RBWords

     After-dinner speeches can be difficult to "digest" in many ways!  Jesus' Last Supper "discourse" is no exception, but we need to make the effort.  The evangelist has put many of the major "themes" of the gospel into these chapters which will be featured as the gospel scripture for the next few days.  I know that many clergy dread preaching from these because the text seems repetitive and convoluted!  However, we can recognize the significant themes and let them inspire our meditation!

     Today's selection features the familiar theme of eternal life "now" and "future" - the eschatological theme.  Jesus speaks of his Father's house having many dwelling places and that he is going to prepare a place for his disciples.  That is the "future" side of eternal life.  But when Thomas asks about how they would get there (misunderstanding - a familiar device in this gospel), Jesus makes a statement that has been misunderstood by subsequent generations:  "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me!"  Some Catholics have interpreted this to mean that if a person is not Catholic, they are doomed.  Some Protestants have interpreted this to mean that unless one is a baptized Christian one is doomed!  Neither of these positions reflects the truth.  

     Not long before his election as Pope Benedict XVI, the then Cardinal Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith issued a controversial document called DOMINUS JESUS.  The aim of the document was to counteract "relativism" in our faith.  The basic point of that document is that whatever salvation God offers to the human race has come in the form of Jesus Christ.  The historical continuity of that offer finds its truest expression in the Catholic church.  (The Second Vatican Council used the technical term "subsists.")  This does not mean that salvation is unavailable to those who are not Catholic or not Christian.  But that availability comes through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This is why Jesus responds as he does to Thomas.  Grace and salvation are offered to all humanity, which must respond according to each person's opportunity from pygmy to Pope.  The idea that God has played some cruel game that condemns the majority of those created in God's image and likeness to hell because they don't belong to the Catholic church or are not explicitly professing Christians is monstrous!  

     We Catholics must continue to point to the "marks" of the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic!  Those are guarantees of authenticity.  But we do not have the right to issue "tickets" that admit only certain people to salvation.  That privilege belongs to God and God alone!   AMEN