I would say the CCC makes it clear that certain of the verses of John 17:20-23 are dealing with the questions of the unity of ALL Christians, not just Catholics. The CATHOLIC Church has always been one, is one, and always will be, but all those who have believed because of the apostles (hint, ALL Christians) have NOT been one. The FULL collections of those who profess Christ is not one. And because this collection has been terribly divided, the world has NOT been able to believe. It has LOST faith.
Question here then, will Christ’s prayer be answered in full? That’s not settled in the RCC. I believe I heard a typical pessimism from Father Korapi, he just says matter of fact, “There has always been division, probably always will be.” From what I have heard, Father Groshel is slightly more optimistic, but in the end not: He thinks the gray areas will be weeded out, but that it won’t restore the faith. That is, eventually, there will only be total Catholics and total apostates, but he doesn’t believe that the elimination of the gray areas will restore the faith.
Well, I don’t listen to Father Groschel or Father Korapi in this regard. I listen to the real mystics, the fully approved private revelations discussed at EWTN: Christians willl be reunited, if necessary by the minor chastisement, and this reunion WILL enable the world to believe. Down with pessimistc augustinians!!! I don’t believe the field is always equally weeds and wheat. I am beginning to get frustrated with the typical bs of “well the parable of the wheat and tares trumps all other apoc data of Scripture and tradition.” I don’t think Matthew 13 is the primary basis for apoc ideas. I think the creation and beast metaphors are more primary that wheat and tares. Good and evil do not exist in EQUAL quantities across OT history, and I don’t think they have been equal in NT history. I think good and evil ALTERNATE in prevalence in history. First comes sin, then comes redemption (on a major scale, anyway). Our literal days are not one continuous stream of gray. Rather, FIRST we go through darkness, THEN comes the light.
I think this the whole problem with pessimistic augustinianism. The argument is, “but there’s always weeds, hence, there never be temporary fullness of peace before Christ returns. There will always be significant evil in history until Christ returns”. It’s typical, people say, “there’s always been evil since the fall, hence there is no general rest from sin, even temporary, until Christ returns”. But this denies the seventh day. Of course, there has always been major sin in history because we’ve been working for six days. But there are TWO SABBATHS, not just one. Christ returns in the ultimate sabbath in the eighth day, yes, but what about the seventh day? Augustinianism says, but days six and seven are one in the same, for in the age of the Church, we both work and rest, his yoke is light but there is also the cross. That’s true, but we don’t need to have significant MORAL evil to have crosses. Physical evil is enough. So I don’t see what is wrong with believing that a minor chastisement in which the world nearly ends will be so shocking that it will manifest, through the power of modern materialistic amplfication, ALL of the various errors that separate Christ’s children, in such a way that virtually all non-Catholic Christians, through seeing the full consequences of their various errors, are able to recognize the full light of the Church, come home, and this glorious restoration will then ENABLE the outside world to “believe”, so that Christ’s disciples are “brought to perfection as one”, ushering in a great reversion of man to the Gospel, so that peace and love reign in the SEVENTH day of man’s history, completing Christ’s plan for redemption WITHIN human history, giving an imperfect Sabbath to man, the seventh day, before the sun sets in the eighth day, with the great apostasy, which is then followed by the ultimate sabbath, the New Creation.
so then, I would say,
I. FIRST comes darkness: because of sin, Christ’s disciples become divided, and their failure to become one causes LOSS of faith. but…
II. THEN comes the light: through chastisement, wounds to unity are redeemed and healed, the children are reunited, and the faith is RESTORED.
This makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than typical augustinian pessimism, “well, no, there’s always plenty of weeds with the wheat, so then there will always be division amongst Christians in general.”
again, our days, the biblical days, begin with darkness and are followed by light. we do not live in a continous gray from 6pm to 6pm.
