WelCom November 2024
Rebecca Taylor-Hunt, Director, Catholic Enquiry Centre
What an enormous question from a visiting enquirer this week. Variations of this query are common, as people struggle to understand a God who seems to allow good people to perish just because they are not baptised, or perhaps practice a different faith.
For those who hear the Gospel and find faith, it is natural that their desire to know God completes itself in Baptism. Through Baptism, we are joined to Christ in His Death and Resurrection, and we are cleansed of our sins.
‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’ – John 3:5
We become children of God through our Baptism, and we join the body of His Church. This is why infant Baptism is celebrated in the Catholic Church.
Yet, what about the people who have never heard of Jesus, or are so immersed in another culture that the idea of Christian Baptism is as far away to them as the moon? The Catholic Church is clear that God’s mercy extends beyond the sacraments. The Catechism explains: ‘God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but He Himself is not bound by His sacraments’ (CCC 1257).
The documents from the Second Vatican Council, especially, emphasise how the story of God’s love works in the world through history and time.
This understanding reflects the Church’s belief in a God who desires all people to be saved and who provides the means for salvation in ways known only to Him. Do you have to be baptised to be saved? No, in the end, it is not absolutely essential for salvation. However, the Church teaches us that through her sacraments the greatest assurance of salvation is provided. We are invited to trust in God’s infinite mercy and to recognise the importance of Baptism while also acknowledging that God’s grace reaches beyond our human understanding.
Visit the Catholic Enquiry Centre online at catholic.discovery.org.nz or email info@catholicenquiry.nz
or contact Rebecca at rebecca@catholicenquiry.nz