(LifeSiteNews) — The relativization of the mediating role of Jesus Christ is also a widespread and worrying phenomenon within the Catholic Church.
The principle of “extra ecclesia nulla salus” (no salvation outside the Church) has been greatly relativized in our time. It is true that God can lead innocent people who have gone astray (conscience) to salvation in ways known only to Him. God offers salvation to every human being and wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. People who have never heard of Christ or do not really know Him for whatever reason do not simply form a “massa damnata” (a mass of people who will never attain eternal salvation).
We must also think of the countless innocent children who are killed in their mother’s womb. However, all the necessary distinctions in this regard do not relativize the absolute necessity of the mediation of Jesus Christ and His instrument of salvation par excellence: the Church or baptism! For there is no other name given to men by which they should inherit salvation except the name of Jesus, before whom every knee shall bow (in heaven, on earth, and under the earth). And the Church is His foundation and His means in time to come to people and to walk through history.
God’s universal and inclusive desire to save every human being and lead them to the knowledge of the truth is therefore also connected with the Church’s indispensable mission. The Church does not need to learn from other religions, but must teach what it has received from Christ. In other words, it must go forth according to the missionary command of the Risen One and make all nations His disciples and baptize them. This is the word of God! The Church is “Mater et Magistra” (“Mother and Teacher”) of the nations. She preserves the revelation given by God throughout time and carries it unadulterated to all people. Her sacraments are the supernatural source of life from which every human being shall be healed.
In the Holy Eucharist, the love of Christ strikes us directly, and we receive divine life. What could be greater than Eucharistic union with Him? Alternative forms of worship (liturgy of the word) cannot in the least replace Holy Mass (“the source and summit of the Church’s life”). Woe betide anyone who tries to do so in order to emphasize the importance of the laity in the Church.
The clericalization of the laity and the desacralization of the priest are very damaging to the Church. This is happening in many places. The process of replacing priests with lay people can be observed in many places. Those who were originally supposed to assist the priest (the pastoral assistant was the post-conciliar achievement par excellence of the 1970s) do not want to be subordinate or assigned to him, but replace him. Nevertheless, it remains true: without the priest, there will be no Church. Where he disappears or is marginalized, the Church is in its final stages. This is related to the centrality of the Holy Eucharist, which does not exist without the priest.
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In keeping with tradition, the Church has preserved and passed on the faith in its unadulterated form. It continues to do so today. The point of reference remains the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was written by the bishops of the universal Church in an astonishing editorial process and authorized by the pope (John Paul II). The Church does not need interpreters who want to rewrite Holy Scripture with reference to “new” findings in the human sciences, so-called scientific findings that will be revised again tomorrow. Revelation cannot be falsified like scientific findings. If even Jesus’ statements are now considered to be time-bound and in need of correction, the pain threshold has definitely been reached.
Baptism and faith in the Church are necessary for salvation. Through them, we are empowered to be children of God. This also means that we are not automatically and naturally children of God. How can those who expressly reject and fight against the divinity of Jesus have the Father? How can they be “children of God” in the full sense of the word while they fight against His self-revelation in His Son?
According to the words of Jesus, only those who have the Son have the Father, and vice versa. So there is no way to God except through Jesus. In Him and with Him and through Him we are children of God. Through Him and with Him and in Him we turn to the Father. He has given us the power to be children of God, as John writes in the prologue to his Gospel. Relativizations are not appropriate here and paralyze the missionary zeal of the Church. They are a heresy.
Missionaries such as St. Francis Xavier made incredible personal sacrifices to save people for eternal life through faith and baptism. They were not on the wrong track, but we are if we think we can make concessions and renounce this, since supposedly everyone can be saved through their own religion. Why did God become man? Why did He reveal Himself in His Son and reveal to us in Him the full truth about Himself? Why did He found a Church? So that the Gentiles could remain in their traditional religious socialization? Is Jesus not an absolute singularity because He is the incarnate Son of God, who exists only once and concerns all people? Does He not bring any gain in knowledge about God compared to other religions, whatever they may be called? “Philip, whoever sees Me sees the Father!”
Yes, God is merciful, but also true and just. Jesus speaks of this in many parables about judgment. There is no heaven without passing through the narrow gate. Those who fail the test (like at the airport with the metal detectors) are rejected. They must remove or get rid of the obstacles that prevent them from passing through. A term for this reality in Church teaching is the so-called “purgatory,” a “place” of divine mercy. And then, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, there are also those who forfeit their salvation.
In any case, the Lord speaks of a division in the outcome of the judgment and urges His disciples: “Strive with all your might to enter!” This effort includes the Church’s endeavor to bring the Gospel and the sacraments of salvation to all people! Nothing else is its priority mission, not social work, no matter how much it has always done the latter. Sin is real, and its consequences for our life in God are hindering and spiritually deadly. If they are not repented of, they lead to the loss of grace and eternal salvation. We should learn again to abhor sin. Under no circumstances should we take sin lightly, even if God’s mercy is greater than sin in every case. The sinner must recognize and repent in order to receive God’s mercy with all its healing effects. This is also what Jesus means by “rebirth” from above, from water and the Spirit.
There is one truth. It is sometimes called the “hard truth” because it does not take our feelings into account. It applies regardless. It also remains unchangeable as truth, regardless of the coming and going of generations and their false views. Our time has lost its sense of objectivity. Everyone creates their own world, their own “truth,” which is only “true” for them, but is not recognized by God. If something is true, it remains true for everyone by definition, otherwise it is not truth. Part of this revealed truth is that God created humans as male and female, and the body defines us as such. Today, a kind of “emotional religion” dominates: what I feel is true. Far from it! Unity is emotionally feigned, but does not exist in a commonly recognized truth.
The more the Gospel and the faith of the Church challenge us to transcend our own mindset, the better. The faith of the Church does not refer to personal views that we express on any given occasion, but rather to what the Church has taught from the beginning and preserved for all generations. The truth, or the words of Jesus, are irrefutable and, according to His own testimony, will remain forever. The harshness of the truth does not come from those who uphold and teach the truth of the faith. The harshness comes from the closedness of the heart that the truth encounters.
The same applies to the division of spirits for the sake of truth. In this context, Jesus spoke of a sword that will divide families for His sake. This aspect must not be omitted in the proclamation. One cannot soften the truth without distorting it. Jesus remains the demanding and, depending on the situation, uncomfortable truth without compromise. This also applies to the faith of the Church. It is wrong to think that we can prevent polarization. The truth polarizes. It reveals how the individual stands in relation to it. In other words, it divides the spirits.
Even the Pope cannot bring all spirits to a common denominator. It is important to stand up for the truth and proclaim it, whether convenient or inconvenient. The Church has this truth. It does not need to constantly search for and redefine it in a synodal process when it comes to existential questions of salvation. As the round tables of the Synod on Synodality show, the Church revolves around itself in this process. These tables prevent us from going out and talking about Christ.
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Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In this sense, there can be no paradigm shift in the Church that knows the Bridegroom, no new teaching, no enlightenment that surpasses or overshadows all previous knowledge. There are no revolutionary insights in this regard that are still pending or recent. Nor is there a new, different Church in the sense of: “The old has passed away; the new has come: synodality!”
Until now, people spoke of “discerning the Spirit” in order to recognize the will of God. What goes beyond this is a code word (synodality) used to initiate revisionist processes and achieve desired goals: the change of moral and dogmatic positions in line with the spirit of the times and a democratization of the leadership of the Church through egalitarian committees (committee Catholicism).
In his three-minute speech at the consistory, Cardinal Joseph Zen called the constant invocation of the Holy Spirit ridiculous, even blasphemous, namely, where one’s own spirit is identified with the Holy Spirit. According to him, the roundtable method serves to steer the process in the desired direction. It neutralizes voices that should be heard by all, but with this method can no longer be heard by all.
We do not know Jesus any better today than the believers before us. We do not have a deeper insight into supernatural truth today than the saints of earlier times or the Church of the apostles. Technological progress has not raised us to a higher moral level. Philosophically and morally speaking, we are even low-flyers and ignoramuses of our own making compared to earlier generations. In any case, it is not the faith of the Church that needs revision. It is us. And that is what the Second Vatican Council wanted: our universal call to holiness!
