Annotation CVII

”Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and you.” — Matthew 25:9

Whether we can be helped by the merits of others.

Hilary, in canon 27 on Matthew, says: “They answer that they cannot give oil, because it is necessary for each one to buy oil for his own lamp” — and [that] no one is to be helped by the works and merits of others. Erasmus, in the scholia on Hilary published by him, noted this passage in the margin, as though pointing with [his] finger to a staff on which the heretics may lean — [those] who in these times deride the merits, intercessions, and suffrages of the saints. Bodius too, in his Collectanea, casts this opinion in the teeth of catholics who implore the prayers and helps of the saints — not noticing that Hilary speaks not of those who, at the opportune time and from a sincere affection of charity, earnestly beg the help of the blessed; but of those who, having neglected their [own] salvation in this life, at last after death flee to the saints, when no faculty of truly repenting and meriting remains.