E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

178
THE OFFERTORY.
not Hell swallow them up.
But the Church s doctrine
is clear and distinct in inferno nulla est redemptio, in Hell
there is no redemption. Nor is it the present usage of
the Church to pray even for a mitigation of the pains
of the lost. The damned have no share whatever in
the prayers or penances of the faithful, nor do they
derive the least benefit from the Mass. Theologians of
note like Valentia and Sporer understand the above
words to refer to the Holy Souls. Such an interpret
ation is contrary to the plain meaning of the words.
The Church is most cautious in her use of terms. She
has a language of her own with a fixed and definite
meaning. From her prayers we learn her creed. The
Church in speaking of Purgatory does not use the word
Infernus, which means the Hell of the damned. We
find Hell used of three different : places (i) of the abode
of the lost in everlasting torments, (2) of the Limbo of
the Fathers, called Paradise by our Lord in the pardon
granted to the penitent thief:
" This day thou shalt be
with Me in Paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43); (3) of Limbo,
where the souls of babes dying without Baptism find a
happy and eternal home. The Limbo of the Fathers
was emptied of its prisoners by our Lord on Ascension
Day, and therefore exists no longer. The place of merci
ful expiation by fire is not called Hell the recognized
name is Purgatory. Nor does the Church usually
speak of Purgatory as death, in contrast to Heaven
which is life. Grant them to pass from death to life
does not, except by a forced interpretation, mean let
them pass from Purgatory to Heaven. The state of the
souls in Purgatory confirmed in grace, dearer to God
than many of the blessed in Heaven, cannot be fittingly
described as death. In the language of Scripture and of
the Church, death and life are opposed, as are Hell and