The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-11-30
FOR THE : A

Inv ANAAC0J CAp4CSSAOA Va JAG
Church's teaching on this point, says
is to be found in a profession of faith
subscribed by the Greeks at the Gen.
eral Councils held respectively at
Lyons in 1874 and Florence in 1889.
We define likewise that If the truly
penitent die in the love Of God, before
they have made satisfaction by worthy
fruits of penance for their sins of COM
mission and omission, their souls are
purified by p~urgatorial pains after
death; and that for relief from those
pains they are benefited by the suff-
RACES of the faithful in this life, that
is, by Masses, prayers, and almsgiving,
and by the other offices of piety
usually performed by the faithful for
one another according to the practice
of the Church. The great Council of
Trent (1545-1563) contented itself
with repeating that Purgatory exists,
and that the souls detained therein
r helped by the suffrages of the
faithful, but especially by the accept
able Sacrifice of the Altar (Session
XIV. This belief is, of course, in
timately bound up with our belief in
Purgatory and the doctrine Of the
Communion of Saints. And here, as
always, the Church, in her teaching,
meets and ennobles the deepest as
pirations of the human heart. Men at
all times have instinctively felt that
those we love truly never die and in
the heavy hours of sorrow have craved
for an assurance that the dead are
even still their dead, and have tried
to pierce the veil in order to live nee
more with and, If possible, help those
whom God has called to rest. And
now the Church comes to tell us in
her solemn language that the power Of
death does not loosen the bonds that
have knit hearts together on earth,
that God, in His mercy, allows us to
follow the souls of our friends beyond
the grave, and that the prayers of
the living avail to aid the souls of
the dead Are we wrong in seeing in
this consoling belief another proof of
the divinity of the Catholic Church!
The ~clearest passage in Scripture
and in our opinion the passage is re-
markably clear-in favor of prayers
for the dead is to be found in the
second book of Machabees (xii, 40-46).
A number of Jews had fallen fighting
in the cause of God in the battle
against Gorgias, but when their breth-
rem at the command of Judas Macha-
beus came to bury the dead, they
were Mortified to find under the coats
of the slain some of the donaries of
the idols of Jamnia, which the law
forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all
plainly saw, that for this cause they
were slain. Then they all blessed the
just judgment of the Lord, Who had
discovered the things that were hidden.
And so betaking themselves to pray
ers, they besought Him, that the sin
which had been committed might be
forgotten. But the most valiant Judas
exhorted the people to keep them
selves from sin, forasmuch as they
saw before their eyes what had hap
pened, because of the sins of those
that were slain. And making a gath
ering, he sent twelve thousand
drachms of silver to Jerusalem for
sacrifice to be offered for the sins Of
the dead, thinking well and religiously
concerning the resurrection (for if he
had not hoped that they that were
slain should rise again, it would have
seemed superfluous and vain to pray
for the dead, and because he consid-
cred that they who had fallen asleep
with godliness, had great grace laid up
for them. 1t is therefore a holy and
wholesome thought to pray for the
dead, that they may be loosed from
SINS Two things are noteworthy about
this passage. In the first place, it
furnishes us with evidence of the fact
that at least two centuries before the
time Of u Lord the Jews, Gods
chosen people, believed in praying for
the dead and were accustomed to have
sacrifices offered publicly in the
Temple for that purpose. We say, at
least two centuries before the time
of our Lord but there is good ground
for thinking that the practice is of
a much older date, for the act of
Judas and his men in praying for
their deceased comrades is repre-
scented as if it were a matter of
course; nor is there anything to sug-
gest that the procuring of sacrifices
for the dead was a novel " excep-
tional thing (Cath. Encyl. w., 654.) In
the second place, the inspired writer
himself not only tells the story of this
pious deed, but expressly approves of
what was done, and even, in the last
sentence, recommends the practice on
all occasions.
This approval and recommendation
by an inspired writer of the practice
of praying for the dead should be
taken into consideration when there is
question of our Lords attitude in re
gard to it. Christ was familiar with
the practice of the Jews; He knew
that His Jewish followers would keep
up the custom, unless He warned them
not to do so. Yet we hear of a
word of condemnation of the belief
and practice, though He had no hest.
tation in condemning many other
things. Would He-could He-have
acted thus, if He thought the custom
worthy of reproof, il He did not wish
it to continue in the Christian Church?
st. Paul, in his second letter to limo
thy seems to supply us with an instance
of prayer for the soul of a departed
friend. A certain Onesiphorus had
been very kind to the ADoStle: He