St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

Jesus Christ was sent to the Jewish people, to be their Messiah in accordance with God's ancient promises to his Chosen People. Yet, God was not satisfied to save only one people; He wants His blessing to reach all nations, every corner of the earth. This is why Jesus says, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold; these also I must lead..."  Christ the Savior, then, has received lordship not only over the little flock of Israel and Judah, but over all the flocks of the earth. In Him we all come under one lordship, that of the good shepherd, who is the one pastor of the one flock.

The effect of the devil, is to catch and scatter the sheep; Christ frees and unites us. And even if the wolf attacks the shepherd himself, as he did in Christ's passion, the shepherd has the power both to lay down and raise up His life, so the one flock will never perish. Because Christ the good shepherd is our Lord, the Church, the one flock, will never fail. Our membership in this flock is perhaps the greatest gift we have received from the Lord after the gift of life itself.

This is one of the most compelling reasons behind the Church's missionary mandate.   We are all called to spread the good news of Christ, and to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19), bringing everyone into this one flock. Only the Catholic Church has been given the divine guarantee that it will never fail, never be permanently scattered and destroyed by wolves. Other Churches and other religions may have sincere believers and parts of the truth, but only Christ's one flock gathered around His visible shepherd's staff - the pope - is guaranteed never to fail.

This part of our Catholic faith is sometimes misunderstood. As Catholics, we believe in freedom of religion. That means that no one should be forced to become a member of any particular religion. To force someone to convert is to violate their dignity as a human being. But some people, and even some faithful Catholics, confuse freedom of religion with what the theologians call "religious indifferentism." Religious indifferentism is the attitude that says all religions are the same, and so it doesn't really matter which one you believe in, as long as you are sincere. But it is not true that all religions are the same.

Human nature is the same, and so the religious impulse that we all feel in the depths of our hearts is universal, present in every time, place, and culture. But different religions have different ways of dealing with that impulse. Satanists deal with it by worshipping the devil, even using human sacrifice sometimes. Buddhists deal with it by gradually detaching themselves from all activities of earthly life. And other religions deal with it in other ways. To say that all religions are basically the same is a lazy cop-out.

It also contradicts Christ's own message. He told the Apostles during the Last Supper, "I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).  And St. Peter said the same thing in today's First Reading: "... there is no other name under heaven by which we are to be saved."  

Our job is not to try and figure out how God saves those who never hear the gospel or receive an invitation to join Christ's one flock. Rather, our job is to spread the gospel and gather the scattered sheep of the world into Christ's own Catholic Church.