Supplication, as we have seen, was made for the souls of the dead by priests and people in the Old Testament. From the very beginning of Christianity we find this practice to have been characteristic of the charity of the first believers. Through all the ages of the Church the Faithfully have piously remembered the dead in their offerings and intercessions, and the priests have recommended them to God in their Holy Sacrifices. The custom described by Saint Ephrem in the first centuries of Christianity is equally observed today.
"My brethren, come to me, and prepare me for my departure," he wrote in setting down his testament, and then continued to describe what he wished they should do for him after his death: "Go along with me in psalms and in your prayers, and fail not constantly to make oblations for me." Particularly he calls attention to the month's mind, offered then as now: "When the thirtieth day shall be completed, then remember me." So, too, even before this time, Tertullian calls attention to the anniversary Sacrifice for the dead. And what could be more explicit than the explanation offered in those early ages by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem describing the liturgy in the forth century, precisely as we find it observed in the twentieth century within the same Catholic Church?
We commemmorate all who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great advantage to the souls for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful Sacrifice is presented. (Oxford. Transl. p. 275. Catech. myst. 5, 9.)
Thus we see how all the centuries of Christianity are united in one and the same faith, and one and the same practice; for turning to the Council of Trent we find the teaching of the Scriptures and the Fathers repeated no less clearly in affirming the existence of Purgatory, and adding that: "The souls therein detained are aided by the suffrages of the Faithful and principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar."
What Catholic mother of today would not die joyfully repeating to her own priest son the words of Monica to her Augustine? "Lay this body anywhere; be not concerned about that. One favor only do I beg of you: that wherever you may be, you will always make a remembrance of me, when you stand at the Altar of God."
It is clear, therefore, that the first and most powerful means by which we can come to the aid of the dear departed is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Such is the tradition of the Church through all the centuries. Nothing could be more plain from the many quotations already scattered over these pages. The oldest Roman Sacramentarium, that of Leo, dating back to about the year 450 contains six different Mass formulas for the dead. Parts of these prayers are in'fact in our Missals to the present day. Going back to the catacombs we meet with the image of the soul in blessedness as the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice.
The gilds of the Middle Ages secured the services of as many chaplains as they could that numerous Masses might be said for their dead immediately after their departure from this life, and that they might thereafter also be remembered in the Holy Sacrifice. Such is the tradition of the entire Church from Apostolic days. Love for the dead can show itself in no better way than in the Masses, said or sung, that are offered for them. The Church herself accords special privileges by which High Masses of Requiem can be celebrated every day, except on Sundays and on some great feasts of the year, together with their octaves. The added solemnity implies also an added glory given to Almighty God, and a special benefit for the suffering souls.
Our offerings for the dead will naturally be proportioned to our means. But all are able to show from time to time their charity to the dead, and to remember their own dear departed. Catholics should show by their example that they realize that Masses are of all but infinitely greater importance at the passing of the soul into eternity than precious caskets and mounds of flowers. The beauty of modest flowery wreaths is not indeed out of place to cheer the living and may well be a sweet act of charity to them in their desolation; but the Masses for the dead are the one supreme thing to bear in mind. Let retrenchments be made anywhere except here. Let there be, not one only, but many Masses; and let the souls not be forgotten with the months and years. Yet how often is not the contrary the practice of thoughtless Christians, who while meaning to be kind in their lavish funeral expenses are in reality unspeakably cruel to their dead, cherishing the lifeless form, and leaving the soul to smart in pain.
In the next place there is that treasury of the superabundant merits and satisfactions of Christ and His Saints, which we can never exhaust, and from which we may draw ceaselessly through the indulgences the Church grants us, and which she generally permits us to apply to the souls in Purgatory. Unspeakably great are the indulgences of the Way of the Cross, the various indulgences of the Rosary and Scapular, and those connected with so many sodalities, confraternities and religious societies. With every Communion a plenary indulgence can be gained for the Poor Souls under the proper conditions. Thus to obtain such an indulgence after Confession and Communion, the Faithful need but delay to recite before an image of the Crucified, such as they will find over every altar, that short and beautiful prayer so familiar to all:
Behold, O kind and sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in Thy sight, and with the most fervent desires of my soul I pray and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, with true repentence for my sins, and a firm desire of amendment, whilst with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself, and mentally contemplate Thy five most precious wounds; having before my eyes that which David in prophecy made Thee say concerning Thyself, O good Jesus: "They have pierced my hands and feet, they have numbered all my bones."
In addition some prayers must here be said for the intention of the Holy Father that this plenary indulgence may be gained. The custom of the Faithful is here to recite five "Our Fathers" and five "Hail Marys," although no special prayers are assigned. To gain more than one plenary indulgence, to which we may for various reasons be entitled, we must for each make a separate visit to the Blessed Sacrament, where such a condition is definitely assigned. Special privileges are accorded by the Church to those who have made the "heroic act" in favor of the souls in Purgatory.
Other good works, too, may be performed for the Poor Souls. Especially approved throughout all the history of the Church has been the offering of alms for their sake. We are told that as water extingushes fire, so alms destroy sins. Without any doubt, says Saint Augustine, "will the departed souls obtain relief when the Sacrifice of the Mediator (i. e. the Holy Mass) is offered for them, or alms are spent in the Church." {enchiridion, c. 110.) Such alms may of course be given anywhere. "We are too forgetful of our dear departed," Saint Francis de Sales often said, and he makes this beautiful comparison between the corporal works of mercy and our assistance granted the souls in Purgatory, without wishing to lessen our zeal for the former:
We like to perform works of mercy, and do not remember that in endeavoring to obtain relief for these poor souls we shall practice almost all the works of mercy at one and the same time. Is this not to console the sorrowing, to assist the sick, to visit the prisoners, to free them or to lighten the weight of their chains; is this not to practise hospitality, by conducting these children of God into the house of their Heavenly Father. You give clothing to those in need of it, but is it not even better to clothe these suffering members of the mystic body of Jesus Christ with undying glory.
Saint Margaret Mary suggests the performance of acts of different virtues, of purity of intention, of humility, of meekness and kindness, to be offered up for these souls. "But as pride is the heaviest debt," she counselled her novices, "you will make as many acts of humility as you can." No one can fail to see how such charity towards the Poor Souls must beget in those who practise it the highest degree of perfection, while the neglect of these sufferers may in turn withdraw a large measure of God's grace and mercy from the soul that refuses charity to the dead. Prayers offered for such a soul may never be applied to her by Almighty God, but may be given to others.
In the Memoire des Contempomines we read of Saint Margaret Mary, that while she was praying for two persons who had been of some note in the world, one was shown to her as condemned for long years to the pains of Purgatory. All the prayers and suffrages which were offered to God for his repose, she tells us, were applied by the Divine Justice to the souls of some families, who had been ruined by his defect of charity and equity in their regard. The surviving members had nothing left to have Masses said for their departed, and the Lord thus supplied for them. Large bequests for Masses cannot in themselves bribe Almighty God to overlook the carelessness or want of charity on the part of those who have disregarded the needs of others, whether calling for help in this life or in the next.
Saint Margaret Mary recommends as a sovereign remedy for the Poor Souls devotion to the Sacred Heart, and particularly Masses in its honor. Thus she once asked a person to have fifteen Masses said in honor of the Sacred Heart for a certain soul. "After which it seems to me," she added, "he will proceed into glory, and will be for you and his whole family a powerful advocate near the Sacred Heart." Is it not worth while for us to make such friends with God?
The Saint herself had the greatest love for the Poor Souls, and one Holy Thursday, while watching before the Blessed Sacrament, she felt herself surrounded by these poor sufferers. "Our Lord told me," she writes, "that He gave me to them for that whole year, in order to do for them all the good that I could." While she endured the greatest sufferings for these souls she was granted also the reward of an intimate knowledge concerning them. Two of the souls for whom she had interceded were beheld by her taken up into glory. "If you knew," she wrote to her superior regarding them, "how transported my soul has been, for in speaking to them, I saw them, little by little, absorbed and drawn up into glory, like a person merged in a vast ocean."
Though these brief references are made here to the visions of this great Saint of the Sacred Heart, we have purposely refrained from recounting any other of the countless similar narratives of sainted persons, which all agree in the substance of their accounts. The object of this brief treatise has been to deal with the subject of Purgatory on the basis of Scripture and of Patristic tradition, and to present the teaching and practice of the Church.
Considering our subject from a purely spiritual point of view, we know that one of the most ardent desires of the Heart of Christ is without any doubt the liberation of these suffering souls, for they are the souls of the just whom nothing can ever wrest from Him hereafter.
But next to the Heart of Christ there is none who so loves these souls as Mary. Brimmed with pity and tender love for them is that Heart which mothers all the world, and whose intercession is so mighty with her Divine Son. Surely devotion to Mary must be a powerful master key to unlock those prison gates and set free her children mourning there and waiting our help in those searching fires of God's punishment.
- taken from the book The Souls in Purgatory, by Father Joseph Husslein, S.J.