The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-12-14
THE NUMBER OF THE SAVED.

Catholics are often tainted by out
siders with holding the repulsive doc
trine that no one outside the Catholic
Church can be saved: they are sup
posed to look upon pagans, Jews, and
even Christians of other creeds as all
alike destined for everlasting fire. All
these non-Catholics have not had the
chance-it was apparently mere
chance, accident of birth and circum-
stances in most cases-of becoming
members of the Catholic Church, and
therefore, no matter how well they
may have served God according to
the lights and graces they received,
we are said to believe that they will
all be forever excluded from heaven
and even punished with eternal tor
ments.
1t is easy to understand the amount
of prejudice such belief, thus false
ly attributed to us, must excite in the
minds of outsiders, says a writer in
the New Zealand Tablet; but, consid-
ering all the. opportunities men have
of learning the truth, it is less easy to
fathom the depths of ignorance in
volved in such misconception OF
Catholic teaching. Such belief is no
part of the Church's teaching, and is
absolutely revolving to every Catholic
instinct
When we approach such a perplex-
ing question as this, we must do so
with great reverence, for hereon
we are walking through phantom
shadows: the fulness of truth awaits
us only at the other side. When the
Apostles asked our Lord, Are they
many that shall be saved He made
it clear that they had no right to put
such a question. We certainly have
no better claim than the founders OF
the Church 1t is enough for us to
know that God is good and wise, and
that the souls of those outside the
ordinary covenant are safe in His
merciful hands. The investigation OF
nature shows us every day new mar
wells of the power and wisdom OF
God in the physical world. We may
we'll believe that in the world of souls
there is a similar variety of methods,
richness of resource, and wonderful
ingenuity of grace in bringing about
salvation. The ordinary paths OF
Providence are all that we know, and
those most imperfectly; yet we have
seen enough of the extraordinary mir
acles of patience and love shown to
those who have profaned Gods most
sacred gifts, to be assured that
patience and love will not be with
held from those others, Gods less
favored, and perhaps less guilty, chill
dren' (Bellord).
For the rest, the following con-
siderations must be kept in mind
Cd We could not discover the faintest
semblance of injustice in Gods leaving
the whole human race to it's fate after
the fall of our first parents, without
any hope of it's restoration. Ii He
had done so, no man would receive
the supernatural reward of happiness,
and this could not be considered
reflection on Gods goodness: He
would merely be acting within His
rights. (2) The Incarnation is the
highest expression of Gods love for
men. His condescension in becoming
One of us, and His death are proofs OF
love that admit of no gainsaying.
This death, too, being the death OF
One Who is Divine Person, was a
complete, an infinite victory over the
devil, who can now do violence to the
members of Christ's kingdom only in
so far as Christ permits.
(3) Whoever dies in the state of
grace, free from mortal sin, will GER
tainly see God, face to face in heaven
for all eternity, though that vision
may be delayed by some suffering in
Purgatory.
(4) On the other hand, it is also
matter of faith that whoever dies in
the state of mortal sin-sin Of thought,
word, deed or omission-wil be lost
for ever. Of course, the sin must be
a free and deliberate fault; no man
will ever be condemned, except be-
cause willfully and with full delibera-
ton, he has refused to serve God &C
cording to his knowledge.
(5) But God wishes all men to be
saved e. Timothy H., ~; for He came
not to Judge the world but to save the
world and He 'rejoices not in the
perdition of the living (Wisdom i. 49,.
This wish of God to save all men is
called the salvific will. It is really
sincere will, though as rule it leaves
untouched the ordinary course of ma
ture, and is always conditioned on the
cooperation of men themselves. The
simple proof of Gods wishing to save
all men is found in the fact that He
sent His Son to die not for portion
of mankind, the elect only, but for all
without exception.
(6) TheolOglanS are very iona OF III
sisting on the maxim: To him who
does what lies within his power God
will not deny grace Grace is never
wanting in the hour of need to the soul
that honestly endeavors to find it's God.
By countless ways God can enlighten
that soul to believe in Him, and can
inspire the heart to love Him for His
Own sake, and so repent of any NOR
tai sins as offences against Him, Who
is worthy of love. Such acts of per-
feet love and perfect sorrow baptise
the soul, that is, cleanse it, at least
by desire, clothe it with sanctifying
grace, and make it an heir to the king
dom of heaven.
CD What proportion of men actual
ly die in the state of sanctifying grace
and are saved? The answer to this
question is in many ways extremely