The Catholic Church still remains the only institution in the history of the world that offers answers to the two deepest longings of the human heart which are: true forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Heaven.
These two wonderful things that are made possible solely by the supernatural power of Jesus Christ. It’s only the Lord, and the Lord alone, who has the ability to save sinful and selfish humanity.
Let’s be clear about that.
Having our sins being forgiven and avoiding the fires of Hell are possible only through the grace of God. However, grace is defined as unmerited favor, something we do not deserve, nor can we earn on our own. Because it is a gift from God.
So, when God gives us the gifts of forgiveness and salvation through grace, we have to wholly accept those gifts and use the grace of God to change our lives. As St. Paul explained in his letter to the Ephesians, (Eph. 2:8-10) “we are saved FOR good works, not saved BY good works”.
This particular good news of forgiveness and salvation through Christ is the heart of the St. John’s Gospel message in (John 3:16), “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life”.
In that case, Jesus established a church here on earth, and He gave that particular church the authority to preach this message to the entire world.
And for the first 1,000 years of Christianity, that church has been the Roman Catholic Church.
As a result of that, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains very clearly about our “separated brethren” in other non-Catholic Christian communities, which includes Eastern Orthodox and Protestant denominations.
The Catechism tells us that these groups possess four things which are: valid baptism; the right to be called Christian; the Word of God; and most important of all, the means of salvation.
But let’s not forget easily, that it is an undeniable fact that all Christian denominations, including those of our Protestant friends, received the Good News of forgiveness and salvation originally from the Catholic Church.
Even Martin Luther, who was a no friend of Catholicism, even acknowledged this. As he said, “We are obliged to yield many things to the [Catholics], that they possess the Word of God which we received from them, because without them, we should have known nothing about it.”
In that case, the two things the human heart desires desperately are true forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Heaven and they are made possible by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the Good News of the Gospel, and only one institution has been proclaiming this message consistently for almost 2,000 years and that institution is the Catholic Church.
