On the seventh Sunday of Easter we read a gospel passage, in which our Lord Jesus prays for unity and sanctification of His disciples, including future followers, that is, all of us. In Jesus’s words:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.” (John 17:11)
In this context I would like to pose a few questions that people often ask us: Since Jesus prayed for unity, why do we have so many different Christian denominations? Did Jesus fail with His mission? Is there one Church or many churches? Is there salvation outside the Church? A short answer to these questions is that our Blessed Lord Jesus did not fail with His mission. He had accomplished everything He could to redeem us from eternal damnation. For that reason, He established one Holy Catholic Church and there is no salvation outside of the Church. However, the Church must be understood in much broader sense, for the Church is more than just the visible structures. The Church is the mystical Body of Christ. It is both the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. Besides, the word ‘Catholic’ means universal, which assumes that the Church is for all peoples. There is no exclusion in the Church; it does not matter of what race, culture or tongue we come from—the Church is open to everybody who believes in Jesus Christ. That is the only condition is that we must believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
However, not to confuse or deny the role of the Catholic Church in the world, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) stated in the Document called Dominus Iesus:
The Lord Jesus, the only Saviour, did not only establish a simple community of disciples, but constituted the Church as a salvific mystery: he himself is in the Church and the Church is in him (cf. Jn 15:1ff.; Gal 3:28; Eph 4:15-16; Acts 9:5). Therefore, the fullness of Christ's salvific mystery belongs also to the Church, inseparably united to her Lord.
As for other particular Christian churches and denominations we read:
“The Christian faithful are therefore not permitted to imagine that the Church of Christ is nothing more than a collection - divided, yet in some way one - of Churches and ecclesial communities; nor are they free to hold that today the Church of Christ nowhere really exists, and must be considered only as a goal which all Churches and ecclesial communities must strive to reach.” In fact, “the elements of this already-given Church exist, joined together in their fullness in the Catholic Church and, without this fullness, in the other communities.” “Therefore, these separated Churches and communities as such, though we believe they suffer from defects, have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church.” (Dominus Iesus, 17).
Going back to this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus prayed for unity of the disciples knowing how difficult would be for the people to stay together. From the very beginning the Church was struggling to stay one. The Church recognizes the fact that “the lack of unity among Christians is a wound for the Church; not in the sense that she is deprived of her unity, but “in that it hinders the complete fulfillment of her universality in history” (Dominus Iesus, 17). Despite the divisions, however, we are all one in Christ. Each time when we say “Our Father” we should think of being together with Christ who unites us all in Himself. We also should pray for better understanding what Christ intended for us all while “consecrating us in the truth” (John 17:17). He is the Truth that will lead us to salvation. In the next letter I will touch upon the topic of the mission of the Church and the problem of salvation of all people.
Come Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!
Have a blessed week! Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor