Abstinence, Fasting and Damnation
©Prax Maskaren. The following query was received from a correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous.
How is it possible for the Church to change what is a mortal sin? For example, the eating of meat on Friday was a mortal sin until that rule was changed since VatII. What happened to all of those people who ate meat on Friday and WENT TO HELL because they did so? Did they get released from Hell? Didn't they go there in the first place because it really wasn't a mortal sin after all? Also--eating meat on Friday was not a sin until sometime in the Middle Ages. Why were those people before that spared Hell and mortal sin and the one who came after that declaration sent to Hell?
Seems supremely unfair from a God who is all justice and mercy.
Dear Friend,
Thank you for your letter in reply. I am glad that this stupid sinner and abrasive warrior (yup, that's me!), for God's truth is getting, even if just a meagre, grasp on the correct spirit of fraternal correction and not of antagonising and repelling! ;-)
To answer your queries, as below:
The Church has been given the power to bind and to loosen. In the legitimate exercise of that power, the Church can legislate one thing today, and mitigate it some years down the line.
Some questions, however, arise:
1. What is the significance of the New Church's abolishment of abstinence and fasting, etc., laws?
2. What happens to those who died having violated the law when it was stricter?
Answers: As I have already pointed out, and this should be evident, since the Church has delegated power from God to legislate, its legislation is binding. Therefore, those who knowingly and culpably violated the law have to account for it before the Church in this life and before God in the next. Just because it was not as strict before, or that it might not be as strict in the future is not an excuse for violating it now.
However, there are always circumstances which exempt. Such as, for example the legitimate exemptions given by the Church itself, in its positive legislation, to pregnant women, men who undergo hard physical labour, children and elders below and above a certain age, hospital patients, etc.
The other exemption is from Invincible Ignorance. This is internal, and is known only to God. Thus, if a person misunderstood the law, or was misguided by another and was sincere in his crediting that person, etc., then his violation is excusable.
However, I think that it is farfetched to say that any person actually went to hell for eating meat on Fridays. If any did, it was not for the physical eating of meat as much as it was for the deliberate and culpable crime of violating the legitimate laws of the Church. And, in sum, any soul that went to hell, went there not for some accidental violation of one or the other law, but for being found not to be in the Grace of God at the moment of death. Therefore, with exceptions, habitual saints tend to be saved, while habitual sinners tend to be lost.
That was in answer to point 2. As for point # 1, I would recommend that you acquaint yourself with Pope Paul IV's Apostolic Constitution Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio. From this it becomes evident that the 'Changed' discipline is illegal and therefore null and void. Therefore, the law as modified by the last legitimate pontiff, H.H. Pope Pius XII, remains in force.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Prax Maskaren