The Church’s Salvation & Mission

The One True Church

Why be a Catholic?

• The Catholic Church alone has the fullness of the means to salvation– Other faiths have the elements of sanctification and

truth

• Do you have to be Catholic to be saved?– God offers salvation to ALL people including those

who have never heard of Jesus or the church.

• Why belong to an organized religion?– Humans are social by nature. God offers us salvation

through the community of the Church

Can everyone be saved?

• God loves all people and wills everyone to be saved

• God wills everyone to come to knowledge of the Truth– We are saved through knowledge of the Truth.

Jesus is the “Way, Truth and the Life”• The Church is entrusted with the obligation

to proclaim this truth to the world through its missionary activity

Fullness of the Church• The Marks of the Church

One Holy

Catholic Apostolic

• Revelation– Transmitted through Scripture and Tradition

• Sacraments– 7 signs instituted by Jesus to bring us grace

• Ordained ministry– Apostolic Succession

Church is necessary for salvation

• Jesus established the Church as a visible organization through which He communicates grace, truth, and salvation.

• Jesus spoke of the necessity of baptism– “Whoever believes and is baptized will be

saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned”

– “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”

The Church as Sacrament• Visible sign of the saving union between God and

humans.– Sacramentum- visible sign– Mysterium- hidden reality

• Visible signs of God’s presence– Jesus

• Primary sacrament- makes God’s presence visible– Church

• Through the Church we come to know Jesus and celebrate the sacraments

• Brings grace and redemption– Sacraments

• Visible signs of the invisible grace they contain• Efficacious signs

Salvation outside the church?

• Salvation is offered to all people– People moved by God’s grace who try to do God’s will

as they know it by their conscience– Only God knows how

• Grace and Truth outside the visible boundaries of the Church– God’s great mercy– Saving Grace

• The Church’s continuing mission– Continues to call all people to the fullness of the

Church

Who needs Organized Religion?• The social nature of Humans

– Created to live in community– Need each other for support– Goal of communion with God

• Communal and individual worship– Part of: liturgical assembly, local diocese and

worldwide Church– Liturgical prayer is meant for communal worship– Individual prayer brings us to communal prayer

• Made in God’s image– Trinity , communion of three persons, one God

• We resemble this relationship

1. In what sense is the Church necessary for salvation?2. What does it mean to say that the fullness of the Church of Christ is

found in the Catholic Church?

3. Can a person who has never heard of Christ or his Church still be saved? If so, in what way?

4. Can the Holy Spirit be active outside the visible boundaries of the

Catholic Church? Discuss examples.5. How are the social needs of human beings related to the way God offers

us salvation?

6. In what ways is the Church’s worship communal?

Review Questions

1. In what sense is the Church necessary for salvation?

Christ is the one path to salvation, and he is present to us most fully in the Church, which he instituted as the visible organization through which he communicates grace, truth, and salvation. God entrusted the truth of salvation to the Church and charged her with proclaiming that truth to the world.

2. What does it mean to say that the fullness of the Church of Christ is found in the Catholic Church?

We say that the fullness of Christ’s Church is found in the Catholic Church because she is the only Church with the fullness of the four marks: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

3. Can a person who has never heard of Christ or his Church still be saved? If so, in what way?

Yes, those who have never heard of Christ or his Church—through no fault of their own—can still be saved if they sincerely seek God, are moved by his grace, and try to do his will as they know it in their conscience. God offers them salvation in a way that he alone knows.

4. Can the Holy Spirit be active outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church? Discuss examples.

The Holy Spirit communicates the grace of salvation even outside the visible boundaries of the Church by working through non-Catholic churches and ecclesial communities to offer salvation to their members. For example, a member of another Christian denomination who is baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is recognized as baptized by the Church. If that person converts to Catholicism, he or she is not re-baptized in the Church, which considers the person’s Baptism valid already.

5. How are the social needs of human beings related to the way God offers us salvation?

God created us with the need to live in community and build relationships—we cannot attain true happiness in isolation. Our social needs are a gift from God, who saves us by calling us together as one group, the Church. Christ distributes the saving gift of grace through the community of the Church, for he is present when we gather together. The goal of salvation is ultimately about relationship: communion with God and unity among all people.

6. In what ways is the Church’s worship communal?

The Church’s worship is communal on many different levels. We are part of the assembly gathered for the liturgical celebration. We are part of the local church (or diocese). We worship as part of the entire People of God, both throughout the world and also in Heaven—the angels and holy people who have reached eternal life. Liturgical celebration is itself communal, not individual: It is the work of the whole Christ, the head in union with the body. And in the Eucharistic sacrifice, the Church offers herself in union with Christ’s sacrifice.