There is an element of the reality of Jesus Christ and of our Catholic faith that draws us to completeness. Sin, by contrast, wishes to push us toward isolation, fracture and brokenness. 

 

As we place our faith in Jesus, we must receive Him as He truly is and as He showed Himself to be when He walked the earth 2,000 years ago. That is to say, He was not simply a great man, a wise leader, an exceptional teacher. At the same time, He was not only God, among us as a figure, as some sort of divine phantasm. We hold that Jesus was fully God and at the same time fully man. He was the Son of God and yet He took upon Himself the same body and its joys and sorrows and weaknesses that we know so intimately. 

 

This is a great mystery whose fullness is beyond our human limitations to completely grasp or articulate. But we are able to believe even what we cannot fully understand.

 

If we ponder this aspect of faith, we immediately sense the completeness that it offers to us. First, only by accepting the reality of Jesus as one Person with two natures, human and divine, does the Christ event truly make sense. God so loved us that He sent His only Son, true God, to take us back through the same instrument by which we had lost His friendship, human nature.

 

Only this completeness of God and man underlies the completeness of the Eucharist and the other sacraments. The sacraments convey God’s life of grace through human signs, words, actions and persons, again uniting humanity and divinity.

 

There is another aspect of faith that is essential for completeness. That involves our actions and decisions in living out our faith in this world.

 

In recent decades, there has been a thought frequently expressed that we can authentically live our Catholic faith by stressing certain aspects of Church teaching or practice, even if we prescind or even dissent from other elements of Catholic teaching. For example, the argument is sometimes made that if one lives in a manner that supports the poor and needy, or if one works for aspects of social justice, adherence to other moral teachings such as respecting the life of the unborn, not engaging in contraceptive or sterilizing means of regulating pregnancy, or even respect for the freedom of conscience are optional for the individual.

 

In that same light, it is important that as we work in support of what the Bishops of the United States have called “our preeminent priority” which is the end to the widespread tragedy of abortion, we demonstrate as well our commitment to other elements of Catholic social teaching afterwards such as respect for the human person relating to refugees, racial justice or care for the poor. (Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, no. 32)

 

In the end, we must acknowledge that our faith is a seamless whole. No aspect of belief or practice can be excluded or pitted against another. Our effort to become more like Christ touches all aspects of life. We must ensure that we do not dispense ourselves from any part of the grace and calling that Jesus has so lovingly lavished on us as our life-long fulfillment of our baptismal calling.