My Dear Sons and Daughters in Christ:
It is an honor and a joy to continue to share the basic truths of our Catholic faith with you as we delve more deeply into the truths that I discussed with you in my Pastoral Letter of August 22, 2023. In this letter, I would like to discuss truth #6:
“The belief that all men and women will be saved regardless of how they live their lives (a concept commonly referred to as universalism) is false and is dangerous as it contradicts what Jesus tells us repeatedly in the Gospel. Jesus says we must ‘deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.’ He has given us the way, through His grace, to victory over sin and death through repentance and confession. it is essential that we embrace the joy and hope, as well as the freedom, that come from repentance and humbly confessing our sins. Through repentance and confession, every battle with temptation and sin can be a small victory that leads us to embrace the great victory that Christ has won for us.”
In previous letters I have addressed what the Church is, who we are as God’s children, and other significant aspects of the truth of our faith; it is my intent in this letter is to consider the very foundations of the mystery of Jesus Christ and who He is as Our Lord and Savior.
We must be absolutely clear about the fact that the ideas of universalism are antithetical to the entire mission and meaning of Jesus Christ’s impact on human history.
To better appreciate Our Lord’s salvific mission, we need to have a proper understanding of what sin is, why it is so offensive to God, and why we must be truly repentant of our sins and not overly presume upon God’s mercy.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read that “Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.” Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,” knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.” In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.” (CCC 1850).
That first sentence is packed with deep theological insight – Sin is an offense against God. Consider that God is infinitely good and holy. He is the One Who is infinite love. According to St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, when we sin, we sin against the infinite and thus our sins are infinitely offensive. “Now a sin which is committed against God, is infinite: because the gravity of a sin increases according to the greatness of the person sinned against (thus it is a more grievous sin to strike the sovereign than a private individual), and God’s greatness is infinite. Therefore an infinite punishment is due for a sin committed against God.” (ST article 4, objection 2)
Regrettably, in our modern age, beset as it is with the errors of moral relativism, the temptation is all too strong to look at the weight of sin from a human perspective, rather than from the Divine perspective. We all too easily make excuses for our sins, judging that the things we do are “not all that bad”. Further, the temptation exists to presume upon the mercy of God, that surely a loving and merciful God understands that as weak human beings we sometimes stumble and, knowing that, He makes allowances for our failures and even if we ourselves don’t seek forgiveness, He will forgive us nonetheless because He is infinitely merciful. This line of thinking goes so far as to say salvation ultimately is made available to all, regardless of their beliefs or actions, because God is infinite mercy and thus all men are saved. In this mindset, one might reasonably ask, “What then is the point of conversion of heart to Jesus Christ? Why bother following Christ at all?”
This is an extremely dangerous heresy as it has the effect of dulling our need to follow Our Lord and to cultivate a spirit of true and authentic repentance. It is a heresy that seeks to tell us it’s fine to abdicate our responsibility in our relationship with God, that no genuine and heartfelt reconciliation is necessary. It presumes that God will do all the work, and we don’t have to do anything at all – not only is this spiritual laziness, but it is a deadly indifference that imperils our immortal souls and puts us at eternal risk. It also is a heresy that undercuts the gravity of sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) God does make an accommodation for our weak and fallen nature, but that accommodation is through reconciliation and a right relationship with Our Savior Jesus Christ, through Whom alone salvation is achievable.
Sin damages our relationship with God and cuts us off from sharing in His life of grace; we cannot restore it ourselves as we are finite beings with only finite capabilities, and the One Whom we have offended through sin is infinite. We thus are not capable of making infinite reparations. Only God, Who is infinite, can do this. Thus, we can only re-establish a life in grace through Christ. He alone is capable of restoring life. “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’” (Matthew 19:25-26) Christ, in His infinite mercy, gives us the means to re-establish our relationship via the sacraments of Healing. However, we must do our part in the relationship – we must seek forgiveness with a contrite heart.
It must be absolutely clear to all people of faith that the ideas of universalism are antithetical to the entire mission and meaning of Jesus Christ’s impact on human history. The mission of Jesus Christ and His Church are truly catholic in the sense that they offer a universal opportunity for every man, woman and child to be changed by our encounter with Jesus Christ. This opportunity by God’s Will always leaves our human freedom, with which God has created us, intact. As we witness in the Gospels, Jesus never violates the freedom of the person to follow Him, He always respects human freedom as He invites us to follow His Way.
A key word to reflect on and deepen our understanding of is metanoia. This word means “change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion”. This change lies at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and while it involves an initial choice to turn around and follow Christ metanoia actually denotes a way of life that seeks constant change to follow Jesus Christ more fully and more profoundly. Many of the stories of the saints involve a profound metanoia. Think of Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Augustine, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Theresa Benedicta, to name only a few. Their stories involve a dramatic turn away from sin and to a clear choice to be forever changed by following Jesus Christ. The drama of their moments of conversion is thus followed by a lifetime of turning more fully to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and more completely away from sin.
Universalism is a denial of the call to metanoia and thus truly a denial of what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
Having done our best to clearly describe the significance of rejecting the ideas of universalism and emphasizing our call to be changed by our encounter with Jesus Christ, we can now begin to address how we go about embracing this call to repentance of sin and living in the Way of Jesus Christ. In the simplest of terms, the answer to how we go about this magnificent quest is to live the faith of the Catholic Church in Word and Sacrament. These simple words encompass the deep and profound challenge that all humanity is called to, that we turn from sin and live the virtues that Jesus Christ the Son of God has revealed to us. The Word of God contained in the Bible nurtures us throughout this journey, and the sacraments Christ Himself established offer us encounters with God’s grace that strengthen us along the way, changing us from sinner to saved.
It is profitable to focus on three sacraments that are absolutely essential if we wish to embrace the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us. These are Baptism, Confirmation and Reconciliation (also called Penance). As we deepen our understanding of these three sacraments we are drawn more deeply in the metanoia we are all called to embrace. These sacraments build on one another as our relationship with Jesus Christ grows. The Catholic Church teaches that these sacraments are essential for our salvation. While the Church acknowledges that God is not bound to these divine gifts and can work in His abundant love and mercy in ways that go beyond the sacraments, She (the Church) always insists that the sacraments are the normal path to salvation and must not be neglected.
Baptism of course is the necessary sacrament of our initial repentance, conversion and introduction into the life of grace. A beautiful element of the Church’s teaching is the indelible character that Baptism confers, that one can never be unbaptized even if we chose to completely reject Jesus Christ. The great consolation here is that once configured to Christ we can always return to Him no matter how far we wander in sinfulness. Baptism permanently configures us to Christ and gives us the grace to live this new relationship.
Confirmation is most profoundly a strengthening of the original gift of life in the Holy Spirit that we receive at Baptism. Pentecost as described in the Acts of the Apostles can be understood as the Confirmation of the Apostles in the Holy Spirit, and we can see clearly the strength they received as they formed the Church in Her beginnings. We are blessed with the very same gifts of the Holy Spirit when we are Confirmed, and the sacrament gives us the strength to constantly turn from sin and grow closer to the Sacred Heart of Christ.
Finally, the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance) can be described as the sacrament of continuing metanoia. We all stumble in sinfulness and are called to humbly confess our sins and strive for deeper holiness. In our ongoing journey of faith the Sacrament of Reconciliation is of critical importance, and we all need to understand that it is a loving encounter with the same Jesus Christ that we receive in the Eucharist. The beauty of this sacrament is that it expresses God’s abundant mercy and emphasizes that He constantly gives us the opportunity to once again repent and return to Him. “Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.” (CCC 1422)
As we face the challenges in the world and the Church today, with the confusion of the Synod raging even as I write this, let us be reminded of the Good News at the heart of the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, was born in Bethlehem, lived and taught among us, suffered and died for us and rose from the dead. He did all of this to free us from sin and death and to offer us the opportunity of everlasting life with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The tragic temptation to eviscerate the meaning of His Life through a so-called universalism that renders Him meaningless is a great manifestation of the evil we face. Let us reject the notion that all are saved with no need for conversion on their part, and instead let us embrace the wondrous change God offers us through His Son.
Let us pray brothers and sisters that in the midst of this turmoil we may grow stronger in faith and in our relationship with Jesus Christ. He calls us to His Father and to life in His Spirit.
Remaining your humble father and servant,
Most Reverend Joseph E. Strickland
Bishop of Tyler, Texas
