The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-12-07

cept to listen to His Church. The
gates of hell may not prevail against
My Church. The Holy Ghost will teach
her all truth
Can Mass and prayers bring a per
son to heaven who has led Il very low
life? And what is the object in paying
a certain sum to have u Mass said for
the dead?''
If a man dies in mortal sin God in
His justice condemns him to hell for
ever. The wicked shall go into ever
lasting fire" and then all the Masses
and prayers that could be offered could
not redeem him from that eternal hell
If a man repents of his sinful life
towards the end of it and yet his soul
not being entirely purified nor made in
every way worthy of Gods presence.
he is sent to purgatory to be cleansed
there. and the Masses and prayers of
the faithful upon earth may urge God
to have mercy on his soul and lead him
the sooner to the joys of paradise.
Catholics pay no sum of money for q
Mass. The Mass cannot be bought. But
Catholics do make an Offering often
times when Mass is said for them and
that offering is made in the spirit of
thanksgiving and gratitude. The Mass
is not bought. An Offering is made
when the sacrament of baptism is
conferred or that of matrimony is re-
ceived The money does not buy the
baptism nor the marriage no more than
does the offering for Mass buy the
Mass.
How can your priests forgive sins.
when Christ says He alone forgNeth
sinS?"
Christ said quite the contrary. 1t
be of 'hY,isf y4rb
to know how He dared to forgive sins.
He replied to His critics by miracle:
that you may know that the Son of
Man hath power on earth to forgive
sins" Christ told the palsied man to
take up his bed and walk. 1t is not for
us to prescribe the manner of the par
don of sin. In the world of nature God
uses secondary causes and secondary
agents for all natural communication
between Himself and the human mind.
1t is because man is constituted as he
is-with body as we'll as sOul-that God
speaks to man through these secondary
causes Man remains man when he
worships God and when God deals
with him. God must deal with him in
religion in a manner analogous to all
His other dealings with man. There
fore. the need of an Incarnation. and
of a visible Church, and a sacramento
/ ~ SltIIlr anu 81 VI Il sacrament VI 1 eli
ance, through which alone can come
the assurance of pardon. Christ has
given His word: Receive We the Holy
Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive
they shall be forgiven. and whose sins
you shall retain they shall be retained. ~
Do you believe that all non-Catholics
are going to hell. or at best some
halfway station?'
The Church believes that God wishes
all men TO be saved and to come to the
knowledge of truth. No man can be
condemned except for sin. Truth is
one and there can be only one true
church. but we cannot and do not be-
| lieVe. that those who have not had the
opportunity TO know the complete Cos
pei of Christ will be condemned for not
knowing. through no fault of their
own. If their faith is honest, they be-
/ long to what is called the soul of the
church-God searches the heart. If
they have the grace of God. as they
may well have, and belong to the soul
of Christs Church, as they often do,
they must share in the same eternal
| joy of heaven that God promises to all
! His servants. The grace of God all
comes from a common source. The
church says only that she knows her
position to be beyond reasonable doubt.
If a man knows that position thor
oughly and recognizes .the credentials
of the Church and then refuses to ac-
cept it, he refuses Christ. AS Christ
Himself says: IF any house or city
/ will not hear you, shake off the dust
from off your feet. Verify, il will be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomor-
rah in the day of judgment than for
that house or city" 1t is plainly a
great sin to reject the truth if one rec
ognies that it is the truth 1t is the
sin against the Holy Ghost-the I'M
pardonable sin-that will be forgiven
neither in this world nor in the next.
Sin alone can be the cause of damna-
ton.