The Gospels tell us that God’s mercy is unlimited and unconditional, has no favorites, is equally concerned for everyone’s happiness and salvation, and does not ration his gift of the Spirit. How prone are we to think that for my religion to be true, it’s important to me that other religions are not true! For my Christian denomination to be faithful to Christ, it’s important that all the other denominations be considered less faithful. For the Eucharist in my denomination to be valid, it’s important that the Eucharist in other denominations be invalid or less valid. And, since I’m living a certain sustained fidelity in my faith and moral life, it’s important to me that everyone else who isn’t living as faithfully does not get to heaven or is assigned to a secondary place in heaven. Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that we aren’t the first disciples of Jesus to think this way and to be challenged by him. That is, in fact, a large part of the lesson in Jesus’ parable regarding an over-generous landowner who paid everyone the same generous wage no matter how much or little each had worked. Jesus addresses the one making the complaint as a friend: “Why are you jealous because God is overly generous?” Why is it important to us that because we are doing things right, God should be demanding of those who aren’t? Generosity speaks of openness, hospitality, empathy, wide tolerance, and sacrificing some of ourselves for others. Orthodoxy speaks of certain non-negotiable truths, keeping proper boundaries, staying true to what you believe, and not compromising truth for the sake of being nice. These two are often pitted against each other as opposites, but they are meant to be together. Hence, you can be a Christian, convinced that Christianity is the most authentic expression of religion in the world, without judging that other religions are false. You can be a Roman Catholic, convinced that Roman Catholicism is the truest and fullest expression of Christianity, and your Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus, without making the judgment that other Christian denominations are not valid expressions of Christ and do not have a valid Eucharist. There’s no contradiction there. You can be right without that being contingent on everyone else being wrong!