“Climbing the Stairway to Heaven” - continued
Limbo
Recently the idea of limbo has been in the news. Various media organizations have reported on a 2007 document issued by a commission of theologians specifically chosen to advise the Vatican on matters of doctrine (the International Theological Commission). For some Catholics, this episode has resulted in a bit of confusion.
What is/was limbo anyway? Limbo was a theological theory that was developed by theologians beginning in the Middle Ages to account for the final condition of unbaptized infants. This theory was never definitively taught by the Church’s teaching authority. The idea was based on the view that unless one is freed from original sin through baptism one cannot enjoy the beatific vision – the vision of God in heaven. Since infants are incapable of personal sin, it did not seem right to suggest that they underwent any form of punishment. Limbo, then, was proposed as a kind of in-between state – a condition of natural happiness that fell short of the ultimate happiness of being in the presence of God.
The Vatican commission, along with most theologians today, has suggested that limbo is no longer a helpful or illuminating theological theory. In its document, the commission says that “there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in revelation.” While we are in the realm of mystery here, we base this hope on our belief in the love of God and God’s desire that all people be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). We confidently entrust these infants to the mercy and love of God.
In the Order of Christian Funerals, there is a special prayer of commendation for a child who has died before baptism. This prayer beautifully expresses the attitude of believers in the face of the tragic loss of an unbaptized child: “You are the author and sustainer of our lives, O God, you are our final home. We commend to you our child. Trusting in your mercy and in your all-embracing love, we pray that you give him/her happiness forever.”
I have heard a few Catholics complain that they never hear any preaching about hell anymore. They think that a few good words about hell would be a stimulus for people in the pews to amend their ways. Whatever one thinks about such an opinion, it is true that we do not often speak about the possibility of eternal loss. What do Catholics believe about this?
The teaching about the possibility of eternal loss has been viewed as having a biblical grounding in some later passages of the Old Testament and in certain New Testament passages (e.g., Matthew 25: 31-46). This teaching has been expressed in certain official Church statements through the ages. For example, in 543 a synod in Constantinople rejected the idea that we can definitively state that all people will be saved. The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of hell as the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed in heaven (n. 1033).
What is the point of such a teaching? Is it simply to scare people? It is ultimately based on Christian conviction about the importance of human freedom. We are persons endowed with responsibility, and we need to take that responsibility seriously. Our words and actions have real effects on the lives of other people, on creation itself, and on ourselves. Our lives make a real difference – for good or for ill. Thus we believe that it is possible to reject God through the choices we make. In a sense, we can condemn ourselves through the lives we lead. Eternal loss would be the consequence of a life-choice that represents a radical rejection of God. As Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) put it some years ago, “Christ inflicts pure perdition on no one. In himself he is sheer salvation. Anyone who is with him has entered into the space of deliverance and salvation. Perdition [eternal loss] is not imposed by him, but comes to be wherever a person distances himself [or herself] from Christ” (Eschatology, 205-6).
While the Church has officially taught, through its canonization of holy men and women, that there are some people who are in heaven, it has never taught that any particular individual has suffered eternal loss. Salvation is a reality in Christ, effected through his life, death and resurrection. Eternal loss is a possibility which every person must take into consideration for himself or herself. We must recognize that we can reject God by the way we use our human freedom. The Church teaches that we are not permitted to claim that all people will be saved. But because of our belief in God’s universal salvific will, many theologians would argue that we can hope that all people will be saved.
In Spe Salvi, Benedict recounts the moving story of a Vietnamese martyr, Paul Le-Bao-Tinh. In a letter that he wrote from prison, this courageous man spoke of his prison as “hell.” Yet he also testified to the experience of God’s presence with him in that living hell. Benedict comments, “Christ descended into ‘Hell’ and is therefore close to those cast into it, transforming their darkness into light” (n. 37). These words of the pope echo the reflections of a famous Swiss theologian whose writings Benedict admires, Hans Urs von Balthasar (died in 1988). Balthasar spoke of Holy Saturday as the day on which the Crucified One descended into hell in order to be in solidarity with those who had lost their way from God. He descended not as the triumphant one, but as the crucified one, stripped of all power. He did this in order to disturb the loneliness of the sinner, to be in solidarity even with those who had rejected everyone. Perhaps the image of the crucified one could melt the heart of even the most hardened sinner. Balthasar suggested that, while we must reckon with the possibility of eternal loss, because of Christ’s death and resurrection Christians can hope that all will be saved.
Benedict points out that the image of divine judgment is ultimately an image of hope. It will be an experience of God’s justice and God’s grace. It is an experience of justice because the truth of life will be revealed. The pope observes, “Evildoers, in the end, do not sit at table at the eternal banquet beside their victims without distinction, as though nothing had happened” (n. 44). In the end, we believe that the murderer will not triumph over his victim. The cries for justice uttered by so many throughout human history will be heard and answered. But this divine judgment is also grace – the gift of God’s very Self. Christ the Judge is also Christ the Intercessor and Advocate who always pleads our cause before the Father. It is the experience of God’s grace in Christ that moves us to hope. In the end, all of us depend on God’s grace – God’s loving kindness and mercy. We depend on the fidelity of God. Thus, we can look forward in hope to our encounter with God because we believe that God is tenaciously faithful to each one of us.
Robin Ryan, C.P.
Robin Ryan is a Passionist priest and theologian who serves as Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Catholic Theological Union. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from The Catholic University of America. He is the author of numerous articles and recordings on theological and spiritual topics. He edited and contributed to the book Catholics on Call: Discerning a Life of Service in the Church (Liturgical Press, 2010). He is the author of God and the Mystery of Human Suffering: A Theological Conversation Across the Ages (Paulist Press, 2011). He is the author of the forthcoming book Jesus and Salvation (Liturgical Press). He is also a contributor to and English-language editor of the forthcoming Diccionario de la Pasión (Madrid, San Pablo) and the founding director of Catholics on Call.
