It is an absolute title. It includes everything. Either Christ is Lord of all that is, or He is Lord not at all. If there is something outside his power, not under his dominion, then He is not truly Lord.

           A couple of months ago the Vatican published a document called Dominus Jesus, Jesus is the Lord. Some people saw it as an attack on other world religions such as Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Judaism, etc. The news media claimed that the document said that only Catholics could be saved, everyone else was condemned, and only the Catholic Church had the truth, none of the other churches had anything of value to offer the world. Some theologians said Dominus Jesus was a death blow for ecumenism, it made dialogue with other religions impossible.       

           What does the document say?

§         All salvation is through Christ. I firmly hope to go to heaven on day. And I firmly expect to find Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and every variety of protestant there along with us Catholics. The point is, however, that anyone who is saved is saved by Christ. How Christ gives people his grace, how he saves them, is not known to us. But he is the Savior of all mankind, the only savior. As Peter says at Pentecost: “There is salvation in no one else.”

§         Also there is a big difference between the various world religions and Christianity. Religions like Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, all have elements of truth in them, but whatever truth they have is there by the mercy of Christ. Non Christian religions are really man’s search for God. That is a long hard search filled with many difficulties and errors along the way. But Christianity is different. Christianity is God’s search for man, God’s revelation of Himself to man in Jesus Christ. Christ is the full and complete expression of who God is.

          This is what makes Jesus Christ superior and supreme. Jesus is not the equal of human beings like Confucius, Gandhi, Mohammed, or Buddha, but their Lord and master, because He is their God and creator in human form. It is not smugness or arrogance on the part of the Catholic Church to say this, but simple recognition of who Jesus Christ is.

           Aren’t all Christian Churches the same? Aren’t all Christian religions equally good? Obviously not. If God has revealed himself to us in Christ, the religion, the church in which God is most fully revealed will be superior to all others. That revelation of God takes place in the Catholic church and in the Catholic religion.

           That does not mean that all Catholics are saints, or perfect people. We have as many human weaknesses as anyone else. We are guilty of the same sins. What it does mean is that Jesus Christ through no merit of our own has blessed us with the fullness of revelation about God. Our gratitude to Him for what He has revealed to us moves us to share and communicate with others the truth we have been given.

           Ecumenism and dialogue is not like a game of poker where all the participants start off with more or less the same amount of money, and then at the end somebody wins the big pot and the others go home broke. Ecumenism and dialogue are not a game where there are winners and losers.

           Ecumenism and dialogue are a movement toward truth and unity, unity in the truth that is revealed to us by Jesus Christ the Lord. It is as if the riches of his revelation were an ocean, and all participants were involved in swimming, exploring, and charting that ocean together.

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