"Abraham
rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad" (Jn 8:56).
According to these words of Jesus, Abraham’s faith pointed to him; in some
sense it foresaw his mystery. So Saint Augustine understood it when he stated
that the patriarchs were saved by faith, not faith in Christ who had come but
in Christ who was yet to come, a faith pressing towards the future of Jesus.[13]
Christian faith is centred on Christ; it is the confession that Jesus is Lord
and that God has raised him from the dead (cf. Rom 10:9). All the
threads of the Old Testament converge on Christ; he becomes the definitive
"Yes" to all the promises, the ultimate basis of our "Amen"
to God (cf. 2 Cor 1:20).
The
history of Jesus is the complete manifestation of God’s reliability. If Israel
continued to recall God’s great acts of love, which formed the core of its
confession of faith and broadened its gaze in faith, the life of Jesus now
appears as the locus of God’s definitive intervention, the supreme
manifestation of his love for us. The word which God speaks to us in Jesus is
not simply one word among many, but his eternal Word (cf. Heb 1:1-2).
God can give no greater guarantee of his love, as Saint Paul reminds us (cf. Rom
8:31-39). Christian faith is thus faith in a perfect love, in its decisive
power, in its ability to transform the world and to unfold its history.
"We know and believe the love that God has for us" (1 Jn 4:16).
In the love of God revealed in Jesus, faith perceives the foundation on which
all reality and its final destiny rest.
Lumen Fidei 15
Reflection – Tuesdays with Francis time again,
although this week we’ve been with him already for a couple of days. Actually
this section of Lumen Fidei is directly relevant to the imbroglio over the
recent statements by the Pope that have ruffled people’s feathers.
We’ve been
marching, very beautifully, through the Old Testament journey of faith of
Abraham and others, and now come to the great leap forward in faith from
Abraham and Moses to Jesus Christ.
This is where
the words of the Lord quoted here come in: “Abraham saw [my day] and was glad.”
All the genuine faith of Israel, all the striving of the prophets to faithfully
communicate God’s word, all the efforts of godly kings to order the nation to
God’s law, all the sacrifices of the priests, all the sincere and heartfelt
obediences of all the people of the covenant are now shown to have been,
implicitly, faith in Christ. Christ is the Word of God, Christ is the Law of
God, Christ is the acceptable sacrifice, Christ is the New Covenant. And so
every choice for the word, the law, the sacrifice, the covenant is ultimately a
choice for Christ, even though the full revelation was not yet given.
But the Church
has understood, and extended this same gracious reality, to all people. Lumen
Gentium 16, the Vatican II Constitution on the Church, makes it clear that the
salvation won by Christ can be operative outside the visible boundaries of the
Catholic Church. We simply do not teach, and in fact have formally condemned as
heresy, the idea that one must be a member of the Roman Catholic Church to be
saved.
We have to
step carefully here, as there are great pitfalls on all sides. Everyone who is
saved is saved by the blood of Jesus Christ; there is no path to heaven except
through the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And everyone Jesus saves, He saves by
making them a member of his body, the Church. There, we enter into great
mystery, as the visible institution of the Catholic Church, which is truly the
Church and from God, reaches out in the Spirit and in the invisible order of
grace to embrace people who may know nothing of the matter, and even be
indifferent or hostile to what they perceive the Church to be.
It is all
about God’s mercy. He wants all men to be saved and come to the fullness of
life and truth and beauty and goodness in Christ. So a person who through no
fault of their own does not know Christ or the Church as that beauty, truth,
and goodness of God, but who really is choosing the best truth, the deepest
goodness, the most beautiful way of life that he or she knows to choose, is
implicitly choosing Christ.
He is the
Truth; someone striving to life in truth is striving to live in Christ. He is
the Goodness of God; someone striving to live a morally good life is striving
to live in Christ. He is the beauty of God; someone striving to live in beauty
is striving to live in Christ.
Now of course
we are supposed to evangelize and present the fullness of truth of the Gospel
and the Catholic faith to all men and women. We are all sinners, and the world
is a dangerous place full of the enemy’s snares. It is much easier to be saved
within the visible Church and the sacramental graces it is a conduit of, and
the clear teaching it provides. But the grace of salvation, which is the merciful
love of God, is at work in every human life, to bring everyone to conversion
and repentance and openness to the grace of Christ.