While Deb doubted that God’s mercy and salvation were possible for her, there are many, many people in this day and age who presume upon God’s mercy. These are people who, if there came to be a flood, would refuse to be rescued, thinking they could on their own swim to safety. Well, we know how few, if any, are able to actually do that. There are many people who in their own mind do not believe they are sinners. Either they do not believe their soul needs to be saved or they say things like “the Church has too many rules, but God understands me.” They simply expect to get to heaven as though they have some right to it. The entitlement mentality in our culture also carries over to our practice of religion with the false notion that God would not actually shut us out of eternal life in heaven. Many are afflicted with a kind of complacency to simply check the Mass attendance on Sunday box with little or no relationship with the Lord. Greater than obedience is the gift of love and affection that we should offer the Lord.
Perhaps we might think about salvation this way. What if our starting point was that of Christ’s suffering. We just celebrated Passion Sunday yesterday, and on Good Friday we will once again enter into the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So, what does the Passion of our Lord tell us about the seriousness of our sinfulness? St. Paul reminds us (Romans 5:8) that, “While we yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In the Passion of our Lord, we discover that so great are our sins that Christ paid the ultimate price for them: crucifixion and death! If you want to know how much God loves you, look to the cross. Instead, many are presuming they will be saved with little notion of how serious their sins truly are. Whenever we look to the cross, we should be reminded of what it took to rescue us from sin and death.
Another kind of presumption is to believe that our loved ones who have died are automatically in heaven. While we might console our grieving hearts with the hope that they are saved, to categorically state that “he’s with mom in heaven” does their souls a disservice. It has long been the custom of the Church to pray for the souls in purgatory. The Church’s teaching on purgatory presumes that they (and all of us) die in an imperfect state of union with God, thus motivating us to intercede for them. To pray for the soul of someone who has died is to ask the Lord to look with mercy on their soul, purge their souls from any lingering attachments to sin and prepare them for the blessed vision of God on the day of judgment.
We are reminded of all this in the funeral rites of the Church, as well. Yet this gets lost when the funeral rites of the Church are jettisoned for a “celebration of life” service. Most of the time, a celebration of life is simply looking back on the life of the one who has died noting their goodness and how they affected our lives. But if nothing amounts to a prayer for them, or any mention of our need to trust in God’s mercy for their sins, or the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, and if there is no intercession for their soul, is this not a presumption that they are in heaven? The long-standing tradition of offering Masses for the intention of someone who has died is to pray for the detachment of their soul from disordered affections for the things of this world and proper attachment for the things of heaven. More and more, we are losing our understanding of the meaning of life and the hope for eternal life.
In the past, some people would become scrupulous about their sins, doubtful that they confessed their sins accurately or honestly, fearful that they were only compounding their sins and despairing of salvation. Scrupulosity is a serious spiritual problem. However, presumption is far more rampant, and also a serious problem. Scrupulous people confess the same sins over and over again but fail to welcome and accept God’s forgiveness. Those who are presumptuous about their salvation see no need to confess their sins believing God “understands.” In either case, we are duped by the evil one which leaves us at a distance from the Lord.
In this Jubilee Year 2025, we have the special opportunity to make intercession for our loved ones who have died by entering the Cathedral or other designated Jubilee Year church, praying for the intentions of the Holy Father, going to confession as soon as possible and receiving Holy Communion, and offering this for the temporal punishment due to sin for someone who has died. In fact, this is the purpose of the Jubilee Year of grace started in the years 1300 – to encourage the faithful to intercede on behalf of those who have died. And this plenary indulgence (the cancellation of all purgatory time) can be obtained by each of us as frequently as once a day during this Jubilee Year.
With yesterday’s Mass for Passion Sunday, we have entered into Holy Week. “For us men and women, and our salvation, he came down from heaven.” The primary reason Jesus came to this earth was to draw all people to himself and thus to save us from our sins. If Lent has been difficult for you, spend this Holy Week reflecting on just one thing: the suffering and death of Jesus. Know that if you were the only person in the world, he would have died just for you. See how necessary it is that you acknowledge that you are a sinner. Then confess your sins sincerely to our Lord and then live in the freedom of God’s mercy with renewed hope in the salvation Christ won for you on the cross.
