For this reflection then, I have chosen another reading which has a different twist on the subject. Please forgive any typos.
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I suppose there is not a father or mother in all Christendom who has not been disturbed by the thought of the unbaptized. For parents love the offspring that is yet unborn, and what if the child should not be born alive and receive baptism? Others who are not parents are concerned about the non-baptized in pagan lands, and also at home.
It certainly makes people think seriously, this matter of baptism, and in some cases it keeps people from being members of the true Church. The thought that God does not give everybody an opportunity in such a vital affair as eternal salvation engenders in some the idea of unfairness on God's part; and, since God cannot be unfair, there is the tendency by them not to believe in the Church which holds the doctrine of baptism. So, it is worth while looking into this subject.
God is not unfair. He cannot be unfair. Any religion which makes Him unfair cannot be His. The first thing every creature needs to realize is that the Creator is infinitely good. That comes before all else. His power, His knowledge, His wisdom, are secondary as regards us. The great thing in our regard is that He is goodness itself.
Next we must realize that He has shown His goodness by the best of all ways, by His love for us. That is the test. God so loved the world as to give His only Son. That was the greatest gift possible, His own divine Son. The only Son, Jesus Christ, so loved the world as to give His life for it. No greater proof could be asked or given. God is good and He loves us. That is the A B C of religion. Anything that goes against that you can reject.
God is the maker of man, as He is of all other creatures. He gave to man a body and soul and a destiny. It was a glorious destiny. But God did more for man than that. He did not stop at giving man all that human nature was capable of. In the very beginning He elevated human nature into participation with the divine. He added to man's endowment a quality which was altogether a favor on His part, by which man could share in the divine nature.
This favor or grace of God was a free gift of God to a nature which, even without this grace, would be most richly endowed, in fact as highly endowed as human nature of itself could be.
The grace which God conferred on human naturc, by which it became a participator of the divine, was a distinct and unmerited favor. It was something our nature did not require for its perfection, something it had no claim to, something entirely a gracious favor conferred by the Creator, by which mankind was made more like unto God and capable of sharing His blessedness. It was a proof of God's unbounded goodness and of His love for man. That fact stands out.
In view of that we must interpret all God's dealings with us. When a child has real proof of its mother's love, it knows how to interpret rightly all that the mother does in its regard. No matter how apparently at odds with affection certain things may seem, the child instinctively knows that they are done in love and for its welfare.
No mother ever gave proof of love for her child so great as God has given for us. Let that be the key to the various dealings of the Creator with mankind. But God, besides being a God of love, is also a God of wisdom and power. He is infinite. That signifies everything. He gave us our mothers and put into their hearts the wondrous love a mother has for her child.
No mother ever loved her child as God loves you and me. That is certain. It admits of no question. In the light, therefore, of God's infinite love and wisdom we can trust Him to do what is right by us. Not only that, but what is most loving and beneficial.
And now to return to the matter we began with. How are we to reconcile a good and loving God with the doctrine which teaches that unbaptized infants shall not enter the kingdom of heaven? How regard that otherwise than as unfair to them? It looks as though God did not give them a chance, and that does not seem fair. So much for the statement of the difficulty. Now for its consideration.
If we could see God's plans as we shall when we are sharers of His divinity in heaven, everything would be clear to us at a glance. Not only clear, but we should realize that in everything He showed the most wonderful love and wisdom. Now, however, we see faintly as through a dense medium. In a mist at sea, the skipper sometimes mistakes a ship for an iceberg.
Realizing our limitations, therefore, let us examine the designs of God humbly and reverently. A common soldier is not qualified to pass judgment on the measures of his commander-in-chief. We are but as babes before the Almighty. He who gave us our reason and all we have has a right to our submission to his enactments. The man who does not regard God and His ways thus does not rightly know his place. The man who does not trust to God's love and wisdom has not the first qualification for future association with Him.
That is why God Himself says unless you enter the kingdom of heaven as little children you shall not enter. The child trusts and loves its parents. We must trust and love God and be convinced that what He has determined is right and just and best. There is no faith without that.
The objection is made that God is not fair in excluding unbaptized infants from heaven because He gives them no chance. Would you say God was unfair because He made you a man instead of an angel? What is the destiny of the unbaptized infant? It is the very next thing to that of the angels in heaven.
The angels and saints share the life of God. The unbaptized infants share all of God's enjoyments except heaven. They will have for all eternity everything that Adam and Eve would have had in case God had not elevated the nature of our first parents to participation with His own. All the joy and bliss that human nature is capable of by itself will be the inheritance of the unbaptized infants.
Original sin deprived Adam and Eve of their supernatural or heavenly destiny. The Redemption restored that. Baptism applies the Redemption to the individual, destroys original sin, and restores to man his heavenly title, making him an adopted child of God.
As the unbaptized infants do not receive back their inheritance lost by original sin, they suffer that loss. That is the pain of loss which we call the consequence of original sin.
When we say that this unbaptized infant endures a penalty or is punished, we mean it in that sense. No pain is inflicted. The word pain is used to denote the deprivation of an enjoyment that would have been its share if it had received back its inheritance to heaven. But next to heaven, the unbaptized infants have everything that God can bestow on His creatures.
Now suppose Adam and Eve had not been raised to a higher destiny but, being created perfect man and woman, were placed in the Garden of Paradise to live there, with everything in the world they could desire! Would you say that God was unfair for giving them that? Yet like unto that is the career of the unbaptized infants.
They have everything except heaven. Their life forever will be in a Paradise where they will have all the natural enjoyments our first parents would have had in the Garden of Paradise. There are no joys of earth now comparable to those of that Paradise. And similar to that is the abode of the unbaptized infants. That is their dwelling place, a most perfect Paradise, everything short of heaven itself.
Now we know some people on earth who like it so much that with all its drawbacks they say this life is their heaven. Do they consider God unfair for giving them this heaven on earth? Of course they change their mind when trials come, as come they do to all. Whoever saw an old person who considered earth heaven and would care to live life over again? But in youth, with beauty and love and luxury, this world seems very heavenly. And at that period some people barter heaven for the joys of earth.
Well now, suppose you take the happiest career ever lived on earth, a career full of bliss and health and love and good fortune. If you saw a person who had such a career, would he not say: "Oh, how good God is to me!" That, only much more and better, is the career of the unbaptized infants. They have everything this world at its best can give, and more.
Of course, you may object that heaven is better. So an angel may object that he is not an archangel. A saint may object that he is not a seraph. Every woman may object because she is not the Blessed Virgin. Eight of the nine choirs of angels may object that they are not on top. And so on.
That is not the point. The point is that an angel should be very grateful for being an angel and thank God for His goodness. A man should thank God that he can be a saint, even though man is a little lower than the angels. And next to the blessed in heaven are the unbaptized infants.
Now is God unfair to the unbaptized infants to give them that wonderful blessedness forever? If you say so, you must say that He is unfair to the monkey for not giving him a chance to become a man; unfair to a frog for not making it a bird; unfair to the tree for not making it a deer; unfair to the stone for not making it a bush.
God gives everything to the unbaptized infant that human nature of itself can crave or receive. To the baptized He adds of His own accord something human nature is not entitled to, participation with His own divinity. This adoption is a free gift of God, and in bestowing it on some, He does no injustice to others.
In order that you may know that this is the teaching of the Church, I quote from St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest theologian of Christianity: "The souls of children who die without baptism are not deprived of a natural happiness such as according to its nature is due; but they do lack that supernatural happiness which we have by virtue of faith. The souls of infants, ignorant of the fact that they are deprived of so great a good, feel no pain because of this privation, and possess in peace all that is proper to their nature." (Quaest. Oe Malo, V-a. 3).
God is good, essentially good. If we are good, as we should be, we are sure to know all things some day. In our desire to search the ways of the Almighty, we should not forget, that He is our Judge as well as Creator. His laws are of more concern to us than His unsearchable designs. Some people forget to be good, and worry themselves about God's goodness. God is able to take care of Himself. In the right time He will justify His ways.
Meanwhile let our first concern be to live as He ordains. For we are adults. God will not treat us as He has the unbaptized infants. On them He conferred immeasurable natural happiness without their doing anything to merit it. It was a free gift on His part. But to those who have attained to the use of reason, His dispensation is different.
To all who have reached the years of discretion, He says: "All you who receive me, I give the power to become my children. If you reject me, I will cast you off forever. If you receive me, you must do so not merely by word, but by deed. You must keep my commandments." The commandments are God's will expressed to His human creatures. He leaves them free because He made them so. Their salvation depends on their own efforts, aided by His grace. They must do their part.
This brings us to the question of adult salvation. God wishes the salvation of all. Since this is so, He gives to every man the means of salvation. Baptism is the general means appointed by God for admission into His kingdom. There is sacramental baptism and the baptism of desire.
The Church teaches that a man, be he a pagan or a savage, if he follow the dictates of conscience and does good and avoids evil, will receive from God an internal inspiration to do what is necessary in order to be saved. A savage in the heart of Africa, if he follow the light of the natural law, will receive from God the grace of salvation.
In just what way this is done in each individual case we do not know. But it is Catholic doctrine that no one is lost except by his own fault. God gives to every man the light necessary to direct him to eternal life, and unless man himself rejects that light and its guidance, he will be saved.
To substantiate this, I give the pronouncement made to the whole world by the saintly Pontiff, Pius IX, in his allocution dated August 10, 1863:
"You know, my most dear children and veneradle brothers, that those who, being individually ignorant of our holy religion, observe the natural law and precepts that God has engraven on the heart of every man, and who are disposed to obey God and live virtuously and righteously, can by the aid of divine light and grace obtain eternal life; since God, who searches the heart, who sees clearly nnd knows the sentiments, the thoughts, and the dispositions of all, cannot in His supreme mercy and goodness by any means permit that even one soul should be eternally punished that has not separated itself from Him by voluntary mortal sin."
That is Catholic teaching, that is Catholic faith. It tells us that God gives every man not only a chance, but a good chance. It shows us that God is just and good. He is also infinite, and, in consequence, mysterious to us finite beings.
Let us not try to understand all His ways. We shall not succeed. If He wanted us to know more, He would have declared it. But He does not. Not yet. Let us who are Catholics, who belong visibly to the living Church of God, be grateful to Him.
The Church is the direct channel of His grace. It is the sure means of salvation. Others grope in uncertainty. We have God's own guidance. We have His sacraments to nourish us, His priests to minister unto us, His voice to direct our every step. We do not have to pray: "Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom," as did the great Newman in search for the truth. The truth is the inheritance of Catholics and the truth will lead us securely to our eternal inheritance.
But we must live the truth. It is not enough to admit it or proclaim it. The majesty of God is infinite. His laws are sacred. He will not allow His authority to be despised. No matter how good He is, He wants our obedience and reverence. The government exists for the defense and welfare of the people, but it will not tolerate the violation of its laws. It must be respected. Almighty God, the Ruler of mankind, although infinitely good, will not tolerate trifling with His mandates.
He gives His light and grace to every man. To every human being, He gives all that is necessary to be happy for all eternity. It is each one's duty to cooperate with the grace received and to leave others to God and His justice and mercy. It will little benefit us to be solicitous on God's account if we are neglectful of our own. He will not ask us to stand judgment on His ways, but upon ours.
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Adapted from The Hand of God, A Theology for the People (1918)
by Fr. Martin J Scott, S.j. Litt. D.
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