ASK FR BITAJU | KAIROS GLOBAL | OCTOBER 2021

Author: Fr. Bitaju

Q43. If Christianity is the only true religion, why do non-Christians feel fulfilled in their faith?

An answer to your relevant question requires clarity about the Church’s teaching regarding her unique identity and her understanding of other faiths or religions. Since the outset of Christianity, throughout two millennia, the Church has responded to questions on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the universality of the Church. The Catholic Church does not identify itself as one among many equal religions, but as the fundamental sacrament of salvation for humanity. The Church upholds that it was instituted by the unique activity of the one incarnate God (Jesus Christ) in the plan of creation and salvation.  This is the basic self-understanding of the Church.   

The famous French Catholic theologian and Cardinal, Jean Danielou, explains the understanding of the Church with regards other religions thus: the history of salvation is limited to the Judeo-Christian tradition. According to him, non-Christian religions are the result of human striving after God and so belong to the order of natural reason and ‘natural religion’. Judaism and Christianity, on the other hand, are the result of divine intervention and belong to the order of supernatural revelation and supernatural faith.  

Furthermore, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with non-Christian religions of Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate (1965), clearly summarises the mind of the Church. ‘The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teaching which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim, Christ “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6) in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to himself’ (Nostra Aetate #2).

It is clear from the teaching of the Church that while she respects and upholds the ‘ray of Truth’ in other religions, which enables them to ‘counter the restlessness of the human heart,’ the Church is very clear in her belief and proclamation that ‘fullness of life’ is found in Christ alone. For, ‘Christ underwent his passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation’ (Nostra Aetate #4).  Therefore, practitioners of other faiths may experience ‘fulfillment’ in accordance with their limited awareness and knowledge. For the Church holds that in ways known to himself, God can use the ‘ways’ of other religions as instruments of his salvific activity for those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (CCC 848). Yet, ‘the fullness of life’ is achieved only through Jesus Christ who is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14:6).

YOUCAT 12

How can we tell what belongs to the true faith? 

We find the true faith in Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church. [76, 80-82, 85-87, 97, 100]

 The New Testament developed out of the faith of the Church. Scripture and Tradition belong together. Handing on the faith does not occur primarily through documents. In the early Church it was said that Sacred Scripture was ‘written on the heart of the Church rather than on parchment’. The disciples and the apostles experienced their new life above all through a living fellowship with Jesus. The early Church invited people into this fellowship, which continued in a different way after the Resurrection. The first Christians held fast ‘to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers’ (Acts 2:42). They were united with one another and yet had room for others. This is part of our faith to this day: Christians invite other individuals to come to know a fellowship with God that has been preserved unaltered since the times of the apostles in the Catholic Church.