Christianity offers a ladder like no other religion

CatholicAnchor.org
As Pope Paul VI writes in Evangelii Nuntiandi, “Evangelizing is, in fact, the grace and vocation proper to the church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.” St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “We love someone so as to wish to do good to him.”

These two quotes lay out the purpose for young Catholic missionaries here in Magadan, Russia. This year eight youth from Franciscan University have come to share the gift of English and share the gift of faith. But there are still questions in how to do this within the restrictions of Russian law.

We had an evening where the young men and women from Franciscan University shared their faith with Russians. We invited some folks from an English discussion group to come and listen to these stories. Six young men showed up and 10 young women. It was an exciting evening. Because the missionaries have received a visa for religious activities they were officially permitted to share their faith on the grounds of the church. There are always some restrictions and changing laws in Russia and we are always aware that any action can be scrutinized. But this night was an open and beautiful exchange with mostly young people and slightly older adults that either didn’t believe in God or believed in a God of love but not a God who instituted his church on earth.

The Russian young men responded just as one might expect from U.S. or European youth. Some didn’t believe at all and said freedom is most important to them — to be their true selves. Some said they were religious but didn’t believe in the church. One said they tried Christianity and now found Buddhism a better explanation of the spiritual life. And all agreed that all religions were pretty much the same. It was as if I was speaking to college kids on any campus in the U.S. Secularism has struck here hard, and youth have embraced it.

How do we respond?

First, we must affirm that all people are religious even if they don’t admit it. Religion is that which points to what most matters to a person. Even if they say the only thing that matters is freedom to do as they please. In this case freedom is the ultimate value and therefore a kind of religion. In such cases all faith and hope is placed in freedom, and it becomes the basis of all decisions. Whatever a person lives for is his religion.

The young Russians could see this and agreed they were all seeking something to find meaning in their lives. Every person has to serve something as his or her ultimate hope and meaning in life, therefore, everyone is really religious.

Are all religions the same? No. Ask any practicing Jew, Muslim or Christian. Only a secularist would propose this absurdity. It doesn’t mean that religions can’t coexist. They can and have, but only when we acknowledge that they are different.

So how is Christianity different from other world religions?

I like the explanation given in a workshop I attended entitled, “Christianity is a ladder down from heaven.”

All great world religions say we must do something to reach God. In Buddhism you detach from the world and then acquire inner peace. In Hinduism you strive over and over and eventually live a good enough life to break free of the cycle of reincarnation and are released into eternal joy. In Islam you submit and obey and earn paradise. All these religions entail climbing up a ladder of moral imperatives to reach God. Even many Christians believe that it is only by being good enough that you will earn heaven.

All other world religions give us ladders to climb to God. Christianity is very different because it affirms that we have a founder, Jesus, who is God himself. He climbed down the ladder to us to accomplish the salvation we could never accomplish ourselves. Christians proclaim that Jesus is the savior of humankind. Thus we do not obey God out of fear or punishment or to earn our salvation. Rather, we obey out of joyful gratitude for his salvation unearned and received through faith and baptism. We don’t obey in order to get God, we get God and then out of joy and hope we obey. This contrasts with all other religions. Christianity is a ladder down from God to us.

The writer is pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Russia.