GOD'S BLUE BOOK - Shepherds of Christ Ministries

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