Perhaps it was Anglican Bishop John A. T. Robinson who first pointed out that when the just are rewarded by Christ on Judgment Day for their practical charity toward the poor and needy, they are unanimously caught off guard:
“Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’” These noble souls had no idea that they were doing the work of Christ, or behaving in a Christian manner, or acting under the impulse of faith.
The impression is given that human decency, a sense of social justice, a record of community involvement, is all that is needed to achieve eternal life. Faith in Christ and belief about Christ never explicitly enter into this happy Judgment Day picture.
Contemporaries of Bishop Robinson in the middle of the last century made similar observations. Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner popularized the notion of the anonymous Christian, that is, a person of good will who perhaps never had the opportunity personally to know Jesus Christ through formal faith but responded to God’s grace however vaguely intuited by leading a generous and wholesome life. Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain also hinted that even atheism, thoughtfully embraced, could be salvific if it were the only system of reality one had ever encountered.
Thoughts along this line were well intentioned especially when one considered that almost five billion persons on the face of the earth had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Certainly God who “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of his truth” is not going to condemn the vast majority of humanity to oblivion because no missionary showed up at their hut. God is much more likely to reward them for their humble efforts than punish them for their unintentional missteps. After all, St. John observes, “He who does the truth comes into the light.” Alas, many 20th century Christians sadly concluded that the unbelieving masses who were doing the truth as they saw it stood in no great need of conversion to Christianity. Doing the truth was more important than believing the truth. Evangelization yielded to egalitarianism. If honestly held, one religion, one life-style, one frame of mind, was as good as another. Good deeds, or maybe even good intentions, were all that mattered.
No one is more keenly aware of the need for zealous evangelization than Pope Benedict XVI. In his recent call for a Year of Faith in 2012-13, His Holiness wrote, “We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden.” The pontiff urged a renewed, explicit spreading of the faith: “The church as a whole and all her pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the one who gives us life, and life in abundance.”
The Bishop of Rome lamented, “It often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social, cultural and political consequences of their commitment.” So that many fail to see that the handing on of the content of our faith and the structure of our beliefs are vital to the mission of the church. The pope regretted that even within the Christian world, the former “unitary cultural matrix,” that is, the beliefs of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, is often ignored and even discounted.
The question in St. John’s Gospel posed by some Greeks who were searching for the truth is the same question that should be asked today: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus’ reply is clear and concise: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Clearly good works are not enough. Faith in Jesus Christ is the root and foundation of all justification, as the Council of Trent classically declared. In case there be any doubt, the Holy Father writes wisely and pastorally, “Belief in Jesus Christ, then, is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.” The twentieth century was well-intentioned in its efforts to include all mankind in God’s salvific work. But kindness impeded zeal, and Pilate’s question “What is truth?” was compassionately avoided. Pope Benedict rightly calls for a renewed appreciation of authentic truth and a vigorous effort to spread it worldwide.
