In the Church, there is openness to all truth. We have preserved all God revealed to His People: first to the Jews, then to the Christians. And we accept all God has clarified or human intellect discovered before or after that amplifies that revelation. In 1965, the bishops at Vatican II, recognizing the Church’s “task of promoting unity and love among people,” looked to “what humans have in common and what draws them to fellowship.” Mentioning specifically Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, the bishops affirmed, “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions” (“Declaration On The Relation Of The Church To Non-Christian Religions,” 1, 2). 

No one culture can best prepare people to appreciate, or enable them to express and embody in customs, all that is good and true and beautiful. When the Church discovered she was “catholic” (kata-holos, universal) at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:1), she realized Christianity is not identified with its expression in Jewish culture or any other. Later attempts to impose Roman or European cultural forms on Christians of other countries were inconsistent with our Catholic character. 

When we think of the Church, we should not think of some narrow, restrictive body of doctrine, but of a community that professes openness to be one with all that is true and good and beautiful—but which, at the same time, has the sureness, the certitude, and the courage to proclaim some truths explicitly as doctrines or dogmas of faith. 

To proclaim openness to everything while refusing to commit to anything is pure self-deception. It is a denial of truth and a refusal of goodness at the very root of our being. 

Today’s Psalm (Psalm 62) cries out, “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.”

Prayer Prompt: Lord, help me see what you intended for the Church and its people.

— Fr. David M. Knight

View today’s Mass readings, Lectionary #352, on the USCCB website here

Fr. David M. Knight (1931-2021) was a priest of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee, a prolific writer, and a highly sought after confessor, spiritual director, and retreat master. He authored more than 40 books and hundreds of articles that focus primarily on lay spirituality and life-long spiritual growth.