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Having been raised a Catholic. I was taught that they were
mostly infants that died in childbirth, miscarriages, ectopic
pregnancies, etc., and, as such, were not allowed to see the
Face of Jesus.
Please enlighten me with regard to this topic.
I have a hard
time accepting that the innocent will not see or be with
Jesus!!
Anonymous
{
Will the Holy Innocents, like infants dying in childbirth or via miscarriage, see the Face of Jesus? }
Eric
replied:
Dear Anonymous,
Let's provide some background information.
The Holy Innocents, whose feast is celebrated on December 28th in
the Octave of Christmas, refers to those infants in Israel whom Herod
ordered killed when he heard about Jesus (see Matthew 2:16-18).
They were regarded as martyrs, and so are honored as saints, who
do see the face of Jesus.
I suspect you are referring to something different, however, since
you are referring to infants dying in childbirth, miscarriages, and
from other causes. These souls are not what we mean by the name "Holy
Innocents". I can only assume
you are referring to the general case of children who die before
they have a chance to be baptized.
The Church has meditated on the fate of unbaptized infants for many
years. It seemed unjust to expect God would treat them as adults
who sin, as they committed no sin but it seemed equally wrong to
conclude that they were saved, since they were separated from God.
At one point, speculative theology — never official Church Teaching
— spoke of a place called Limbo, which was the "highest level" of
Hell, where unbaptized infants live a life of natural happiness,
without either the pain that actual sinners endured, or the blessedness
of seeing Jesus.
Today, however, the Church has stepped back from such speculation,
and merely entrusts them to the Mercy of God (See the Catechism, paragraph 1283.)
Article 1: The Sacrament of Baptism. In Brief
.
. 1283 With respect to children who have died without Baptism, the liturgy of the Church invites us to trust in God's mercy and to pray for their salvation.
In
some cases, we can look toward the Tradition of the Church on other
matters to give us hope. For example, there is such a thing as baptism
of desire, which means that someone who planned to be baptized, but
whose life was for some reason interrupted before it could take place,
is considered baptized even without the washing of water. I think
this tells us that children, who the parents certainly would have
baptized, but who die before they have the opportunity, are surely
in the presence of the Lord. It's unimaginable that the Lord would
condemn a child that the parents fully expected to baptize, merely due
to the unfortunate turn of events.
So, I'm not sure where this idea of "Holy Innocents" you
heard came from, or exactly what it means, but we have the Holy Innocents
whose feast we celebrate on December 28th, who are in Heaven, and
then we have the general case of unbaptized infants, whom we leave
in the Mercy of God and pray for, except for those who clearly would
have been baptized, in which case we have reasonable confidence that
they see the face of Jesus, and are with Him right now.
Eric Ewanco
John replied:
Dear Anonymous,
Just to add to Eric's explanation of Baptism of desire.
It also extends all those who would have been baptized
if they had the chance to know the truth about the Church,
and would have accepted Baptism, given the chance, (e.g. a tribesman living in the South American rain
forest who never heard the Gospel, but sought to follow
righteousness in response to grace.)
Hence, if Baptism of desire would apply in a case like
I just mentioned, we rely on God's love and mercy to justly
and mercifully deal with infants, or the unborn who die.
John
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