Compassion for all

Dec. 1 (Is 25: 6-10 and Mt 15: 29-37)

I find that there is a link between today's readings and a topic that we recently looked at in our Sacraments class: that of the fate of unbaptized children who die without receiving baptism.  Isaiah says, "Look, this is our God, in him we put our hope that he should save us, this is Yahweh, we put our hope in him.  Let us exult and rejoice since he has saved us."  Jesus says in today's gospel, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat..."  In 2007, the International Theological Commission made a fairly lengthly study on this topic of the fate of unbaptized infants who die without being baptized. The end result of the report is that we cannot say with any certainty what happens.  However, there are grounds for great hope that there is a way in which God can also save these infants... even perhaps aborted fetuses.

In looking at this issue, it is necessary to keep in mind 2 great guiding principles: 1. the necessity of baptism - "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (Jn 3:5) and 2. the infinite mercy of God - in today's gospel, compassion comes from a Greek word which literally means "innards" or "intestines".  The people of that age felt, and quite correctly so, that true compassion and mercy is something we feel stirring inside us.  When we stop to think about it, if we, who are humans and so frail, can oftentimes muster up compassion in the face of situations which we believe to be unjust or intolerable, how much more can God who is infinitely just and compassionate!  There lies our hope.  "In him, we put our hope that he should save us!"  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, in #389, that the "doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the 'reverse side' of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ.  The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ."  So, this document gives a few possible ways one might conceive of circumventing the first guiding principle I mentioned above, the necessity of baptism.  I don't have time here to go through all the possible solutions, but just wanted to offer that great virtue of hope to all who might be tempted to despair in the face of troubling situations.  The Church always asks us to pray and ask for God's infinite mercy.  May we continue to be a people of hope when we bring all these souls to the altar at Mass!