Does Jesus Contradict Himself?

 

What does Jesus mean by “Whoever is not against us is for us”?

 

Jesus says in Mark 9: 39-40: “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.  For whoever is not against us is for us." 

But we have to weigh this quote from Jesus with this other quotation of His that we find in Luke’s Gospel (11:23) “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

 

Saint Augustine actually demonstrates how both of these statements of Jesus are in harmony. 

“A person who worked miracles in the name of Christ, and yet did not join himself to the body of his disciples, [the Catholic Church], in so far as this person worked miracles in the name of Christ, that person is with them.  But the Disciples should have tried to persuade this person of the unity of the Church”

“The Catholic Church does disprove the sacraments that heretics share in common with the Catholic Church, but the Catholic Church blames them for their division and opinions of theirs, for in this they are against us.”

 

So what St. Augustine was teaching 1700 years ago is STILL what the Catholic Church teaches.  How?  We consider the Orthodox, who are not in full Communion with us, the Catholic Church says the Orthodox still have a valid priesthood and thus also a valid Eucharist.  We recognize their baptisms and confirmations as well.

 

The non-Catholic Christians (“protestants”), if they baptize “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, the Catholic Church recognizes their baptisms as valid.  We consider their weddings to be a Sacramental marriage.  They have most of the Bible…

 

But again, as St. Augustine says, we have to do EVERYTHING we can to help non-Catholics become Catholic.