Weekly HOMILY for June 20, 2010: Who's Saved and Who Isn't?

12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
June 20, 2010

Who’s Saved and Who Isn’t?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

“Who do you say that I am?”


Last year, I participated in a gathering of about twenty-five ministers here in Northern Baltimore County.

I was the only Catholic pastor. The rest of the group was from some of the mainline Protestant denominations, but most of them were from Evangelical or Pentecostal churches.

I had been asked to lead the prayer and reflection for the day. I did not use today’s Gospel passage, but in my reflections I was really addressing Jesus’ question today.

“Who do you say that I am?” In effect, I was personally responding to the question: “Who do I say that Jesus is?”


The Savior…

I began my reflection by stating that Jesus is the full, complete revelation of God. He is the Word of God made flesh.

He is, as our Profession of Faith says, “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.”

Jesus is our way to the Father because he and the Father are one. He brings us an intimacy with God and a sharing in God’s life.

And it is in these ways that Jesus is our Savior:
➢ He saves us from a profound, existential loneliness
➢ He saves us from not knowing how to live
➢ He saves us from having our hunger for eternal life unsatisfied

Because of this, we obviously want everyone to come to know Jesus. We want to share Jesus – his person, his life, his message with everyone.


… But All Can Be Saved

At the same time, I also stated at that gathering of clergy that all people can still be saved. Those who have never heard of Jesus or those who follow some other religious tradition can still be saved.

Why? Because Jesus reveals the unlimited, unconditional, inclusive, universal love of God.

Jesus reveals that God is pure love – love itself! So in some way, all people must be able to be saved and to live with God in eternity.

God has revealed himself fully and completely in Jesus, but he has and is present in some way also in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and all religions of the world.

That fact is that all who sincerely seek God can be saved.

This wonderful insight does not in any way diminish who Jesus is. It recognizes who he is and also who God is and God’s mysterious love for all humanity.


Response

When I shared these thoughts at that clergy gathering, some ministers immediately nodded and agreed.

But several other ministers – they happened to be from the more fundamentalist churches – disagreed. They believe that only Christians, only those who have accepted Jesus and been baptized, could be saved.

This led me to recall that, when I was a child, we Catholics were often taught much the same thing. In fact, we were even taught that outside the Catholic Church, there is was no salvation.

The Second Vatican Council has taken us back to the Scripture and to the best of our theological tradition. It has helped us to see both the uniqueness of Jesus and the universal possibility of salvation.

I share all of this today because I feel so passionate about it. I feel concerned that the rather limited notion of God and of Jesus and the exclusivist idea of salvation still seem so alive.

Our Faith: Both/And

Perhaps at the root we need to realize that our faith is more of a “both/and” and not an “either/or.”

We can:
➢ Both believe in Jesus as God’s Son
And also allow the possibility of salvation for all peoples
➢ Both respect Catholicism and Christianity as the way
And also respect other religions or peoples of no religion who sincerely seek God

I sometimes wonder if there is not something in our human psyche, in our emotional or psychological make-up that we have to deal with here.

It’s something like:
➢ My “being okay” does not mean that I have to judge others as “not okay”
➢ My “being good” does not mean that I have to judge others as “bad”
➢ My being “included in God’s family” does not mean that I have to judge others as “excluded”
➢ And yes, my “being saved” does not mean that I have to judge others as “not saved”

God, who is love itself, God who is Jesus, does not seem to approach things this way at all – just read through the Gospels and that is so very clear.


Conclusion

So, “Who do I…” or “Who do you say that Jesus is?”

The answer is crucial.