Amen, I say to you, as long
as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you
did it to Me. - Matthew 25:40
Assisting the holy souls is
a most noble exercise of Christian charity, from whatever
point we view it. If we turn our gaze from Purgatory
and the languishing prisoners it contains, and direct
it to Heaven, their true country, and to Him whose absence
is the chief source of their pain and sorrow, we shall
find additional motives of a most pure and exalted character
for assisting our brethren of the Suffering Church, by
every means in our power, but especially by having the
Adorable Sacrifice offered in their behalf.
As a means
of promoting the honor and glory of God, the end which
the Creator proposes to Himself in all His works, and
which it is the duty of the creature to adopt as the
mainspring of all his actions, charity to the souls in
Purgatory occupies a very exalted position. All souls
are created to praise and adore God in Heaven, and in
doing so to find their supreme delight; and so long as
they are detained in Purgatory, the work of God in their
creation and redemption is in a measure frustrated. He
is being forever deprived of the accidental glory which
their hymns of praise would give Him. Those, then, who
liberate souls from that prison of suffering, besides
performing an act of charity in behalf of the afflicted
souls themselves, promote the honor and glory of God
in two ways. They hasten souls to the foot of His throne
to render Him the homage for which they were created;
and by their suffrages they at the same time commission
others as their representatives to praise God in His
presence, while they, as banished children of Eve, send
up their own proper homage from this valley of tears.
We cannot doubt for a moment that God will accept the
praises of those souls whom our suffrages, and more especially
the Masses which we have celebrated, have set free, as,
in a measure, coming from ourselves, and reward us accordingly;
for we have been instrumental in setting those at liberty
who could not help themselves, and whom God, although
loving them with an infinite love, could not in His justice
admit to His presence so long as there was a stain upon
them. God -- let it be said with reverence -- will acknowledge
Himself indebted to us for hastening the addition of
another voice to the number of those who are now celebrating
His praises.
Let the reader ponder the following
weighty remarks of Father Faber:
"It is not saying too
much," he assures us, "to call devotion to
the holy souls a kind of center in which all Catholic
devotions meet, and which satisfies more than any other
single devotion our duties in that way: because it is
devotion all of love, and of disinterested love. If we
cast an eye over the chief Catholic devotions, we shall
see the truth of this. Take the devotion of St. Ignatius
to the glory of God. This, if I may dare to use such
an expression of Him, was the special and favorite devotion
of Jesus. Now, Purgatory is simply a field white for
the harvest of God's glory. Not a prayer can be said
for the holy souls but God is at once glorified, both
by the faith and the charity of the mere prayer. Not
an alleviation, however trifling, can befall any one
of the souls, but He is forthwith glorified by the honor
of His Son's Precious Blood, and the approach of the
soul to bliss. Not a soul is delivered from its trail,
but God is immensely glorified. He crowns His own gifts
in that dear soul. The Cross of Christ has triumphed.
The decree of Predestination is victoriously accomplished;
and there is a new worshipper in the courts of Heaven.
Moreover, God's glory, His sweetest glory, the glory
of His love, is sooner or later infallible in Purgatory;
because there is no sin there, nor possibility of sin.
It is only a question of time. All that is gained is
real gain. All that is reaped is true wheat, without
chaff or stubble, or any such thing.
"Again, what devotion
is justly more dear to Christians than the devotion to
the Sacred Humanity of Jesus? It is rather a family of
various and beautiful devotions than a devotion by itself.
Yet see how they are all, as it were, fulfilled, affectionately
fulfilled, in devotion to the holy souls. The quicker
the souls are liberated from Purgatory, the more is the
beautifu1 harvest of His Blessed Passion multiplied and
accelerated. An early harvest is a blessing, as well
as a plentiful one; for all delay of a soul's ingress
into the praise of Heaven is an eternal and irremediable
loss of honor and glory to the Sacred Humanity of Jesus.
How strange things sound in the language of the Sanctuary!
Yet, so it is. Can the Sacred Humanity be honored more
than by the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass? And here
is our chief action upon Purgatory. Faith in His Sacraments,
as used for the dead, is a pleasing homage to Jesus;
and the same may be said of faith in Indulgences, and
privileged altars, and the like. The powers of the Church
all flow from This Sacred Humanity, and are a perpetual
praise and thank-offering to It. So, again, this devotion
honors Him by imitating His zeal for souls. For this
zeal is a badge of His people, and an inheritance from
Him."*
Nothing further need be said
of this devotion as a most powerful, practical, direct
and merciful means of promoting the honor and glory of
God and of His Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ; but still
another motive will be found in it as an indirect means
to the same noble end.
1.
All for Jesus, pp. 401-403.
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