The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-03-27
JUDGE GOODWIN'S TRIBUTE TO THE
DEAD.

God rest his great soul" With this Catholic
prayer for the soul of his dead friend Judge Good
win in last Saturdays Telegram closes splendid
tribute of admiration and respect paid to the mem
DRY of the late w. w Chisholm. The panegyric
praise carries in every sentence note of the sin
certy of the friendship of the venerable Judge for
his departed friend, an honest and honorable ex-
preston of his sorrow, and an admiration for ster
ling manhood which is creditabe to the high intel
lect of Judge Goodwin, and just what we would
expect from his warm heart.
That concluding sentence. "God rest his great
soul, the spontaneous expression of an affec-
tionate nature deeply moved by the loss of sim
cere and manly friend; it was an unconscious pro-
fession of belief in the Catholic doctrine of Purea-
tory, of intermediate state, where the departed
soul would receive comfort and refreshment. rest
and peace, and light, by the visitation of God. by
the consolation of His spirit to sustain it in ex
pectation of its trial and the anxetes it must pass
through during the time of that trial.
Prayer for the dead supposes. of course, that
their state is imperfect, that they are capable of
higher degrees of happiness than they have yet at
tanned that this increase of happiness follows the
gradual process of purifcation and that there may
be remains of sin about them which the unknown
discipline of the intermediate state will cleanse
away
Because the condition of the dead is uncertain,
and because where there is hope of the better there
is fear of the worse, the Catholic church has al
ways assisted her dead with obations to God for
them and with the prayers of her living children
And this she does, not alone for their final absoIu-
ton and discharge with glory wherever they are
l,,4+ IL Il n
on them. assuage their sorrows and shorten their
period of probation in the intermediate state
The very fact that it is an intermediate state
implies that it is also state of publication and
preparation. 1t is period interposed between the
trials and suferngs of earth and the eternal lows
of heaven but it cannot be without serving some
good purpose or without its use. The soul that has
departed from its body. its earthly tabernacle. is
not DORMANT it is in state of conscious existence;
and, if conscious, its powers must be actively ex-
erted In some way.
Thought Is of the very essence of its being. Ex-
istence and naction are contradctores in the ma
ture of an immaterial substance. The soul in it's
disembodied state in Purgatory. is conscious of
sins committed when in the flesh, is resigned to its
punishment for these sins but awaits with deep re-
gets and longings the time OF its deliverance. and
the Beatife Vision when it shall see its creator
face to face"
In the overwhelming majority of cases some
preparation is necessary beyond what is made here
on earth Scarcely human being passes away
from this life perfectly free from all that is OBJ
posed to the Divine Nature as to be fit companion
for Angelic beings to stand unspotted in the
presence of God
That uncondemned souls, Immediately after
DEATH are received up into heaven was part of the
old Gnostic heresy and seems to have been an opn-
ion connected with denial of the resurrection as
the Presbyterian doctrines of predestination and in
FAINT damnation are denial of the justice of God
and the possibility of salvation
In what way the soul, which leaves this world
in state of grace that is, freed from the guilt of
mortal sin. yet without having made ample and
complete satisfaction, and with the remains of