TWENTY-FIRST DAY
TO GIVE SUFFRAGES TO THE SOULS IN
PURGATORY IS AN OBLIGATION OF JUSTICE.
By the obligation of justice, all those are bound
to give suffrages to the souls in purgatory, who, in any manner whatever, have
come into their property. Those who violate this justice, by which suffrages
are due to these souls, deserve eternal death, and in this life are struck by
the thunders of ecclesiastical censures. Hence, with reason they are styled, in
some Councils, murderers of the poor, and infidels; for, as far as regards the
living poor, they subtract from them the temporal alms of the legacies due to
them, whether they be heirs or executors of wills; and, as far as regards the
dead poor, they subtract the spiritual alms of the legacies due to them,
whether they be heirs or executors of wills; and, as far as regards the dead
poor, they subtract the spiritual alms of the suffrages due to them; and if
they do not directly murder the one or the other unjustly, still they pillage
that which would preserve the life of the poor on earth and give eternal life
in heaven to the departed. And these are indeed infidels, since as the Apostle
says, If any man have not care of his
own, and especially of those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is
worse than an infidel.' And shall we have the barefacedness to wear the stain
of a murderer and an infidel towards the dead?
Ejaculation
Dread God, and does your right hand arm Against
each suff'ring soul? Ah, let your Son, with hands displayed. Your love with
wrath control.
De profundis
Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord:
Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it. For with thee
there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee,
O Lord. My soul hath relied on his word: My soul hath hoped in the Lord. From
the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord. Because with
the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities.
St. John Chrysostom, the Patriarch and Doctor,
will be the protector of this day, as one who with great force inculcated upon
his people the duty of assisting the dead, both by sending fervent prayers to
heaven for them, and so stimulating others to do the same, and also by giving
frequent alms to the poor as a suffrage for them. For God wishes, concludes
the Saint, "that we should render mutual assistance to each other."
— (Horn. 3 in Philip, in Moral.)
Mass of St. Gregory the Great - Adriaen Isenbrant
Example
If defrauding the working man of his hire is a sin
which cries to God for vengeance, anyone can guess what a great sin all those
persons commit who defraud the souls in purgatory of those suffrages which are
their due by the obligation of justice. This great truth was well understood by
the most serene Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, who, to avoid the chastisements
which she had reason to expect from Divine justice, if she had not fulfilled
her duties on behalf of the soul of her departed husband, the Archduke Albert,
gave proofs of a most singular piety in behalf of the same. It is enough for us
to know that she got forty thousand Masses celebrated as a suffrage for him,
and had public and private prayers made for him for thirty successive days,
assisting herself at ten Masses every day. O, how profitable might this example
be to the Christians of our times, that are so reckless about the miseries of
the souls of their departed relations, from whom they have come into such large
properties! May it please the Lord that these may not shut their ears to the
voices of those who cry from purgatory for mercy.
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