In Sunday's readings, we heard St. Peter's bold words about Jesus: “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). Scripture makes it clear that we need Jesus and the Church that he established for eternal life. As the Lord himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). The basic idea is that only the death and Resurrection of Jesus enable us to die to sin and rise to eternal life. We can't earn our way to heaven by good behavior, but need the grace that Jesus alone provides.

How can Catholics make sense of this biblical teaching in our pluralistic world? After all, we know that there are billions of people who are not Christians, many of whom have never really heard of Jesus. Are we to assume that only Christians go to heaven? Wouldn't it be unjust for God to keep people from heaven just because they never had the chance to believe in and follow Jesus?

As it turns out, the Catholic Church has a very reasonable, balanced understanding of the need for Jesus and his Church. On the one hand, all salvation comes from Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. “Since “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'”

“Outside the Church there is no salvation”

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.

The Catholic Church, quoting the Second Vatican Council, offers this further clarification:

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

848 “Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men.”

The Catholic faith, then, balances two ideas: 1) God has given us Jesus for the sake of our salvation, and we have a responsibility to believe in him and to live in communion with the Church that he established. 2) We trust that God can provide Jesus' grace of salvation to those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Jesus and his Church.
Inspired by Scripture, let us boldly live out and share our faith in Jesus Christ!