By DON FIER
Part 4
“The Church is catholic,” proclaims the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), firmly and without hesitation. “She proclaims the fullness of the faith. She bears in herself and administers the totality of the means of salvation. She is sent out to all peoples. She speaks to all men. She encompasses all times” (n. 868).
Moreover, as was underscored last week, she is the universal sacrament of salvation — whoever attains eternal beatitude and reaches Heaven is saved through the Catholic Church. As taught by Pope St. John Paul II, this applies even to those who have not been given “the opportunity to come to know or accept the Gospel revelation or to enter the Church” (Redemptoris Missio [RM], n. 10).
This is affirmed in the Church’s tradition by the dogmatic teaching “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (“outside the Church there is no salvation”), which means that “all salvation comes from Christ, the Head, through the Church which is his body” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 171). St. John Paul summarized key aspects of this important teaching in his general audience of May 31, 1995:
“The axiom means that for those who are not ignorant of the fact that the Church has been established as necessary by God through Jesus Christ, there is an obligation to enter the Church and remain in her in order to attain salvation (cf. Lumen Gentium [LG], n. 14). For those, however, who have not received the Gospel proclamation, . . . salvation is accessible in mysterious ways, inasmuch as divine grace is granted to them by virtue of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, without external membership in the Church, but nonetheless always in relation to her (cf. RM, n. 10).”
Yet the possibility of salvation outside of visible membership in the Church must not be taken as an invitation to religious relativism or indifferentism, the idea that one religion is as good as the other. One must be “inculpably ignorant” of the obligation to join the one true Church for the condition to be satisfied. And even for one who is ignorant through no fault of his own, the way to salvation is fraught with danger since he is deprived of the fullness of the salvific means afforded by the Catholic Church.
Invincible ignorance and an accompanying requisite condition of perfect charity, continues St. John Paul in his general audience, “cannot be verified nor weighed by human evaluation, but must be left to the divine judgment alone.”
This summary of last week’s column provides a fitting segue into the Catechism’s next topic, the missionary mandate as a requirement for the Church’s catholicity. “Divinely sent to the nations of the world to be unto them ‘a universal sacrament of salvation’ (LG, n. 48), the Church, driven by the inner necessity of her own catholicity, and obeying the mandate of her Founder (cf. Mark 16:16), strives ever to proclaim the Gospel to all men” (Ad Gentes [AG], n. 1). It is a mandate that “is ultimately grounded in the eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity” (CCC, n. 850).
The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church explains the trinitarian nature of the pilgrim Church’s missionary activity with the following words: “It is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father (cf. LG, n. 1)” (AG, n. 2).
Recalling that the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity form a perfect Community of Love, it is fitting that “the ultimate purpose of mission is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and the Son in their Spirit of love (cf. RM, n. 23)” (CCC, n. 850). For “God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC, n. 221). It is to that great dignity that all mankind is called.
From where, then, can we say the Church draws her missionary motivation? “It is from God’s love for all men,” teaches the Catechism, “that the Church in every age receives both the obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism, ‘for the love of Christ urges us on’ (2 Cor. 5:14)” (CCC, n. 851). As the Apostle to the Gentiles proclaims: “[God the Savior] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Since it is the Church to whom the truth has been entrusted, she has the responsibility to spread it far and wide to all who have “ears to hear” (Matt. 11:15; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8; 14:35).
The Catechism goes on to explain that “the Holy Spirit is the protagonist, ‘the principal agent of the whole of the Church’s mission’ (RM, n. 21). It is he who leads the Church on her missionary paths” (CCC, n. 852). It is a mission that will continue until the end of time, and which, “in the course of history unfolds the mission of Christ Himself, who was sent to preach the Gospel to the poor. The Church, prompted by the Holy Spirit, must walk in the same path on which Christ walked: a path of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice to the death, from which death He came forth a victor by His resurrection” (AG, n. 5). In other words, each follower of Christ, says the Lord, must “take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 8:23) so as to witness to the Good News and lead others to conversion.
A famous saying of the prolific ecclesiastical writer Tertullian of Carthage (~AD 160-225) which Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, often quoted during the course of countless retreats and missions is cited by the Catechism: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians” (Apology, 50, 13). The servant of God, in an excellent article entitled “Our Times: The Age of Martyrs” (see www.therealpresence.org/archives/Martyrs/Martyrs_001.htm), relates that the first 300 years of the Christian era, often referred to as the Age of Martyrs, witnessed a widespread burgeoning of the faith and was a time during which all the Popes died a martyr’s death.
Far from diminishing the missionary spirit, “the more blood [that] was shed by Christians in dying for their faith, the more Christianity expanded throughout what had been a pagan world.”
What is the situation in current times? “In the present age, too, it does not escape the Church how great a distance lies between the message she offers and the human failings of those to whom the Gospel is entrusted” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 43 § 6).
Due to human shortcomings, we have entered into a time when not only do there continue to be fertile grounds for evangelization of peoples who have never heard the Gospel message, but also a great need to re-evangelize formerly Christian societies that have fallen away from the faith and, as it were, become paganized.
Much of Western society has taken on a secularized lifestyle and fallen prey to a “culture of death” and “plague of untruth.” Attacks on life, the family, the sanctity of marriage, etc., are manifold and even legalized by Godless governments that are “literally directed by the prince of this world” (Fr. Hardon, ibid.).
Fulfilling The Call
“Only by taking the ‘way of penance and renewal,’ the ‘narrow way of the cross,’ can the People of God extend Christ’s reign” (CCC, n. 853). In practical terms, then, how are faithful Catholics to respond? In a time when many continue to face a martyrdom of blood in witness to their faith (e.g., Iraqi Christians facing death by Islamic militants if they do not embrace Islam or pay a protection fee), Fr. Hardon speaks of a form of unbloody martyrdom that faithful Catholics in the United States face at an increasing rate. Referred to as “white martyrdom” or “martyrdom of witness,” it is a form of martyrdom that no faithful follower of Christ can escape.
For not surrendering to the “mantra of tolerance” through acceptance of objectively sinful behaviors, faithful Catholics are being denied basic liberties guaranteed by our founding Constitution. More and more frequent are media reports of people with deeply held religious and moral convictions who are being prosecuted for refusing to cooperate in activities that are contrary to the teachings of the faith (e.g., photographers, florists, and bakeries that turn away requests to provide services or goods for “so-called” marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples).
Even in the absence of active opposition, faithful Christians face hurtful passive opposition from neighbors, co-workers, family members, and others whom they love who are apathetic or indifferent toward the teachings of the Gospel.
By holding firm, however, faithful Catholics are — in a very meaningful way — fulfilling the call to evangelize and to participate in the missionary activity of the Church. For as Fr. Hardon submits, “This witness of ours is not so sterile as we may suppose….It is a witness to the truth and God’s grace is always active in the hearts of everyone whose path we cross” (ibid.).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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