GOD'S BLUE BOOK - Shepherds of Christ Ministries
GOD'S BLUE BOOK - Shepherds of Christ Ministries
GOD'S BLUE BOOK - Shepherds of Christ Ministries
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188<br />
Clarification<br />
November 1, 1995<br />
Dear reader,<br />
The first sentence <strong>of</strong> the third paragraph on page 164 <strong>of</strong><br />
God’s Blue Book, Volume 1, reads as follows: “Every baby,<br />
when it is born, is in grace and loves God.” This sentence is<br />
theologically correct but misunderstanding has occurred and<br />
clarification is appropriate.<br />
The Karl Rahner/Herbert Vorgrimler Theological<br />
Dictionary, edited by Cornelius Ernst, O.P., and translated by<br />
Richard Strachen, was published by Herder and Herder, New<br />
York, 1965. The Nihil Obstat is by Joannes M. T. Barton, S.T.D.,<br />
L.S.S., Censor Deputatus, and the Imprimatur is by Patritius<br />
Casey, Vicar General, Westmonasterii, September 3, 1965.<br />
The sentence is in perfect accord with the acceptable theological<br />
position called the supernatural existential.<br />
Supernatural existential is an aspect <strong>of</strong> grace and is described<br />
on page 161 <strong>of</strong> the referenced theological dictionary:<br />
“Existential, supernatural. Underlying the concept <strong>of</strong><br />
the supernatural existential is the following fact: antecedently<br />
to justification by grace, received sacramentally or extrasacramentally,<br />
man is already subject to the universal salvific<br />
will <strong>of</strong> God, he is already redeemed and absolutely obliged to<br />
tend to his supernatural end. This “situation” is not merely an<br />
external one; it is an objective, ontological modification <strong>of</strong><br />
man, added indeed to his nature by God’s grace and therefore<br />
supernatural, but in fact never lacking in the real order. It follows<br />
that even in the rejection <strong>of</strong> grace and in perdition a man<br />
can never be ontologically and subjectively unaffected by the<br />
inner figure <strong>of</strong> his supernatural destiny.”<br />
The above passage points out that there is an aspect <strong>of</strong><br />
God’s grace prior to the life <strong>of</strong> sanctifying grace which comes<br />
through Baptism. Consequently it is not incorrect to say every<br />
baby is born in God’s grace.<br />
—The Publisher