But before we look at what Vatican II says, perhaps in our discomfort with the notion of God having favorites, we might want to seek refuge in the thought that this notion is just an Old Testament attribute of God that Jesus changes when he arrives on the scene. Perhaps Jesus reveals to us a God who is a "depersonalized force," a broad force that is free of any particular attachments. But alas, our scripture just doesn't present us with this picture of God.
Jesus picked twelve disciples out of all those he had accumulated to become the core of a particular people who were to reconstitute the whole house of Israel, that's why Jesus picked twelve because there were twelve houses of Israel. Reading a social science commentary this past week, I discovered that there were three particular ways that folks associated together in Jesus' day. One way to associate was as a coalition - a fluid and permanent, multi-dimensional network of relations focused on limited goals. Just think of our first Iraqi war. We as a nation formed a coalition with all kinds of nations, much of which we had hardly anything in common with except that we all wanted to set Kuwait free. Once that goal happened, the coalition dissolved. There were coalitions in Jesus' day. But a coalition is not what Jesus created with the twelve.
Another association in Jesus' day was a corporate group: an association based on enduring principles like birth and marriage (such as the Sadducee party and its priestly basis). Or birth and political alliance (such as the Herodian party). Or a tested kinship rooted in commitment to a common ideology (such as the purity fellowship of the Pharisees). Sadducees, Herodians, Pharisees - there were corporate groups of people in Jesus' day. But a corporate group was not what Jesus created with the twelve.
Jesus created with the twelve what is called a faction: a type of coalition formed around a central person who recruits followers and maintains the loyalty of the core group. Factions share the common goal of the person recruiting the faction. Membership is based on a relationship with that central personage.
Today's gospel shows Jesus forming a faction, and sending them out with a particular limited mission - to invite the lost sheep of the house of Israel into the faction (into a relationship with its central personage, Jesus the Christ, God).
Now the astute scripture scholar will know that later in the gospel of Matthew 28:19 the ascending Christ lifts this limitation on the mission of the Twelve when he commands them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But this lifting of the limitations of the faction's mission is not an end to the faction Jesus created. It is rather a command to invite ALL of humanity into the faction.
Jesus' faction that began as the Twelve reconstituting the whole house of Israel, God's special possession dearer to Him than all other people, now was to grow as large as those who would respond to the invitation to join.
So today where do we find this faction built on the shoulders of the twelve apostles?
Who is this faction that is the reconstituted house of Israel, sent to invite all people into relationships, into covenants, with its central personage, Jesus Christ, God?
What is this visible Body of Christ in the world today?
Vatican Council II teaches that it is the Roman Catholic Church to which we belong.
The innovation of Vatican II was not that God's faction and means to salvation had somehow evolved out of existence. Rather Vatican II's ecumenical innovation was that whereas we used to say salvation is found only in Christ's faction, the visible Body of Christ in the world, the church, and nowhere else. Now we say salvation most certainly is found in the church and may be found outside it.
Likewise, where we used to say other religions and Christian communities had no relationship with Christ's faction, the visible Body of Christ in the world, the church, now we say other faiths and other Christian communities have some relationship with the church. Maybe it's the connection of a common baptism or shared scriptures or simply being a part of the human race.
Vatican II does not say God equally wills all faiths. Nor does Vatican II say all religions are mere alternative paths to God.
The Council doesn't say that. Rather, as St. Paul's letter to the Romans reminds us today, the Council teaches that God invested all in the particular incarnation of Jesus and the sacrifice of his life on the cross. A sacrifice that invested Christ's power to sanctify and to serve, to wash feet, in the particular faction built by him on the shoulders of the Twelve apostles.
Our modern mind balks at this kind of singular investment by God. We want to think God approaches the salvation of humanity in the same way we approach our stock portfolios - diversify. Through in a little bit of everything just to be sure. But when you have a sure thing, don't you put everything into that basket?
When Jesus called together his faction, the twelve, his singular requirement was the love relationship to him and to his mission - a proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. It was this love relationship that made Peter's reconciliation the rock on which the church is built and Judas' betrayal so deep. Jesus invests everything into his relationship with his disciples, his faction, and asks for the same in return.
In the end, perhaps the more important question is not "How can God have favorites"? But rather "Is Jesus Christ and his mission ours"?
