The fundamental question of this film is: Is man's salvation accomplished through God's gratuitous love or through our works? Four events in history show us that the question of justification – man's salvation – is a fundamental question: On October 31, 1517, the German monk Luther posted his "95 Theses on the Virtue of Indulgences" on the chapel door of Wittenberg Castle. He questioned the practice of the Church, which teaches that the Pope's indulgences free man from all punishments and save him. Luther, in isolation from the Catholic Church, formulated a doctrine of divine grace: "Our faith in Christ does not free us from works, but frees us from false opinions about them, that is, from the mad presumption that justification is accomplished by works." As Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a Capuchin preacher in the Papal Household, says, the Council of Trent in 1545 provides a Catholic response to the objections raised by the Reformers, giving place to faith on the one hand and to good works on the other, but emphasizing that we will not be saved without good works. But in fact, because Protestants unilaterally emphasized faith, the Catholic Church in its teaching and spirituality took on the thankless role of almost exclusively reminding us of the necessity of good works and of man's personal contribution to salvation. As a result, the vast majority of Catholics in their entire lives have never heard a direct proclamation of free justification by faith that did not contain an excessive number of "buts" and "howevers." On June 25, 1530, the so-called Augsburg Confession of Faith officially seals the division between Catholics and Protestants. On October 31, 1999, happily in Augsburg, the Roman Catholic Church and the World Federation of Lutheran Churches reach an agreement and jointly declare: "Only by the grace of God, and not on the basis of our merits, are we accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts and enables and calls us to perform good works." The content of this ecumenical agreement - justification by faith and by God's grace alone - is wonderfully lived by two spiritual masters, a Catholic and a Protestant: Teresa of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (1873-1897) - chosen as the patroness of missions and recognized by the Catholic Church as a Doctor of the Church - and the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), a philosopher and brilliant theologian, murdered by the Nazis in April 1945. Both, through their writings, their experience, and especially through the way they experienced their suffering, offer us a surprisingly convergent experience: "everything is grace." The only "work" that counts from now on is the entrustment of oneself to the purifying and transforming power of God's gratuitous love. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thérèse of Lisieux practiced this total entrustment of oneself into the hands of God: Dietrich, when he was in captivity and when all hopes of regaining freedom were slowly melting away, knew at the same time that his only salvation was to accept God's will for him in freedom and joy. Thérèse, when she sensed the end of her life, ill with pneumonia, experiencing a profound test of faith and hope, remained convinced that if she made herself completely small before God's love, He would come for her. Both of them, important figures on the path of ecumenism, wonderfully confirm this joint statement on justification by faith and by the grace of God alone, signed on October 31, 1999 in Augsburg, and can help us to practice it. (attached is the text of Cardinal Walter Kasper) Ce film est réalisé par la Communauté du Chemin Neuf via le réseau de international prière « Net for God ». Pour nous contacter: [email protected] NFG_07_03_PL_