Christ didn't save 'me': He saves us.

I got into a discussion over this past week on Facebook in the Catholic (Global) discussion group about Anne Rice's defection after recently reconciling herself to the Catholic Church. Before mass this morning, I was reading from the 1st volume of the Selected Works of Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, (Archdiocese of Chicago, 2000) and came across yet another reminder of the GROUP nature of my own salvation, and wonderful pastoral advice on how to treat those who create scandal within our churches:

Quote from "Christ Lives in Me: a pastoral reflection on Jesus and His Meaning for Christian Life" by Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, 1985:

"Jesus is also our way to the Father through the Church which he established to continue his saving mission. He made it clear from the very beginning that his mission had a communitarian dimension...

...it makes no sense to say, as some do, that one accepts Christ but rejects the Church.

Why then, do many people take this attitude? In some cases, I believe, because they wish to avoid the obligations which accepting Christ in his Church would entail. But others are sincere--they find it hard to see Christ in a community which in the past and also today has at times fallen tragically short of the high standards proclaimed by Christ.

The Church is not an impersonal institution; it is made up of people. Jesus himself warned that there would always be wicked and insensitive people among us. Even those who were privileged to be in Jesus' immediate company during his life on earth often bickered among themselves, misunderstood his message, fell short of the standards he set for them. One betrayed him, and their chief, Peter, denied him.

Today, too, all of us can recognize failings in ourselves which dim Christ's image in the Church. The presence of weakness and evil in the Church--in us who ARE the Church--is simply a reminder that we are all sinful and always in need of forgiveness and healing...

A clear pastoral imperative flows from all this. Not only have we been redeemed by Christ, we are to CONTINUE Christ's redemptive mission in the world, individually and together with the other members of Christ's Church. This requires striving to be absolutely faithful, as he was, to the Father's will and to overcome evil primarily through redemptive suffering..."

Many of my friends who come from Southern Baptist or other reformed traditions spend a lot of time talking about our personal commitments to Christ and our personal salvation. Well, 'person-ally' I don't see how Christian faith can be expressed in isolation like that. It's not 'me' that Our Lord came to save, but 'us': I'm saved because I'm in that 'us' to whom He deigns to extend His lifeline of grace and mercy. I'm not one to comment on which of the church communities around me are part of the same Body of Christ as me, since that is a judgment proper to Him alone: we all should do just what the Holy Spirit directs us to do in faith and good conscience. Just don't do it alone!