"
Our Blessed Saviour, immediately after death, descended into that part
of hell called Limbo, and, as St. Peter informs us, "preached to the
spirits who were in prison." This most certainly shows the existence of
a middle state. The spirits to whom our Lord preached were certainly
not in the hell of the damned, where His preaching could not possibly
bear any fruit; they were not already in heaven, where no preaching is
necessary, since there they see God face to face. Therefore they must
have been in some middle state--call it by whatever name you please--
where they were anxiously awaiting their deliverance at the hands of
their Lord and Redeemer.
Belief in Purgatory is more ancient than Christianity itself. It was
the belief among the Jews of old, and of this we have clear proof in
the Second Book of Machabees, xii., 43. After a great victory gained by
that valiant chieftain, Judas Machabeus, about two hundred years before
the coming of Christ, "Judas making a gathering, he sent twelve
thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered
for the sins of the dead, thinking well and justly concerning the
resurrection.... It is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray
for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins.
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