The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

PURGATORY, ETC. 249religiously concerning the resurrection. For, if hehad not hoped that they that were slain should riseagain, it would have seemed superfluous and vain topray for the dead. ... It is, therefore, a holy andwholesome thought to pray for the dead, that theymay be loosed from 1sins."These words are so forcible that no comment ofmine could render them clearer. This passage proveda great stumbling-block to the Reformers. Findingthat they could not by any evasion weaken the forceof the text, they impiously threw overboard theBooks of Machabees, like a man who assassinatesa hostile witness.They pretended that the twoBooks of Machabees were apocryphal. And yetthey have precisely the same authority as the Gospel of St. Matthew or any other portion of theBible. For, the canon icity of the Holy Scripturesrests solely on the authority of the Catholic Church,which proclaimed them inspired.But even admitting, for the sake of argument,that the Books of Machabees were not entitled to beranked among the canonical Books of Holy Scripture, no one, at least, has ever denied that they aretruthful historical monuments, and, as such, thatthey serve to demonstrate that it was a prevailing practice among the Hebrew people, as it iswith us, to ifferup prayers and sacrifices for thedead.2. When our Saviour, the Founder of the New1II. Mach. xii. 43-46.