The things beyond the tomb : in a Catholic light

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Preface

Most people are interested in the question of what will happen to them after Death. If they are not, they must have something very seriously wrong with them. I believe firmly that many more persons are curious upon this subject than we are wont to suppose. But they do not talk about it. Perhaps they do not know any one whom they could ask. Or, though they know ~ those who could help them, they may be too shy or too proud to seek such help. Or again, they may be living a bad life. This would cause them to hush up their curiosity within themselves; for their conscience would make them afraid as to what they might hear.

In any case it is hard to believe that there are many people who in their heart of hearts care nothing whatever about the subject. And yet it is the topic above all others upon which people have the vaguest and most mistaken ideas.

For all sorts of wrong notions have sprung up about Heaven and Hell. It is only to be expected that those

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should be at sea, who have broken away from the safe anchorage of the Church. But within the pale of the Church there is much ignorance and widespread misconception in regard to these matters.

And it does not seem that very much is done by way of mending the mischief. I suppose the errs number of sermons are wound up, by way of climax, with some reference to Heaven, and the happiness that is there in store for us. But we seldom hear in what this happiness will consist.

It is true that Almighty God has not told us much about Heaven. And even where He has spoken, the line between the letter and the figure is both difficult and dangerous to draw. A Father delights in giving good children pleasures that will take them by surprise, “above all that they can ask or think.” But He has given us a sufficient general notion of the nature of the joys we may expect, if we walk in His ways here.

And of the punishment in store for the disobedient He has drawn pictures which, though dark and mysterious, are sufficiently definite to fill us with holy fear of a Being Who is “a consuming fire.”

Still more shrouded and partial are the glimpses He has granted us into the state of Christian souls between Death and Resurrection, into the details of the Resurrection and the Judgment, and the events of i ee)

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Preface. Vil the “ Last Day.” Yet He has told us enough to afford us a general moral certainty as to these tremendous happenings, and their relation to our conduct in this world.

Yes, the darkness that veils the mysterious future is pierced, here and there, with slender rays of light.

_ But these beams are distributed up and down the pages “ “of the written Word, and only the Church may safely dare the attempt to draw them into focus. The scattered Biblical allusions to the Last Things are laborious to collect and compare, and sometimes difficult to reconcile; insomuch that the learner is fain to turn to the Church and say, “ How can I understand, except some — man should guide me?”

And, according to the light which God has so far granted her, the Church does guide us. It is her office to edit and classify God’s written revelation; and if we hearken to her teaching, we cannot go astray. And yet with all deference I would submit, that the Clergy as a body do not declare this teaching, in connection with our subject, as frequently or as plainly as could be wished.

Take the topic of Hell, for instance. In the times before the Catholic Revival this terrible theme figured largely in sermons, and was treated in an unduly material manner, with a view to frightening sinners

- Into repentance. Now, as it would seem, this regrettable fashion has given place, by reaction, to the oo > = is oi > +S,

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opposite extreme, and the subject is politely avoided. The natural consequence is that heresy and infidelity about Hell are rampant; that God is charged with eruelties which He has never threatened, and with injustice which He has never thought; and that the Church is credited with doctrines to which she does not stand committed for a moment.

Still less of clear teaching is there upon the “ Intermediate State.” This subject involves the notion of discipline and self-abnegation, and therefore, in common with Fasting and the Sacrament of Penance, is not popular in “High-Church” circles. The prevailing dread of anything like Purgatorial doctrine hinders its clerical victims from declaring, in this matter, the whole counsel of God. ‘There is a conspiracy of silence in the pulpit with regard to it, which tacitly encourages, and is in great measure answerable for, the common idea that the Souls of the Departed Faithful are In a state of torper; and that the notion of prayer, offered either by them, or by ourselves in their behalf, is an impiety.

Neither upon the subject of the Resurrection of the Body do we hear much distinct or explicit teaching ; with the result that here, again, erroneous and extravagant notions of the Catholic doctrine prevail. And can we wonder that the very word is in many quarters received with a smile ?

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It is in view of the afore-mentioned facts that I offer the little work that follows. There are not many Anglo-Catholic books that purport to resolve doubts and answer questions upon these subjects; and such excellent treatises as do exist are in most cases, perhaps, somewhat “above the heads” of very simple or uninstructed people.

It is for this latter class especially that these pages are designed. I hope that they may also be found useful, as a basis of instruction, by those whose work it is to teach the young and the unlearned. I have tried to write very simply indeed, so that a child may understand; and have assumed as little knowledge as possible in my readers. I have aimed to answer popular objections, putting myself in fancy in the reader’s place, and anticipating his possible difficulties as they occurred to my own mind. And I have based my instructions as far as possible upon the written Word of God, to show that in this, as in all themes which belong to our most holy Catholic Faith, “Church Doctrine” is “Bible Truth.” I beg, therefore, that the book be read Bible in hand.

We live in times when religious England is divided into two camps, the friends and foes of the Catholic | theory of Christianity. Religious bywords and theo- } logical shibboleths are upon the tongue alike of the wise and of the unwise; and the “man in the street,”

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usually a Gallio of indifference, has awaked from his apathy, and claims a stall in the market of clashing arguments and conflicting opinions. And the whole controversy of the day resolves itself into the simple question, “ Where shall I go when I die, and by what faith and conduct here can I determine my eternal destiny 2”

I ‘trust that by the blessing of God the following pages may go some little way to meet the mood, and to answer the question.

LONDON : Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1900.

CHAPTER

I, ine III.

IV.

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Chapter I. The Place After Death

WHEN you die, your soul will not go straight to Heaven or to Hell. “Going to Heaven when you die” sounds good, but there is no such thing, ©

It could not be. Every soul has to be judged at the Last Day. At that Day it will be seen which place it is fit for. Until then it could not go to either,

Tt could not go to Heaven, for it must first be judged, and found fit to live with God. Besides, it will want its body in Heaven; and it will not get that till the Resurrection. :

Could you imagine an accused person receiving his punishment or acquittal, and then, years afterwards, coming back before the magistrate to be tried? It is quite as sensible as supposing a soul enjoying the bliss of Heaven for ages, and then coming back to the earth to be judged, and to receive its body.

Not even the greatest Saints “go to Heaven when they die,”—or, at least, they do not then reach their

B last and fullest state of blessedness. S. Peter tells us that not even David is yet “ascended into the heavens” (Acts ii. 34). There have doubtless been many Saints and Martyrs of the Church who have gone into a state of blessedness at death. We think of “the Saints” as in Heaven. But they are not finally perfect yet, for they have not their bodies; and besides, we cannot apply to ourselves the case of a holy canonised Saint of the Church, who may have died shedding his life-blood for Jesus Christ.

And it could not go to Hell, any more than a man charged with a crime can be punished before he be tried. It would not be fair.

Therefore it must wait somewhere till the Judgment.

And that is just what it does; and the place where it waits is called by several different names.

It is called in the Bible, at least once, “ Paradise.” This name generally means Heaven, as in 2 Cor, xii. 4, where 8S. Paul says he was “caught up into Paradise.”

But when Our Lord said to the Penitent Thief, “ To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,’ He must have meant this Waiting Place.

It is also called “ Hades,” which is a Greek word for “Death,” or the place of death.

S. Peter calls it “prison” (1 S. Pet. iii, 19).

The Place after Death. 3

It is also sometimes called the “ Intermediate State.” “Intermediate” means “lying between.” It lies between this life and the Resurrection.

And in the Creed it is called “ Hell.” This is an old Saxon word, meaning a dark or covered place—the “Valley of the Shadow of Death.”

Where is this strange realm, where the souls of men wait for the Last Day ?

We do not know yet. But the Bible speaks of it as if it were beneath the earth. S. Paul (Eph. iv. 9) calls it the “lower parts of the earth.” And Our Lord is said to have “ descended” into it.

Still, wherever it is, we know this much about it from the lips of Our Lord Himself—that it is in two parts. One of these parts is for righteous souls to wait in, The other is for the wicked. A Particular Judgment, immediately after death, determines the Waiting Place of each soul.

When the Rich Man and Lazarus died, in the parable, they did not go to the same place. Lazarus was carried by the Angels into a place called “ Abraham’s Bosom ” (the Jewish name for Paradise), where he was happy. But the Rich Man found himself in a place of torment, and thirst, and fire.

They could see each other. But there was between them a great gulf which could not be passed. Each had a foretaste of what was waiting for him when at last his soul and body should rise from the dead (S. Luke xvi.).

This was the place into which our Lord’s Human Soul descended directly after His Death. He did not go to Heaven; for He said on Easter Day, “I am not yet ascended to My Father.’ He went to Hell, Hades, or Paradise.

David said (Ps. xvi. 10), ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell.” This meant that God the Father would not leave our Lord’s Soul in Hades, but would raise it - (together with His body) from the dead.

But what did our Lord do in Hades ?

S. Peter (1 S. Pet. 11. 19) tells us He went and “preached to the Spirits in Prison.” These were the spirits of those who had died before Our Lord’s time. They were shut up in Hades or Death. All the good people who in the old time had watched and waited for Him, saw Him now, and heard Him preach the Gospel of His Death.

How glad they must have been to see Him! How eagerly they must have listened to all He had to tell them about Himself! Many good men have thought that He brought some of them out of prison into a happier place, giving them already the fruits of His Passion, through that Power of His own Death by which He had conquered death and destroyed its power.

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Perhaps He meant this when He once said, “ The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live” (S. John v. 25).

In Eph. iv. 8, S. Paul says, quoting Ps. Ixviu. 18, “Wherefore He said, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it. but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” “Leading captivity captive” here means “leading a multitude of captives.”

And we are told that at Our Lord’s Crucifixion there was an earthquake, “and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and went into the Holy City, and appeared unto many” (8. Matt. xxvii. 52, 53).

Our Lord preached especially to those who perished by the flood in the time of Noah. S. Peter says, “He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 8. Pet. i. 19, 20; iv. 6).

Yet the sojourn of Our Lord’s Spirit in this place is wrapt in dark and wondrous mystery. Perhaps we shall hear more about it one day, when we go there ourselves.

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In the meanwhile we know that the going there, and the rising thence, gave Death and Hell into our Lord’s power. In Rev. i. 18 He says, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and...I... have the keys of Hell and of Death.”

It would seem that Our Lord, when He rose from the dead, left this place less dark and awful than He found it.

For in the Old Testament, and especially in the Psalms, it is spoken of in the most appalling terms. “Who shall give Thee thanks in the pit? ) (Bayy3-"5), And “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” (Kcecl. 1x. 10):

The Hebrews called this place “ Sheol,” and regarded it as gloomy and dreadful. But Our Blessed Lord did that which made it possible to say, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. xv. 55). No doubt He made it a very different place for Christians, when He “ harrowed Hell.”

There was another reason for Our Lord’s Descent into Hell besides the preaching to the Spirits in Prison.

Our Lord descended into Hell because it was part of death to do so. If He had not done this, He would not have died fully and perfectly. He willed to “taste death ” to the utmost, to bear all that death brings with

The Place after Death. 2 it, not to the body only, but also to the soul. All men, when they die, will have to pass through the Valley of the Shadow ; and Our Lord did this, searching Death out to the very last, bursting its bonds, loosing its pains, breaking its power.

If you read Ps. lxxxviil. carefully, you will hear in David’s words the voice of Our Lord crying to His Father from the depths of Hell. Also in the prayer of Jonah from the whale’s belly, in the second chapter of his Book.

And we, Christ’s members, knowing that He has been through all this, have nothing to fear from death, if we are living in Him.

Do not fear to die; fear only to die without God. If you die without God, your death will be miserable, horrible. But if you die a good Christian, your death will be a “falling asleep in Jesus.” There is nothing that you will have to undergo in the other world but will be good for your soul. You will be passing through a realm which now belongs to Jesus Christ. He has loosed the pains of death. He will bring you into a place of refreshment, light, and peace. And when the trump of God shall sound, you will rise to that Eternal Life which, by His most Holy and Perfect Death, He has won for your body and soul.

Chapter II. The Holy Souls

Many English people have fallen into a most unhappy way of looking at Death. They regard it as separating the Soul from all union with those it leaves behind, and putting a stop to the work God is doing with it.

Is this so ?

No. If it were so, Our Lord would not have conquered Death, but Death would have conquered Our Lord.

A baptized person, who is being saved, is a Member of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no death. That is to say, death does not make the soul any less a child of the Family of God. J

A dear friend dies a Christian. We can no longer see, hear, or touch him. He is gone away into the far-off land of the Shadow, and is known no more for a time.

But we shall see him again! He is none the less our dear friend and fellow-servant. He is no more really parted from our fellowship than if he were gone to some distant place across the world. —

Turn to Phil. i. 21-24. You will there find that Ss. Paul thought so little of death as a separation from his friends, that he actually could not make up his mind whether it would be better to die at once and be with Christ, or to stay yet a few years longer with them in the world.

And in another place (Rom. xiv. 8) he says, “ For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.” And again (1 Cor. xv. 19), “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” And (Rom. xiv. 9) Christ is “ Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

This is called the Communion of Saints. “The souls of the righteous are in the hand” (Wisd. iii. 1) of the same God in Whose hand we are; and “ they without us” shall not “be made perfect” (Heb. xi. 40).

You must not think that the dead are in a state of unconscious sleep. They are alive; worshipping, praying, full as ourselves of faith, hope, and love. They have not forgotten us; they pray for us even as they prayed while on earth. It is possible that in some cases they even know what is going on in the world. The “Souls under the Altar” cry in the Apocalypse, “ How long, O Lord, ... dost Thou not... avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Rev. vi. 10).

If they be in this state, what follows ?

It follows that we are acting very wrongly if we forget to pray for them.

“ Pray for the dead! What good can that do? The dead are either lost or saved. A man’s fate is sealed when he dies; of what use, then, can it be to pray for him? If he be saved, he is saved. If he be lost, no prayers of ours can recover him.”

All very true. A man’s fate is sealed when he dies. If he be lost, no prayers of ours can recover him. His time of probation, or trial, ends with his death. And if in that trial he have been found wanting, we are not told that he will be given any further chance. Therefore, for the lost, prayer would be useless.

But the Church does not pray for the souls of the lost. She prays for the saved.

“How does the Church know who is saved ?”

I did not say she knew who was saved. But she knows who has been baptized.

“But it does not follow that because a man is baptized he is saved.”

I did not say it did follow that because a man is baptized he is saved. You will get on too fast. He who is baptized is im a state of salvation, or in a condition of being saved. So says the Church Catechism.

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We do not know for certain that he will be saved, for he may fall from grace. Just asa sick man may be in a state of getting well. We do not know for certain that he will get well. He may have a relapse and die. So we do not know for certain that the baptized Christian will be saved.

But we do not know for certain that he will not. A man may, to our knowledge, lead a very wicked life, and die. A Priest may even have visited him on his deathbed, and have failed to get from him any sign of repentance.

But nobody can be sure that, in his last moments, his heart did not turn to God. None (save, perhaps, a very few) heard the Penitent Thief’s cry to Our Lord upon the Cross.

Therefore the Church is safe in praying for all departed Christians.

“ But if a man be saved, what good can our prayers do him? He cannot be more than saved!”

Yes, he can. He can be saved quickly, or saved slowly ; he can be saved well, or only just saved. God is carrying on, and perfecting, the work of His salvation, in the place of the departed spirits.

Let us see what we can find in the Bible about the condition of that greatest part of the Church, the souls of the departed faithful. I do not want you to pray for the dead without being quite sure that you have good reasons for doing so. Let us see if we can lift a little the veil that hides the Christian dead from our sight. |

We know five things about these holy souls.

(i.) Lhat they are at rest from earthly troubles. We read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God; for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works” (Heb, iv. 9,10). Andin the Revelation of 5S. John, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours” (Rev. xiv. 13).

(ii.) That they are expecting, longing for something. “They cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood upon them that dwell upon the earth?” (Rev. vi. 10).

(iii). That they cannot get what they want until the number of the elect shall be made up. “ God hath provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb. xi. 40).

(iv.) That God is carrying on a work with them. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1. 6). And “ God shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. i. 8). And “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. v. 23). You see S. Paul means that God’s work in them is to go on, not until their death, but until the Day, or Coming, of Jesus Christ.

(v.) That this work, which God is doing with them, 1s a work of purging from sin and fitting for Heaven. Our Lord says, “Thou shalt by no means come out thence, until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing” (S. Matt. v.26). And S&S. Paul says, “ The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is;” ifit be of some precious abiding material, “he shall receive a reward;” if not, “if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire ” (1 Cor. iu. 12-15). Again our Lord speaks of a sin for which the sinner shall not be forgiven, “neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (S. Matt. xii. 32). It seems then, that there are some sins which, though unforgiven in this life, may yet be purged out in the next.

“ But,’ you say, “does not the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanse us from all sin? If I repent of my sins here, and am forgiven, why should I be punished for them in the next world?”

I will try to explain. Let us suppose you have a child, who has badly disobeyed you. You tell him he will be punished. He comes to you and tells you he is very sorry he was naughty, and promises to try and do better in the future. You know quite well that his repentance is sincere. And you freely and fully forgive him.

But (if you are wise) you still punish him.

If, instead of repenting, he had gone on doing wrong, and had grown up quite disobedient and rebellious and full of hatred for you, you would no doubt have cut him off altogether.

As it is, you forgive him, but still punish him for that one particular act of disobedience, as vt deserves.

It is like this with God and sinful man. There are two kinds of punishment which lie before every sinner. These are Zemporal Punishment and Eternal Punishment.

Temporal Punishment is the punishment which takes place in this life and in the Intermediate State.

Eternal Punishment is the shutting out of the lost sinner from God for ever and ever.

Temporal Punishment is inflicted for two chief reasons— |

(a) For the sake of justice, because sin deserves it.

(0) For the sake of the soul, that it may be purified, learn to be good, and become fit for Heaven.

Eternal Punishment, a very different thing, which we are not now considering, is inflicted for the same two reasons, but in a different way—

(a) For the sake of Justice, because the lost soul has refused, to the last, to take to itself the Atonement, which would have saved it, and so deserves this awful doom.

(>) For the sake of the soul, because—having flatly refused to give itself to God, in spite of His Grace, and cast in its lot deliberately with the devil—it would not enjoy Heaven if it were placed there, and so is become fit only for Hell, its own chosen place.

Now, put Eternal Punishment quite out of your mind for the present, and think only of Temporal. For we are not considering lost souls at all, but souls which are being saved.

The soul that is being saved, then, does not escape Temporal Punishment.

You must not forget that Sin has two parts: Guilt and Weakness.

Suppose I commit a sin. I repent and confess, I am forgiven by God, whether directly or through His Priest. The Gwilt of my sin is quite forgiven and put out of sight of God, through the power of the Precious Blood.

But there is something more about my sin which also needs to be put away. That is its Weakness.

The Guilt is gone. But there remains behind in me an unholy taste, which will make me want to commit the same sin again. This is the Weakness of the sin, and mere forgiveness does not take it away.

What is it, then, which takes this Weakness away ?

It is that treatment from God, which we may call Experience. It is that dealing with the soul by God, that training of the soul, which sometimes takes the shape of pain. Just as alloy is put in the fire until the dross be quite burnt out, leaving only the gold behind, so I must be put in the fire of Experience, till my taste for sin be cleansed away.

You remember that David committed two dreadful sins—Adultery and Murder. David repented of these sins in that beautiful fifty-first Psalm we sing in Lent. And God forgave David freely and fully, sending His Absolution to him through the prophet Nathan—“The © Lord hath put away thy sin” (2 Sam. xii. 13).

But the Weakness of Adultery and Murder still remained in David, and had to be purged out by many great troubles which God sent upon him through his after-life. These troubles kept David from wanting to commit the same sins again. So also S. Paul made the incestuous Corinthian suffer for his sin in this world, that his soul might be saved (1 Cor. v. 5).

All Christians undergo training at the Hand of God here, or hereafter, or both. Temporal Death is part of this training ; and even the Cross does not save us from that.