Does the Bible Really Say That?: Discovering Catholic Teaching in Scripture (12 page)

CHAPTER
29

Are You a
Bad
Samaritan?

We all know the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37). In this beloved parable Christ teaches us the importance and virtue of attending to the needs of others, especially when doing so involves sacrifice. The Lord’s message is clear: We should each strive to emulate the Good Samaritan, exercising selfless charity by helping others whenever opportunities arise. But have you ever considered the other side of the coin: what it means to be a
bad
Samaritan?

A bad Samaritan is one who sees the needs of others and whether because of laziness, greed, prejudice, pride or some other failing, refuses to help. A bad Samaritan recognizes that he should help someone out of a predicament but does nothing. A bad Samaritan is one who, by his refusal to help others, commits sins of omission. In the
Confiteor
at Mass, we publicly proclaim:

“I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done
and what I have failed to do
.”

Perhaps the earliest biblical example of hard-heartedness toward others is found in Genesis 4:9, with Cain’s smart-aleck retort to God’s question: “Then the
Lord
said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know;
am I my brother’s keeper?
’” (emphasis added).

Matthew 25:41–46
  “Christ promised that one day he would return to judge the world. On that day, the good and the wicked will be separated like sheep and goats. Those who are destined for heaven will be rewarded for clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, and visiting the imprisoned. But to the wicked he will say, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Deuteronomy 15:7–9
  “If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the
Lord
your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take heed lest there be a base [i.e., selfish] thought in your heart, and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye be hostile to your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the
Lord
against you, and it be sin in you.”

Proverbs 14:31
  “He who oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, / but he who is kind to the needy honors him.”

James 2:14–17, 20
  “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.... Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren?” (The Greek word used here for barren,
nekra
, literally means “dead.”)

And finally, consider this warning in 1 John 3:14–17:

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

Further Reading:
Exodus 22:21–24; Leviticus 25:35; Job 34:19; Proverbs 14:21; 29:7; Amos 4:1; 8:5–6; Psalms 9:18; 68:10; 102:17; 146:7; Matthew 6:1; 7:21; 19:21; Luke 21:4; Acts 4:34–37; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Galatians 2:10; Hebrews 10:24; Revelation 3:16; James 5:4

CCC,
678, 1853, 1969–1970, 2094, 2445

CHAPTER 30

“Hell? No? We Won’t Go?”

No one wants to receive bad news. The worse the news, the worse one feels. A harrowing example of someone who got the absolute
worst
news possible is found amid the paintings that adorn the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. The scene depicts the soul of a sinner who has been judged and is being dragged downward by gleeful demons into the fires of hell. His look of horrified stupefaction, as he realizes that he will spend all eternity in hell, is beyond adequate description.

The haunting visage of that damned soul’s despair should remind us of why we Catholics pray:
“Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy.”

The
Catechism
reminds us that the Catholic Church “affirms the existence of hell and its eternity” (1035). Those who die in mortal sin are destined for hell, the “eternal fire” that Christ warned of in the Gospel of Matthew (25:41, 46). A major aspect of the suffering of hell is the excruciating desolation of knowing that you will be eternally separated from God, the one by whom and for whom each one of us was created and for whom we long for all eternity (
CCC
, 1035).

Sacred Scripture bristles with many grim reminders that hell is a real place where real people go. It awaits those who spurn God’s grace and mercy, commit mortal sins and, tragically, die unrepentant in the state of mortal sin. Before we examine some of those biblical warnings about hell, let’s take a moment to remember that no one goes to hell unless they
choose
to.

Hell is the
bad
news. But let’s praise and thank our Lord that there’s also very Good News, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which promises that the one who loves God (Matthew 22:37), believes and trusts in his grace and mercy (Acts 16:30–31), and strives to live according to his teachings (Matthew 7:21–23; John 14:15) will not go to hell. All those who die in the state of grace will be with God in heaven for all eternity. Which means, conversely, that all those who don’t find themselves in that state when they die will go to hell. Let’s look at what the Bible says about this.

Matthew 25
  This chapter is entirely dedicated to Christ’s teaching on the existence and pains of hell. The “foolish virgins” (vv. 1–13), the “wicked and slothful servant” (vv. 14–30) and the “goats” (vv. 31–33) whom Christ condemns for their failure to love their neighbor, each exemplify men and women who go to hell—a place of “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (v. 41), a place of “darkness” where they will “weep and gnash their teeth” (v. 30).

Isaiah 33:14
  “The sinners in Zion are afraid; / trembling has seized the godless: / ‘Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? / Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?’”

Matthew 3:12
  “[God’s] winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Mark 9:43–48
  “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

Luke 12:5
  “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!”

2 Thessalonians 1:5–10
  “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God...when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints.”

Revelation 20:11–15
  “Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if any one’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 21:5–8
  “And he who sat upon the throne said...‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Further Reading:
Daniel 12:2; Job 10:20–22; 21; Judith 16:21; Psalm 21:8–9; Matthew 5:21–30; 10:28; 23:15; Luke 16:22–26; Romans 2:6–9; 1 Corinthians 6:9; Hebrews 10:26–31; James 3:6; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6, 13; Revelation 9:1–2; 14:9–11; 19:20

CCC,
1033–1041

CHAPTER 31

Infant Baptism

In order to better understand why, since the days of the Apostles, the Catholic Church has always and everywhere baptized babies, we must first understand what baptism does.

Christ told us, “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). The earliest Christians understood him to mean that being “born anew” by water and the Holy Spirit refers to the sacrament of baptism, and they lived out that understanding by baptizing themselves and their children, including their infants. They understood that the sacrament of baptism is the doorway of salvation. As Saint Peter declared in 1 Peter 3:18–21, “Baptism...now saves you.”

In paragraphs 1262 through 1267, the
Catechism
explains these effects of baptism. They include regeneration (the rebirth in the Spirit) of the soul and the eradication of original sin as well as of actual sin and all its effects upon the soul. Through baptism we become members of the Body of Christ and are, as St. Paul says, “a new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), adopted sons and daughters of God. We become partakers of the divine nature, co-heirs with Christ, and temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). Baptism serves as the sacramental doorway into the Church (Matthew 28:19).
¹

On the day of Pentecost, the people in Jerusalem who had heard Saint Peter preach called out to him, “What shall we do?” Saint Peter responded: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children
and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 2:38–42, emphasis added).

Since Saint Peter was preaching to adults, he naturally told them first to repent, something necessary for any adult to do before he or she can receive baptism. Then he adds that this promise of “forgiveness of sins” and reception “of the Holy Spirit” extends to all people of all ages, “to you and to your children.” The earliest Christians understood this command of baptism to include even the smallest children, who could not repent or choose baptism for themselves. Their parents brought them to be baptized, just as parents do today.

Some argue that the command to repent in Acts 2 means that repentance, something only someone above the age of reason can do (i.e., not an infant), is a prerequisite for baptism. Since infants lack the capacity to repent, they argue, infants can’t be baptized. This is a faulty argument, however.

Let’s apply that same logic to 2 Thessalonians 3:10, where Saint Paul says that if someone does not work he shouldn’t be allowed to eat. Of course, infants cannot work. So does it follow therefore that infants should not eat? Of course not. And that insight can help us see the deeper meaning of Saint Peter’s words in Acts 2. His command to “repent” can only be binding for people who have the capacity to repent. But it is not binding for those who lack that ability, such as the mentally handicapped or infants.

In the Old Testament, the outward sign of a child being brought into the covenant between God and his people was the ordinance of circumcision. This was performed on an eight-day-old boy who was brought to the temple (or synagogue) by his parents. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that eight-day-old infants don’t have the capacity to understand what circumcision is and what it means—much less would a little tyke ask for circumcision, even if he did understand it! The fact is, the infant boy’s parents covenanted with God on his behalf, and God accepted the child into the covenant as a result of what the parents did for the baby.

This is a helpful parallel with baptism because, after all, baptism replaced circumcision (Colossians 2:11–12). When Christian parents bring their babies to be baptized, the same thing occurs, although on the perfected, grace-filled level of a sacrament. “In the same way that a child is born into the world from the womb of his mother and has no capacity to comprehend (much less choose) what is happening to him, so, too, a child can be reborn into the life of Christ through grace and not be able to comprehend the gift of grace being bestowed on him.”
²

Mark 2:1–12 recounts the episode where Christ healed a paralyzed man. Notice that, because of his illness, the man could not approach Christ on his own. The man’s friends, who wanted to see him healed, lowered him down through a hole in the roof onto the floor before Christ. “And when Jesus saw
their
faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven’” (emphasis added). This is another important parallel to infant baptism. God is pleased by the faith of the parents and their desire to have their child receive the graces of the sacrament of baptism.

And let’s not forget what happened in Luke 18:15–17 when some disciples tried to prevent parents from bringing their children to Jesus: “Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘
Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them
; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it’” (emphasis added). This passage leaves little room for doubt that Christ intends for parents to “bring even infants” to him in the sacrament of baptism.

Further Reading:
Genesis 17:11; 18:16–33; Exodus 13:13–14; Leviticus 12:2–3; Matthew 8:5–13; 15:21–28; 19:13–15; Mark 16:15–16; Luke 1:59; 7:1–20; John 3:3–5, 22; Acts 16:30–33; 22:16; Romans 6:2–4; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Colossians 2:11–14; Titus 3:3–7; Hebrews 10:21–22

CCC,
535–537, 1226–1284