Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Limbo!


The Limbo is a popular party dance.

"Limbo" as a theological concept is, for all practical purposes, in the past. Go on: try to find it listed in the index of  the Catechism of the Catholic Church. No help there, is it?

Well, going back to the time of St. Augustine, the development of the concept of "Original Sin" highlighted the necessity of baptism for eternal salvation. And yet, there were two major problems to be resolved: what of people of faith who had lived prior to Jesus Christ and thus had no opportunity to be baptized; and what of infants who died prior to baptism - would they all be condemned to Hell because they still carried original sin on their souls?

The concept of "limbo of the Fathers" is a Christian adaptation where the just resided after death until Christ descended after his own death to release them. Pelagius (a British monk whose teachings on grace and original sin were formally declared to be in error) offered the concept of a state of natural happiness somewhere between heaven and hell, which Augustine had to reject as a consequence of rejecting Pelagius' teaching on sin. So Augustine said that innocent, unbaptized children regrettably would be in hell, but only suffer the mildest of eternal punishments.

By the time we get to Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages, the proposed condition for these poor souls improves: they would not be in hell, but existing in a state of natural happiness, but deprived of the super-natural happiness of experiencing the 'beatific vision' (being in God's presence) ... neither here nor there... a state of 'limbo' (from the Latin Limbus, meaning the hem of a garment).

Modern theology affirms the importance of baptism for the remission of original sin and for making us members of the Body of Christ, while also affirming the power and ability of God to offer salvation to anyone God chooses to. The Catholic Church has never definitely taught the presence of "Limbo" as such, although for centuries it remained a popular belief among the faithful.  But no, we no longer assign unbaptized infants to limbo; we entrust them to the care and mercy and love of the God who gave them life in the first place.

The Limbo is a popular party dance.

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