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CajunRick
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| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 5353 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Wed Jun 6th, 2007 12:28 am |
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ROME, JUNE 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: Is the Mass offered for the living more powerful than after your death? St. Anselm and Pope Benedict XV said they are. Could you please comment. -- S.T., Chicago
A: While our reader did not offer the sources of these comments by St. Anselm and Pope Benedict XV, I will take her word for them.
In what way can we say that one way of offering a Mass is "more powerful" than another?
First of all, it is necessary to clarify that in itself the Mass has the same value of Christ's paschal mystery of which it is the ritual re-presentation. Therefore its value is infinite, and one Mass is not more powerful than another.
Thus, any difference in value must be sought in the effect on the person for whom the Sacrifice is being offered.
In the case of the deceased in purgatory any benefit is received passively, since the soul is no longer capable of performing new meritorious acts. While such a soul is already saved, it cannot increase in sanctity but only purify those imperfections which impede its definitive entrance into glory.
A living person, however, is still capable of growing in sanctifying grace. And so a Mass offered for a person already in God's grace has the effect of offering a gift of increased grace which the person may willingly receive in order to become more Christlike.
As an intercessory prayer, a Mass offered for a person in a state of actual mortal sin may yet supply the grace necessary for repentance even though conversion is always a free acceptance of the grace that is offered.
While the Mass may be offered for other intentions as well (for instance, for those who are ill), I believe that the discourse regarding whether the Mass for the living is more powerful than for the dead lies principally in the above point regarding the possible increase in sanctity. The offering of the Mass may also assist in this increase of sanctity by helping people face their sufferings and trials more deeply united to Christ.
Only the living can become holier, even to the point of directly entering heaven after death. Some might be perplexed by the idea that there can be differences in sanctity in heaven. The saints sometimes used a useful image to describe this possibility.
During life, by freely corresponding with grace, each person prepares his or her own capacity of being filled with God. In heaven, some will be like liqueur glasses; others, beer tankards; others, barrels; and a few oil tankers. The important thing is that all will be filled to the brim, and none will feel the lack of anything necessary for happiness.
Of course, the Church recommends praying and having Masses offered for both the living and the dead, for none should be excluded from our charity.
The above article is reposted with permission from Zenit.
____________________
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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japhy
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| Joined: | Thu Apr 26th, 2007 |
| Location: | Princeton, New Jersey USA |
| Posts: | 188 |
| First Name: | Jeff (you can call me "japhy" | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic (Latin Rite) |
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Posted: Wed Jun 6th, 2007 10:51 am |
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CajunRick wrote: ROME, JUNE 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.
Q: Is the Mass offered for the living more powerful than after your death? St. Anselm and Pope Benedict XV said they are. Could you please comment. -- S.T., Chicago
A: While our reader did not offer the sources of these comments by St. Anselm and Pope Benedict XV, I will take her word for them.
Y'know, I give these Zenit people credit for putting up with this. Do a Google search for Anselm "Benedict XV" mass dead, and you'll see several hits. The first is the Zenit article! The second is a link with the alleged quotes:A great Doctor of the Church, St. Anselm declares that a single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death.
St. Leonard of Port Maurice supports [sic] this statement by saying that one Mass before death may be more profitable than many after it.
Pope Benedict XV tells us, "The Holy Mass would be of greater profit if people had it offered in their lifetime rather than having it celebrated for the relief of their souls after death. ... The fruits of the Sacrifice of the Mass are in effect much greater efficacy [sic] during one's life than after one's death because the application which is made to those well-disposed among the living is more direct, more certain and more abundant."
If you then do a Google search for some of those phrases (like "mass offered for oneself" or "one Mass before death" or "celebrated for the relief of their souls"), you'll get the same pages over and over again. Not only are the quotes the same, usually the entire sentences (that is, the preface, the part leading up to the quote) are identical! And none of them have attributions to documents! And I can't find the continuation of Benedict XV's quote from that first site, the "fruits of the Sacrifice of the Mass" part.
Am I saying these aren't real quotes? No. But I'm suspicious of them for a few reasons:- they have the exact same form every time, and not just the quotes themselves, but the sentences containing the quotes;
- the second quote attributed to Pope Benedict XV has a grammatical error in it (granted, he did not speak or write it in English, but the error implies that it was not copied word-for-word from another source);
- there are never any attributions;
- I can't find the quote attributed to St. Anselm in an online collection of his works
That's why I'm suspicious of the quotes. Also, regarding the [sic] I placed in reference to St. Leonard of Port Maurice... his statement does not, in any way, shape, or form, support the statement of St. Anselm. Let's look at the two again:St. Anselm: "a single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death"
St. Leonard of Port Maurice: "one Mass before death may be more profitable than many after it"
Neither statement supports the other. Why? Because they say the exact same thing. That's not support, that's agreement. I can say "pigs can fly", and you can say "pigs can fly", but you haven't supported me, you've just agreed with me. If you'd provided an example of a pig flying (pointing me to research or an experiment), then you would have supported me.
And what's more, the quotes (as displayed in English) use the expression "may be", not "is". St. Anselm and St. Leonard, if they said what they said and it was translated into English faithfully, were proposing the greater efficacy of Mass before death, not stating it or proving it. Of course, we don't have the context either, so how are we to come to any conclusions?
Sorry for the rant, but it's this kind of thing (quoting someone without giving a verifiable source) that pervades anti-Catholic rhetoric, and it's a shame to see it being used by Catholics as well. It might be from ignorance (and I hope it is), but if it is willful, it's awfully shameful.
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[Mary said,] "Do whatever he tells you." - John 2:5
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CajunRick
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 5353 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Wed Jun 6th, 2007 02:15 pm |
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japhy wrote: CajunRick wrote: A: While our reader did not offer the sources of these comments by St. Anselm and Pope Benedict XV, I will take her word for them.
Y'know, I give these Zenit people credit for putting up with this.
I agree with you, Japhy. I take Fr. McNamara's answer to mean that participating in mass during life is of much more value than offering masses after death, and I completely agree. The former can spiritually transform us; the latter can at best help to remove temporal impediments.
I think the questions Fr. McNamara chooses to answer are those he considers of benefit to the entire Church, and quite possibly those that reflect a number of requests. Since anyone can send in a question, no doubt he is inundated with them, and no doubt many of them come from way out in left field.
____________________
Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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