I’ve often described conversion as starting from a breach in the walls of our defenses. Normally our hearts and minds are ensconced in layers of barriers that form a wall of protection that prevents us from hearing and responding to the truth. By the working of grace, however, a breach can occur—an opportunity or moment of grace (as Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman would say)—through which truth can be seen or heard and then, again by grace, received, or freely rejected—for He never forces Himself upon us. Often, on the Journey Home program or in the conversion stories shared in the Coming Home Network newsletter, some of the many issues that lead to conversion are necessarily condensed, summarized, truncated, and even forgotten over time. Such is true with my own conversion.

I’ve kept prayer journals periodically over the years. These are essentially in the form of what is called Lectio Divina, in which I copy texts from my morning Scripture readings and record my reflections which are addressed to Jesus.

Recently, I was perusing some of my old journals and found, buried in a partially demolished moving crate, my journal from 1990 to 1992—the period in which Marilyn and I discovered and entered the Catholic Church! My recorded thoughts were never intended for human eyes, but written only as a prayerful conversation with Jesus. What I found, reading over them now twenty years later, was quite startling (to me).

For years, I’ve summarized my journey into the Church as a search for truth in the midst of the confusion of Protestantism. This, of course, is true, for it does describe the common thread that runs through the past 40-years of my adult life. But what surprised me was that this was not the gist of my journal entries during those first weeks of my conversion process.

I’ve decided to share these entries, not because my particular journey is in any way significant, but because I hope what I discovered by looking back is helpful to those of you still on the journey, as well as those of you praying for those either on the journey or still closed to the Church. Also, by necessity, these entries only give a glimpse into our journey home, and unfortunately leave much unsaid (the rest of our story can be found in Journeys Home).

What I discovered was that there were other, more private, issues the Lord was using to open my heart and mind to the truth of the Catholic faith. It’s possible that if these issues were not at work in my life, I may not have paid attention to the new information I was receiving about the Church. As I reviewed my journal, I rediscovered a few of the ways the Spirit was creating breaches in my defenses.

In May 1990, I was nine months into my new position as a Senior Minister of a Presbyterian church of 350 families (“2000” claimed members). I had long since surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, and was seeking to serve Him faithfully. When I recorded the following entry on May 1, I had NEVER before considered the Catholic Church as a viable option for my life or ministry (and was still five months away from my first Catholic “awakening”). I wrote:

My self-doubt seems to prevent me from feeling/thinking of myself as having arrived at the level of competency required for my present calling & responsibilities. With all my experiences, education, readings, resourcing, and relationships, I yet still feel like I don’t have enough “info” to do adequately what I’ve been called to do. But to this Jesus calls me; He reminds me that He, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, promises to fill in the gaps where I am lacking. He calls me to step beyond what I can do on my own and trust Him. He has put me in a situation that forces me to depend on Him! If I could do all on my own power, I would turn my eyes only upon myself. In fact, the frustration & self-doubt occur because I fail to keep my eyes on Him! Nothing I can do or acquire or learn can eliminate self-doubt, because the self-doubt is real, a part of my character. It isn’t really based upon my “equipment” or equipped state—because I admittedly am gifted beyond many people! My “character flaw” is a gift, a sign post to turn to God; a reminder. Lord, thank you for the many ways You demonstrate Your love and grace!

In this, I admit to a constant INTERNAL breach in my defenses, the “gift” of self-doubt that has always plagued me. I believe this is one of the chinks in my armor that God established to keep me receptive to His Will. Whenever I struggled over the proliferating theological confusion amongst myself and other Protestants, or the disturbing differences between how I and others pastored and led our congregations, it never crossed my mind that the problem was Protestantism or sola Scripura. I always assumed the problem was me. My journals are full of my requests to God for His guidance.

In many ways as a result of the above, I was constantly questioning whether I should remain in the pastorate. Though my congregations always responded well to my pastoral ministry, yet in my journals I was constantly questioning my VOCATIONAL call to the ministry. I was always second guessing my skills as a pastor, counselor, preacher, leader, and this was a constant spiritual battle.

In fact, exactly one month before “discovering” the Catholic Church, I made the decision to leave the pastorate to return to school:

I’ve decided to once again consider aiming toward college teaching by getting a masters in biology and a PhD in bioethics…[because, among other reasons] after 15 years of pastoral type work I still do not feel comfortable with most of the things I’m called to do, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life feeling this way … Lord, [a long] list of things seems to point in this direction … Please guide me! I want to do Your will and to be pleasing in Your sight! I guess I feel I’m un-burying the rest of my talents so that I can invest them all for you! Thank you Jesus!

One of the many reasons I was deciding to leave the pastorate (which forms the backdrop for my novels How Firm a Foundation and Pillar and Bulwark) was my loss of confidence in whether what I believed as a Presbyterian, based on sola Scriptura, was true. Again I assumed the problem wasn’t Protestantism or sola Scriptura, but me, so I discerned it was time for me to return to school.

A third important continuing breach, however, was more RELATIONAL. Often in my journals I addressed the struggles that my wife Marilyn and I had over my work as a pastor. We admittedly were dealing with a boat load of tension and, in November of 1990, Marilyn was four months pregnant with our second son (Peter). It seemed that everything I did was wrong—especially whenever I was called out of the home at odd hours for pastoral meetings or emergencies. Again, I assumed the problems had to be me, so this added to my openness to seeking employment elsewhere.

On November 13, 1990, I wrote:

“Now I believe you have brought me to the place where I can take a bold step to serve You in a very exciting way that utilizes all the gifts You have given me in an area that needs a strong Christian voice: bioethics, and science & religion… Lord, continue to guide me. I want only to do Thy will! It is so hard to hear & discern, though. You know the frustrations I feel! Please close the doors if You don’t want me to change. I love You Lord and want to serve You.”

Two weeks went blank without a journal entry, until Tuesday, November 29, 1990:

Dear Lord, what a pilgrimage I am on! My sincere prayer is that I am being led by You! Ever since I went to hear Scott Hahn [Sunday, November 17], I’ve been re-examining the validity of the Catholic Church and the Reformation’s withdrawal. I’ve skimmed Vatican II; I’ve read part’s of Sheed’s “Theology for Beginners”; I’ve had lunch with Father S_____; and am half-way through “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” by Karl Keating. I’m finding that most of what I believed about the Catholic Church was unfounded. I’m also beginning to question some of the doctrines I’ve held to as an evangelical Protestant, i.e., sola Scriptura and sola fide. I’ve had some problems all along with these: namely, where do we get the idea that Scripture is an inerrant, authoritative source for all of life? Historically this came about through the decision of the Church—the Catholic Church!! I’ve felt comfortable with sola fide, except that it requires that I water down all the verses where we are called to do good works, or where we will be held accountable for our lives! I feel I’ve had to do some creative side-stepping on lots of issues that the Catholic Church has very clearly and scripturally defined. Their views of baptism, the Eucharist, authority, confession, holiness, and the Church all follow the clear meaning of Scripture, and seem to follow the clearest sense.

Yesterday, I talked with Scott Hahn on the phone. He greatly affirmed my search. … Lord, please please continue to guide me! Scott also reminded me that you are my Father, I am Your son, and that Your love for me is so great that even my struggles will not turn You from me. Thank You Jesus!

This terse but candid account may give the impression that in two weeks I went from self-doubting, discouraged, and lost to confident, convinced, and “found.” In reality, however, it took another two years to work through all the relational, theological, and vocational issues—most of which formed the basis for why we saw the need for the Coming Home Network International—but in December 1992, by God’s merciful grace, Marilyn and I, with Jon Marc (5) and Peter (1 ½) entered the Church.

Perhaps if I had been a more self-confident person, comfortable and content in the challenges of my pastoral ministry, and unmoved by the cacophony of differences between my beliefs and practices and those of other ministers—and if Marilyn had been more comfortable and excited about our life in the ministry—I’m not so sure how open I would have been to recognizing the problems of Protestantism and the truth of the Catholic Church. And frankly, the “gift” of self-doubt didn’t disappear, but has kept me, these past 20 years, continually examining all aspects of our new Catholic faith. All I can say, however, is that Marilyn and I are both eternally grateful for how our Lord reached out to both of us to bring us home together.

Please pray for those on the journey—as well as the hundreds of thousands of non-Catholic Christians who seem closed to even considering the fullness of the Catholic faith. May God do whatever is necessary—which usually means our loving witness—to form breaches in the barriers of their defenses.

Photo from www.flickr.com/photos/cod_gabriel/2405895532

When we play board games, to what extent do the successes and failures we attain in the playing of a game affect the rest of our lives?

What if a highly respected host invited you to spend an evening at his mansion playing a board game. All evening, the game proceeds as usually played, and you and your opponents experience the usual wax and wane of material success. Drinks and snacks are passed and shared. At times the game becomes quite heated as players bicker and barter for progress, position, and power. In the end, you were quite successful, but when the evening is over, all the board money and game pieces are put away in the box, and you and the other players leave and return to your separate lives.

To what extent do the successes and failures you attained in playing the game affect the rest of your life?

At first thought, Nothing. Yet, it seems to me that there are at least seven things that do carry over to real life:

1) How you treated those you played with.

2) How your actions indirectly affected those you played with.

3) How you yourself changed from what you learned about yourself.

4) How you treated the game pieces and board, and the Host’s house.

5) How you enjoyed the playing of the game.

6) How others remember how you played.

7) How grateful you were to the host.

This Parable of the Game is a Parable of Life: Playing the game, in the parable, represents life in this world, and real life outside the game, in the parable, represents our life in the kingdom of God.

Our Lord proclaimed to His apostles that, if we are in Him, we are no longer “of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:14). We become citizens of the kingdom, but we have been left in this world as His messengers (Jn 17:11-18), or as St Paul described, ambassadors of the Kingdom (2 Cor 5:17-21), to help others who are lost and attached to this world to discover their need to become citizens of the kingdom, through faith in Jesus Christ and Baptism into membership in His Mystical Body, the Church.

But what does it mean practically that we are children of God, citizens of the kingdom, and NOT citizens of this world, of this “box”, this “game”? Did Jesus leave us in this world to become successful and powerful? To accumulate riches and property, so that we can spend what time we’ve been given here in comfort, luxury, and easy living? To eat, drink, and be merry, because when life is done, we leave it all behind us anyway?

No, for as Our Lord says in the Gospel for this coming Sunday,

“For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Lk 12:30-34).

And when our time in this world is over, when all we have accomplished and accumulated in this life is put away in the box, then what?

“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Cor 5:9-10).

This is what was emphasized in last Sunday’s Gospel reading: “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:15-21).

When all is done, and we stand before God, when the Book of Life is opened, when the fruit of our lives is examined, what will be important? Those same seven things, but in a slightly different order:

1) How we loved God. What our Lord called the Great Commandment. How grateful we were to the Host, to the Father through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, for all that He gave us, which means everything, every opportunity to know, love, and serve Him. As Pope Francis said recently, “True wealth is love of God, shared with others. Who experiences this does not fear death, and receives peace of heart.”

2) How we loved: The second great commandment, to love my neighbor as myself. When all the great industrialists, bankers, inventors, and investors die, and all that they had made, accumulated, and accomplished stays in the box, what will ultimately matter is how they treated the people they worked with, their wives, their children, their families, friends, and neighbors. This will be the same measure of our lives.

3) How we indirectly loved: How does the way we spend our money, invest our time and talents, affect other people in this world, people we don’t even know? In the end, when the books are opened, and everything we have done in this life is examined, if in the process we have stepped on even one person to get where we attained, that person will be there pointing, as Nathan to David, “You are the one!”

4) How we grew in grace: What have we learned about ourselves, if we were listening, and how have we responded? Changed? Or has our life been one continual accusation that it was “always someone else’s fault! “Put to death what is earthly in you…” (Col 3:5f).

5) How we loved what we were given: When Saint James warned that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4), he did not mean a Gnostic rejection of this world, but a rejection of sinful attachments. Our temporary life in this world is a good which we have received as a gift from above (James 1:17). We were left in this world by Jesus: this world was created “good”; and everything we have been given is good; technology is good; man has created nothing; we have only been given gifts, treasures, knowledge, techniques, abilities. The question is how did we use, take care of, share, invest, and improve what we were given. When we take care of creation, we live out the divine life we have been given, and share with God in His creative activity in this world.

6) How content we were: Was the joy of our life in Christ full (Jn 15:11), and in imitation of Saint Paul: “Not that I complain of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content” (Phil 4:6, 7, 11)?

7) How our lives inspired others: Imagine having your name for all time in the NT as one who was so “in love with this present world” that you deserted Saint Paul (2 Tim 4:9,10). When our children, grandchildren, and those who knew our deeds and words remember us, will how we lived those seven things be a legacy worth imitating?

Some might exclaim, “But isn’t this works righteousness? And besides, what does it truly mean to love?”

Which is why good players don’t make up the rules as they go along, but look first at the instructions, which is why Christ gave us His Church guided by His Spirit.

Photo of Family Playing Monopoly: http://ragemag.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/family-playing-monopoly-vintage.png

The reason we must evangelize, with both creative yet charitable strategies, is because of the biblical concepts of being “in Christ” and “abiding in Christ.”

IN CHRIST

Our Lord told his disciples that, after his death and resurrection, “In that day you will know that I am in the Father, you in me and I in you” (Jn 14:20).

He desires that every person be in Him, “in Christ,” and this is what drives our need to share the gospel to every person in our lives: “Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ” (Col 1:28).

A person normally becomes in Christ through baptism and faith, but sometimes only by faith, if a person has not been told about the necessity of baptism. As Saint Paul wrote, “… for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:26,27).

This baptismal entrance into Christ changes us: “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).

Through this baptismal entrance into Christ, we are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13), “having the eyes of [our] hearts enlightened” (Eph 1:18).

ABIDING IN CHRIST

But being in Christ is just the beginning, for Jesus told His followers that we must abide (remain, continue) in Him: “Abide in me, and I in you” (Jn 15:4).

How do we abide (remain, continue) in Christ? Essentially, this is what most of the New Testament is about, but simply we abide in Him through living out the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love, which is essentially what is meant by “believing.” As Jesus warned, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned”(Mk 16:15,16). Baptism brings a person into Christ, but believing is how that person abides in Him and by grace is saved.

This being said, the world can essentially be divided into four groups of people who need to be evangelized, but evangelized differently.

GROUP ONE:

Those who are neither in Christ through baptism/faith, nor abiding in Christ through living by grace in faith, hope, and love.

For these, we are called by our Lord to “[g]o therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). We don’t stand in judgement of anyone, for the Church teaches that God in His mercy can save anyone through Christ and His Church, even if they know neither; rather, we are called to speak the truth of Christ to them in love (cf, Eph 4:25).

(I was of this group until I was baptized as a Lutheran at age 7.)

GROUP TWO:

Those who have been baptized into Christ, but are not abiding in Him.

These are fallen away or nominal Christians, for whom the Church has called for a New Evangelization. Many of these nominal Christians presume that once having been baptized into Christ, or once having “accepted Christ as their personal savior,” they are now guaranteed of salvation, regardless of how they “abide.” Yes, Saint Paul did say that the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it” (Eph 1:14), but this does not mean that this initial entrance into Christ guarantees that we will remain in Christ throughout our lives. As the author of Hebrews warned: “For it is impossible [not: humanly, for nothing is impossible for God] to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened [i.e., baptized into Christ], who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt” (Heb 6:4-6).

This is why Christ warned His followers that being in Him was not enough: “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned” (Jn 15:4-6).

Nominal or fallen away baptized Christians of all people need to be evangelized, for they may be the hardest to reach; they may have squandered the greatest gift they have been given, and may be held more accountable for this rejection than even those who had never been evangelized.

(I was of this group until age 21 when, through the reading of Scripture and the witness of an Evangelical Congregationalist pastor, the dormant graces of my baptism awakened into a life changing faith in Christ.)

GROUP THREE:

Those who have not been or have been baptized, but do abide in Him, though imperfectly through separation from His Church and her Sacraments.

These are those baptized or un-baptized Christians who are not fully united in the Church. By their baptism and faith, they are indeed members of the Mystical Body of Christ, but imperfectly, and, therefore, need to be evangelized “for the sake of their salvation.” This is not a matter of having a name on a membership roll, but rather a matter of abiding fully in Christ. The only place in Scripture where Jesus explains clearly how we abide in Him is in his bold introduction of the Eucharist in John 6:

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:53-56).

In the very passages where He warned his followers to abide in Him, He also warned that apart from Him, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5), and the most sure way we are united with Him is through the Sacraments, particularly through the communion of His Eucharistic body and blood.

For these fellow Christian brothers and sisters, the Church has called Catholic Christians to reach out in love, in a unique form of evangelism called dialogue. Recognizing the many things that unite us, we stand, not above, but beside them in love and service, united in prayer and suffering, sharing with them the fullness of the truth that we have mercifully received as a gift of grace.

(I was in this group for the next twenty years, mostly in Protestant ministry, until by God’s grace my wife and I discovered the beauty of the fullness of the faith and were received into the Church.)

GROUP FOUR?

But I said there were four groups of people who need to be evangelized, and that fourth group is US!

As Saint Paul himself admitted, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us” (Phil 3:12-17).

Abiding in Christ is a lifelong quest, of working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12), in imitation of Saint Paul as he sought to imitate Christ. For this, we must never fall into the danger of presumption, for as Saint Paul also warned, “Therefore let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:12,13).

As the Church warns us: “Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart'” (Lumen Gentium 14; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 838)

Consequently, we each one of us are always in need of further evangelism, further awakening, further submitting to the love of Christ, for it is only then that we are able to be vessels of grace for the evangelization of others.

(Well, this is where I am now, and I’ve a long way to go! Lord, help us all to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1)).

(Photo Credit animatedcliparts.net)

In my last post, I ended by stating that I believe that the Holy Spirit used the crisis of the 20th century to change the hearts and consciences of many in the hierarchy to focus less and less on the things that divide Christians and instead more and more on the ways that Catholic and non-Catholic Christians are similar, ways in which the truths and gifts of the Catholic Church are shared outside the Church, not in a perfect way, but in ways by which God mercifully extends His grace, using these separated churches and ecclesial communities even as “means of salvation.”

This development was carefully but consistently expressed throughout the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and then further developed in the writings of Popes Paul VI through Benedict XVI, particularly in Blessed John Paul II’s Ut Unum Sint, and then clarified by then Cardinal Ratzinger in Dominus Iesus.

Certainly, the long term objective remains visible unity, as the recent popes have all emphasized: that all the elements of truth outside the Catholic Church are of the Church and lead toward this eventual unity. And none of this diminishes the Church’s, as well as every individual Catholic’s, responsibility to evangelize by telling the full truth of the Catholic gospel.

However, it seems that the Holy Spirit has been calling Catholics, as has been expressed in the Church documents since the mid-twentieth century, to no longer think of non-Catholic Christians as “heretics or schismatics” who have, through their weak and stubborn wills, refused the grace of God, but instead as baptized brothers and sisters still-on-the-journey of continual conversion to Christ, and, in fact, members by baptism in the Mystical Body of Christ.

This new understanding is expressed in the following statement by a famous convert whom I consider a patron “saint” of our work, Avery Cardinal Dulles:

Who, then, can be saved? Catholics can be saved if they believe the Word of God as taught by the Church and if they obey the commandments. Other Christians can be saved if they submit their lives to Christ and join the community where they think he wills to be found. …  God’s saving grace, channeled through Christ the one Mediator, leaves no one unassisted. But that same grace brings obligations to all who receive it. They must not receive the grace of God in vain. Much will be demanded of those to whom much is given (from an article entitled “Who Can Be Saved?” published in First Things, Feb 2008).

Many Catholics have interpreted the Church’s more positive attitude toward the salvation of our separated brethren, as thus expressed by Cardinal Dulles, to mean that there is no reason to evangelize them, but in the following quote, Cardinal Dulles, clearly states the contrary (in the one instance where I’ve heard this stated publicly):

The question could be raised whether Catholics should evangelize other Christians. According to the teaching of Vatican II, these others are not fully initiated into the Body of Christ. Baptism is only the first sacrament of initiation and demands to be completed by the Eucharist (UR, 22). Full communion requires acceptance of the Church’s entire system and admission to the Eucharist, the sacrament of full communion (LG, 14). Since the whole creed and the dogmas of the Church, as well as the sacraments and pastoral government, pertain to the gospel, it follows logically that Christians who are not Catholics still require additional evangelization. (From an article entitled “Vatican II and Evangelization” in the book, The New Evangelization: Overcoming the Obstacles, 2007)

I believe the misinterpretation by some of the Church’s more positive view of “no salvation outside the Church” comes from a general uncomfortableness with seeming contradictions, causing us to prefer “either/or” conclusions. It’s this tendency which continues to feed the constant divisions of our non-Catholic Christian brethren. Catholic theology, however, has always been more accepting of the “both/and” of many theological mysteries, while at the same time holding to “black & white”, “either/or” distinctions when appropriate. As GK Chesterton once quipped, “Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.”

For many centuries, the Church seemed to understand extra Ecclesiam nulla salus as an “either/or” issue, though always with some qualifications. Now that the Church has “re-formulated” this dogma more “positively,” it does not mean that the pendulum has swung to an opposite “either/or”, but rather that the Church recognizes, in a way she never did before, how this dogma has always been a mysterious “both/and”, not unlike the two seemingly opposite truths of the fear and love of God. The absolute necessities of fearing God and loving God both have substantial Scriptural mandates, but at times, in the Church’s history, one or the other have been emphasized, even seemingly over-emphasized at the expense of the other truth. One might say the pervasive tone of the 20th century was an overemphasis on the love of God with rare mention of the fear of God—only a very few references to the fear of God can be found in Vatican II documents, or any magisterial or papal document since. But the few references to the fear of God in these documents indicate that this is not a “negative” conviction that has become obsolete and replaced by the more “positive” love of God, even though Scripture does say that perfect love drives out all fear. Rather the Church continues to teach BOTH the necessity of the fear of God AND the love of God. Without an adequate underlying fear of God, one cannot truly love God or understand God’s love; likewise, without an adequate understanding of the love of God, fear of God becomes servile fear, rather than maturing into filial fear.

The same is true with the negative and positive understandings of “no salvation outside the Church.” The re-formulated positive understanding is a corrective to the once more pervasive negative understanding, but together they provide the best and most balanced motivation for evangelization. Catholics are called to stand beside non-Catholic Christians, pointing them, in love, to the fullness of the Church, but not motivated out of fear that they are potentially damned if they refuse to enter, for the Church already recognizes that, through their baptisms, through their faithfulness to Scripture and the Christian faith as they know it, through their sacrifices already given in obedience to the call of God, they are already loved by God, and being drawn by Him to an ongoing conversion to Him.

I realize that not all Catholics struggle with this, but I’ve come to believe that many of us need to accept that, though the long-term goal for all people is unity in the Church, God’s immediate plan for many non-Catholic Christians may be to remain in their non-Catholic communities, using their God-given gifts to help those to whom God has called them to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, and a growing openness to the Church. By recognizing the “both/and” of this dogma, we can stand side-by-side in prayer and brotherhood, for in the end anyone’s ability to come to “know” the truth of the Church, in such a way that they would give up anything to become Catholic, is a gift of grace.

Or, as the father says at the end of the Parable, “We must entrust their full return to God, but in the mean time, we must stand beside them in the faith, hope, and love that we share, always pointing them to the fullness that we have received with joy.”