Yet, what about those who have no knowledge of Jesus? What about those whose only knowledge of Jesus is through the ruin and rape that Christians throughout history have claimed to do in His name? What about those who were betrayed and violated by those who claimed to be "men of God"? Would a just and loving God leave all of these to damnation?
In this Gospel, whose events take place just two days before Jesus' Passion, Jesus tells the parable of a master who distributes talents to his servants. The servants who invest their talents are rewarded; the cynical servant who returns the talent unused is banished. In the parable, the master says "... I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter ... ." Especially since this is a repeated line, it indicates to me that the master--who represents God--will gather those outside of the religion devoted to Him.
I still believe that the path to salvation is through Jesus and His Church; however, I also think that God works beyond the confines of the human imagination that attempts to bind Him to our ideas of who God is. Through Jesus, we have been given a guidebook of how to best live our lives to make the world better, and through Him all of us are redeemed. Still, I also believe that He harvests and gathers from fields much farther than just those who claim devotion to Him.