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Question Title Posted By Question Date
about other religions? Jaime Thursday, October 11, 2012

Question:

Hi, to what extent is the Holy Spirit at work in other religions? say buddhism? I realize that if they were completely devoid of the Holy Spirit they would turn totally evil, mush like satanism is! but this is not the case, in the case of buddhism, they even have good points to what they say. Or is the Holy Spirit at work in them by degreees?



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r)

Dear Jaime:

The Holy Spirit can inspire and be with any person who performs a good act, exercises a kind heart, or holds a mind that pursues truth and God as best as he knows how. Those in other religions can even be saved, not through their own religion, but through Christ and his Church in a sublime way that we do not fully understand.

The Catechism states:

 "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.

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 paragraph in bold says that people who are not believers, even members of other religions, can be "moved by grace." Grace comes only from God. Good comes only from God.  "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" (Roman 3:10).  

Thus, even when a Satanist trips into a moral behavior, that which inspires him to behave in a moral (good) way, is the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the human race would be nothing but barbaric, self-indulgence, monsters. Back in the days when the Holy Spirit had little presence on earth, such as times before Moses and Abraham, the natural barbarism of the broken human nature reigned. 

When God chose the Jewish people to reveal himself through the Law, and sent his Son to reveal himself through love, the Holy Spirit has more and more presence on the earth through God's people. As the Holy Spirit had more presence, culture became more civilized.

Since around 1994 there has been a paradym shift in which the Christian worldview, that has been predominate for 1500 years, became a secondary worldview. With that cultural change and the fact that more and more Christians have either abandoned their faith, become lukewarm in their faith, or have cease to live a Christian life, the Holy Spirit has less and less influence on earth. This is why we see our culture dying today, where sin and perversion has become the norm, where the barbarous and corrupt broken human nature is now reigning supreme.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

 


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