The central question of our time is that of Christ, even within a sickly Christianity. We do not realize that by dint of opening ourselves to everyone, we end up marginalizing Christ, we consider him superfluous, optional in the mechanism of salvation.

By Giacomo Cardinal Biffi (excerpts)

…I would like to further clarify our problem: is it really true that the only way to salvation is that of Christianity, that of knowing Christ, of accepting Christ? Are there no other ways to reach salvation? Anyone who has read Ambrose has no doubts. Ambrose's answer is implicit in the clear and passionate vision he has of the Lord Jesus and of his allembracing uniqueness. …But Ambrose also had an opportunity to make his thought explicit. It is a very interesting episode, the controversy with Symmachus, prefect of the senate, about the restoration of the altar of the goddess victory in the senate. The altar, which had always been in the Senate of Rome, had been removed by the emperor Gratian, but in 384, when Gratian died and was succeeded by Valentinian II, who was just a boy and was under the influence of Justina, an Arian, the prefect of the senate asked the emperor with a complaint that this pagan altar be relocated. Ambrose opposed and sent a counter-complaint. (Arianism was a false teaching, a heresy, that the Son of God was not co-eternal with His Father and hence inferior and totally subordinate to Him.) (emphasis above added)

And we are fortunate to be able to read both documents that bear witness to an enlightening debate…. Although it may seem paradoxical, Ambrose's position in this discussion is the most secular. "In the Senate," he says, "pagan senators and Christian senators now sit together. So it is not right that someone's conscience is wounded by the external signs of a cult that is no longer accepted by everyone." Symmachus, in some respects, seems the most religious. He is convinced that there must be a religious sign. "Without a manifest religion, one cannot defend oneself sufficiently from abuse and iniquity. Therefore, a religious sign is needed where the common good is discussed and decided." Having to put a religious sign, it seems obvious to put the sign that has always been there and that among other things represents the spiritual continuity of Rome, Symmachus continues: "It is right to consider one and the same thing what everyone worships. We contemplate the same stars. The sky is common to us. The same world surrounds us. What does it matter what doctrine each one follows in the search for truth! Such a great mystery cannot be reached by a single path”.

Ambrose is not enchanted by Symmachus’s skillful eloquence and replies: “The pagans do speak of divinity in noble and refined terms but in practice their religion is resolved in homage to a mute and inert idol that is unworthy of man”. It is a religion that dishonors man. To Symmachus’s more subtle and more seductive argument he counters that all the paths to God would be acceptable if God himself had not revealed himself, if God himself had not positively indicated the itinerary to follow. “Let the God who created it teach me the mystery of the sky, not man who has not even known himself. “Who should I believe, if not God who has revealed himself? “How can I believe – reasons Ambrose – “you who confess that you do not know what you worship?”. “Such a great mystery,” says Symmachus, “cannot be reached by a single path.” “But what you ignore,” replies Ambrose, “is that we have learned the single path from the very voice of God, and that what you seek through hypotheses we know with certainty from the very wisdom of God and from his truth.”

Knowing the general thought of the bishop of Milan, we would dare to paraphrase these texts as follows: the event of the Son of God made man, who died on the cross for our salvation, puts all irenic relativism* out of play. (*Irenic relativism means there is no religious truth so don’t argue about it. Every religion is equally okay.) But St Ambrose reminds us: It is no longer up to man to decide which path is best for him to reach divinity, since divinity itself has established in Christ a path that is obligatory for all. The ideology that considers all religions to be good, all relative, is now going to shatter against the unique and incomparable fact of the redemption brought about by Christ.

In this regard, a clarification is needed: this decisive affirmation of the uniqueness of the way of salvation should not be understood at all as a departure from the belief in the existence in God of a universal salvific will, rather it should be assumed and interpreted in the light of this principle. Ambrose is clearer on this point than any other ancient writer and his pages do not raise any problems, any perplexities. The Father truly wants all his creatures to reach Him. He will find the way. But the way is His, not the one we decide. Christ is therefore universal savior precisely in the sense, as we have already seen, that no one can be lost, except because with a personal act of his he withdraws from that divine mercy that manifests and is implemented in Christ. Mercy that certainly knows how to find ways unforeseeable to us to achieve its purpose.

Symmachus is not dead, his insinuating voice is still heard in the editorial offices of newspapers, in the pronouncements of commentators, in the endless chatter of our time. “What does it matter what doctrine each one follows to search for the truth! Such a great mystery cannot be reached by a single path”. Unfortunately, this voice finds an audience even in the confused consciences of many Christians. Therefore we believe that it was not in vain to have given the floor also to its great antagonist. The weak thought of the ancient prefect of Rome is still effectively contrasted by the strong reason and faith of the ancient Milanese pastor. The central question of our time is that of Christ, even within languid Christianity. We do not realize that by dint of opening ourselves to everyone, we end up marginalizing Christ, we consider him superfluous, optional in the mechanism of salvation.(emphasis added) (END of excerpts from Cardinal Biffi’s address St. Ambrose was Archbishop of Milan, Father and Doctor of the Church)

NOTES
- The salvific will of God is that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3…Since Christ dies for all peoples, those righteous who lived before Christ known to God form part of what St. Augustine called the Church from the time of Abel. Pope Pius XII in his encyclical letter On the Mystical Body of Christ taught there was a double mode of belonging to the Catholic Church, in fact or by desire called a baptism of desire, a certain unconscious yearning. But this cannot be presumed and they are deprived of so many heavenly gifts in the Catholic Church. The Church has a duty to preach the Gospel and baptize all peoples.

- Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are “reborn of water and the Spirit.” God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.(emphasis added)

1258 The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament. 1259 For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament.

1260 "Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery." Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.

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