ON THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT OF SALVATION

In his goodness and wisdom, God freely chose to reveal himself and to make known his
salvation to all creatures. This revelation makes it possible for man to reach out to God. Thus,
man becomes capax Dei. In this way, God’s glory is being manifested and communicated to his
creation. Hence, the fullness of revelation was definitively manifested in the mysterious
incarnation of Jesus Christ, which makes it possible of God to enter into the history of humanity.
God’s providence plainly shows the love and care He has for his creation. In the fullness of time
God sent his only begotten Son to perfect history and thus, history is brought to its supernatural
end. Should God not care for his creation as the deists claim it, the Church, which is the
sacrament of his presence, would not have come into its present status. A realization of a loving
God makes the Church stand through the test of times.

In my almost seven years in the seminary, I admit of having partially known the Church
in terms of her mysterious stance in the world. However, due to her vast and complicated history,
I come to realize the immensity of her struggles with the world—politically, economically, etc.
This is precisely because the Church as the sacrament of salvation is only a sign pointing towards
the real salvation. Another thing that could be deduced from it is the fact of being a status viae.
She is bound by time. She is, therefore a viator. She is still journeying towards the heavenly
station. That is why, paved with her are the evils both physical and moral that often lead to her
own persecution.

The upheaval of politics caused numerous confusions within the church. Its influence was
hard to decipher that it created a vast expanse of divisions. The faithful are being torn between
serving God and man, which clearly expresses its incompatibility. More often than not, these
divisions even resulted to some scandalous turns. For instance, the Great Schism in 1054 was
one of its terrible effects. This also created an impression contrary to the teaching of church on
unity. In addition, the coming into view of Luther and his erroneous interpretations on some
aspects of the teaching of the Church, also contributed to the sufferings of the church. Seeing the
church in this arena, one might think that she ceases to be the sacrament of salvation. Instead, she
becomes a dartboard in which each could throw his arrows. However, the Church in her direct
connection to God and guided by the Holy Spirit stood and moved along with them. She was so
gentle and motherly that she passed the hole of the needle steadfastly.

Moreover, my church history professor would always remind us during our classes that it
is an absurdity to judge church history from the perspective of the present times. If that is the
case, one might be going against the current, which could lead us into an erroneous history
because modern man tries to interpret it from his modern perspective. History is history. It
happened in the past but Christ, the Lord of history, perfected it. Hence, one might ask, is the
history of the church perfect? To answer it, we have to consider first the reality of creation
journeying to its perfection. Only then, we shall be able to comprehend that as the history of the
church unfolds it entails imperfections: physical, moral, etc. That is why, the evils that the
church has been facing since time immemorial should not startle us rather they should strengthen
our faith. God, in His wisdom, permits these to happen so that she would reach her goal
perfectly. Of course, our faith tells us that the church in infallibly holy par excellence. Since she
is structured in the world filled with imperfections and her members are not exempt from being
viators, then she shares analogically with the path of the cross. In fact, the blood of the all-holy,
the Lord Jesus Christ, bathed her.

Nowadays, the church remains the very sign of the heavenly kingdom. No matter how
modern man tries to inflict in her many forms of persecutions, she never ceases to call all to her
loving embrace. We cannot deny the fact that the church continues her mission entrusted to her
by Christ despite the dissuasions of the world. However, it is evident once again in our society
that she is being tied and silenced. The insidious snares of the evil one blind people holding
powers in the government. A dichotomization of the society is portrayed and thus, compromising
its transcendence. Recently, I happened to read a post in Facebook about the president saying
that we do not need the church because it will not save us it is God. That is why, he does not
want the church to reprimand him about the immoralities he is doing. He wants the Church to
focus on her mission and not interfere the modus operandi of the administration. Hence, this
ideology draws back from the age of enlightenment wherein reason rules everything. Thus,
history repeats itself. There is now a crisis of faith. When faith is lost, everything crumbles and
disorders society. Cardinal Sarah is his book God or Nothing confidently exhorts that more than
material needs, absence of God is the greatest crisis ever. During his time he sedulously work
and fight for the injustices that were happening in his country. He said that I, as the
representative of the Church could not afford to remain silent while his people are suffering.

At this point, I cannot still imagine the future of the church. Hence, I am assured of the
providence of God. He knows certainly the future of the Church. In fact, I am afraid that
someday people will no longer believe in the church because most people limit themselves from
the idea of the church as historical. Historical in the sense that her relevance belongs to the past.
Another extreme could be assumed from a point of view that the church has to adjust from the
demands of the modern world. That is why; the church is in constant reform or aggiornamento.
She tries as much as possible to address the demands of the world without compromising the
essentials. For instance, trends on modifying the nature of man greatly affects the teachings of
the Church. The Church on her part cannot alter her standards because some people are unable to
live to them.

Finally, the history of the church leads us to consider how far we have gone from the
moment Jesus entrusted His Church to Peter. Moreover, with regard to the future, we cannot but
place all our hopes in the hands of God. He is the Lord of history. This is His Church and as
members, as ministers, as future ministers our duty is to be faithful to His Divine call. We have
to defend her even if it costs our life. We have no other way of rendering justice to God other
than being faithful to his Church. As a mother, no suffering she experiences greater than losing
her children.