice how great this claim is! "Without the Way there is no
going. Without the Truth there is no knowing. Without the Life there is no living." (Thomas a Kempis). So every one of us
needs Jesus in order to be forever with the Father in heaven. Our Lord taught us as much. Therefore, it is normally
necessary to be a Christian in order to be saved.

But, since God is supremely merciful, it is not absolutely necessary. Jesus is able to save someone who is not able to know
about Him in this life. But He teaches that He will not save anyone who keeps refusing Him after seeing sufficient evidence
(Mark 16:16). Christ will not save a person who has seen enough evidence to know that he or she should investigate the
serious truth about Him further but keeps refusing to do so.

To act irresponsibly in such a serious matter can damn one's soul. Until relatively recently, all Christians believed that it was
easier to go to hell than to go to heaven, because Jesus seems to have clearly taught this (Matthew 7:13-14).

Now, what is true of Jesus is also true of His church. There are many groups called churches in the world, but only one that
Jesus intended to exist. He promised to "build" only one church (Matthew 16:18). This church has existed ever since the
days of the apostles. Is it the Roman Catholic Church? Indeed, it is. Let's look at the evidence and see if it is sufficient.

Christ promised to "build" only one church. Pick any Christian "church,"and if there is an older one, then the "church" that
you picked cannot be the church that Jesus founded! Pick the Methodists, and you may soon discover that the Baptists are
older. But Presbyterians are older still, and the Lutherans are slightly older than the Presbyterians. If you pick the Lutherans,
the Moravians are older. But Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism are older still. All these are indisputable facts, as
anyone who knows how to make good use of a public library can easily find out.

Christ promised to "build" His church on Peter (Matthew 16:18). He said, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church." The name Peter means "Rock." Peter was not always called by this name. His original name was Simon. In the early
days of Simon's discipleship (John 1:42), Jesus changed his name to "Rock" (Cephas in Aramaic, Peter in Greek). This
change must be significant.

Likening someone to a foundation stone may seem odd to many modern Americans, but not to the earliest Christians,
steeped in biblical culture. In Ephesians 2:20, St. Paul wrote something similar of the apostles and prophets, and in First
Corinthians 3:11, he wrote that Christ is the true foundation.

Jesus claimed to "build" His one church on a human being! If this statement seems to make too much of Peter, the one who
all too soon denied his Master three times, I remind you that, in the very next verse, Matthew 16:19, Jesus promised to give
St. Peter the "keys of the kingdom." You can read every word of the New Testament, and you will never find Jesus having
promised these "keys" to anyone else--only to Peter! St. Peter did share the binding-and-loosing power with all the other
apostles (Matthew 18:18), but he alone had the "keys of the kingdom" of Heaven.

We need to look very carefully at Matthew, chapter 16, in order to see what was happening. If we do so, we can see that the
church belonging to Jesus Christ was going to be "built" upon Peter.

First, Peter told Jesus Who He is. "You are the Messiah." And then he explained what he meant by calling Jesus the Messiah.
To be the Messiah is to be the Son of the living God. Next, Jesus told Simon who he was. "You are Peter." And then Jesus
explained what He meant by calling Simon Peter. To be Peter was to be the rock on which He would build His church, the
ever-living church of the ever-living God. Later Jesus gave Peter the "keys." Peter passed them on to his successor in Rome,
where (1 Peter 5:13) he promised before his death to be diligent in making his authoritative ministry an effective, abiding
legacy (2 Peter 1:15).

The one church Jesus intended to exist has always existed since the days of the apostles. It knows its own identity. Only the
Roman Catholic Church claims to have been built upon St. Peter. Eastern Orthodoxy does not. Because there are some
Catholic elements of sanctification and truth within schismatic groups, the one church of Christ is partially present and
operative within Eastern Orthodoxy and other churches. But the church Jesus founded is FULLY present and operative only
within the Roman Catholic Church.

What is true of Jesus, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," is also true of His church. Jesus is the Head of the Church, which is
His body. A living head is never separated from its body, and a living body is never separated from its head. Jesus gives life
to His church. In the original Greek of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter nine, verse two, this living church is called "the Way."
So we can safely conclude that it is normally necessary to be a Catholic in order to be saved.

But because God is supremely merciful to all who are innocent because of "invincible ignorance," it is not absolutely
necessary. There are some possible exceptions to the rule. But even for those who are innocently ignorant, salvation will not
be achieved without some union with the Catholic Church. As official Catholic teaching makes very clear, a person may be
united with the Church in a way that does not involve full incorporation into it. Someone baptized inside a non-Catholic church
has at least a partial incorporation into the Catholic Church. And, if present, the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and
charity partially unite even un-baptized persons with the Church. If one dies with these virtues within one's soul, one will be
saved.

In order to understand this better, we need to understand the difference between "normative necessity" and "absolute
necessity." For example, it is normally necessary to stop at stop signs. It is the law. Period. Even at three o'clock in the
morning, when no other vehicle is on the road. But it is not absolutely necessary. One exception is a funeral procession. On
the way to the cemetery, car after car goes through stop sign after stop sign, often with a police escort. But if a driver in an
approaching car "runs" a stop sign in order to "beat" the funeral procession, he or she greatly risks paying a very dear
price for failing to do what is normally necessary.

Are you a Catholic thinking of leaving the Church? You too greatly risk paying a very dear price. The Second Vatican Council
taught, "Hence, they could not be saved who, knowing the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through
Christ, would refuse either to enter it OR TO REMAIN IN IT"( Lumen Gentium14, emphasis mine). If deep in your heart of
hearts you know that belonging to Christ's church is important, you will not be saved if you forever abandon the Catholic
Church after seeing sufficient evidence that she is indeed Christ's church.

Are you a Protestant or a Jew who suspects that God may want you to become a Catholic someday? Notice that the Vatican
Council addressed this situation as well. It spoke of those who would refuse "to enter" the Church. So you will not be saved if
you are a non-Catholic (or even a former Catholic) who has seen enough evidence to know that you should investigate the
serious truth about the Catholic Church further but keep refusing to do so. This is the bad news. But let's not miss the Good
News about the Church!

The Catholic Church is a very special church! It is the one church that specially belongs to Jesus Christ. He has given to it
authority to speak for Him. Because of this fact, God wants everyone to become a Catholic, even though it is not always easy
for us to live up to all the Church's teachings.

Bishop Fulton Sheen, the great Catholic TV evangelist of a past generation, reminds us of the treasure that belongs to
Catholics. This quotation has had a great influence in my life, and so I share it with you. "If I were not a Catholic, and were
looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world. In
other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates. My reason for doing this would be, that if Christ is in any one
of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was when He was on earth in the flesh. If you would find
Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being
behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men
sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth. Look for the Church which is
accused of having a devil, as Our Lord was accused of being possessed by Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. Look for the
Church which, in seasons of bigotry, men say must be destroyed in the name of God as men crucified Christ and thought
they had done a service to God. Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims to be infallible, as Pilate
rejected Christ because He called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which amid the confusions of conflicting opinions,
its members love as they love Christ, and respect its Voice as the very voice of its Founder, and the suspicion will grow, that
if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Since it is
other-worldly it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ Himself. But only that which is Divine can be infinitely
hated and infinitely loved. Therefore, the Church is Divine" (from his introduction to Radio Replies).

Down through the centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has been the biggest target of religious hatred, although some cults
and other religions have also been hated. But they have been hated more for their un-Christ-like qualities than for their
Christ-like ones. The Catholic Church is unique; it is hated for following the counter-cultural Christ. Sadly, at times, the sins of
Catholics have obscured this important fact by arousing hatred in others because of their un-Christ-like words and deeds.

But it is only this counter-cultural Christ that offers us life and salvation (John 6:66-68). He speaks life in the midst of our
culture of death. There is no place for contraception, or its handmaiden, abortion, in the Kingdom of God. The true Christ
teaches that we must deny our very selves in order to inherit this Kingdom, even in sexual matters. He teaches that
re-marriage after divorce is adultery. He exalts the status of women. But He deliberately chooses not to appoint any woman
to be an apostle. This Christ teaches that the Holy Eucharist, which is His very Body and Blood, plays a vital role in our
salvation. He also teaches that His church speaks with God's authority. It is His church, the Roman Catholic Church, that
teaches all these hard sayings which lead to everlasting life. I conclude that it is normally necessary to be a Catholic in order
to be saved. The Vatican has recently made clear, in an official declaration entitled "Dominus Iesus," that this basic
understanding has always been the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. In order for someone to be fully a Catholic, he or
she may not reject this required belief.

Well, do you like my answer? I expect that many who will be reading this article will not. But I have told you the truth. I am glad
to do my duty. I am hoping and praying that God's Spirit is somehow offering you His special grace to hear the Master's
voice. Jesus speaks through the Pope and the Catholic Church today. He wants to speak with you. He loves you, and wants
you to be at the very center of His will for your life. He wants you to be saved, and He wants you to be Catholic. Will YOU
cooperate with His grace?
"My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and
they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and
they shall never perish. No one can take
them out of My hand" (John 10:27-28)
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be.
Some day your heart will be asking,
"What will He do with me?"
      --A. B. Simpson
Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the gospel.