Folia Theologica 20. (2009)
Barbour Hugh: The Cosmology of Catholic Worship: Pre-Socratic Sacraments? A Consideration by a disciple of St. Thomas Qauinas
10 BARBOUR, Hugh "It is also possible that God simply acts to give the gift of salvation to unbaptised infants by analogy with the gift of salvation given sacramentally to baptized infants We may perhaps compare this to God's unmerited gift to Mary at her Immaculate Conception, by which he simply acted to give her in advance the grace of salvation in Christ." The teaching of St. Thomas in question 64 article 7 of the Summa Theologiae is brought forward to justify this conclusion: "God does not demand the impossible of us. Furthermore, God's power is not restricted to the sacraments: 'Deus virtutem suam non alligavit sacramentis quin possit sine sacramentis effectum sacramentorum conferre' (God did not bind His power to the sacraments, so as to be unable to bestow the sacramental effect without conferring the sacrament). God can therefore give the grace of Baptism without the sacrament being conferred, and this fact should particularly be recalled when the conferring of Baptism would be impossible. The need for the sacrament is not absolute. What is absolute is humanity's need for the Ursakrament which is Christ nimself. All salvation comes from him and therefore, in some way, through the Church." Thus it would appear that the sacramental order established by Christ admits of exceptions whereby no composite human acts singly applied accomplish the salvation of certain individuals, in this case of infants who die without sacramental baptism. Second Objection: from the question of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari. In the year 2001 the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity published Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist Between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.5 The occasion of this document was the especially trying wartime circumstances of the Christian communities in Iraq and their diaspora, occasioning the need for joint Catholic and Assyrian celebrations of the Eucharist. The particular point at issue was the Assyrian version of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari which lacks the narration of the institution and consequently the words of Christ at the time of the consecration. Traditionally these words have been understood in the Catholic Church to be the 5 http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/docu ments/rc_pc_chrs tuni_doc_20011025_chiesa-caldea-assira_en.html
