Christian soteriology is a soteriology of the fullness of life. Not only is it a soteriology of the truth disclosed in Revelation, but at the same time it is also a soteriology of love. In a certain sense it is a soteriology of Divine Love. Love, above all, possesses a saving power. The saving power of love, according to the words of Saint Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians, is greater than that of mere knowledge of the truth: "So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13).

For all its orientation toward eternal life, toward that happiness which is found in God Himself, Christianity, and especially Western Christianity, never became a religion indifferent to the world. It has always been open to the world, to its questions, to its anxieties, to its hopes.

You speak of many religions. Instead I will attempt to show the common fundamental element and the common root of these religions. The Council defined the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions in a specific document that begins with the words "Nostra aetate" ("In our time").From the beginning, Christian Revelation has viewed the spiritual history of man as including, in some way, all religions, thereby demonstrating the unity of humankind with regard to the eternal and ultimate destiny of man The Church sees the promotion of this unity as one of its duties...

In another passage the Council says that the Holy Spirit works effectively even outside the visible structure of the Church (cf. Lumen Gentium 13), making use of these very semina Verbi, that constitute a kind of common soteriological root present in all religions. I have been convinced of this on numerous occasions, both while visiting the countries of the Far East and while meeting representatives of those religions, especially during the historic meeting at Assisi, where we found ourselves gathered together praying for peace.

Christ came into the world for all these peoples. He redeemed them all and has His own ways of reaching each of them in the present eschatological phase of salvation history. In fact, in those regions, many accept Him and many more have an implicit faith in Him (cf. Heb 11:6).

Here statistics are not useful-we are speaking of values which are not quantifiable. To tell the truth, the sociology of religion-although useful in other areas-does not help much here. As a basis for assessment, the criteria for measurement which it provides do not help when considering people's interior attitude. No statistic aiming at a quantitative measurement of faith (for example, the number of people who participate in religious ceremonies) will get to the heart of the matter. Here numbers alone are not enough.

Truly, there are no grounds for losing hope. If the world is not Catholic from a denominational point of view, it is nonetheless profoundly permeated by the Gospel. We can even say that the mystery of the Church, the Body of Christ, is in some way invisibly present in it.

Generations come and go which have distanced themselves from Christ and the Church, which have accepted a secular model of thinking and living or upon which such a model has been imposed. Meanwhile, the Church is always looking toward the future. She constantly goes out to meet new generations. And new generations clearly seem to be accepting with enthusiasm what their elders seemed to have rejected.

The Father and the Son are at work in the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, and truth does not cease to fascinate man, especially the hearts of the young. Therefore we should not consider statistics alone. For Christ, works of charity are important. Despite all of the losses the Church has suffered, it does not cease to look toward the future with hope. Such hope is a sign of the power of the Spirit.

There exists today the clear need for a new evangelization. There is the need for a proclamation of the Gospel capable of accompanying man on his pilgrim way, capable of walking alongside the younger generation. Isn't such a need in itself already a sign of the approach of the year 2000? With ever greater frequency pilgrims are looking toward the Holy Land, toward Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. The people of the God of the Old and New Testaments are alive in the younger generation and, at the end of the twentieth century, have the same experience as Abraham, who followed the voice of God who called him to set out upon the pilgrimage of faith. And what other phrase in the Gospel do we hear more often than this: "Follow me" (Mt 8:22)? This is a call to the people of today, especially the young, to follow the paths of the Gospel in the direction of a better world.

The experiences of teachers and pastors confirm, today no less than yesterday, the idealism present in young people, even if nowadays it perhaps tends to be expressed mostly in the form of criticism, whereas before it would have translated more simply into duty. In general, the younger generations grow up in an atmosphere marked by a new positivism, whereas in Poland, when I was a boy, romantic traditions prevailed.

They need guides, and they want them close at hand. If they turn to authority figures, they do so because they see in them a wealth of human warmth and a willingness to walk with them along the paths they are following.

If they give in to weakness, following models of behavior that can rightly be considered a "scandal in the contemporary world" (and these are, unfortunately, widely diffused models), in the depths of their hearts they still desire a beautiful and pure love.

It is also necessary that the young know the Church, that they perceive Christ in the Church, Christ who walks through the centuries alongside each generation, alongside every person. He walks alongside each person as a friend. An important day in a young person's life is the day on which he becomes convinced that this is the only Friend who will not disappoint him, on whom he can always count.

we not only believe in the Church but at the same time we are the Church. Following the Council, we can say that we believe in the Church as in a mystery. And at the same time, we know that as the people of God we are the Church. We are also the Church as people who belong to its visible structure and, above all, as sharers in Christ's messianic mission, which has a threefold character-prophetic, priestly, and kingly.

We can say that our faith in the Church has been renewed and deepened in a significant way by the Council. For a long time the Church paid more attention to its institutional and hierarchical dimension and neglected somewhat its fundamental dimension of grace and charism, which is proper to the people of God.

Faith in the Church, as the Second Vatican Council teaches, demands that we reexamine certain excessively rigid schemata-for example, the distinction between the teaching Church and the learning Church must take into consideration the fact that each of the baptized participates, albeit at his own level, in the prophetic, priestly, and kingly mission of Christ. Therefore we are talking not only about changing concepts but also of renewing attitudes,

It would be wrong, today, to speak only of people leaving the Church. There are also people who come back. Above all, there has been a very radical transformation of our underlying model. I have in mind Europe and America, in particular North America and, in another sense, South America. The traditional quantitative model has been transformed into a new, more qualitative model. This also is a result of the Council. The Second Vatican Council appeared at the moment in which the old model was beginning to cede its place to the new. Therefore we have to say that the Council came at the right time and set about a task that was necessary not only for the Church, but for the entire world.

If the post-conciliar Church has difficulties in the area of doctrine and discipline, these difficulties are not serious enough to present a real threat of new divisions. The Church of the Second Vatican Council, the Church marked by an intense collegiality among the world's bishops, truly serves this world in a variety of ways and presents itself as the true Body of Christ, as the minister of His saving and redemptive mission, as the promoter of justice and peace. In a divided world, the unity of the Catholic Church, which transcends national boundaries, remains a great force, acknowledged as such even by its enemies and still present today in world politics and international organizations

Christian mysticism is born of the Revelation of the living God. This God opens Himself to union with man, arousing in him the capacity to be united with Him, especially by means of the theological virtues-faith, hope, and, above all, love. Christian mysticism has built up and continues to build up Christianity in its most essential element. It also builds up the Church as a community of faith, hope, and charity. It builds up civilization, particularly "Western civilization," which is marked by a positive approach to the world, and which developed thanks to the achievements of science and technology, two branches of knowledge rooted both in the ancient Greek philosophical tradition and in Judeo-Christian Revelation. The truth about God the Creator of the world and about Christ the Redeemer is a powerful force which inspires a positive attitude toward creation and provides a constant impetus to strive for its transformation and perfection.

The Second Vatican Council has amply confirmed this truth. To indulge in a negative attitude toward the world, in the conviction that it is only a source of suffering for man and that he therefore must break away from it, is negative not only because it is unilateral but also because it is fundamentally contrary to the development of both man himself and the world, which the Creator has given and entrusted to man as his task.

We read in Gaudium et Spes: "Therefore, the world which [the Council] has in mind is the world of men, of the entire human family considered in the context of all realities; the world which is the theater of human history and which bears the marks of humanity's struggles, its defeats, and its victories; the world which the Christians believe has been created and is sustained by the Creator's love, a world enslaved by sin but liberated by the crucified and resurrected Christ in order to defeat evil, and destined, according to the divine plan, to be transformed and to reach its fulfillment" (Gaudium et Spes 2). These words indicate how between Christianity and the religions of the Far East, in particular Buddhism, there is an essentially different way of perceiving the world. For Christians, the world is God's creation, redeemed by Christ. It is in the world that man meets God.

Nevertheless, convincing the world of the existence of sin is not the same as condemning it for sinning. "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." Convincing the world of sin means creating the conditions for its salvation. Awareness of our own sinfulness, including that which is inherited, is the first condition for salvation; the next is the confession of this sin before God, who desires only to receive this confession so that He can save man. To save means to embrace and lift up with redemptive love, with love that is always greater than any sin. In this regard the parable of the prodigal son is an unsurpassable paradigm. The history of salvation is very simple. And it is a history that unfolds within the earthly history of humanity, beginning with the first Adam, through the revelation of the second Adam, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor 15:45), and ending with the ultimate fulfillment of the history of the world in God, when He will be "all in all" (1 Cor 15:28). At the same time, this history embraces the life of every man. In a certain sense it is entirely contained in the parable of the prodigal son, or in the words of Christ when He addresses the adulteress: "Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin anymore" (Jn 8:11).

At the end of the second millennium, we need, perhaps more than ever, the words of the Risen Christ: "Be not afraid!" Man who, even after the fall of Communism, has not stopped being afraid and who truly has many reasons for feeling this way, needs to hear these words. Nations need to hear them, especially those nations that have been reborn after the fall of the Communist empire, as well as those that witnessed this event from the outside. Peoples and nations of the entire world need to hear these words. Their conscience needs to grow in the certainty that Someone exists who holds in His hands the destiny of this passing world; Someone who holds the keys to death and the netherworld (cf. Rev 1:18); Someone who is the Alpha and the Omega of human history (cf. Rev 22:13)-be it the individual or collective history. And this Someone is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8, 16)-Love that became man, Love crucified and risen, Love unceasingly present among men. It is Eucharistic Love. It is the infinite source of communion. He alone can give the ultimate assurance when He says "Be not afraid!"

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 07, 2003

Answers

for the doom and gloomers

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 07, 2003.

"Atheism should be studied with the aid of sociology and psychology, not as a denial of God, but rather as a state of conscience of the human person." (Msgr. Wojtyla, 9/28/65)

"The humanist vision you have proclaimed before the world is ours also." (John Paul II, 11/12/79, address to the UN)

"The new concept of a 'People of God' has made us revise the old truth about the possibility of redemption outside the limits of the Catholic Church." (Msgr. Wojtyla to Fr. Malinski)

"The encounter between Catholics and Jews is not a meeting between two ancient religions... it is a meeting between brothers." (John Paul II, allocution to the B'nai B'rith)

"The prayer meeting in the sanctuary at Lake Togo was particularly striking. There I prayed for the first time with animists" (Jophn Paul II: Prayer with an African Animist on August 8, 1985).

Do you see how the desire of novelty, with its attendant error, lands you in great difficulties? (St. Agustine: De Moribus Manichaeorum, 10)

-- jake (jake1REMOVE@pngusa.net), August 07, 2003.

Just to clarrify Jake wont have read any of his quotes in context, nor will he likely to be able to provide the source where he obtained his "quotes".

Emerald has similarly given quotes from their favourite favourite anti Catholic sites shown to be completley false and untrue. Theres no reason not to assume Jake would not do the same, such is his hatred of the Church. A quick google search will find his quotes will be in sites where they list our Holy Father as the "Apostate Antipope John Paul II". Enough said.

The only conclusion one can draw is that Jake feels the same way. Even if they are accurate they present no problems.

God Bless you Jake especially your new baby hope youre getting some sleep these days

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 07, 2003.

sleep, I need sleep myself its into the very early hours of the morning. Goodnight

-- (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 07, 2003.

Even if they are accurate they present no problems.

If that's true, then why respond by attacking me as "anti Catholic" and saying that I have "haterd for the Church?" If they present no problems, how is it that you take issue with my having posted them?

-- jake (jake1REMOVE@pngusa.net), August 07, 2003.

"Emerald has similarly given quotes from their favourite favourite anti Catholic sites shown to be completley false and untrue."

I've never quote you people to anyone...

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), August 07, 2003.

God Bless you Jake especially your new baby

Thank you. He was baptized last Saturday.

hope youre getting some sleep these days

Not as much as my body would like me to get, I'm sure, but there'll be plenty of time for sleep when I'm dead.

-- jake (jake1REMOVE@pngusa.net), August 07, 2003.

"A quick google search will find his quotes will be in sites where they list our Holy Father as the "Apostate Antipope John Paul II". Enough said."

Come on kiwi, you can do better than that.

You could google any quote and find them used by any number of people for any number of reasons. Nice try trying to make it look like I'm a sedevacantist. Problem for you is that I'm not, nor is that where I got my quotes... sorry bud. I can't help what other people use them for.

While I disagree with them, the sedevacantist sure make more sense than believing anything about setting up permanent shop in this world... as if it's going to last; as if death does not come to us all.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), August 07, 2003.

Hello Emerald!

>Come on kiwi, you can do better than that.

Yeah but its called efficiency, only what is necessary!

>You could google any quote and find them used by any number of people for any number of reasons. Nice try trying to make it look like I'm a sedevacantist. Problem for you is that I'm not, nor is that where I got my quotes... sorry bud. I can't help what other people use them for.

EMerald I dont need to try to "make you look like a sedevacantist" ,the proof is in the evidence you and Jake present on an almost daily basis.

Firstly your choice of information or angle on an issue is very often identical, not even simlar but identical to the way anti Catholic web sites attack the church . Coincidence. I think not.

Your quotes often contains strange inaccuraies and errors in their wording. Strangely the same EXACT errors are contained in leading anti Catholic websites, I have yet to find such errors published in orthodox Catholic material, nor do you ever provide any to verify your error. Mateo and myslef have shown such an error recently, yet you not only ignore our repeated corrections, you refuse to withdraw your quotes accuracy and apologise for offending our Church. It says to me much about your intent. The Truth? Yeah Right.

Again Coincidence? I think not.

Thirdly the way information is presented and referenced often leaves unique signatures. Take Jakes quotes above, there are many different ways to reference a quote, anyone with basic referencing skills can track down the likely source of your misleading words given the style used. AGain identical to the style of referencing used by leading anti Catholic sites.

Coincidence? I think not.

In Jakes case he is often much more brazen and open, as the only other option is stupidity and hes no fool and he posts pictures easily tracked down by reading the properties tag. AGain the address is often leading anti catholic web sites.

Finally and most tellingly you both never despite repeated requests reveal where you obtain your information, where you sourced your information.

Coincidence. I think not

Nothing is ever proven, and I wont label you or condemn you... you make a rather strong case for your self.

While I disagree with them, the sedevacantist sure make more sense than believing anything about setting up permanent shop in this world... as if it's going to last; as if death does not come to us all.

Agreed!... those who believe theyre going to live forever are only fooling themselves :)

What thinks like an anti catholic, looks like an anti catholic, smells like an anti catholic, tatses like an anti catholic, sounds like an anti catholic but isnt one...... self styled traditionalists! my sense are letting me down in my old age!!! Er only being agravavting God Bless, Ive stepped on enough toes lately without having you and Jake on my back, though it could be too late!

Ha the verbal franzy contiues. Bye and God Bless

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 07, 2003.

>Even if they are accurate they present no problems. If that's true, then why respond by attacking me as "anti Catholic" and saying that I have "haterd for the Church?" If they present no problems, how is it that you take issue with my having posted them?

Hi Jake

The issue is I dont trust you to support the Church. call me a cynic, but intent is important maybe Im reading you wrong? If so then aleliuia youve decide to put aside your pride and take up your cross, in front of you, leading, not on your back though. Christ is no burden, he is a joy, the light, the path to truth. I guess Im prepared to assume your intention was bad in the same way Ill assume the sun is going to rise in the east tommorow morning. :-) Blessings on the Baptisim

-- Kiwi (csisherwood@hotmail.com), August 07, 2003.

Well, give me examples.

Better yet, get the complete context of each quote so we can see the whole thing.

I'll be able to make the case more clear than ever. I'm serious; go get them and let's get it on. The entire context of any of the quotes I have used will only broaden the truth of each quote extracted.

=)

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), August 08, 2003.

Kiwi, let me get this straight... you actually think I'm a sedevacantist? Are you serious?

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), August 08, 2003.

The issue is I dont trust you to support the Church.

Being a sinful worm, I fail in defense of Holy Mother Church and in many other things; so in the measure of my fallen nature, you're quite correct and prudent not to trust me.

take up your cross, in front of you, leading, not on your back though. Christ is no burden, he is a joy, the light, the path to truth

What does than mean, exactly?

-- jake (jake1REMOVE@pngusa.net), August 08, 2003.