Eucharist QUESTION from Mary Brown October 17, 1999 Jesus said - Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Nevertheless, we all know many non Catholics who appear to have abundant life in them.
Would you please comment on this?
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius on October 21, 1999 Dear Mrs. Brown:
The Church teaches that God's mercy extends to Whomever He pleases.
The Church also teaches that membership in the Catholic Church, and the receiving of the Eucharist is required to be saved.
But in God's mercy, those people, who through know fault of their own do not know the Church, or even Christ, may still partake of God's mercy according to what they know of God with a sincere heart.
Protestants do have a measure of the faith and do believe in Jesus Christ. In as much as they have the true Christian faith God gives them grace accordingly, and by that they may live an abundant life to the limits of their faith.
However, to live the abundant life to its fullest measure would require having the fullness of the faith, which is in the Catholic Church alone.
The Catechism paragraph numbers 836-848 speaks to these sorts of issues.
God Bless
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