Question

Dear Father Angelo,

It’s been about a year since God has called me back to follow His Laws and respect the Sacraments, and to turn my old lifestyle into what Saint Josemaría Escrivá preached during his life on earth by founding Opus Dei.

Since that moment, by His Grace, I have felt the increasing need to frequently read the Sacred Scripture, to speak with priests and, last but not least, I have joined the catechumenal community of my church “San Giovanni Leonardi”. Of course I am so happy for all these events and I always thank Him for these gifts.

I read books concerning catechism, but the more I read, the more ignorant I feel.

I frequently find myself thinking about the Universal Love in Christ for all brothers and sisters and I feel that God guides me through these thoughts. That is why, dear Father, I need a theological elucidation. Jesus told us to love all our brothers, including our enemies, and God has inspired me to understand the reason behind that statement. If we weren’t to act like He said, we would fall into the endless traps of Satan, whose forte consists exactly in hate, rage, revenge, and in the inability to forgive.

On the basis of what I’ve just said, I hope you can understand why I really need an answer to this question. From your answers, I learned that regardless of our religion, we all have a Guardian Angel since birth. This filled me with joy because it means that everybody, without distinction, has someone who brings their thoughts to God and always helps them. However, considering that God’s love gives a Guardian Angel even to those people who are not Christians, how can they be in God’s Grace without the Sacraments of Christianity?

If they cannot reconcile with God after a sin and they cannot live in God’s Grace, how can they enjoy God’s proximity in the afterlife? In other words, dear Father, how can they win Paradise during their life on Earth?

The reason behind my question is to be found in the fact that, when I pray for the soul of every person, I don’t want to have mistaken thoughts either about other religions or about the revelations that God involved us in.

God is perfect and I feel that He wants my thoughts to always be better also and above all when I talk to Him and pray.

Dear Father Angelo, thank you for the time you will spend reading and answering my question. I am going to pray for you everyday, as you already do for all of us.

May God be with you always! 

I wish you the best.

Answer from the priest

Dear friend,

I am extremely sorry for answering with such an enormous delay. I apologize.

1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church mentions the importance of belonging to the Church as the way to salvation.

The Church is the Ark of salvation symbolized and prefigured by Noah’s Ark.

In the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium, the Vatican Council II states: “This Sacred Council… basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition… teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved” (LG 14).

2. As you may have noticed, the Council says: “Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, … could not be saved”.

For those who instead don’t know, God chooses other means, extraordinary means, through which He brings them to salvation.

3. The Council also says: “Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience” (LG 16).

4. And again: “All this holds true … for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery” (GS 22).

5. This is what the Church has always believed.

Saint Thomas Aquinas said: “Granted that everyone is bound to believe something explicitly, no untenable conclusion follows even if someone is brought up in the forest or among wild beasts. For it pertains to divine providence to furnish everyone with what is necessary for salvation, provided that on his part there is no hindrance. Thus, if someone so brought up followed the direction of natural reason in seeking good and avoiding evil, we must most certainly hold (certissime tenendum est) that God would either reveal to him through internal inspiration what had to be believed, or would send some preacher of the faith to him as he sent Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10)” (On Truth, 14, 11, answer to difficulties 1).

6. Of course each individual’s Guardian Angel plays a great role in this work of salvation, which is granted to everybody, even to the non-Christians.

If non-Christians sin, we can assume that their personal Guardian Angel will inspire them with thoughts of repentance and reparation.

We can equally assume that their Angel will open their hearts to receiving the sanctifying grace which takes away the sin and brings people back to the communion with God.

In this way, that is by accepting the secret inspiration of the Guardian Angel, they will be guided to salvation through extraordinary ways.

7. These ways are considered extraordinary because we cannot see them.

Whereas the sacraments and the belonging to the Church are considered ordinary ways.

I’m grateful for your daily prayers for me. They are precious to me.

I wish you a fruitful journey of Advent, I remember you to the Lord, and I bless you.

Father Angelo

Tradotto da Chiara Midea

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