The second part of our three part series is on Purgatory. I can’t tell you how many people have asked about Purgatory. It especially comes from our Protestant brothers and sisters since they don’t believe in it. But what is the deal with this mysterious place? It is seldom preached about but yet still remains Church Doctrine.
The church teaches that in Heaven, we will be in the presence of God and all the blessed. If God is all good, and we are going to be intimately embraced in the goodness and love of God, then, we who are sinners must be cleaned. In the last blog, I wrote that if someone dies with mortal sin on their soul, then they are choosing Hell for themselves. But if someone dies with venial sin on their soul, meaning they have not turned completely away from God, they are just wounded, they are granted a time of being purified. This time of purification is called purgatory. The best way to think of it is that you are on the doorstep of Heaven and you are wiping your feet on the door mat. The Church teaches that purgatory is not punishment. Hell is punishment. If we die and are in purgatory, it is not permanent. We will eventually reach Heaven. There is no possibility in going to Hell once we are in purgatory. We can only go up, so to speak. The church speaks of purgatory as a “Cleansing Fire”. In this fire we are wholly prepared for the immense Glory of God in Heaven.
One of the things that people challenge the Doctrine of purgatory with is scriptural reference. It is true that the word Purgatory doesn’t exist in the Bible. Read it cover to cover, you won’t find it. Know what other word you won’t find either; Trinity. Just because the word can’t be found in the Bible, doesn’t mean it isn’t a part of our faith. The concept of purgatory, however, can be found in scripture. In the second book of Maccabees, Judas, who is the leader of the Jewish forces paid for a sacrifice to be performed in the temple in Jerusalem for his dead soldiers: “…for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.” (2 Maccabbees 12: 44,46) What does this remind you of? As Catholics we pray for our dead. If you remember back to the previous blog on Hell, then you know once we die, we can no longer make anymore choices, our judgment is final. But for the people that go to purgatory, they can be prayed for, and with those prayers, their time in purgatory is shortened. Our Catholic Church is a universal Church. Our beloved dead are still in our Church. When someone we love dies, we should offer prayers for them because there is no guarantee that they are in heaven, no matter how good we think they were, all people are fallen and everyone sins. It may have been internal sins; this is why we pray for them. The people in purgatory can’t pray for themselves so it is our job to quicken their time there with prayers so that they can finally be completely united with God in Heaven. Never fear though, if the person you are praying for is already in Heaven, God will apply those prayers to someone who needs it. But that should make us think, what if someone dies without any family, or in a protestant faith that doesn’t believe in praying for the dead? Should we not also pray for all of the souls in purgatory? Next time you are praying, offer a prayer up for a soul in purgatory, you don’t need to know their name, God knows everyone, He will apply it where needed. But He can’t apply it, unless we pray it.
Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, Pray for Us!
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