By Fr. Alfred Maravilla SDB
General Councillor for Missions
RMG, 10 December 2023 -- The Creed we recite every Sunday resounds in a special way as we approach Christmas: “For us and for our salvation he … was incarnate of the Virgin Mary”. Since creation, God entered into a dialogue of salvation with humanity because God wishes all to be saved. Yet we are inheritors of original sin and all its consequences, and by our own sins we distance ourselves from God.
Salvation is neither about improving oneself, nor full self-realization, nor wellness, nor economic well-being, nor peaceful coexistence among peoples. Salvation is complete union with the Blessed Trinity which has a name and a face: Jesus Christ, our Saviour. It begins with faith in his incarnation, birth, teachings, death, and resurrection. As the “one mediator between God and humanity” (1Tm 2:5-6), Jesus not only shows us the way to meet God. He is The Way who fully restores our friendship with God. But it does not end there.
Salvation is a living relationship with God which is born in faith, expressed concretely in Baptism, founded on grace, sustained by hope, and which develops throughout our lives by acts of charity and bears fruit in glory. It is being God’s new creation. Jesus Christ healed the brokenness that comes from sin and introduced us into the process of a complete renewal of God’s likeness in us. Through Jesus, our relationships with God, with others and with the created world is healed and renewed.
We are confident that God desires our salvation by faithfully helping us with his grace. In fact, our every act of love toward God and neighbor is inspired and supported entirely by God’s grace. Indeed, our salvation is always God’s initiative. We do not earn or deserve it. God acts first and stirs our hearts to respond to him, but we have the freedom to accept or reject his invitation.
The gift of salvation, like human friendship, involves making a series of choices to love, over the long term, so that a committed relationship grows. Although we now believe in Jesus, we continue to have a free will, so we can still turn away from God again. Every single day of our whole life we make choices that draw us closer or lead us farther away from God. This is a lifelong process which requires our cooperation so that we can once again live and love as Jesus lived and loved. This continuous process finds its completion only in heaven, where eternal life is enjoyed in perfect communion with God.
Our present society finds it hard to accept our Christian faith which proclaims that Jesus Christ is the sole mediator and way of salvation (Acts 4:12) of the whole human person and of all humanity. Indeed, Jesus is present to us in his body which is the Church into which we enter through the door of Baptism (LG, 14). Thus, the Church is a necessary means through which we receive the salvation brought by Jesus Christ.
Our imperfect understanding of God’s gift of salvation makes us often question: What about those to who have never heard of Jesus Christ nor the gospel, nor the Church? Whatever is good and true in cultures, peoples, science, technology and movements are ‘seeds of the Word’ (AG, 11), reflections of ‘a ray of that Truth which enlightens all’ (NA, 2). Thus, God in his love and mercy, makes his grace available to those who, through no fault of their own, have never had the opportunity to either know Jesus Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and strive in their daily life to do God’s will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience (LG, 16). The Holy Spirit offers them the possibility to be in touched with Christ’s Paschal Mystery “in ways known to God” (GS, 22; AG, 17) and be saved by the Saviour they don’t know, but who loves them just as much. Inversely, this possibility, as well as our respect and esteem for them, cannot be obstacles to their right to know the person of Jesus Christ nor relieve us of our mission to share the gospel message of love and justice with them.
We who have received the gift of salvation are filled with gratitude. This is expressed in our passion for Jesus and for his people. We make our own Jesus’ gaze, burning with love which embraces all his people and sends us to be close to people’s lives. Our hearts and lives are filled with the joy of the gospel to proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ (EG, 1, 264, 268).
For Reflection and Sharing
1. Do I strive to grow daily in God’s friendship?
2. How do I live our mission to share the gospel message?
