Here is a lady asking ASKACATHOLIC a very reasonable question about mass cards: Prepare yourselves my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The answer given is incredibly disturbing, but WE MUST know what these people believe so that this nonsense of thinking catholicism is just another Christian denomination is terribly wrong. Yes, I'm sure, like PoetMary here, there may be catholics who are saved through trusting in Jesus ALONE, the VAST majority of catholics don't believe that.
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[TD="class: SectionTitle, colspan: 2"]Debbie S. wrote:[/TD]
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Hi, guys —
My mom passed away earlier this month a we received many Mass cards.
- What is the purpose of a Mass card?
Some of them said she will be a member for a certain period of time and their organization will pray for her during a certain period at certain Masses.
- What are they praying for?
- If she is in Heaven, why would she need our prayers? I don't get it.
- Can our prayers now, here on earth, affect someone who has entered eternity?
Please help. I am very confused.
Thank you for your time.
Debbie[/TD]
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[TD="class: TitleBlockWhole, bgcolor: #F0FFF0, colspan: 2"] { What is the purpose of a Mass card if my mother is already in Heaven? }[/TD]
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Mike replied:
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Hi, Debbie —
Good question!
I have to give some background before I answer your question.
None of us in the Church Militant, here on earth, know:
- who is in Heaven, with exceptions, or
- who is in Hell
Because, the primary goal of the Church on earth is the salvation of souls, the Church, after careful background studies, holds certain people up, who have lived very holy lives, as models of holiness for the members of the Church to follow. We know, for certain, these people are Saints, and the Church has affirmed, they are in Heaven.
They pray for us and we can ask for their help down here on our spiritual journey.
There are also many, many, many, many, many, many, many other people who lived holy lives that are also in Heaven.
We have to distinguish, though, between a moral certainty and an absolute certainty of a previous family member or acquaintance being in Heaven.
The Faithful in the Church have an absolute certainty that those people that the Church has declared, "Servants of God" are in Heaven. (They are saints.)
We can only have a moral certainty that your mother, and my father, for that matter, are in Heaven.
Why? Because we witnessed the character of their lives, the sacrifices they made for us, their kindness, etc. Nevertheless, they could have died with some unrepentant venial sin or an attachment to sin where the appropriate penance had not been performed by them.
- Could your mother or my father have died with no remaining self-love on their soul and gone straight to Heaven? Sure!
- Is it probably? Not likely, because of our human nature.
Personal note: As a private devotion, I talk and pray to St. Stephen of North Sudbury, my father, on a daily basis. I also put him in charge of praying for certain things in my life in accordance with what he was good at. For example, He was a driver education teacher, so anything having to do with my car or my driving, I ask him to guide me in making the appropriate decisions. This keeps his REAL presence alive in my life, though he has passed on into eternity.
From the Catechism, under indulgences it says:1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory.
This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin.These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.84
To your question:
The purpose of Mass cards is to have Masses said for a departed loved one, who we have a moral certitude of the saintliness, but not an absolute certitude.
Your question reminds me of when the color of the funeral vestments for priests changed after Vatican II.
Before Vatican II, the Church generally used the color purple to represent a Lenten tone; one where we were encouraged to pray and do sacrifices for our faithful departed for the reasons I have mentioned above. Purple vestments were worn by the priests at all funeral Masses beforeVatican II.
After Vatican II, to stress the hope that the congregation had of their faithful departed being resurrected, the Church generally changed the color to White.A unintended impression that could have been given to the faithful, was that there was no need to pray for their departed loved ones.
This is sad, because, though my dad and your mom may have been very holy people, they may have died with some remaining self love.
No one is saying either my dad nor your mom is in hell; they are just being purified of any remaining self-love in THE Spiritual Hospital in the Church we call: Purgatory.
The purpose of Mass cards is to offer our prayers and good works for their COMPLETE purification. (Revelation 21:27 - Nothing unclean will be allowed to enter into heaven.)
One important side note: the purification process OR Purgatory has NOTHING to do with ones salvation. These are two completely separate issues. Purgatory ONLY has to do with ones holiness!!
If they, in reality, have no need for the Mass cards that are being offered for them, because they ARE objectively in Heaven and COMPLETELY PURIFIED, the Charity of God would reason that the graces from those Masses would be applied to other family members and their ancestors within the family who have passed away with remaining self-love; or other families with family members in similar situations.
Hope this helps,
Mike
P.S. We have an anniversary Mass for my father every May 28th.[/TD]
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