Common Sense Catholicity Item #4: Water and Spirit, Even For Infants

            Outside the Catholic Church, there is a wide variety of perspectives on baptism and its effects. A good number of Christians believe that baptism is a mere symbol, perhaps holding enough significance as “obeying Christ.” A common belief is that baptism is an outward symbol of an inward event of spiritual rebirth. Interestingly, the Church agrees on this last point, teaching that the Sacrament of Baptism is a symbol. Yet, she goes further (and the concept applies to other sacraments), teaching that the outward symbol has an inward and real effect of that which is symbolized, by the power of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this sacrament, the symbol of being submersed in or washed by water effects purification of sin and rebirth in the Holy Spirit (CCC, 1262).                     

            While the Church does believe that God is not limited by his own designs, she also testifies that he has made baptism the ordinary way in which sinners are forgiven, are reborn and enter into covenant with God through Christ in faith. The Church recognizes that the Spirit “goes where it wills,” and so is witness to a “baptism of desire” or “baptism of blood,” the latter being of martyrdom (CCC, 1257-1259). Yet, since the very birth of the Church at Pentecost, it was preached that there is a “baptism for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:38). Within thirty years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, St. Paul wrote to Titus, “[God] saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5 NRSVCE).

            The Apostles and New Testament authors clearly looked back to the Scriptures of the Old Testament and saw the sacrament of baptism prophesied and foretold as the method by which men and women would be cleansed of their sins and be saved for the gift of eternal life. The priest, Ezekiel, six centuries before Christ, prophesied the following word of God:

I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  (Ezekiel 36:25-26 NRSVCE)

In parallel, St. Paul would later write in his letter to the Hebrews, “Let us approach [God] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22 NRSVCE). In other places, St. Paul would compare the crossing of the Red Sea with baptism, and St. Peter would write that Noah’s ark in the flood would prefigure baptism “which now saves you” (1 Cor. 10:1-4; 1 Peter 3:21). The Old is in the New, and the New in the Old.

Common Sense Catholicity: Even Infants

            “Ah, but wait,” one might say. “What does any of this have to do with babies? Even if baptism causes new birth in the Holy Spirit, and reception of that same Spirit into the soul, faith is obviously required and no infant can have faith.” Well, the Church would certainly agree that faith is required for salvation; no one can deny the faith and keep eternal life within them. Yet, she also knows that salvation comes by grace alone, a free gift and not from our own selves (Eph. 2:8-9). The Spirit of God is given to us by God’s mercy, through water of rebirth, as the above quoted Titus 3:5 emphasizes. Baptism is a work that God does in us, and not that we ourselves do. That same mercy is something God gives to whomever he chooses (Rom. 9:18).

            So, the Church has witnessed that God has chosen the little children to be members of his kingdom: “to such belongs the kingdom of God,” Jesus said (Matt. 19:14). The Scriptures themselves cry out this very act of God giving the gift of his Spirit to an infant, and a yet unborn infant at that. At the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Elizabeth, while Mary was pregnant with Jesus, St. John the Baptist leapt within the womb of his mother upon hearing the Blessed Mother’s voice. Several months prior, an angel of the Lord prophesied about John to his father, Zechariah, that “even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:15 NRSVCE). At hearing the greeting of Mary, John was filled with the Spirit, by the same power of Christ, who was within Mary’s womb.

            We see, then, that the Spirit of God is not limited to those who are of the age of reason. God invites all of his children to be partakers in the Divine Life, in the life of the Trinity. It is through baptism that we normally receive this wonderful gift. And, so, St. Peter would confidently proclaim on that famous Pentecost day to those he called to faith and baptism, “For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 2:39 NRSVCE).

Love Demands Justice

        The New Age movement tells us that God is a god of love, and that he will eventually bring all people to himself, that his love will never let anyone be separated from him. From this perspective, all sins are mere mistakes, which will be corrected in time; they have no ultimate consequences and certainly no need of forgiveness. “A loving God would never send his children to any hell,” the New Age proposes. Sadly, many Christians are being swayed by this logic, perhaps leading either to belief in a God who cannot be separated from his creation, or else leaving the faith altogether, because they understandably just can't see how a loving God and eternal hell could co-exist. It is easy to fall into this state of belief without taking into consideration the fullness of love, and all its extents. True love, however, demands justice for all, not courteousness and niceness to all; love is not an empty benevolence.

        First, let's define several items while we attempt to show the orthodox understanding of God's love. Hell, in a very simple definition, is the permanent separation from the God of Love for all eternity. In New Age beliefs, oftentimes, the soul is the only permanent thing about a person. In Catholicism, the body is also meant to be permanent, and will be resurrected and perfected; body and soul make up an entire human being. In the New Age realm, there is often a belief in a nearly infinite amount of time to “get it right” or to reach God, perhaps through multiple life-times. There are also other forms of universalism that teach all souls will go to heaven. Catholicism teaches that it is appointed for human beings to die once, then there comes a judgment to solidify one's life decision for God or against God, for Love or against Love, dying either in a state of repentance or in a state of sin.

        Those items being defined a bit, we now have two paradigms. The first, which is a belief that sin against Love has no permanent or eternal consequences, holds that God “forgives” every soul, because God loves every soul equally. Eventually, a time comes under this logic for the Crucifixion of Jesus to be irrelevant, since all sins are mere mistakes that can be corrected. In the diagram below, I show this first paradigm in its simplest form.

Diagram A, Note: Blue arrows represent benevolence

In this paradigm, all persons are forgiven and received, in the end, into God's presence (at minimum). When looking at this diagram, God's love seems so right, as it encompasses everyone impartially. No one is left behind; no one is hurt by a God who judges mere limited creatures with unlimited weight and burden. Love wins over all “evils” in this view, if evil even truly exists (as some believe it does not). God's mercy and love is perceived to have no bounds and no limits, reaching all souls equally.

        Before we get to the Catholic and orthodox Christian paradigm, let's show what is really going on behind the scene of this first paradigm. In reality, God does not deal with just objects of people, who have things “happen” to them. Instead, God is in relation with persons who are both sinners (those who commit evils) and also victims of sin (those who are hurt by evils committed). All of us fall into both categories, in truth. What, then, would happen if God were to show his forgiveness towards both victim and sinner, without the sinner repenting of his or her willful sin? For example, if a murderer or an adulterer is utterly unrepentant and will continue in his or her way against love toward God and neighbor (or spouse), but God shows the same forgiveness towards that person as to the victim of that murder or that adultery. Let's use, for the sake of gravity, the example of a child abuser who is unrepentant. What would happen if God were to forgive and bless the abuser, while at the same time that he forgives and blesses the victim child supposedly in the same manner of any wrongs they've committed (however small or large)? In this latter example, the victim has no defense, especially not by God. The Catholic understanding of sin is one that understands an effect on the community – on our neighbors. In other words, there is always a victim of sin, even secret sins.

        When we take into account that there are victims of sin, we start to see a little more clearly. God would not be loving the victim of sin at all if he were to bless the unrepentant murderer, the adulterer, the abuser. No, he would be allowing and blessing injustice against the victim to continue. He would no longer be defending the justice due to those victims of sin. Injustice has no part in true love. So, then, while taking into account the victim of sin, we see that if God forgave and blessed all persons “the same,” then the first diagram would look more like the one below.

Diagram B, Note: Blue arrows represent benevolence, while red represents injustice

God himself would be enabling and contributing to further injustice. There would be no true love for the victim of sin who would continue to be under abuse and oppression.

        The Church knows a God who is much greater, who truly is Love and who defends those who are victims of sin. She knows a God who rescues the oppressed, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked and sets captives free. Therefore, she preaches justice – justice for all those suffering from sin, whether by disease of sin or by injury of sin against them. All of God's works are crowned with Mercy. So, he seeks out to make right all things, to restore us all to righteousness, to wholeness, to peace. The diagram below shows the Catholic model of God's love and forgiveness with all parties cooperating: God forgives the sinner, while the sinner repents and turns to love his or her neighbor; the victim is also healed by God's love, as justice is restored.

Diagram C, Note: Blue arrows represent benevolence and justice

        We can take this above image a step further. God's love demands justice for all those under oppression and who are wounded by sin, especially those who are in weakened states of life – orphans and widows. Yet, we believe that God's love demands justice for the sinner, too. That is, God wants to bring healing to the sick and diseased, especially those diseased by sin itself. He wants to bring the dignity of each individual back to its rightful status, as we were created to be, especially the sinner. So, of course, for him to forgive and heal, the sinner must repent and turn towards Love in all ways. Then, the soul's dignity is restored. This is called “righteousness,” making things right. So, we see that God's love is all-encompassing in justice – for victim and sinner. This is why Jesus spoke of himself as the shepherd who seeks out even the one lost sheep out of ninety-nine; he desperately desires the restoration of each soul.

        Taking the paradigm even a step further, God wants to not just defend the victim, but to heal the victim of the wounds. “By his wounds we are healed,” has a multifaceted meaning here (Is. 53:5); for, he calls us all to forgive our debtors. Jesus died not just for the sinner, but for the victim of sin. By his wounds, we can forgive those who have oppressed us and abused us. This is so important, that Jesus told us that “if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14-15 NRSVCE). All justice belongs to God. We must allow him to seek justice for ourselves and for others, whether sinner or victim of sin. If one does not forgive, the grudge is an injustice to the dignity of the other and their opportunity to be restored to wholeness.

        So, then, we find that God is not unjust towards souls. He is not unfair. Hell is not something for those who simply break the rules of God, as if this life were a Monopoly Game, but is an ultimate consequence of choosing to separate ourselves from Love. By not loving God and others, we are personally responsible for the willful destruction we spread, for the wounds that we give, and for the diseases that we perpetuate. How can God, who is Love, not seek the defense of those victims of sin, even the defense of our own selves who are slaves to sin? Love demands justice. God is not seeking empty benevolence for all; he wants justice for all – the healing and defense of each person's dignity. If we will not let him heal us, he cannot do so, by fact of our own free-will, for he is not an abuser himself.

Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

                – Isaiah 58:6-9 NRSVCE

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?

Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?

                 – Ezekiel 18:23,25 NRSVCE