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Show 263: Purgatory, part 2 · The Uncensored Catholic

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Speaker 1: Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Today we will
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Speaker 1: continue our discussion of the book, The End of This
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Speaker 1: Present World and the Mysteries of the Life to Come.
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Speaker 1: And we are discussing purgatory, but as usual and very
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Speaker 1: appropriate for today, We'll start with a couple of questions
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Speaker 1: and answers from radio replies. And you're also in purgatory,
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Speaker 1: so it works out just fine, doesn't it? So the person,
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Speaker 1: the Protestant with whom the priests are debating says, the
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Speaker 1: Bible does not mention purgatory. And the priests answer, it
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Speaker 1: does not mention the precise word purgatory, but the intermediate
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Speaker 1: state of purification is described by that word is there.
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Speaker 1: They say, you speak of Scripture, but the Bible mentions
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Speaker 1: only heaven and hell. And the answer, it does not.
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Speaker 1: It certainly mentions an intermediate state to which the soul
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Speaker 1: of Christ went after his death on the cross. In
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Speaker 1: 1 Peter 3, 19, the state was neither heaven nor hell,
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Speaker 1: but the limbo of the fathers of the old law.
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Speaker 1: In addition to this, Scripture mentions the purgatorial state. In
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Speaker 1: any case, it would not matter if the Bible did
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Speaker 1: mention but two places. My mentioning only London and New
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Speaker 1: York could not prove the nonexistence of Paris. It would
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Speaker 1: be a different matter if Christ had said there is
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Speaker 1: no purgatory, but he did not. That person asks, how
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Speaker 1: do you prove the existence of such a state? And
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Speaker 1: they answer, in Matthew 5, 26, Christ is condemning sin.
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Speaker 1: He speaks of liberation only after expiation. Thou shalt not
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Speaker 1: go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing.
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Speaker 1: In Matthew... 12 32 he speaks of sin which shall
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Speaker 1: not be forgiven either in this world or the next
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Speaker 1: or the world to come i should say any remission
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Speaker 1: of the effects of sin in the next world can
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Speaker 1: refer only to purgatory above all saint paul tells us
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Speaker 1: that the day of judgment will try each man's work
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Speaker 1: that day is after death when the soul goes to
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Speaker 1: meet its god what is the result of that judgment
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Speaker 1: if a man's work will not stand the test St.
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Speaker 1: Paul says that he shall suffer loss, but he himself
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Speaker 1: shall be saved, yet so by fire. 1 Corinthians 3.15. Oh,
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Speaker 1: and I guess that was from 1 Corinthians 3.15. I'm sorry,
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Speaker 1: I got a sequence here. This cannot refer to eternal
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Speaker 1: loss in hell, for no one is saved there, nor
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Speaker 1: can it refer to heaven, for there is no suffering
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Speaker 1: in heaven. Purgatory alone can explain this test. As a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, all Christians believed in purgatory until the Reformation,
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Speaker 1: when the Reformers began to reject Christian doctrine at will.
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Speaker 1: Prayer for the dead was ever the prevailing custom in
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Speaker 1: accordance with the recommendations of the Bible itself. It is
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Speaker 1: a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead
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Speaker 1: that they may be loosed from their sins, 2 Maccabees 12.46,
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Speaker 1: that being the main reason Martin Luther's remove Maccabees from
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Speaker 1: the Bible. I think it was Luther. It could have
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Speaker 1: been that Zwingli guy. I can't remember his name. Prayer
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Speaker 1: for the dead supposes a soul not in heaven where
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Speaker 1: it does not need the help of prayer, nor in
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Speaker 1: hell where prayer cannot assist it. Some intermediate state of
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Speaker 1: purification in need where prayer can help is necessary. Some
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Speaker 1: indeterminate state of purification, I'm sorry, some intermediate state of
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Speaker 1: purification in And need, where prayer can help, is necessary,
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Speaker 1: and the doctrine is most reasonable. Nothing defiled shall enter heaven.
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Speaker 1: Revelation 21-27 Yet not all defilement should cost man the
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Speaker 1: loss of his soul. Even in this life, human justice
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Speaker 1: does not inflict capital punishment for every crime. Small offenses
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Speaker 1: are punished by fines or by temporary imprisonment, after which
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Speaker 1: the delinquent is liberated. Those who deny purgatory teach the
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Speaker 1: harder and more unreasonable doctrines. The person says, God would
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Speaker 1: not demand expiation after having forgiven a sin. And they answer,
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Speaker 1: what you think God would or would not do cannot
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Speaker 1: avail against that which he does do. When David repented
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Speaker 1: of his great sin, God sent the prophet Nathan with
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Speaker 1: a message to him. The Lord hath taken away thy
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Speaker 1: sin nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies
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Speaker 1: of the Lord to blaspheme. Thy child shall surely die.
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Speaker 1: 2 Samuel 22, 14. To forgive the guilt of sin
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Speaker 1: and to purify the spiritual scar and stain which that
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Speaker 1: disease of the soul leaves by expiating suffering is better
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Speaker 1: than to leave the soul still unpurified and indebted to
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Speaker 1: God's justice. I too could fully forgive a friend his
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Speaker 1: offense should he have robbed me, yet still insist that
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Speaker 1: he make good the damages he has wrought me. All right,
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Speaker 1: now let's get on to the end of the present world.
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Speaker 1: talking about purgatory in view of the end times. And
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Speaker 1: we're at part two of this, having done part one
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Speaker 1: last time. We said, my dear brethren, that those souls
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Speaker 1: confirmed in grace are marvelously consoled by the certainty of
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Speaker 1: their salvation. On the other hand, as they are freed
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Speaker 1: from the body, which, like a thick veil, darkened their
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Speaker 1: view and understanding of invisible, supernatural things, hmm, They suffer
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Speaker 1: cruelty from the delay in possessing God. In this world,
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Speaker 1: the absence and remoteness of God brings only a mild
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Speaker 1: regret to the majority of men. Captivated by the lure
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Speaker 1: of the goods of this world and absorbed in display
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Speaker 1: of tangible objects, we comprehend God too imperfectly to realize
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Speaker 1: how much the loss of him means. But when we die,
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Speaker 1: the veil of the senses will be rent. All our
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Speaker 1: human attachments will perish. and the inanities which bemused us
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Speaker 1: will have gone forever. There will be no more amusements, pastimes,
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Speaker 1: and conversations. Then our inclinations, aspirations, and all our propensities
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Speaker 1: will center upon this divine spouse, our soul, an incomprehensible treasure.
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Speaker 1: These poor souls, eager to be embraced eternally, rush toward God,
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Speaker 1: who is their end, with more energy than a magnet
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Speaker 1: attracts iron, and with greater impetuosity than natural things rush
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Speaker 1: toward their center. At this great ruin, which is death,
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Speaker 1: in the complete separation from all those objects in which
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Speaker 1: our life turns, the soul has nothing left other than
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Speaker 1: this love which flees from him, leaving only the unimaginable
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Speaker 1: regret that through his own fault he has delayed by
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Speaker 1: a day, a year, a century, that consummate union which
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Speaker 1: for him must be the real and perfect, the soul
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Speaker 1: and everlasting happiness. Imagine how bitter and heart-rending it is
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Speaker 1: for a mother to bear the separation of a son
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Speaker 1: who has left for distant lands or who has died
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Speaker 1: a premature death and whom she cannot hope to see again.
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Speaker 1: From the moment when this mother's eyes cease to rest
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Speaker 1: on that beloved child, a part of her life is gone.
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Speaker 1: There is no joy or pleasure in the world capable
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Speaker 1: of filling the deep, unfathomable void which the departure or
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Speaker 1: loss of that son has created in her heart. How
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Speaker 1: much more bitter and heart-rending are the cries of the
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Speaker 1: hapless soul? Can you hear him calling out from the
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Speaker 1: desolate place of his atonement? Where is he who is
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Speaker 1: the soul of my soul? It is useless for me
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Speaker 1: to seek him on this bed of flames where I
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Speaker 1: feel only gloom and emptiness. O beloved of my heart,
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Speaker 1: why keep me in this long suspense? Increase my torments
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Speaker 1: if necessary. Put centuries of punishment into the minutes. How
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Speaker 1: severely you punish me For my ignominy and the indifference
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Speaker 1: when you withdrew yourself from my ardent soul, which longs
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Speaker 1: to see you, to lose itself in you, and to
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Speaker 1: dissolve into you. To this punishment of separation from God
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Speaker 1: is added the punishment of fire. Let us state, however,
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Speaker 1: in order to be precise and to express no debatable
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Speaker 1: and disputed opinion, that the Church has not defined that
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Speaker 1: the souls in purgatory undergo the effects of a material fire.
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Speaker 1: It is merely a truth of divine faith and a
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Speaker 1: theological certainty. At the first session of the Council of Florence,
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Speaker 1: the fathers of the Greek church were unwavering in their
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Speaker 1: formal refusal to accept the materiality of the fire of purgatory.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, they unanimously acknowledged that purgatory is
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Speaker 1: a dark place where souls free from punishment of fire
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Speaker 1: endure very severe sufferings and penalties, consisting chiefly in the
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Speaker 1: darkness and anguish of a cruel imprisonment. The fathers of
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Speaker 1: the Latin church, who were unanimous in maintaining the opposite opinion,
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Speaker 1: Did not, however, consider that the Greek church on this
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Speaker 1: point strayed from the faith. That is why in the
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Speaker 1: decree uniting the two churches, there was no mention of
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Speaker 1: souls which have not entirely satisfied God's justice in this life,
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Speaker 1: endure in the life to come penalties perpetrated to the number...
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Speaker 1: Let me try that again. That is why in the
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Speaker 1: decree uniting the two churches, there was no mention of
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Speaker 1: the punishment of fire. It was stated simply that those...
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Speaker 1: Souls which have not entirely satisfied God's justice in this
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Speaker 1: life endure, in the life to come, penalties proportionate to
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Speaker 1: the number and gravity of their sins, and that the
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Speaker 1: sufferings they enjoy are attenuated or shortened by the prayers
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Speaker 1: and good works of the living, and particularly by the
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Speaker 1: sacrifice of the Mass. Let me get a sip of
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Speaker 1: water here. If, well, we'll see. If in defining the
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Speaker 1: punishments of purgatory, The Council of Florence did not consider
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Speaker 1: it opportune to mention the existence of fire, whether out
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Speaker 1: of deference to the fathers of the Greek Church, and
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Speaker 1: in order not to hold back a long-sought reconciliation, or
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Speaker 1: in addition, because their error did not endanger the essence
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Speaker 1: of the substance of the dogma, the existence of a
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Speaker 1: material fire in purgatory must not be held as anything
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Speaker 1: less than a proven truth, which cannot be subject to
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Speaker 1: any doubt or attenuation. In the first place, at this
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Speaker 1: very Council of Florence, the materiality of the Fire of
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Speaker 1: Purgatory was maintained by the unanimous vote of all the
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Speaker 1: Fathers of the Latin Church. So this opinion has in
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Speaker 1: the favor a longer line of tradition, has in its
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Speaker 1: favor a longer line of tradition, as well as belief
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Speaker 1: of almost all doctors. St. Paul appears formally to teach
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Speaker 1: it in these words of Latin, salvi erat sic quasi
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Speaker 1: per ignum, yet they themselves shall be saved yet so
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Speaker 1: as by fire, 1 Corinthians 3.15, as we just referenced.
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Speaker 1: And it should be noted that he does not use
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Speaker 1: the particle quasi as a diminutive, but in order to
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Speaker 1: better explain the manner of purification. Finally, all the visions
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Speaker 1: and revelations dealing with purgatory liken the pains and the
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Speaker 1: fire which are there endured to the pains and the
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Speaker 1: fire of hell, which the soul reservation, with the soul reservation,
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Speaker 1: that this fire is not eternal but temporary. A question
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Speaker 1: arises here, which is not easy to answer. How can
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Speaker 1: a material fire act upon souls separated from their bodies
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Speaker 1: and upon pure spirits? We reply that this is a
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Speaker 1: mystery of God's justice, a secret which human reason will
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Speaker 1: never succeed in comprehending. All that theology teaches us about
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Speaker 1: purgatory is that this material fire is not identical with
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Speaker 1: the human soul, nor united to it in substance as
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Speaker 1: in this world, the spirit is to the body. When
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Speaker 1: the saints and eminent doctors tell us that the reprobate
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Speaker 1: and the souls in purgatory are arrayed in a body
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Speaker 1: of fire, they are speaking metaphorically, adopting our way of thinking.
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Speaker 1: What is quite certain is that as a number of
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Speaker 1: doctors have maintained, the fire will not confine itself to
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Speaker 1: the forming a sort of prison or enclosure around the
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Speaker 1: soul whom it torments and purifies. It will not merely
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Speaker 1: make them suffer from the vexation which it inflicts upon
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Speaker 1: their will, and from vexations which it inflicts, and from
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Speaker 1: obstacles it will place in their way, of the use
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Speaker 1: and full development of their intellectual powers and sensory faculties.
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Speaker 1: The true opinion is that the fire purgatory, although corporeal,
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Speaker 1: will act as an instrument of God's justice and in
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Speaker 1: some indescribable way pierce the soul to the quick. This
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Speaker 1: is the view expressed in the following words of St. Augustine.
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Speaker 1: So it will act directly upon the, well, you know what?
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Speaker 1: He did not define these Latin words, and I don't
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Speaker 1: want to err, so I'm just going to say that St.
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Speaker 1: Augustine said that it did. There we go. Let's see.
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Speaker 1: The same is expressed more clearly by St. Gregory when
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Speaker 1: he says, It is a visible corporeal fire which will
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Speaker 1: cause an invisible fire and pain in the soul. Who
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Speaker 1: can ever understand how penetrating this fire is, which, unlike
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Speaker 1: that of the earth, does not attack man through the
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Speaker 1: medium of his material coverings? but acts on the quick
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Speaker 1: of the substance, this active and marvelously efficacious fire, which
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Speaker 1: penetrates the most secret recesses of the soul. As far
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Speaker 1: as the channels uniting it with the spirit, reaching into
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Speaker 1: the division of the soul and the spirit, a fire
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Speaker 1: which does not let any stain subsist, an immortal fire
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Speaker 1: which discerns even those defects which the eye of the
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Speaker 1: creature cannot perceive. A fixed fire, as the prophet calls it,
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Speaker 1: which crushes the guilty soul, consumes and encompasses it without
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Speaker 1: granting it a single moment's rest. A fire, the intensity
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Speaker 1: of which is not moderated by any relief or subject
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Speaker 1: to any alteration and which puts the children of Levi
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Speaker 1: to the test like gold and silver in the furnace.
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Speaker 1: And he shall sit refining and cleansing and he shall
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Speaker 1: purify the sons of Levi and shall refine them as
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Speaker 1: gold and silver. In our world, Pain is intermittent. A
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Speaker 1: fever is not of the same violence all the time.
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Speaker 1: Sleep suspends the sick person's groans. He can turn from
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Speaker 1: one side of the other's bed of suffering and find
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Speaker 1: solace in the conversation of his friends, but the fire
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Speaker 1: of purgatory consumes unceasingly and unremittingly. Every moment these souls
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Speaker 1: feel and bear the whole weight and vigor of a
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Speaker 1: pain which they are unable to put out of their
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Speaker 1: minds for a single minute, a single second. A certain
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Speaker 1: person who underwent a terrible operation is had refused to
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Speaker 1: be anesthetized, she suffered without uttering a sigh, gazing upon
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Speaker 1: a picture of Jesus Christ. The operation took five minutes.
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Speaker 1: When it was over, she said, it seemed to me
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Speaker 1: to have lasted a century. Just as it is recognized
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Speaker 1: that a feeling of intense joy can make the mind
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Speaker 1: oblivious to the passage of time, so one can imagine
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Speaker 1: a pain so severe as if to make one minute
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Speaker 1: seem like an eternity. If this is so, if in
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Speaker 1: purgatory minutes are equivalents of years, and years equivalent of centuries.
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Speaker 1: What will it be like to remain in the depths
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Speaker 1: of that dark prison for nights and for years, perhaps
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Speaker 1: until the end of the world? Oh, you whose lives
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Speaker 1: are so lax, who do not fear to stain yourselves
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Speaker 1: with a thousand faults in order to please the world
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Speaker 1: or spare the body of moments trouble. Tell us, have
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Speaker 1: you understood the mysteries of God's justice? And have you
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Speaker 1: meditated upon the length of the torments that await you? Oh,
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Speaker 1: what does it say? Oh, primitive church, cradle of Christianity,
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Speaker 1: model of all ages, who numbered as many saints and
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Speaker 1: faithful and taught by the apostles, received the oracles of
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Speaker 1: the incarnate word at firsthand. How frightful was your idea
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Speaker 1: of the greatness of the penalties due sin. You made
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Speaker 1: amends to this life which astound us. That's true. The
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Speaker 1: penances of the early church were pretty extreme. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it could be like you know, walking from Rome to
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Speaker 1: Jerusalem barefoot or long fasts on nothing but bread and water,
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Speaker 1: nothing at all sometimes. And we're talking years. In the
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Speaker 1: church of the early ages, canon law was applied in
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Speaker 1: its full rigor. There was no remission or concession. Penance
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Speaker 1: and works of satisfaction were imposed strictly according to what
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Speaker 1: was required in order to satisfy completely the justice of God.
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Speaker 1: That penance did not consist in reciting a few short prayers.
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Speaker 1: It consisted of long fasts on bread and water, daily
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Speaker 1: recitation of the Psalms, long and painful pilgrimages, and a
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Speaker 1: considerable number of pious works. The thief, depending on the
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Speaker 1: amount stolen, was sentenced to two or five years penance,
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Speaker 1: a blasphemer to seven years, an adulterer to ten, and
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Speaker 1: often twelve years of fasting. Imagine if that was still
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Speaker 1: the case. Tears and public protestations on the threshold of
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Speaker 1: the sacred place. On this frightful calculation, entire life spent
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Speaker 1: in the macerations of the anchorites, even if it were
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Speaker 1: as long as that of the most ancient patriarchs, would
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Speaker 1: scarcely be enough to atone for the most ordinary, habitual
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Speaker 1: sins of the men of our time. How long and
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Speaker 1: terrible would the purgatory of most sinners be? Without doubt,
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Speaker 1: one thought capable of lightening the sorrows of those suffering
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Speaker 1: souls would be that their memory is not lost, that
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Speaker 1: the friends of whom they have left on this earth
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Speaker 1: are working to aid and deliver them. Alas, that is
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Speaker 1: a consolation which their hearts cherish in vain. True, it
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Speaker 1: is our custom to show sorrow which we render to
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Speaker 1: their memory, and undoubtedly, religion is far from condemning this
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Speaker 1: honor rendered to grief. Rather, indeed, does it condemn the
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Speaker 1: hardness of heart of those who have no sooner lost
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Speaker 1: their parents and friends that they cease to remember them.
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Speaker 1: The saints used to mourn their friends, but their greatest
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Speaker 1: concern was to help them. It was not tears which St.
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Speaker 1: Monica asked of St. Augustine when on her deathbed she
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Speaker 1: said to him, Son, I bid you remember me each
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Speaker 1: time that you offer the sacrifice of the altar. It
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Speaker 1: was not tears that St. Ambrose sought to mark the
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Speaker 1: deep attachment he felt for the emperor Theodosius. When he said,
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Speaker 1: I have loved this prince, and because I have loved him,
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Speaker 1: I shall not leave him until I have led him
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Speaker 1: into the abode which his virtue calls him. O people,
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Speaker 1: hasten hither and together with me, bestow upon the remains
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Speaker 1: of this prince the incense of your prayers, the outpourings
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Speaker 1: of your charity, and the grief of your penance. What
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Speaker 1: am I saying? Tears? Those tears that promised ever to
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Speaker 1: flow will soon dry up. Our fickle, selfish hearts grow
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Speaker 1: tired of calling out names which utter no sound in answer,
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Speaker 1: of seeking to recall images which have forever vanished from
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Speaker 1: our sight. Caught up in the whirlwind of the world
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Speaker 1: and its inanities, we shrink from such a grim and
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Speaker 1: painful memory. Severance is followed by oblivion, and the pains
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Speaker 1: of the dead are the most forgotten of all pains.
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Speaker 1: Poor deceased, after a few days spent in grief and mourning,
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Speaker 1: a few centuries paid in the form of convention, You
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Speaker 1: will be buried once more in a tomb, crueler and
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Speaker 1: colder than the one in which you were first laid,
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Speaker 1: and that second tomb will be oblivion. Harsh and human,
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Speaker 1: unrelenting oblivion, like that of the winding sheet, the final clothing,
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Speaker 1: the dust of your limbs, oblivion, which will envelop your
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Speaker 1: silent dwelling place, which no one will visit anymore, oblivion
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Speaker 1: over your name, which no one will utter again, oblivion
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Speaker 1: in your home, in the hearts of your friends and children,
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Speaker 1: where no subject of conversation will evoke your memory. Yes,
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Speaker 1: a deep, complete, and irredeemable oblivion, and despite this, the
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Speaker 1: most heart-rending farewell is farewells which were addressed to you,
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Speaker 1: despite the vows of your immortal memory and the declaration
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Speaker 1: of so full tenderness. One day, our Lord Jesus met
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Speaker 1: a most unhappy man at the side of a pool.
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Speaker 1: This man's face was pale as death, His eyes were
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Speaker 1: sunken and lustrous, his limbs withered and stiff. He lay
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Speaker 1: paralyzed and motionless on the bank of the pool of Probotica,
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Speaker 1: trampled upon by passersby, exposed to all weathers and all
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Speaker 1: inclement seas of air. Nevertheless, he was by no means
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Speaker 1: afflicted with an incurable disease. For him to be cured,
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Speaker 1: there was no need to consult skilled doctors or to
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Speaker 1: search the valleys and mountains for medicines or strange and
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Speaker 1: rare herbs. It was enough to give him a little
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Speaker 1: push and to put him down into the pool at
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Speaker 1: the time when the angel of the Lord descended to
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Speaker 1: stir its waters. Yet in a town as populous as
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Speaker 1: was the capital of Judea, amidst the mass of pilgrims
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Speaker 1: who came from every part of the world for the feast,
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Speaker 1: there was not one relative, not one friend to render
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Speaker 1: him such an easy service. Jesus, seeing this paralytic one day,
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Speaker 1: was moved to pity him. With emotion, his voice said
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Speaker 1: to him, Wilt thou be made whole? The infirm man replied, Sir,
22:00
Speaker 1: I have no man when the water is troubled to
22:02
Speaker 1: put me into the pond. What a striking picture this
22:05
Speaker 1: unhappy paralytic gives us of the soul whose complaints I
22:08
Speaker 1: have described. They sit by the side of the pool
22:10
Speaker 1: of that blood which has saved the world. They have
22:13
Speaker 1: no power to gather up its fruits or to administer
22:16
Speaker 1: the vivifying drops to themselves. And it may be for
22:19
Speaker 1: years that they have employed us in vain, implored us
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Speaker 1: in vain, and have been tortured for lack of a
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Speaker 1: helping hand. In this world, The afflicted person always has
22:29
Speaker 1: some expedient. The most unfortunate have at least their tears.
22:33
Speaker 1: When everything, both divine and human, fails us at the
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Speaker 1: same time, when we have to contend with injustice and oppression,
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Speaker 1: suffer abuses and excesses of power, we still have a
22:44
Speaker 1: place of refuge in our own hearts where God will
22:47
Speaker 1: always await us. Each of our sorrows can become sacrifice
22:51
Speaker 1: for us. Each can be turned into a crown and
22:54
Speaker 1: a treasure. No suffering... To suffer interminably, however, knowing that
22:59
Speaker 1: nothing will come of it, to shed hot tears and
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Speaker 1: to feel that their burning dew will bring no growth
23:05
Speaker 1: and that suffering will follow suffering until divine justice is satisfied,
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Speaker 1: that is a situation capable of softening hearts of steel,
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Speaker 1: a misfortune which can be mourned only with tears of
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Speaker 1: blood and to which no one in whose soul any
23:21
Speaker 1: feeling of humanity and compassion lingers can remain indifferent. Ah,
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Speaker 1: if beneath that thick soil which covers their bodies, if
23:30
Speaker 1: from the shelter of their dark, impenetrable dwelling places, these
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Speaker 1: souls could awaken for a moment and bring their harrowing
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Speaker 1: cries and groans to our very ears and heart, what
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Speaker 1: depth of feeling would there be in their wailing, and
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Speaker 1: with what tones of indescribable anguish would they appeal for
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Speaker 1: our aid? They would say, Have pity on us, you
23:50
Speaker 1: who are our friends. Break our fetters, save us, deliver us. Arise,
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Speaker 1: go over the places where we have lived, and the
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Speaker 1: deeper the silence over our tombs, and the louder let
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Speaker 1: your voices be raised. Priests of Jesus Christ, minister to
24:06
Speaker 1: all misfortunes. Let this forgetful child hear the voice of
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Speaker 1: his mother. I had reared him. I lived for him alone.
24:14
Speaker 1: He was the child of my heart. When I lay
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Speaker 1: in my last agony, he would have wished to prolong
24:20
Speaker 1: my days at the cost of his own. Ask him now. No,
24:23
Speaker 1: ask him how religion is powerless now to remind him
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Speaker 1: of me. Priests of Jesus Christ, raise your voice louder still.
24:31
Speaker 1: Do not fear to bring shame and remorse into the
24:33
Speaker 1: soul of that unconcerned husband who seeks solace for his
24:36
Speaker 1: widowhood in licentiousness. Ask him where his sworn faith is,
24:41
Speaker 1: what has become of that tenderness and fidelity of which
24:44
Speaker 1: he gave me such warm and striking demonstrations right up
24:47
Speaker 1: to the moment of my death. Ask him how it
24:50
Speaker 1: is today that I have to beg his solicitude and
24:53
Speaker 1: support with such heart-rendering cries. Ah, he will still be unmoved,
24:59
Speaker 1: and provides me with bitter proof that I am forever
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Speaker 1: dead in his heart. Tell our friends and strangers, as well,
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Speaker 1: who are not related to us by blood, but who
25:08
Speaker 1: are brothers in faith, passing unconcernably over that troubled sea
25:11
Speaker 1: of human life where they are swept along by the
25:13
Speaker 1: rapid waves, just as we were not long ago, tell
25:16
Speaker 1: them to stop and consider whether there exists any pain
25:19
Speaker 1: more bitter and intense. At the same time, we're neglected
25:22
Speaker 1: and solitary than ours. Ah, we beseech you, brother, father, husband, friend,
25:27
Speaker 1: from the depths of this pool of fire, we implore
25:29
Speaker 1: you a drop of water, a prayer, an act of
25:32
Speaker 1: fasting or almsgiving, a helping hand, and we shall be saved. Brother, friend, father, husband,
25:38
Speaker 1: reflect that if we are suffering, it's partly because of you. Yes,
25:42
Speaker 1: that soul suffers because of us. That mother suffers because
25:46
Speaker 1: she was too soft with her son, because she did
25:48
Speaker 1: not correct his faults or chastised the misdeeds of his youth.
25:52
Speaker 1: The wife suffers because she gave her heart too much
25:55
Speaker 1: to her husband, a heart which belonged to God alone,
25:57
Speaker 1: and showed an indulgence for him that was excessive and unthinking.
26:02
Speaker 1: This friend suffers because he was an active accomplice in
26:05
Speaker 1: the disorderly life of his friend, and because he took
26:08
Speaker 1: up his causes and made them his own, sharing in
26:11
Speaker 1: his dissoluteness and profligacy. And we leave them to bear
26:15
Speaker 1: the weight of God's justice alone, in return for the
26:18
Speaker 1: the misguided indulgence they had for us, we are unwilling
26:22
Speaker 1: to relieve them of one day's expiation, to spare them
26:25
Speaker 1: centuries of torture. If you knew that at this moment
26:28
Speaker 1: your father, your mother, your brother, the people whom you
26:31
Speaker 1: love most of all, were about to perish in a
26:33
Speaker 1: fire or beneath a landslide, or they were about to
26:35
Speaker 1: be engulfed in the sea or by flames, and if
26:39
Speaker 1: the only way to save them were to endanger your
26:41
Speaker 1: own life, run to their aid and hold out your
26:44
Speaker 1: hand to them, You would not hesitate, even if it
26:46
Speaker 1: meant risking your life, going through flames, and allowing your
26:49
Speaker 1: hand to be burnt. If fear or selfishness or any
26:52
Speaker 1: other craven feeling made you hesitate, you would be ashamed
26:55
Speaker 1: of yourself and would rightly consider yourself the most heartless
26:59
Speaker 1: and thankless of men. There was a story that at
27:04
Speaker 1: the time of the Crusades, the wars raged by forbearers
27:08
Speaker 1: in the East. A Christian knight was taken prisoner by
27:10
Speaker 1: the barbarians. Cast into a hideous dungeon and unable to
27:14
Speaker 1: obtain the required ransom, he faced only slavery and death. Suddenly,
27:18
Speaker 1: a noble thought struck his daughter, tender as she was,
27:21
Speaker 1: and in the prime of her youth, alone and without guide,
27:24
Speaker 1: she traversed great areas and succeeded in crossing over immense deserts.
27:29
Speaker 1: Arriving at the coast, she offered to work for the
27:31
Speaker 1: price of her fare. At length, she reached the shores
27:34
Speaker 1: of Europe. Taking no rest, she once traveled through the
27:37
Speaker 1: towns and appealed to the compassion of all going from
27:39
Speaker 1: house to house in order to collect the sum demanded
27:41
Speaker 1: by the barbarians. As soon as she secured it, she
27:45
Speaker 1: prepared once more to face those perilous journeys and that
27:48
Speaker 1: laborious voyage from which she had escaped only by a miracle. Finally,
27:53
Speaker 1: she rejoined her father, and thanks to her superhuman efforts,
27:57
Speaker 1: and with the aid of the ransom obtained at the
27:59
Speaker 1: cost of so many perils and such severe hardships, managed
28:02
Speaker 1: to save her sire and snatch him from the fetters
28:04
Speaker 1: of captivity. What courage in a young girl and what
28:08
Speaker 1: energy and strength of filial affection. Like the heroic girl,
28:11
Speaker 1: we too have received from God a tender, compassionate, and
28:15
Speaker 1: loving soul. When an unfortunate person in extreme want stretches
28:18
Speaker 1: out his hand to us, we do not ask ourselves
28:21
Speaker 1: whether he has united us by friendship and blood. Our duty,
28:24
Speaker 1: our fortune, and especially our heart would not hesitate to
28:27
Speaker 1: deprive ourselves of food and the most essential things in
28:31
Speaker 1: order to rescue an unfortunate man from degradation, captivity, or death. Well,
28:35
Speaker 1: for the sake of our parents, those who have loved us,
28:38
Speaker 1: who are bound to us by the closest bonds, we
28:41
Speaker 1: claim neither sacrifice of health, nor your freedom, nor the
28:44
Speaker 1: whole of your goods, but merely the drop of water,
28:47
Speaker 1: which the rich man vainly asked of the compassion of Lazarus.
28:51
Speaker 1: What else should I add? How many are there among
28:54
Speaker 1: you who, after a dissipate disorderly life, have lost even
28:58
Speaker 1: the courage to make amends and the will to repent?
29:00
Speaker 1: who shudder at the thought of the day when their souls,
29:03
Speaker 1: stripped of their body and stained with a mass of iniquity,
29:06
Speaker 1: will be exposed alive before the gaze of the sovereign judge.
29:10
Speaker 1: There is an easy way to obtain mercy at the
29:12
Speaker 1: last moment, and it is the one which Jesus Christ
29:15
Speaker 1: himself teaches us. Make unto you, friends, that when you
29:20
Speaker 1: shall fail, they may rescue you into everlasting dwellings. Obtain
29:24
Speaker 1: for yourself with that gold which has served as the
29:27
Speaker 1: instruments of so many evil passions. the support and protection
29:30
Speaker 1: of the holy souls in purgatory. There is another thing
29:33
Speaker 1: which the dead say to us. You are mistaken about
29:36
Speaker 1: our desires and the kind of relief which our pains demand.
29:39
Speaker 1: You thought you were showing us your sorrow and love
29:42
Speaker 1: by arranging a magnificent funeral. On the spot of our
29:45
Speaker 1: last abode, you have erected monumentals which are not so
29:49
Speaker 1: much tributes to our memory as gratifications of your pride.
29:53
Speaker 1: What is the purpose of all this ostentation and splendor?
29:56
Speaker 1: If need be, pull down those mausoleums, smash those monuments
30:00
Speaker 1: and stones, and purchase with their rubble the prayers and
30:04
Speaker 1: suffrages of the church. That is what the dead truly
30:07
Speaker 1: ask of us. And if we listen to them, truly,
30:09
Speaker 1: I tell you, our charity will be blessed. Their torments
30:13
Speaker 1: by our solicitude, the dead will not be thankless. One day,
30:19
Speaker 1: freed from their torments by our solicitude, they will help
30:23
Speaker 1: us by their powerful intercession. And when we fly up
30:25
Speaker 1: towards Heavenly Fatherland, they will accompany us in this procession.
30:29
Speaker 1: They will sing around us the hymn of thanksgiving and
30:32
Speaker 1: increase the joy of everlasting bliss, which will be our
30:37
Speaker 1: reward and joy. And that's a Catholic teaching that's somehow
30:42
Speaker 1: fallen out of favor in the last 100, 150 years.
30:46
Speaker 1: Catholic tradition is not to have big, expensive funerals and big,
30:52
Speaker 1: expensive monuments and tombstones and mausoleums. It's to take that
30:57
Speaker 1: money and, you know, use it for the church, give
31:00
Speaker 1: it to the church, have masses said, give it to
31:05
Speaker 1: the poor, give alms in with the intent that that
31:11
Speaker 1: person's maybe forgiven their sins, freed from purgatory and to
31:15
Speaker 1: go to heaven. And I think we need to bring
31:19
Speaker 1: that teaching back big time. All right, y'all have a
31:22
Speaker 1: great week and I'll talk to you next time.