Ayodhya,
It seems to me that you have the mistaken notion that Catholics believe that we can pray someone out of hell. That is not the case. Hell is eternal.
But if I have a friend who dies, I do not yet know for certain where he ended up. I offer prayers and Masses for him in hopes that he escaped hell and is in Purgatory, where he can benefit from these prayers.
Furthermore, my prayers are offered up from a temporal realm, but God receives and acts on them from an eternal realm (i.e., outside the bounds of time and space). Therefore, if I pray on behalf on my deceased friend, it is possible that God can answer those prayers and award grace to my friend while my friend was still alive. God can operate as if he had a time machine, so to speak. This is not an official teaching of the Church; I simply offer this as speculation. But we are empowered to pray on behalf of one another, and God can answer those prayers in a variety of ways that transcend time and space.
You can search the Scriptures from beginning to end, but you will not find the Eucharist helping a single dead person. And not one Bible character ever received the Eucharist on behalf of a departed loved one.
Once again, you are appealing to the Doctrine of Sola Scriptura. Mass for the Dead does not
have to be in the bible. If you still believe otherwise then return to your topic "Why Follow the Bible?" and defend your belief against the posts that we Catholics have presented.
Why is this tradition of the Catholic church so diametrically opposed to God's Holy Word?
Why does the Catholic church want members performing rituals for the dead, when God's Word says such practices are useless?
Wrong. God's Word includes 2Maccabees - just because Protestants decided to toss it out of the bible doesn't mean that Catholics should. Praying for the dead and making offerings for the dead is acting "very well and honorably" (2Macc 12:43). Below, in blue, I will post Catholic Answer's elaboration on 2Macc 12:39-45.
Then, of course, there is the Bible’s approval of prayers for the dead: "In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin" (2 Macc. 12:43–45). Prayers are not needed by those in heaven, and no one can help those in hell. That means some people must be in a third condition, at least temporarily. This verse so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that, at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine. Prayers for the dead and the consequent doctrine of purgatory have been part of the true religion since before the time of Christ. Not only can we show it was practiced by the Jews of the time of the Maccabees, but it has even been retained by Orthodox Jews today, who recite a prayer known as the Mourner’s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of a loved one so that the loved one may be purified. It was not the Catholic Church that added the doctrine of purgatory. Rather, any change in the original teaching has taken place in the Protestant churches, which rejected a doctrine that had always been believed by Jews and Christians. (From:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Purgatory.asp)Most importantly, you need to understand that to continue practicing this man-made tradition, you must reject the very words of Jesus Christ. Are you sure you want to do this?
Speaking of man-made traditions, I'm still waiting for you to return to your topic "Why Follow the Bible?" and explain how your doctrine of Sola Scriptura is not itself a man-made tradition.
God bless,
Rev. Eric
The Glorify God Community
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