The Church Suffering
CatholicHarborOfFaithAndMorals
"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead,
that they may be loosed from sins."--2 Machabees 12:46
that they may be loosed from sins."--2 Machabees 12:46
The Church Suffering
PURGATORY AND SUFFRAGES FOR THE DEAD
PURGATORY AND SUFFRAGES FOR THE DEAD
And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he
paid the debt.-MATT. xviii. 34.
The servant spoken of in our text owed his
master an immense sum, equal to nearly twenty million dollars
in our money; and because of his sin the master cast him into
prison until he should pay the last farthing. Like this servant of
the parable we are all debtors to God in satisfaction for our sins.
Every conscious moment of our existence there is recorded in
the book of life something to our credit or something against us;
and at the end of our days upon earth the Lord will reckon up our
debts, and demand a strict account of them. Even those who die
in God's favor must nevertheless pay in the fires of purgatory the
debt of satisfaction which they owe for their sins.
I. The nature and existence of purgatory, 1. Purgatory is the place and state of expiation for all those who have died in the friendship of God, but without having fully satisfied for their sins. 2. That purgatory really exists is plain, (a) from Holy Scripture: "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Mach. xii. 46); Tobias commanded his son to give an alms to the poor for the liberation of a just man's soul (Tobias iv. 18); the inhabitants of Jabes Galaad fasted seven days for Saul and Jonathan after the latter's death (i Kings xxxi. 13) ; our Lord told the Pharisees that certain sins would not be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come (Matt. xii. 32) ; the Fathers see a reference to purgatory in those passages where our Lord speaks of a prison from which a man shall not be released until he has paid the last farthing (Matt. v. 2; Luke xii. 59). (b) The Church has always taught the doctrine of purgatory, as we know from the practice of praying for the dead, from the early liturgies, Councils, and writings of the Fathers, (c) The doctrine of purgatory is most reasonable, since on the one hand nothing defiled shall enter into heaven (Apoc. xxi. 27), and on the other hand the God of justice will not punish slight faults with eternal penalties, (d) The doctrine of purgatory is most consoling and helpful for the living as well as the dead. 3. The sufferings of the souls in purgatory are severe and consist in the deprivation of the vision and presence of God, and in certain positive afflictions; but they are resigned to God's will, they are certain of their salvation, and they know that their sufferings are not eternal.
II. The souls in purgatory are helped by our suffrages. 1. This is the teaching of Scripture, as we can see from the passages quoted above, and has been constantly taught by the Church from the beginning. 2. That the just on earth can assist the souls in purgatory is certain from the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. All the members of the Church form one society and one mystical body, and hence there is an interchange of good offices between them. The help we give the souls in purgatory mitigates their sufferings and hastens the time of their deliverance. 3. The chief means of suffrage are Masses, prayers, works of satisfaction, the heroic act of charity, and indulgences. 4. The Councils of Florence and Trent have declared that Masses are the principal means of assisting the souls in purgatory. 5. After the Sacrifice of the Mass the most suitable means of helping the holy souls are prayers. 6. Works of satisfaction embrace all our good works inasmuch as being difficult they have a compensatory value for the temporal punishment due to sin; hence the benefit of our fasts, almsdeeds, crosses, etc., can be transferred to the suffering souls. The heroic acts of charity consist in the total transfer to the holy souls of all our satisfactions, whether acquired by our own efforts, or offered for us by others. during our life or after our death. 7. An indulgence is not a permission to commit sin, nor a forgiveness of the guilt of sin; it is the remission outside of the Sacrament of Penance of some of the temporal punishments due to sin. In granting an indulgence the Church draws upon the superabundant merits and satisfactions of Christ and the saints. 8. That the Church has the right to grant indulgences is proved, (a) from the power of loosing given her by Christ (Matt. xvi. 19) ; (b) from the fact that, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, she has exercised this power from the beginning (2 Cor. ii. 10). 9. There are two kinds of indulgence: (a) plenary, or the remission of the entire punishment due to sin; (b) partial, or the remission of only a portion of the temporal punishment due to sin. An indulgence of forty days or seven years means the remission of as much temporal punishment as would have been paid by one of the ancient canonical penances of forty days or seven years duration. 10. The conditions for gaining an indulgence are: (a) the state of grace, at least at the completion of the work, and freedom from those venial faults whose punishment we wish to cancel (for a plenary indulgence freedom from all affection to sin is necessary); (b) the devout fulfilment of the works prescribed by the Church; (c) the intention at least in general of gaining the indulgence. It is a good practice to form the intention every morning of gaining all the indulgences possible on that day. Most indulgences can be applied to the souls in purgatory; when so applied they are offered to God with the request that He may accept them for the benefit of the suffering souls. Such application of indulgences is highly pleasing to God and beneficial to the poor souls.
LESSONS, 1. From a consideration of the sufferings of purgatory we should learn how great is the punishment for venial sin, and should strive to avoid it in future, and do penance now for the sins of the past. 2. Since it is in our power to help the suffering souls, we should be zealous to do for them what we hope others will do for us when we are in need.
Sermon: PurgatoryI. The nature and existence of purgatory, 1. Purgatory is the place and state of expiation for all those who have died in the friendship of God, but without having fully satisfied for their sins. 2. That purgatory really exists is plain, (a) from Holy Scripture: "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Mach. xii. 46); Tobias commanded his son to give an alms to the poor for the liberation of a just man's soul (Tobias iv. 18); the inhabitants of Jabes Galaad fasted seven days for Saul and Jonathan after the latter's death (i Kings xxxi. 13) ; our Lord told the Pharisees that certain sins would not be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come (Matt. xii. 32) ; the Fathers see a reference to purgatory in those passages where our Lord speaks of a prison from which a man shall not be released until he has paid the last farthing (Matt. v. 2; Luke xii. 59). (b) The Church has always taught the doctrine of purgatory, as we know from the practice of praying for the dead, from the early liturgies, Councils, and writings of the Fathers, (c) The doctrine of purgatory is most reasonable, since on the one hand nothing defiled shall enter into heaven (Apoc. xxi. 27), and on the other hand the God of justice will not punish slight faults with eternal penalties, (d) The doctrine of purgatory is most consoling and helpful for the living as well as the dead. 3. The sufferings of the souls in purgatory are severe and consist in the deprivation of the vision and presence of God, and in certain positive afflictions; but they are resigned to God's will, they are certain of their salvation, and they know that their sufferings are not eternal.
II. The souls in purgatory are helped by our suffrages. 1. This is the teaching of Scripture, as we can see from the passages quoted above, and has been constantly taught by the Church from the beginning. 2. That the just on earth can assist the souls in purgatory is certain from the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. All the members of the Church form one society and one mystical body, and hence there is an interchange of good offices between them. The help we give the souls in purgatory mitigates their sufferings and hastens the time of their deliverance. 3. The chief means of suffrage are Masses, prayers, works of satisfaction, the heroic act of charity, and indulgences. 4. The Councils of Florence and Trent have declared that Masses are the principal means of assisting the souls in purgatory. 5. After the Sacrifice of the Mass the most suitable means of helping the holy souls are prayers. 6. Works of satisfaction embrace all our good works inasmuch as being difficult they have a compensatory value for the temporal punishment due to sin; hence the benefit of our fasts, almsdeeds, crosses, etc., can be transferred to the suffering souls. The heroic acts of charity consist in the total transfer to the holy souls of all our satisfactions, whether acquired by our own efforts, or offered for us by others. during our life or after our death. 7. An indulgence is not a permission to commit sin, nor a forgiveness of the guilt of sin; it is the remission outside of the Sacrament of Penance of some of the temporal punishments due to sin. In granting an indulgence the Church draws upon the superabundant merits and satisfactions of Christ and the saints. 8. That the Church has the right to grant indulgences is proved, (a) from the power of loosing given her by Christ (Matt. xvi. 19) ; (b) from the fact that, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, she has exercised this power from the beginning (2 Cor. ii. 10). 9. There are two kinds of indulgence: (a) plenary, or the remission of the entire punishment due to sin; (b) partial, or the remission of only a portion of the temporal punishment due to sin. An indulgence of forty days or seven years means the remission of as much temporal punishment as would have been paid by one of the ancient canonical penances of forty days or seven years duration. 10. The conditions for gaining an indulgence are: (a) the state of grace, at least at the completion of the work, and freedom from those venial faults whose punishment we wish to cancel (for a plenary indulgence freedom from all affection to sin is necessary); (b) the devout fulfilment of the works prescribed by the Church; (c) the intention at least in general of gaining the indulgence. It is a good practice to form the intention every morning of gaining all the indulgences possible on that day. Most indulgences can be applied to the souls in purgatory; when so applied they are offered to God with the request that He may accept them for the benefit of the suffering souls. Such application of indulgences is highly pleasing to God and beneficial to the poor souls.
LESSONS, 1. From a consideration of the sufferings of purgatory we should learn how great is the punishment for venial sin, and should strive to avoid it in future, and do penance now for the sins of the past. 2. Since it is in our power to help the suffering souls, we should be zealous to do for them what we hope others will do for us when we are in need.
by the Very Rev. P.A. Sheehan, D.D.
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
One of the most beautiful and divine doctrines of the Catholic
Church, dear brethren, is that which is professed under the title
of "Communion of Saints." It is, as it were, a loving concession
on the part of Almighty God that He suffers us to think of our
friends, whom He has called into their rest. He is a jealous God;
one condition He is forever insisting upon as necessary to our
salvation--that is, that we should give Him our whole beings,
every act we perform, every thought we think. But He knows
what the human heart is, He who loved so tenderly the Mother
who bore Him, and He yields to our weakness, and suffers us to
think of, to rejoice with, or to sympathize with, those to whom
human affections attached us in this life. I have called it divine.
It is nothing less. No one but a loving God could inspire us with
the belief that death is in reality no separation, no fierce rending
asunder of affections, no violent wrenching of heart from heart
and soul from soul. Death makes a change, it is true, but what
is that change? It is a change that increases, strengthens, and
exalts that love which we have for one another in this world. Our
love is proportioned to our veneration and respect; the more our
friend is free from human infirmities, the more we are drawn
toward him, and this is the blessed change that death effects. It
steps in between those friends and takes one, and separates from
that one all his imperfections, and changes him into a bright, pure,
angelic spirit, but does not destroy him. That friend whom we
loved still lives, but is more worthy than ever of our love, and we
are not separated. We can reach into eternity, we can add new
lustre to our sainted brethren in heaven; even the little mite of
our praise and love does help to swell the eternal jubilee of the
saints in heaven. And on the other hand, we can reach those
saints who are in pain, those blessed souls who have got a glimpse
of the spotless sanctity of God and a true idea of their own
imperfections and then hurried away from the sight of God and
plunged themselves in the purifying flames of purgatory that they
may be able for eternity to stand unashamed in company with
their brethren. Blessed be God. We can enter even that prison,
and give our brethren a respite from pain, we can do, in a milder
way, by our prayers, the purifying work of these awful flames, we
can shorten the terms of their imprisonment, and at the same time,
satisfy their sensitiveness and quiet their apprehension lest they
should again carry sin into the presence of God.
There is not in this world anything so beautiful as the deathbed of a holy Catholic. Fortified by the Sacraments of the Church, serene in the consciousness of the possession of God's grace, yet half afraid to meet that God whom its soul longs to possess, picturing to itself the happiness of heaven, it is a recompense well worthy of the repentance of a lifetime. And yet, except with the greatest saints, it clings to the memory, love, and protection of its earthly friends. Behind the veil, it knows well it will be clasped in the arms of Jesus Christ, but it clings to the warm grasp of its earthly friends even till the eyes swim and the earth is gliding from beneath its feet. And its last and best consolation as it glides into the world of spirits is that the prayers of its friends are before it, that already there are voices pleading for it at the judgment seat of the Lamb. And is it not so? Oh yes, dearly beloved. The prayers for the dying are over, the prayers for the dead begin. We intrude into the awful courts of heaven, we interrupt the process of Judgment, we silence the voice of the accuser, by speaking to Jesus the Judge and reminding Him that that soul is His, that He redeemed it, that the marks of His blood are upon it, and by conjuring Him to save that dear soul, to fit it for presence in heaven, but not to deliver it into the hand of His enemy. Even that body that is left us, do we not reverence it, do we not consecrate it? Do we not make these lifeless arms into the sign of our redemption. Do we not sprinkle that body with holy water, because it is holy? Do we not incense it, because it is worthy of all reverence? We will not even allow it to mingle with unhallowed dust, but we bless the very earth into which it will be changed, and then raise over it the sign of our redemption, that nothing unholy might come near it, that the enemy may know that there is nothing in this grave that belongs to him, but a body that was crucified and nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ.
And then we follow the souls of our friends into eternity. From the judgment seat we follow them into their prison, where their angel conducts them, and our prayers, as it were, rain down incessantly on those fires. We pray for them at our public services; we pray for them at our private devotions; we pray for them even at our meals; there is scarcely a day in which the Holy Sacrifice is not offered for these suffering souls; there are many in the Church who have given to God all the merits of their lives, their prayers, fastings, almsdeeds for the souls in purgatory; there are religious Orders in the Church who repeat frequently during the day the De Profundis for the departed. And with all this, dear brethren, if we consider how great are the sufferings of these poor souls, we shall see how really uncharitable we are and how unreasonable it is that we do so very little.
THE REASON FOR PURGATORYThere is not in this world anything so beautiful as the deathbed of a holy Catholic. Fortified by the Sacraments of the Church, serene in the consciousness of the possession of God's grace, yet half afraid to meet that God whom its soul longs to possess, picturing to itself the happiness of heaven, it is a recompense well worthy of the repentance of a lifetime. And yet, except with the greatest saints, it clings to the memory, love, and protection of its earthly friends. Behind the veil, it knows well it will be clasped in the arms of Jesus Christ, but it clings to the warm grasp of its earthly friends even till the eyes swim and the earth is gliding from beneath its feet. And its last and best consolation as it glides into the world of spirits is that the prayers of its friends are before it, that already there are voices pleading for it at the judgment seat of the Lamb. And is it not so? Oh yes, dearly beloved. The prayers for the dying are over, the prayers for the dead begin. We intrude into the awful courts of heaven, we interrupt the process of Judgment, we silence the voice of the accuser, by speaking to Jesus the Judge and reminding Him that that soul is His, that He redeemed it, that the marks of His blood are upon it, and by conjuring Him to save that dear soul, to fit it for presence in heaven, but not to deliver it into the hand of His enemy. Even that body that is left us, do we not reverence it, do we not consecrate it? Do we not make these lifeless arms into the sign of our redemption. Do we not sprinkle that body with holy water, because it is holy? Do we not incense it, because it is worthy of all reverence? We will not even allow it to mingle with unhallowed dust, but we bless the very earth into which it will be changed, and then raise over it the sign of our redemption, that nothing unholy might come near it, that the enemy may know that there is nothing in this grave that belongs to him, but a body that was crucified and nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ.
And then we follow the souls of our friends into eternity. From the judgment seat we follow them into their prison, where their angel conducts them, and our prayers, as it were, rain down incessantly on those fires. We pray for them at our public services; we pray for them at our private devotions; we pray for them even at our meals; there is scarcely a day in which the Holy Sacrifice is not offered for these suffering souls; there are many in the Church who have given to God all the merits of their lives, their prayers, fastings, almsdeeds for the souls in purgatory; there are religious Orders in the Church who repeat frequently during the day the De Profundis for the departed. And with all this, dear brethren, if we consider how great are the sufferings of these poor souls, we shall see how really uncharitable we are and how unreasonable it is that we do so very little.
For why do we not speak of purgatory? Apart from the fact
that purgatory exists, a belief founded upon the teachings of
Scripture and the Church, what is the reason of purgatory, its
purpose, its objects? It has a twofold reason--to satisfy the
justice of God and the mercy of God. In heaven there is nothing
but mercy; in hell there is nothing but justice; in purgatory justice
and mercy meet, and the poor souls detained there are the victims
of God's great justice and at the same time the objects of His
love and clemency. They passed into eternity, faithful to God,
united to God. He could not cast them out of His sight forever,
but unconsciously they carried with them before the All Holy God
some human weaknesses, some human infirmities, and as "nothing
defiled can enter into the kingdom of heaven," His mercy
provided for them a place of purgatory, where sharp penance would
expiate their faults and restore them spotless to His bosom.
Heresy rushes into extremes on this as well as on all other
dogmas. It condemns a soul without remorse or scruple, it saves
souls easily and pleasantly without even the pretense of penance.
It believes that for the slightest sin, for the half voluntary thought
or the silly word, a merciful God will cast a soul into the flames of
hell forever, whereas on the other hand, years of sin may be
atoned for by the simple presumption that God has pardoned
them. The innocent soul that has never lost the grace of Baptism,
but has only yielded to those faults that the judgment angel does
not care to record, if suddenly snatched from life by death, is
banished from the presence of God forever, whereas the sinner
who has been heaping up for himself a measure of wrath for
many years is admitted at once, unshriven, impenitent, and unpurified,
into the company of the angels and the elect. I do not
believe in such very sudden changes. I know the power of God.
I would not for the world underrate or depreciate it. But there is
a saying of St. Augustine full of much wisdom: "God has created
us without ourselves; God will not save us except by our cooperation,"
and that cooperation, if we have sinned, is the cooperation of
penance. The redemption of the world by our divine
Lord has not changed the nature of sin. Sin is as hateful in the
eyes of God now as it was then, and it is true now as it was when
John the Baptist preached: "Except you do penance you shall all
likewise perish" (Luke xiii. 5). That penance must be done
either in this world or in the next. If we be guilty of mortal sin,
it must be atoned for in this life by penance, or it will never be
atoned for, though it will be punished in the eternal fires of hell;
if it be venial sin, it can be atoned for by penance and prayer in
this life, or by the sharp fires of purgatory in the next.
The late Father Faber was accustomed to say that he could never understand why we speak of the poor souls in purgatory. He thought them rich indeed, much to be envied, little to be pitied, They are indeed truly rich, because they are certain of possessing God forever. Compared with us, living as we do in dreadful uncertainty about our salvation, they are to be envied exceedingly. And yet it is also true that they are deserving of our sympathy and pity. They are poor because they are suffering, and the promise of the future scarcely relieves their anguish in the present. A man lies upon his bed, writhing and tossing in fever. His physician gives hopes of his recovery, tells him almost infallibly that he will recover. Yet with that prospect of certain recovery, is he not deserving of our pity and compassion? These poor prisoners that are cut away from all human society in the jails of the country, are they not deserving of pity, even though their term of imprisonment is not eternal, and they will enjoy their liberty all the more for having lost it for a time? So with the blessed souls in purgatory. They are truly deserving of our pity, compassion, and sympathy, because, although they belong to God, yet they are suffering now, suffering bitterly, suffering intensely in the fires of purgatory. If a child were in agony, and if the mother who could relieve it turned aside from it, consoling herself with the reflection that it wouldn't die, would we not call her unfeeling and cruel? Yet we do the very same thing when we refuse or neglect to assist the suffering souls on the pretense that they cannot die because they are saved. Oh dearly beloved! It it very selfish and unfeeling on our parts, it is enough almost to make God abandon us, if we go through life, and never assist these blessed souls, whom we can assist so easily and who need our assistance so much. I do not think that there is one of us who does not feel remorse again and again during life for neglecting the souls in purgatory. There is not one of us who does not start from a long course of selfishness, start with the thought that all that time we were enjoying ourselves, light-hearted and careless, that dear friend, whom we loved in this world and who prized our love, has been crying to us in anguish, has been lifting up his hands to us from the flames, perhaps has long ago turned away from us in despair, and rested all its hopes on the mercy of God rather than upon the cruelty of his friends. There is not a single soul among us to whom voices are not crying every hour of the night and day, in the language of Holy Job, "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me" (Job xlx. 21). If we had faith, we would hear them. And if we had even human hearts, and not hearts icy cold through selfishness and worldliness, we would rest neither by night nor by day from relieving them.
THE SUFFERINGS OF PURGATORYThe late Father Faber was accustomed to say that he could never understand why we speak of the poor souls in purgatory. He thought them rich indeed, much to be envied, little to be pitied, They are indeed truly rich, because they are certain of possessing God forever. Compared with us, living as we do in dreadful uncertainty about our salvation, they are to be envied exceedingly. And yet it is also true that they are deserving of our sympathy and pity. They are poor because they are suffering, and the promise of the future scarcely relieves their anguish in the present. A man lies upon his bed, writhing and tossing in fever. His physician gives hopes of his recovery, tells him almost infallibly that he will recover. Yet with that prospect of certain recovery, is he not deserving of our pity and compassion? These poor prisoners that are cut away from all human society in the jails of the country, are they not deserving of pity, even though their term of imprisonment is not eternal, and they will enjoy their liberty all the more for having lost it for a time? So with the blessed souls in purgatory. They are truly deserving of our pity, compassion, and sympathy, because, although they belong to God, yet they are suffering now, suffering bitterly, suffering intensely in the fires of purgatory. If a child were in agony, and if the mother who could relieve it turned aside from it, consoling herself with the reflection that it wouldn't die, would we not call her unfeeling and cruel? Yet we do the very same thing when we refuse or neglect to assist the suffering souls on the pretense that they cannot die because they are saved. Oh dearly beloved! It it very selfish and unfeeling on our parts, it is enough almost to make God abandon us, if we go through life, and never assist these blessed souls, whom we can assist so easily and who need our assistance so much. I do not think that there is one of us who does not feel remorse again and again during life for neglecting the souls in purgatory. There is not one of us who does not start from a long course of selfishness, start with the thought that all that time we were enjoying ourselves, light-hearted and careless, that dear friend, whom we loved in this world and who prized our love, has been crying to us in anguish, has been lifting up his hands to us from the flames, perhaps has long ago turned away from us in despair, and rested all its hopes on the mercy of God rather than upon the cruelty of his friends. There is not a single soul among us to whom voices are not crying every hour of the night and day, in the language of Holy Job, "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me" (Job xlx. 21). If we had faith, we would hear them. And if we had even human hearts, and not hearts icy cold through selfishness and worldliness, we would rest neither by night nor by day from relieving them.
And let us not deceive ourselves with the delusive hope that the
pains of purgatory are very short or very trifling. We do not
know what sin is. But if we only look on the cross of Jesus
Christ, we must acknowledge that it is of infinite malice in the
sight of God. If, therefore. His justice demanded the life of His
Son for a single sin, what will not His justice demand of us for
our countless sins? And though His Justice saves us from the
hell which we deserve. His justice demands from us some slight
satisfaction at least. Again mortal sin, being of infinite malice, is
punished with infinite torments; how venial sin approaches as
nearly to mortal sin as finite things can approach to infinite, and,
therefore, that punishment of venial sin in purgatory is everything
but infinite. And the doctors of the Church teach us, and teach us
with truth, that the pains of purgatory are the pains of hell, but
they are not eternal. In purgatory, as in hell, there is the physical
pain of fire; in purgatory, as in hell, there is the shame and
remorse of sin; and above all there is that pain, infinite, unendurable,
the pain of loss, the pain of being separated from God. We
cannot understand that, because we have not seen God, but,
dear brethren, it is for God we are made. We are in this world
always fretting and chafing at our separation from God; all the
sorrow of the world, if really resolved, would be found to be
separation from God. At death when our souls are freed, they fly
straight to the bosom of God, and what a dreadful anguish it must
be to be spurned by God, to see Him and not to possess Him, to
know and perceive that He is everything our souls can desire and
yet be unable to possess Him. To have seen the face of Jesus
Christ, to have heard His sweet voice speaking to us words of
mercy, and then to be led away from Him with a barrier of fire
between us, that is the greatest torture a human soul can suffer,
and that is the suffering of the soul in purgatory. Do not make
light of it, dear brethren. Do not think little of it. No one but
a mother can understand a mother's sorrow for her child, and no
soul but that has seen God can understand what it is to lose Him
even for a time. But it is a truth of divine faith, and our
ignorance of the real nature of that truth, our inability to understand
it, does not lessen the anguish of those souls who know it
too well. And if we be wise, and wise with the wisdom of
charity, we shall act on what faith teaches us, and try to help
those blessed souls as if we saw with our own eyes their prison,
and heard with our own ears their cries for mercy. The truths of
faith are more certain than those things to which our senses
testify, and it is truly a Catholic spirit to believe them as
thoroughly, and act upon them as fearlessly and unhesitatingly.
EXHORTATION
O dearly beloved! if we could only behold the joy that lights
up the countenances of these blessed souls, when our prayers are
heard in heaven, and their angel comes and blows aside from
them the flames that torment them, and tells them that years are
blotted from their sentences, and that soon they will again behold
the face of God, I think we should pray night and day incessantly
for them. Oh, it is a truly noble work; there is no charity to be
compared with it. It is good to feed the hungry, to clothe the
naked, to visit the sick, but it is the highest office of charity to
visit the suffering saints, and restore them to their places as
princes of the court of heaven. And when we remember that
amongst these suffering saints are some of our own flesh and
blood, who loved us in this world, and whom we loved, the
father or mother, to whom we owe whatever good we possess, the
brother or sister, whose affection was the one joy and support of
our youth, it is not charity alone that demands our prayers, but
pity and justice and gratitude. And if we neglect them, whatever
we may profess to be, we cannot free ourselves from the imputation
of being uncharitable, unjust, impious, and ungrateful.
I exhort you, therefore, dear beloved, to pray for the souls in purgatory, to whose special remembrance this day is devoted. Pray for them, that through your prayers not only they may be admitted to the glory of God, but also you may share in the reward which our Lord promised in the words: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!"
Related: I exhort you, therefore, dear beloved, to pray for the souls in purgatory, to whose special remembrance this day is devoted. Pray for them, that through your prayers not only they may be admitted to the glory of God, but also you may share in the reward which our Lord promised in the words: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!"
