CHAPTER XXXVI.
Motives for assisting the Holy Souls — Intimate Ties which unite us to them — Filial Piety — Cimon of Athens and his Father in Prison — St. John of God saving the Sick from the Conflagration.
If we are obliged to assist the holy souls because of the extreme necessity in which they are, how much greater does this motive become when we remember that these souls are united to us by the most sacred ties, the ties of blood, by the Blood of Jesus Christ, and by the ties of human flesh and blood, whence we have been brought forth according to the flesh?
Yes, there are in Purgatory souls united to us by the closest family ties. It may be a father or a mother, who, languishing in those horrible torments, extend their arms in supplication towards me. What would we not do for our father or for our mother, if we knew they were pining away in some loathsome dungeon? An ancient Athenian, the celebrated Cimon, had the grief to see his father imprisoned by heartless creditors whom he was unable to satisfy. What was worse, he could not raise a sum sufficient to effect his father's ransom, and the old man died in prison. Cimon hastened to the prison and requested that they would at least grant him the body of his father that he might give it burial. This was refused him, under pretext that, not having had wherewith to pay his debts, he could not be set at liberty. "Allow me first to bury my father," cried Cimon. "I will then return and take his place in prison."
We admire this act of filial piety, but are we not also bound to imitate it? Have we not also, perhaps, a father
