Psalm 132 says, "For the Lord has chosen Zion; he prefers her for his dwelling. 'Zion is my resting place forever; in her will I dwell, for I prefer her.'"
And so was the great comfort of Israel, that they were the Chosen ones. But now, in the new dispensation, God desires the salvation of all and prefers to dwell in all. So I can rejoice because God chooses to dwell in useless me, a Gentile, and I can rejoice for having been baptized and have access to the sacraments. If the sacraments are efficacious then how can one not feel chosen? For there is no merit in being Catholic by birth...
I see the attraction of the "no salvation outside the Church" types, who see the Catholic Church as the new Israel and its members as the new Chosen ones. For there is a great attraction to be chosen, to be called by name, to be singled out in some way. Love usually means exclusivity in humans - we choose one spouse among all the others - whereas with God love means inclusivity. But wow, what a tension - I long to believe in universalism, but I can't seem to do that without denigrating the sacraments, and therefore Christ, because that would be saying the sacraments have no special efficacy. God is not bound by the sacraments but if he routinely works around them then isn't it like what they say about miracles - if they happened all the time then they wouldn't be miracles, i.e. special?
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