January 8, 2010
The Christian Journey
Why commitment to Christ and the Church is important
BY FATHER JIM SAUER
My previous article reflected on the “theory” of “Limbo” — Limbo being the “natural state of human joy” enjoyed by unbaptized babies because they were not freed from original sin through baptism. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI declared that “Limbo” was never an official belief of the Catholic Church. We need to be clear about this — the Holy Father did not do away with Limbo. He explained that Limbo had no biblical basis and thus was always just a “theory.”
The Holy Father’s clarification of Limbo is a long overdue gift to the Church. Although Limbo was never an official teaching of the Catholic Church, it affected the Church’s infant baptismal practices — perhaps more in larger cities like New York or Chicago than in our more rural diocese. Hospitals would often call priests to baptize babies in danger of death. If the babies had Catholic parents, this was a good custom. However, what if the baptized baby survived and had Jewish parents? Would his Jewish parents raise him as a baptized Christian or a faithful member of the Temple? What if a baby survived whose parents were atheists, would they raise him or her to know Christ?
There is no doubt that God’s grace can awaken faith in anyone later. However, a commitment to Christ and the Church must accompany the celebration of any sacrament if the sacrament is to be an authentic witness of our faith. When any sacrament is celebrated, there must be some desire to follow Christ (baptism), to change one’s life (Reconciliation), to join our sufferings with Christ (Anointing of the Sick), to live faithfully with one’s spouse (Marriage), etc. Recognizing that every person is at a different stage of his or her faith journey, we must receive everyone who comes with an “initial desire.” Yet we have the obligation to discern with them their commitment to Christ and the Church. As a church community, we must work with parents to deepen their commitment to Christ and the Church. The wrong approach to take is to slam the door in their faces saying, “Come back when your faith is more mature.”
“We must let God be God.” God can save people any way God wishes. If this were not the case, then God would not be sovereign. God most definitely works through our seven sacraments, but God is never bound by our sacraments. Sometimes the Church in her desire to do good has usurped the place of God. The Church needs to recognize her responsibility to baptize infants. We must also be honest with our parents regarding their involvement in parish life and their responsibility to share their faith with their child so that she or he can reach adulthood with the desire to continue as Christ’s disciples because of the credible witness their parents gave them.
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus (died 1897), in her autobiography, wrote about how she was troubled regarding the fate of both unbaptized infants and adults. She explains that, “One day as she looked out the window of her Carmelite monastery, God showed her all the flowers before her — various wild flowers in the fields and the many varieties of domesticated flowers. God told Theresa that she did not need to worry about the fate of the unbaptized. Just as all the flowers belonged to him as their Creator and God loved and cared for each one of them, so also God will bring every person to salvation in God’s own way.” God is working both through the Church’s sacraments and in ways known to God alone in the hearts of all people to bring them to eternal life.