PURGATORY

LAST SUNDAY OF OCTOBER 1888.

"It is a holy and salutary thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." -II MACCABEES.

DEATH places a barrier between us and our departed friends. We see them no longer in their accustomed places. We know no longer the sound of their voice, or the light of their eyes. They are gone from us and we mourn our loss. But if that is the only sentiment we possess, we are but selfish Christians. If we think or feel that the earth that covers their dead bodies buries also our interest in them, or stifles our hope for them, then we realize too little the consolations of our holy faith, that builds a bridge even over the abyss of death and allows us to assist them to eternal happiness. It is this doctrine of the communion of Saints that robs even death of its terrors. It is because the Church follows her children

with her loving care even beyond the grave that we can still find comfort when one that is dear to us has passed beyond. This consolation comes to us from the belief of the Catholic Church in Purgatory; a doctrine oftentimes so little understood and consequently so much maligned that it behooves those, who as children of the Church accept it, to have a clear conception of it. That reason joined to the fact that All Souls Day is so close upon us moves me to speak to you to-day upon that subject.

All who profess the Catholic Faith are bound to believe that besides Heaven and Hell there is another place

or state where the souls of the just, not perfectly purified of the effects of sin in this life, are cleansed by punishment before they enter eternal happiness. I say they are bound to believe it because this doctrine has been clearly and explicitly defined by the Council of Trent, the decisions of which are binding on every Catholic. This alone would be sufficient motive for belief, as we are bound to acknowledge perpetually in the Church the presence of the Holy Spirit, who teaches her all truth, and preserves her from all error, rendering at once every definition of Faith infallible and certain.

Although the definition of a dogma is sufficient ground for certain belief, it is not the only one from which we may deduce this doctrine. It flows inevitably as a most sure conclusion from the whole system of Christ's teachings. Do we not know from Holy Writ that nothing defiled can enter Heaven? Are we not reminded incessantly of the absolute sanctity and purity of God, who abhors the sight of iniquity and unholiness, who rejoices in the perfection of good, and who detests every appearance of evil? Are we not repeatedly told that in Heaven all is light, and darkness there is not? But on the other hand do we not know that all men are sinners? that even the just man falls often into imperfections? Do we not know that even after the guilt of sin is remitted there remains a temporal penalty that must still be paid? What, then, is the necessary conclusion?

We know that the unjust—that is, they who die in their mortal sins will be condemned to Hell; for they have died defying God, and as with this life the time of probation ends, and the tree lies as it falls, so they who die in enmity with God shall so remain for all eternity, exiles forever from eternal happiness and the Blessed

Presence of God. We know, too, that the kingdom of Heaven is prepared for those who love God, that is, they who die in His grace. But shall all these enter in at once into that happy possession? Shall they who although they have lived and died in God's grace yet have committed many venial faults, go thus blotted and stained into God's eternal presence? Impossible. They themselves, as the weight of the flesh falls from their souls, as the scales of material existence fall from their eyes, and they behold what they are and what God is, cry out, "Unworthy, O Lord, unworthy! Where can we wash away these stains that make us blush for shame before the Saints?" To Hell they must not go; for they are God's friends, and Hell is the abode only of the damned. Where but to that state where, removed a while from the awful sanctity of God's clear vision, they may blot out, by suffering, these hindrances to the immediate happiness of Heaven. Hence we must conclude from Christian reason the existence of a temporary state of purgation after death, call it what you will the name matters not. But what fitter name for the place where the souls of the just are purged of their offenses than the word which exactly expresses that state, Purgatory.

The plain conclusion of this argument, derived directly at least in its premises from the Scriptures, is so manifestly in accord with the entire fabric of Christ's teachings that many of the best Protestant minds have, at the present time especially, at least in substance, accepted it; and although at the birth of Protestantism all her forces were ranged against this doctrine, they are now every day leaning more and more towards its acceptance.

The liturgy of the universal Church is always a convincing sign of its belief. She could never inculcate by her

public ritual anything opposed to or out of harmony with her teachings. As she prays so she believes. Now it has always and everywhere been the practice of the Church not only to allow individuals to pray for the departed souls, but, what is more to the point, in her public and solemn offices she has ever offered up to God petitions that they who have gone before us with the sign of Faith may come into the Eternal Rest. Certainly she does not thus pray for the Blessed in Heaven, for they have already attained; nor for the eternally damned, for Hell, according to the teaching of Christ, has no egress. It is plain then that she thus asks God to shorten the imprisonment of those detained in the middle state of suffering, called Purgatory.

Writing upon this very subject, St. Augustine, who lived in the Fourth Century, writes: "There can be no doubt that the prayers of the Church and the giving of alms assist the dead; for by these means is God moved to deal more mercifully with them than their sins deserve." Then he adds the convincing clause: "This custom we have received from the Fathers, and it is observed by the Universal Church." It is almost impossible to overstate the force of this argument. St. Augustine lived in the last years of the Fourth and the first half of the Fifth Century. Already he speaks of the custom of praying for the dead as handed down by "the Fathers." It would be easy to establish an unbroken chain back to the time of the Apostles themselves.

Tertullian in the Second and Third Centuries speaks also of this practice, as does also Isidore of Spain in the Seventh. Again St. Augustine, speaking of his dead mother, says distinctly that she desired the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar to be offered for her after death, that her sins might be blotted out.

Finally we have in the Holy Scripture itself, in the Second Book of Maccabees, that most direct of all texts, where Judas Maccabeus sent to Jerusalem two thousand drachmas of silver that sacrifice might be offered for the sins of his dead soldiers. The passage closes with these words: "It is a holy and salutary thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." It is true that this text is from the Old Testament, but the Jews to this day pray for the departed, and Christ Himself must have known of and taken part in this custom while on earth. Yet where do we find any prohibition of such practice, which the Apostles, clinging to their Jewish customs, as they always did unless forbidden, must have practiced continually?

Prayer for the Dead really necessitates some such place as Purgatory. Both directly from the Scripture quoted, and indirectly by argument from other scriptural texts, from the universal tradition of the Church in all ages from apostolic times, and from the liturgy of the Church we must conclude that, besides Hell, the place of eternal punishment for those who die in mortal sin unrepentant, there is a place of purgation where those who die repentant, yet not having sufficiently expiated their guilt, suffer for a time, until entirely purified they finally enter the Kingdom of God.

What is the nature of this place, and what the pains endured?

First then the souls in Purgatory suffer what is called the pain of loss. Separated from the body, they see most clearly the end for which they were created; they realize the immensity of God's goodness, and, knowing that, they love Him most intensely. But, since they cannot on account of their stains immediately fly to that end, since