A PROBLEM ABOUT MASSES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 19, 12 May 1904, Page 3

A PROBLEM ABOUT MASSES

AND ITS SOLUTION

Scarcely any Catholic practice has been made the subject of so much misrepresentation as that of the application through Masses of the merits of Christ's great sacrifice to the souls in Purgatory. To even the ordinary well instructed Catholic child the matter is sufficiently plain. A fantastic Protestant tradition has, however, grown round about it. Ignorance of our belief and practice is, as usual, its safeguard. It has many a time led well-meaning but over-positive and hasty nonCatholic clergymen and others into grotesque blunders on the platform and in the press. Many of our readers will remember some of the droll blunders in this connection which we exposed two years ago in the letters of a Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. This lack of acquaintance with Catholic practice has made it possible for roving impostors like the Slatterys to travesty and misrepresent us in all sorts of calumnious ways. The Difficulty which fair-minded Protestants and, perhaps, some uninstructed Catholics, might find in connection with this subject was tersely expressed a few weeks ago in the following communication to our ably edited contemporary, the ' Bombay Catholic Examiner ' :— 1 Suppose two persons, the one rolling in weaJth, the other living from hand to mouth, after indulging in all kinds of vice, suddenly find themselves at death's door. They have a short time for repentance ; but, not being allle to make full amends for their sins, their souls have consequently to be purified in Purgatory. The wealthy man, wills that the .wealth he possessed should toje expended in offering Masses for his soul, whilst on the other hand the poor man has not the 'wherewithal to

offer any Masses at all. By this means the rich man is the sooner liberated from his prison than the poor man. In short, Heaven can be bought. What is the answer V The talented editor of our Bombay contemporary (Rev. Father Hull, S.J.) gave the following brief and luminous reply to his querist :— The problem here proposed is (said he) a very suggestive one, with so many bearings " that it would be easy to wrijte not only one but several leading articles on it. (1) First let us Begin with Doctrine. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, being a sort of perpetuation of the act of redemption, is performed outwardly by the human priest, but inwardly is the eternal intercession of Christ (who ever liveth to make intercession for us, Heb. vii. 25) which was begun) on Calvary, and which is now directed from a local centre for the benefit of particular souls. It does not mean a creation oJJ or addition to Christ's redemptive merits, but is a particular application of them to the priest who performs the outward ceremony, to the people who attend its celebration, and to those for whom in particular it) is offered. (2) The celebratdon of Mass is always followed by certain fruits, graces or benefits, by the very nature of the sacrifice itself. One of these fruits is satisfaction for sins, and therefore the alleviation of the punish-i ments of Purgatory. (S~\ In offering Mass for a particular intention, we ask God to be pleased to confer the fruits of the Mass; on particular persons ; but this wish is conditional, and may be accepted and acceeded to by God or not. In other words', we have no arbitrary power of determining the distribution of these fruits, but only of wishing and asking for such and such a distribution as we want. We have every assurance that our wishes will be taken into consideration— to speak in a human way— but no moroi (4) In the distribution of these fruits we know in general that whatever God does will be wise, just and fair ; that He will take into account all the circumstances—the devotion with which the Masses are offered the self-sacrifice involved in giving the donation to priest in -order that he may offer the Masses for our i. tention, the excellence of the object we pray for, the needs we have of special help, etc. Whatever the effect, we know that it will be such as not to put a premium on spiritual sloth, but to encourage virtue and generosity of soul ; and that no man will bo able to get an undue advantage out of mere riches, or suffer an undue disadvantage from poverty. (5) Hence we can give a provisional answer to the problem, proposed, by saying that any mathematical calculations' which result in concluding that ' heaven can be bought ' are Sure to be Wrong. But we shall not rest content with this. Thereforo :— (6) Taking the rich man by himself.— He might giro his jnpney to an orphanage, leaving the question of Purgatory in the hand of God. He might give ai large sum, to a priest asking only a few Masses in return. He might) give the same sum asking the full number of Masses. It does not follow that the man would lose by the first or second act, which are more generous than the third. In the first place, God does not encourage selfishness and will always encourage the higher virtue, whatever it, be. We never lose by generosity. It is for us to do the best thing 1 that our devotion suggests ; and He will look after the results. (7) The spirit in which the Masses are asked for will go a long way towards determining what fruits w» derive from them. If that rich man is actuated by some low motive, he will get less benefit. If by a high motive he will get more ; and so on. Much would depend on the general tenor of the man's life— whether he made p ood use of his riches or not, etc. ' These are merely speculations ; but they illustrate the principle that God cannot be tricked by the adroit use of money ; and also that we have no arbitrary control over the fruit© of Masses. All we can do with money is to get them said ; the rest remains' with God to determine. (8)' Nor does it follow that The Poor Man will he the worse off than the rich man. Though he cannot himself get the Masses said on account of poverty, his humble desire for God's favor may be just as efficacious for obtaining mercy as the desire with which the rich man offers the Masses. There are thousands of Masses offered by the devout far the souls in Purgatory in general ; and the good dispositions of the poor man, as well as his destitution and helplessness, may cause God to apply these Masses in his favor ; so that in the end he may benefit more by his poverty than the riehi man by his riches.

(9) This does not mean that the rich man can therefore afford to dispense with offering Masses in the hope of getting the benefit of other people's Masses instead. The reason is that the rich man can hedp himself by means of his riches, and the poor man can not. So the rich must not expect to draw on other people's generosity, but must use the means with whach Provide nee has furnished him. God will help those most who can help thiemselves -least, and will help those least who can help themselves most. (10) This ought to be a sufficient answer |to the question. It is to be noted that the same surface difficulty occurs wnfenever we try to introduce Mathematics into Religion. Take for instance indulgence*! prayers. The terms are clear and definite ; so many days or years for a certain prayer devoutly recited, etc. But in the first place we do not knolw the precise spiritual value of so many days or years indulgence. Secondly, we do not know the precise measure of devotion required for gaining the indulgfence. Thirdly, we have no means of measuring the degree of devotion which we have exercised in saying the prayer. All we know is that every prayer recited with any devotion brings us some benefit ; and the greater the devotion the greater the benefit. No doubt the results are in due proportion, and so may be reducible to mathematics. But we do not possess the data for making a calculation., God does not want us to keep a spiritual account-book. He wishes us to do our best and leave the resiults to Him. This merciful arrangement cuts at the root of anything like commercial spirituality. (11) The same applies to communions. We know that a few communions well made will be better than many ill made ; but if well made, the more the better. But no one can make up a sum of arithmetic to compare the relative advantage, say, of daily or weekly communion. It is for each one ,ta do more or less according as he feels the drawings of devotion or spiritual benefit in daily life, and leave the results to God (12) The same Applies to the choice between one good work and another ; as for instance, spending time in visiting the sick, or spending the same time in praying in church. It applies to giving money for Masses, or giving it for a hospital, etc., etc. It applies equally to all almsgiving ; and if we want,to> see how useless it is to calculate spiritual acts by the amount of money involved in them, we cannot do } better than to recall that incident in the Gospels about the widow's mite :— One day while Jesus was in the Treasury, He watched the people casting in their alms. He observed how many that were rich cast in abundantly cf their riches. Next came a certain poor widow, who cast in two mites which make a farthing. Then Jesus said • Of a truth this widow hath cast in more than they all. For they out of their abundance have cast in much ; but she out of her poverty hath cast in all that sho had, even the whole of her livung ' (Mark xii. 41 ; Luke