Coming Clean

525 Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night:

The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal
And the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.
The angels and shepherds praise him
And the magi advance with the star,
For you are born for us,
Little Child, God eternal!

526 To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children of God” we must be “born from above” or “born of God”. Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this “marvelous exchange”:

O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Alright, I think I’ve beaten the differences between Original Sin and Total Depravity to death. If there are still more questions or clarifications, I’d love an opportunity to answer them.

Next thing I’ve been thinking about lately is sin in the more general sense. What is sin and why is it such a problem?

At first blush, this is a pretty stupid question – sin is what God doesn’t want you to do, and so He’s gonna beat you senseless if you do it. But I think that’s more of a human (the fallen variety) way of seeing sin – it certainly sums up my fist inclinations in being a father of a 3 year old. God seems like a pretty big guy … so much so that it doesn’t make a lot of sense that He would truly be offended by the stupid things I do – He did, after all, create me and allow me to get into the position to sin … what, then, can really be so bad about it?

And so, we’re brought back to one of Christ’s simplest and yet perhaps most profound teachings: the Law is summed up in two commandments. The first is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like the first: love your neighbor as yourself.

The root of the Law, these two commandments, are rooted in love. And, in case you missed it, being rooted in love means that obedience and thus sin has everything to do with relationship and not so much about doing as you’re told.

So, that’s what I’ve been thinking about … and what I’ll probably be blogging more about for a while. I hope it interests you, oh silent readership.

So, apparently, there’s talk that the Pope will be issuing some kind of instruction with regards to Limbo soon-ish. The Pope, before he was Pope, more or less stated his more than unfavorable view of Limbo, so, I’m guessing he’s not really going to come out in any more favor for Limbo than already exists.

Limbo’s one of those teachings that are technically possible given the definition of things but more than likely is not real due to the nature of things. And, though it be a valid teaching that has existed in the Church for some time, it’s not a dogmatic teaching – you’re free to think someone who believes in Limbo is stupid … you just can’t tell them with any kind of authoritative weight that they’re wrong (right now, anyways).

So, what is Limbo? Well, Limbo’s that place where people who have not been baptized yet committed no sin spend eternity. They don’t go to heaven because they haven’t entered the life of grace that baptism inaugarates an individual into, and they don’t go to hell because they have not committed a sin. Remember, Catholics don’t believe that Original Sin makes people proper sinners – it makes them inevitable sinners … assuming that they get far enough into life to commit a real sin. So, since they technically can’t go either place, they go to Limbo – an in between state. Some imagine Limbo to be a place of utter contentment and happiness but no share God’s divine life and love. It sounds warm and fuzzy; I just don’t think it plays out theologically.

Now, this is a pretty medieval way of looking at things. It’s simple; it’s direct; and it instructs people on what they ought to do – get you and your babies baptized! If you’re medieval, you don’t have the time, the energy, and most of all the education to understand the why’s … it’s knowing WHAT to do that is the most important thing for you because, well, everyone around you is dying, and you need something to hope for and trust in. Persist the teaching beyond that time, though, and it arguably begins to miss and mislead the whole point of baptism and what and why God does therein.

See, Limbo assumes that God’s grace is limited to the Sacraments. If you want to go to heaven, you’ve got to get baptized. True enough, in the general sense of things. But what if you don’t have the opportunity to get baptized, what then? Well, assuming you desired to be baptized, then you’re covered by a “Baptism of Desire”. There’s a few other Baptisms as well. Still, that doesn’t quite resolve the issue of babies.

If a baby dies, is not baptized, and has committed no sin … what’s God gonna do?

Well, it’s really not a matter of heaven, hell, Limbo, yet. God’s grace is the foremost important thing in the human experience. It’s not limited to the Sacraments; though, the Sacraments are the most consistent place where we receive grace and one of the foremost places we are encouraged to go commune with God. But God’s grace is His to give as He will, and His grace is something that He showers upon us with overflowing abundance, both in the Sacraments and in our daily lives. So, that being true, why would we think that God would withold the grace He offers us everyday, in the ordinary and mundane of our lives and in the Sacraments, from infants who had no opportunity to live for themselves, as themselves, and without opportunity to the Sacraments?

I’m inclined to think that children are at the very least brought into an enlightenment upon death, and that God then offers them the life of His grace to accept or reject. I’m also inclined to think that children would take to God’s grace like they take to their mother’s breast. But as to all that, I’m happy and comfortable leaving it all a mystery, trusting in God’s grace and mercy, that all is right, fair, and just beyond any measure I can know in this life. Call me presumptous and perhaps a wee bit arrogant, but I imagine that Pope Benedict will come down somewhere in this area. It certainly seems to be what Pope John Paul believed. And I’m comfortable with it. It keeps Christianity focused on what it ought to be – the relationship, not just some of the prescribed and promised ways and means that so many get caught up in systemizing.