CMMB: Your Weekly Reflection in Prayer 8/25/2013

“People will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at a table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”   Luke 13:29-30  August 25, 2013 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Dear Friends, A few weeks ago, Pope Francis shocked many by saying that even atheists are redeemed by the Blood of Christ! “We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all.” The Holy Father did not say that everyone, including the atheist WILL be saved, but he simply repeated the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that atheists can get to heaven. Here is what is read in Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (#16): “Nor shall divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to those, who, without any fault of theirs, have not arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and who, not without grace, strive to lead a good life.” Is not this what Jesus is saying in the gospel, that many will come from east and west and take their place at table in the Kingdom? God’s love reaches out to all, as this prayer reminds us. And then we in turn show that love to others, as we “strive to lead a good life.” Eternal God, we live among peoples whose ways are different from ours, whose faiths are foreign to us, whose tongues are unintelligible to us. Help us to remember that You love all people with Your great love, that all religion is an attempt to respond to You, that the yearnings of other hearts are much like our own. Help us to recognize You in the words of truth, the things of beauty, the actions of love about us. Amen Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J., CMMB Board of Directors