Margaret H. McCarthy interprets Vatican II’s “openness to the world” as a mission grounded in the Incarnation and in Trinitarian and crucified love, not as accommodation to secular trends or shallow humanism. The Council’s engagement with humanistic atheism begins from the claim that humanity cannot be understood apart from God; the Church therefore serves the world precisely by remaining distinctively Christian and witnessing to the mystery of Christ. Its revealed knowledge of creation’s ultimate purpose gives it a responsibility to guide humanity toward the light of divine love. The discussion then turns to predestination, human freedom, and the hope for universal salvation. Augustine’s account presents election and the grace of perseverance as entirely gratuitous, raising the question of why such grace is not given to all. The Magisterium affirms the necessity of grace, rejects predestination to evil, and maintains that God desires everyone’s salvation while human beings can accept or resist grace. A Christ-centered reformulation, associated here with Hans Urs von Balthasar, seeks to move beyond both fatalism and presumption by integrating biblical vigilance, universal salvific purpose, creation, and the mission of the Incarnate Son. The Church’s openness thus remains a “narrow gate”: broad engagement that continues to challenge the world as a sign of contradiction.