Purgatory

one

Jesus speaks about Purgatory in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:23-26)

So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.

What is the price of sin? There is a two-fold consequence of sin. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God therefore it makes us incapable of eternal life. Jesus removes that with Baptism or later with Confession. The second consequence of sin is a disordered attachment to the things of this world which manifests itself in the deadly sins: pride, vain ambition, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony and lust. These prevent us from the complete union with God in heaven. We should remove these vices in this life but if we don’t then God in His mercy will remove them in Purgatory.

two

St. Peter and St Paul describe purgatory as a purifying fire

1 Corinthians 3:11-15  “For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work, which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

The “Day” refers to our particular judgment

●      And notice how it is described as a fiery trial

He can’t be referring to hell,

●      because it’s clear that the people who undergo this “purifying fire” will be saved,

●      while those who are in hell are lost forever.

He can’t be referring to heaven,

●      because he mentions the suffering of loss,

●      while in heaven every tear will be wiped away

●      St. Paul must be referring to Purgatory

St Peter writes: 1 Peter 1:5-7 Through your faith, God's power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time. This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like gold - only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire - and then you will have praise and glory and honor.

three

Why is the word Purgatory not in the Bible?

The Bible speaks of three places after death:

A.  Heaven which the Bible calls Heaven

B.  Hell, which Jesus calls Gehenna or the unquenchable fire reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.

C. A third place which is named Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek. Later the Bible was translated from Hebrew and Greek. Purgatory is the Latin word for Sheol and Hades. Thus Purgatory is in the Bible.

Lots of people do not believe in Purgatory.

The Book of Revelation 21:27 says nothing unholy will enter heaven. That means the vices of Pride, Envy, Anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust, Gossip, grudges, Impatience, and so on cannot be in heaven. Well, what are we going to do because these will still be in us when we die? Does that mean we will be excluded from heaven and we will go to hell?

Thankfully the infinitely merciful love of God can purify us after death. The CCC speaks of Purgatory (1030)

All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

four

Purgatory is the Purifying Fire of God’s desire for us and our desire for him. Where those two desires meet, everything else is burned away.

Purgatory is not a prison and it’s not a place of punishment. Purgatory is an inner fire. Purgatory is where we encounter the Fire of God’s great love for us. His desire for us inflames our desire for him. And as we come nearer to Him, we desire Him more and more and we let go, we get rid of our disordered attachments more and more. Our disordered desires are burned away in the fire of God’s love and the fire of our desire for God.

Faustina was taken to Purgatory and allowed to speak to the souls there who said their greatest torment was longing for God (Diary 20). Their desire for God was the purifying fire – purging away every disordered love that stood between them and God.

Diary 1185-86 This evening, one of the deceased sisters came and asked me for one day of fasting and to offer all my [spiritual] exercises on that day for her. I answered that I would. From early morning on the following day, I offered everything for her intention. During Holy Mass, I had a brief experience of her torment. I experienced such intense hunger for God that I seemed to be dying of the desire to become united with Him. This lasted only a short time, but I understood what the longing of the souls in purgatory was like.

five

We travel to God by our desire for Him.

If we want a deep friendship with God in this life and perfect union with him in Heaven immediately after death, with no layover in purgatory, then the most important thing is to increase our desire for God.

We increase our desire for anything by thinking about it. If you want to increase your desire for God, then spend more time thinking about Him and thinking about Heaven as the infinite and perfect fulfillment of all good desires.

The goal of life is intimacy with Jesus. The problem is that we don’t desire or long for this intimacy with Jesus above all other things.

The saints say that is because we have glutted ourselves with bodily pleasures, we are full to the gills with the pleasures of this world, we are so full we have no hunger for God.

Fasting and mortification are about increasing our desire for God, for union with Jesus.

What is some small practice we can do to deny our earthly desires to increase our desire for Jesus? Fast from eating when you are not hungry. Fast from alcohol as a way to relax. Fast from your addiction to your screen, from the addiction to email, notifications, browsing…But make the resolution to fast in some way.