God’s love for us; but who may be saved?

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. This Sunday’s Gospel reading may be a very short one, but it speaks volumes about God’s love for the human race, his creation in spite of our sinfulness and our frailty and more often than not our susceptibility to accept or embrace the evil one. You can read this passage in John 3:16-18.

 “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

 There are many bumper stickers proclaiming this particular passage that merely declares, “John 13:16” and all Christians from all corners of the earth and every sect is expected to memorize it. Even the Vatican has changed perhaps because of Vatican II. But when we were young, priests, bishops and our parents would sternly warn us to obey the Ten Commandments lest we anger God himself who might exact his wrath upon us. But today, even the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI is entitled, “Deus Caritas Est” ( God is Love). That’s because God is truly a loving and forgiving God. God’s Divine Mercy is trusting him!

 Interestingly, the first reading today brings us back to Exodus 34:4b-6 when God the Father spoke before Moses in Mount Sinai: “Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with him there and proclaimed his name, “Lord.” Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their father’s wickedness!” Those generations have long passed away.

For emphasis, let me repeat John 3: 16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This statement taken from the very mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ himself tells us a lot. God did in fact sent the Messiah to save humankind from our sinfulness and into eternal life. But notice how Jesus words this statement very carefully. He uses the word “might not perish and might have eternal life.” This is actually a conditional decree because man has been given a choice by God to accept Jesus as our Lord and saviour and obey him. Doing otherwise means, you will perish.

I have encountered many Christians and Catholics alike who question priests or bishops as to who may be saved. Does this mean that only Christians or Catholics can enter heaven? Many times I have heard priests say that you don’t have to be a Christian or a Catholic in order to be saved. In truth, this is a trick question, asked by smart alecks who try to make things difficult for priests. These people want priests to categorically state that you have to be a Catholic in order to enter heaven. But so far, I have never heard any priest say that only Catholics may enter heaven.

Last Monday, during our lecture with the Sons of David, Fr. Jerome Cayetano SVD discussed this very question and told us about a book that he read that Heaven was full of surprises. The first surprise is heaven is full of people whom you never expected to see in heaven! The next big surprise is that, the people whom you expected to be in heaven aren’t there! And finally the biggest surprise of all is that, you found yourself in heaven after all you’ve done! So who will be saved is up to God and it is not what you think!

But if you read the parable of the rich man, the advice of Jesus for him to gain eternal life was to sell his belongings and give them to the poor and follow him. But the rich man was dejected and left very sad because he was so attached to his belongings. But if you read Mark 12:28-34 about the Greatest Commandment, which is to love God with all your strength, your soul and your heart and to love thy neighbor as thyself, the reply of Jesus to this was, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” You’re not yet saved?

So there you are, God so loved humankind he sent his only Son Jesus to save us on the condition that we believe in him. Therefore even if we did love God in return for his loving us and loving our neighbors as we should, it is not enough to gain entry into eternal life. How then do we gain eternal life is the Gospel reading for next Sunday. We have already written this many times and you’ll find it in John 6:53 when Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” This is your key to heaven! God Bless!

*  *  *

Email: [email protected]