From Bread of Life:
When the Council of Trent was discussing the problem of justification, it had to remember that it was possible for
one to have been justified in the Old Testament as well as in the New, and that is why the Council allows the
distinction between the actual reception of Baptism and the eager willingness to receive it. A man in the Old
Testament waiting and wanting Baptism to be instituted, and a man in the New Testament waiting and wanting
Baptism to be administered could both be justified.
It was possible to be justified in the Old Testament, but not to be saved. When those who died in the state of
justification, in the Old Testament, went out of this life, they did not go to Heaven. They went to what is
technically called the "Limbo of the Just" (appropriately referred to as "Hell" in the Apostles' Creed), until the
visible Body of Jesus led them to salvation on the day of Ascension. This is how important visibility is to the
notion of salvation, whatever it may mean in the realm of justification.
It is sinful to call men to salvation by offering them "Baptism of Desire." If this so-called substitute for Baptism of
Water were in any sense usual, or common, or likely – or even practical – Jesus Christ would never have told
His Apostles to go forth and baptize with water for the regeneration of the world.
I have said that a Baptism-of-Desire Catholic is not a member of the Church. He cannot be prayed for after death
as one of "the faithful departed." Were he to be revivified immediately after death – were he to come to life again
– he would not be allowed to receive Holy Eucharist or any of the other Sacraments until he was baptized by
water. Now, if he can get into the Church Triumphant without Baptism of Water, it is strange that he cannot get
into the Church Militant without it. It is an odd procedure for priests of the Church Militant to be shunting people
off to the Church Triumphant before these people have enrolled in the a Church Militant, which fights the good
fight and preserves the Faith.
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The Council of Trent, in its second Canon on the subject of Baptism, declares, with the majestic authority of the
Church:
If anyone shall say that true and natural water is not of necessity in Baptism, and therefore shall turn those
words of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, "unless one be born again of water and the Holy Spirit" (John 3:5), into some
metaphor, let him be anathema.
Therefore, I repeat, metaphorical water is forbidden under pain of heresy. And what is "Baptism of Desire," as
the Liberals teach it, but metaphorical water dishonestly substituting itself for the innocent requirement of Christ?
The same heretical theology that turned Baptism of Water into any dry desire one might have in the general
direction of Heaven, has also turned one Lord into one’s personal sincerity, and one Faith into the light of
invincible ignorance!
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The Council of Trent, when treating of the Sacraments, anathematizes in most solemn canons those who say:
(1) that the Sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation; (2) that one can even get into a state of
justification without at least a resolve to receive them; (3) that they are all of equal dignity and necessity; (4) that
their purpose is mere support of Faith.
You do not have Faith by saying you have Faith! You do not have love by saying you have love! You cannot love
God if you do not love Jesus. And you cannot love Jesus if you do not know Him through His great gifts, His
Sacraments. If you do not know Him, I defy you to make a perfect act of love. You are calling it perfect love, and
at the same time you are refusing that which poured out of the heart of Jesus: Blood and water. You are refusing
the Blood of the Eucharist and the water of Baptism. To call that love is a blasphemy!
Topic: Father Feeney on Trent (Session VI, Chapter 4) or the Catechism of Trent on BOD (Read 11818 times)