Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 136 - Part IV.
(Youcat
answer - repeated) The Church respects everything in other religions that is
good and true. She respects and promotes freedom of religion as a human right.
Yet she knows that Jesus Christ is the sole redeemer of all mankind. He alone
is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 846) [Outside the Church there is no salvation] How are we
to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? (Cf.
Cyprian, Ep. 73.21: PL 3, 1169; De unit.: PL 4, 509-536). 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 (LG 14; cf.
Mk 16:16; Jn 3:5).
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment)
Whoever seeks God is
close to us Christians. There is a special degree of “affinity” to the Muslims.
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is one of the monotheistic religions
(monotheism). The Muslims, too, revere God the Creator and Abraham as their
father in faith. Jesus is considered a great prophet in the Qur’an; Mary, his
Mother, as the mother of a prophet. The Church teaches that all men who by no
fault of their own do not know Christ and his Church but sincerely seek God and
follow the voice of their conscience can attain eternal salvation. However,
anyone who has recognized that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the
life” but is unwilling to follow him cannot find salvation by other paths. This
is what is meant by the saying, “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (outside of the
Church there is no salvation).
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 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" (AG 7; cf. Heb
11:6; 1 Cor 9:16).
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