Fourth Sunday of Easter (B) Acts 4:8-12
“There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” – Acts 4:12
Does that quote bother you?
If so, you are not alone. Our contemporary American society puts a high value on diversity. We love options and alternatives. We esteem the varied cultural backgrounds of our citizens. We like to think that there are many ways to accomplish something. We value diversity more, perhaps, than previous generations did. However, its flip side is also true: we have a hard time with commitment, with sticking with only one thing: be it a job or a relationship. Even when we make a commitment with the intention of keeping it, we are looking for as much wiggle room as possible. We hate getting “locked in”, as a rule. Most people don’t like putting all their eggs in one, and only one, basket.
Enter Peter, in our first reading.
Peter and John have encountered a crippled man while preaching about Jesus in the Temple area. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the man is cured. The cure goes viral. People gather around, and Peter proclaims Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and calls upon the crowds to repent and believe in Jesus as the Christ of God. The Sanhedrin – the council of Jewish religious leaders – is not pleased. They have the apostles brought in, and question them about the healing and their teaching. Our reading comes from Peter’s response to that questioning. Rather than deny Jesus, Peter affirms his unique and indispensable role: “there is no salvation through anyone else”.
Admit it. This claim makes many of us feel uncomfortable. We have become accustomed to celebrating the diversity of religious beliefs in our country. Many people want to think that there are many paths to God, and that they should be able to choose the one that best suits them. Is this the case? Is it simply relative? A totally personal choice, with one just as good as the other?
On the other hand, other people embrace such a claim. They want to think that their faith, or group, is the chosen one, and that everyone else is literally going to hell. We have all witnessed the extreme violence of ISIS – as people, even children, were killed because they were not Muslim, or not the right kind of Muslim. Among Christians in this country – including Catholics – we are witnessing a growing contentiousness between various groups, all seeing themselves as the true believers, and all others as suspect at best, and damned at worst. Is this the case? Is Peter – or the Church – advocating an “all-or-nothing” claim to the truth? “We have it all; you poor schmucks ain’t got nuthin’…”
The truth is more complicated and subtle than this, because human life is more complicated and subtle than this. As an autistic person, I have learned to see my condition as being on a spectrum. There are degrees of “autistic-ness”, so to speak. Our physical health is also on a spectrum. We cannot usually say that, at any specific moment, any of us are 100% well, or 100% ill. Nevertheless, we can say that when someone reaches a certain point on the spectrum, that person is autistic – or in good health – or ill. There are degrees, to be sure. But there are also cut-off points. Life isn’t “all-or-nothing”. But it isn’t “the great whatever”, either. There are definite signposts. We can set goals and measure progress. Something objective exists beyond our own fancies.
How does that apply to our reading from Acts, and to our Catholic Christian faith? Is it possible to hear Peter say that “there is no salvation through anyone else” without either rejecting it out of hand, or seeing it as a license to reject anyone who is “not us” out of hand?
As Bishop Robert Barron says in commenting on this passage, we begin with the discomfort itself and by staying with it for a while. After all, if Jesus is who we as Christians claim he is: true God as well as true man; if Jesus’ death and resurrection have won us all salvation; then there can be no one else. Jesus is unique; he is not just another religious founder or guru. He is the Son; God with us. From this point of view, Peter could not say anything else. It is through Jesus, and Jesus alone, that we find salvation.
Let’s be honest. All too often, our attempts at finding “wiggle room” around this are based on our unwillingness to own up to our own sinfulness. We “look for loopholes”, as W.C. Fields famously said. We will use relativism if it helps us be reconciled with our failures. If Christianity seems too demanding, we look for some more palatable alternative. We find fault with Christians, pastors and flock alike, in an attempt to justify ourselves and to avoid the question of our own sinfulness. For most Americans, relativism is merely a lawyer’s tool rather than a firmly-held creed. We use it to get ourselves off the hook.
But, we may ask, if Jesus is what we Christians say he is, does that mean that only Christians will be saved, and that no non-Christians will be? Indeed, what about the millions of people who lived and died long before the birth of Jesus? Are they all damned because of bad timing? Not necessarily. How so?
Here, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council can help us. The Council Fathers, reflecting on the totality of the Catholic Christian tradition, declared that, indeed, Jesus is the unique Savior of the world. Our salvation comes through Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and the consequent gift of the Spirit. Accordingly, the fullness of what the Lord intended for our salvation can be found in the Church, which is also the Body of Christ. Through obedience to God’s Word, found in Scripture and Tradition; through the nourishment of the sacraments; guided by the teachings of the Church; the Lord acts to bring each one of us to a fullness of salvation.
However, the Council Fathers also acknowledged that “rays of light”, elements of truth, may be found in other religions. Those “rays” are not hard to see. The Islamic observance of Ramadan is a challenge and an inspiration to Christians to live out our own practices of fasting and self-denial. The Buddhist concept of No-Self, as one reflects on it, begins to sound a lot like the self-emptying of Christ and how Christians are called upon to follow Christ by denying themselves and believing in him.
This should not be surprising to us. God is the source of life for all that is. Everyone exists because God has created that person and God maintains that person in being. Everyone has some implicit connection to God. God’s love is not confined to Christians, let alone to Catholics.
Moreover, we read in the opening words of the letter to the Hebrews: “In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son.” This refers explicitly to God’s revelation to the people of Israel in preparation for Christ. But, I believe we can extend it to all peoples, in this way. You may recall the mythologist Joseph Campbell, who became famous some years ago after a series of interviews he had with Bill Moyers. One of Campbell’s contentions was that the story of Jesus in Christianity was similar to myths in other cultures and religions, and therefore was not really different or unique at all. We can interpret this in another way, however. What if God, in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, planted into the hearts and minds of peoples on every continent some ideas, some images, some beliefs that would be a preparation for the coming of the Son? What if all the other myths were “partial and various ways” in which God spoke to all peoples, so that they might recognize in Christ the fulfillment of them all?
But what about those people who have not become Christians? We are taught by the Council Fathers that if someone who is not a Christian does the best that they can, guided by their conscience, they can be saved by the Lord.
In understanding this, we need to be as clear as possible about what we mean by conscience. It does not mean “whatever I feel like at the moment”. Vatican II always speaks in the context of a well-formed conscience. This presumes that people are, in good faith before God, seeking the truth and living it as best they can. It means that they are putting more effort into seeking the truth than into seeking the ideal diet or exercise program, or into seeking the latest gossip. If someone, in good faith, is seeking truth and goodness, then God who is Truth and Goodness will help that person. It would be better – and easier – if that person became Christian. But, if through no fault of their own, they are not, God’s grace can work in other ways.
Moreover, we must always remind ourselves that God is eternal and unchanging. That means, for one thing, that God is not confined by space and time, as we humans are in this life. From God’s “point of view” (if we may be so bold), there never was a time “before” the Paschal Mystery. Since God does not change, the Paschal Mystery did not change God. It revealed to us the fullness of who God is, while it broke the power of sin and death among us. This means that people who lived and died before Jesus – from a human point of view – were not at a disadvantage, necessarily. The Lord suffered and died for them as well. They, too, can be saved, if in their earthly lives they sought truth and goodness and followed their well-formed consciences as best they could. It doesn’t mean that they will be saved. They can be saved, through the abundant grace of God.
How do we sum this up?
With Peter, we affirm, wholeheartedly, that Jesus is our one and unique Savior. Jesus must be, since he is truly the Son of God and the Son of Man. Furthermore, we affirm that all that God has given us for our healing and salvation may be found, in its fullness, in Christianity, and, even more specifically, in the Catholic Church. But remember the spectrum. Other religious, through the overflowing grace of God, have some “rays of light”, some elements of truth, some “previews of coming attractions”, as it were. A sincere Buddhist or Muslim, who is seeking the truth honestly and desiring to follow it completely, can be saved even if – by no fault of their own – they are not Christian, by the overflowing grace of God.