Modernism vs. the Primacy of Christ: The Battleground of Limbo

The recent assault upon Limbo's existence is at its root an attack upon the Primacy of Christ.

At first sight it does not appear thus.

The Modernists want to overthrow the exclusivity of salvation proposed by authentic Catholic Doctrine, because they hold, according to St. Pius X (Pascendi Dominici gregis) a notion of the supernatural which is in fact a interior religious sense, that is a natural movement present in every man — or for those modernists who are gnostically inclined, a supernatural movement present in the nature of every man — and hence, being the property of every man, he has an entire right to its fulfillment.

But if modernists do not believe in Heaven or Hell, why do they assault the existence of Limbo?

It is quite immaterial to Modernists whether Heaven or Hell exists, what is important for them is that one has the right to desire or feel worthy of Heaven, and to expunge as unnatural and unwholesome all feeling of guilt so as to avoid entirely the notion of Hell.

Limbo is one Catholic Doctrine which stands in the way of the assault of Modernism.

It sticks them in the face like a stake in the forehead of a beast.

For the mere assertion of the existence of Limbo contains implicitly several key doctrines, which if their objective signification is obscured, and faith in these in souls shaken, they will progress in their war to overthrow the only objective religion, the True Faith of the Catholic Church.

The affirmation of the existence of Limbo, being the upper part of Hell, necessitates the affirmation of the existence of Hell. Which in turn necessitates the affirmation of eternal objective Justice, specifically as it regards the moral sphere, which directly contradicts the primacy of immantism which underlies Modernism.

But the affirmation of the existence of Limbo, also contains the authentic affirmation of the Primacy of Christ, especially as Redeemer.

Modernists would not have you think it so: they will say that to insist that "all men be capable of salvation inasmuch as God offers in Christ all the opportunity for salvation" is rather an exaltation of the universality of the Redemption in Christ.

But hidden in this facile assertion is a problem.

If all those who died before reason and without baptism receive an opportunity for salvation, which they must if there is no Limbo, then the absolute universality of the offer of salvation in Christ seemingly obtains a right for all men to be offered salvation. For otherwise there is no objective basis for saying that all men are not due the offer of salvation, and hence, the offer of salvation is no longer a grace, for “grace” means "given freely", as a gift, and a gift given to all, cannot be distinguished from a given which all have the right to be given. And this detracts from God’s Glory, which no man has a right to, for in Adam we all have sinned and are deprived, justly, of God’s glory. Hence we have no right to it. And hence if Christ merits an opportunity of salvation for all men, without exception, then prior to our justification we all obtain a universal, positive, title or right to God’s Glory, which is a contradiction in terms. The Catholic Faith has never asserted such a novelty; rather it has only asserted that in Christ, that is in baptism, do we obtain such a title, and such a right only by sanctifying grace, which comes normally in the justification worked by baptism.

It also seemingly includes a denial. For in traditional Catholic theology, Christ is the Redeemer of All, both of those who lived before Him and of those who lived in His own age and of all those unto the end of time. But He is Redeemer inasmuch as He merited the forgiveness of all sins and obtained all graces that God intended ever to give men. The Modernist attack on Limbo contains the implicity denials that the grace first given to Adam, and all the subsequent graces that would have been given to all men prior to Christ on that basis, are under the headship of Christ, and therefore presupposes that Christ’s Redemption is lesser in scope than the graces given to Adam: which denial posits the necessity of asserting an absolute universality of Christ’s Redemption for all human persons, after the Redemption, even those who never by faith or reason come under the mediation of Christ, so as to establish an comparative universality of the Redemption to the graces lost by Adam.

In this sense the denial of Limbo’s existence is a false solution to the denial of the Absolute Primacy of Christ.

For following Bl. John Duns Scotus, Franciscan theologians avoid this problem, by affirming that Christ merited all grace, even those graces prior to the Redemption which if Adam had not sinned would have been given to men, because on the basis of what God intended from all eternity, namely that the Son of God would be the Incarnate King of Creation, all grace is predestined to be ordered to Christ, and hence is capable of merit by Christ as Redeemer. And thus there is no necessity that Christ merit other graces, such as would provide the opportunity of salvation for all without exception, because those have already been given in Adam, though he lost them. And after loosing them, there is only the necessity of saving the Elect, and hence no necessity of Christ meriting over and above those graces for those who are not of the Elect.

The denial of the existence of Limbo on the basis of an absolute universality of the Redemption in the order of grace in regard to all human persons, such that all who are conceive are offered salvation by ordinary and extraordinary means, contains seemingly another denial: namely, a denial that God elects some, and reproves all others; that He elects some prior to the prevision of their merits, and hence offers them grace without and prior to all merit; and that he reproves others after the prevision of their demerits, though he does offer some of these grace. Hence since God elects some, He is not bound in the Redemption, even though He merits as God-Man all grace, to offer all grace to any other, nor to offer at least one grace to all.

Why?

Because in redeeming men after the Fall, God never really intended the salvation of all, even though he preferred it. And if, as the Modernists say, He offers the opportunity of salvation to all after the Redemption is won, then it would follow that those who died without reason either must be offered an extraordinary miraculous vivification of their reason so that they may believe, and hence be justified, or that they are offered a salvation not founded in a human act, and thus are either damned for rejecting what they did not reject, or saved for accepting what they never accepted, both which are absurd.

It is also unfounded and tendentious to assert that Christ’s merits require that for the greater part of humanity, all those who died before birth, God work a miracle in the natural order by vivifying their reason so that they can accept Christ as their savior.

Surely if there are any Elect among such, God does do this. But there is no necessity that He do this for those who are not elect. Indeed it is fitting that being not of the Elect, they are not due an extraordinary means of being offered salvation, just as Christ teaches: do not throw pearls to swine. Indeed for those who reject extraordinary means, the punishment in Hell is all the worse. So if this unreasonable mercy is posited, then one must of necessity also posit that it is the cause of a greater damnation for those whom God knows will reject His grace, and thus He is made to appear neither merciful nor just, but a tempter of souls.

And thus the denial of the existence of Limbo, puts in doubt central truths of the True Faith, the affirmation of which, requires the affirmation of Limbo.

Otherwise, God actually either saves all the never born, and thus being born is a curse, or He actually damns some unborn to the fires of Hell, they who suffered the ill fate on account of Adam’s sin or the sin of their parents or others, to die before birth.

Thus, the affirmation of the existence of Limbo it at once the affirmation of the Mercy and Justice of the God who is at once, Creator, Redeemer, and Judge.

We must confess with Christ that God prefers the salvation of all, but calls the many, not the all, and only elects the few; and hence there is no necessity that He offer salvation to all by extraordinary means, when He has already offered it to all in the grace offered to Adam and lost by his sin, and in Christ through faith and the Sacraments. And therefore there is the necessity of positing Limbo, to save God’s Mercy and Justice for those who in Adam lost the opportunity of being saved by other ordinary means, and who were never elected to eternal life.