Saint Michael Center - Catholic Teachings

CATHOLIC TEACHINGS

YOUR SORROW WILL BE TURNED TO JOY

Purgatory: fulfillment of God's justice or fruit of His Mercy?

Upon meeting the wife of a deceased parishioner shortly before the anniversary of his death, the pastor asked whether she intended to have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for him. The lady responded: "If he's in heaven, he doesn't need it. If he's in hell, it won't do him any good. If he's in purgatory, I know he'll be able to endure it."

This humorous little anecdote actually brings some serious questions to mind and reflects some of the confusion that has crept into our understanding of Church teaching about life and death- and especially purgatory.

What is purgatory? Is it a punishment because we've been "pretty good, but not good enough?" Or is there something more to it? And what about our loved ones who have died? Is there really any value to our praying for them or having Holy Masses offered for them?

The Holy Word of God- Sacred Scripture- reveals to us the awesome truth that we human beings have been created to become members of the family God wants for Himself. God wants us to be His family, to be His children and share the fullness of His joy.

But in order to be able to be truly "children of God" we must become pure like Him, holy like Him, loving like Him, with an unselfish, undivided heart.

As the prophet David puts it, "Who has the right to climb the mountain of the Lord? Who has the right to stand in his holy place? He whose hands are clean, whose heart is pure, whose soul does not pay homage to worthless things..." (Ps 24:3-4)

But, at the moment of our departure from earthly life, how many of us have become divinely pure, united in every way with God, yearning to love Him only, and devoted to Him above all?

How many of us have lived in such harmony with His grace that we are ready to be immediately received into the intimate embrace of the all-holy God and share in His Divinity?

What a genuine comfort it is, then, to be assured by the Church that our loving Father, in his incomprehensible mercy, has provided us with the answer to our every need, especially our ultimate one: when we pass from this life to eternity.

Catholics generally tend to view purgatory through the "eye glasses" of justice, which they interpret in its negative sense as punishment for wrongdoing. But the positive aspect of justice according to God's holy word, is that God is faithful to His promises.

More than anything else, we must see purgatory not as the ante-chamber of hell (suggesting a similar type of suffering), but as the entrance hall of heaven, where God is All-in-all, where He reigns completely, is fully acknowledged as the Source and Goal of all creation, and is known as Love, to the degree that each particular person is gifted to be able to know Him.

To know someone, in the language of the Bible, means to enter into intimate contact with that person, human or divine.

Though it is possible for us to enter into an intimate relationship with God even while in this world, our "knowing" of Him is incomplete and unclear, for our inordinate self-love holds back certain areas of our being from God's complete rule.

To whatever extent we become conscious, during our earthly lives, of our inability to rid ourselves completely of whatever blocks us from intimate union with God, we feel pain. We experience a taste of "purgatory", recognizing how perfectly God loves us and how imperfectly we love Him in return.

In purgatory this pain is heightened, lifted, in a sense, to infinity by the Divine Light that reveals to us at once the infinity and purity of Love, and the full extent of our inordinate self-love.

We are filled with a longing for God, whom we now, more than ever before, realize is the only One who can bring us to the fullness of joy. And we suffer the unimaginable pain of separation from the object of our longing, knowing that it is a separation caused by our own self-centeredness.

But, though this is a very real and intense form of suffering, it yet carries with it a character of "sweetness and hope," which we can call purgatorial joy!

This joy of souls in purgatory is the result of their having trustingly handed themselves over to God and accepted the purification that arises from their love and longing as their misery truly meets His mercy.

Purgatory is our meeting with Christ, who loves us, and our loving acceptance of His pardoning love. It is our passage to holiness. It is not yet heaven, but it is a definite way to it, since the love of God underlies the purifying suffering souls.

The souls in purgatory already definitely belong to God, and nothing can separate them from Him. In this new state Satan can have absolutely no influence upon them. Their love for God keeps maturing, not only in atoning suffering and longing, but in peace and silence as well.

By God's mercy, our sacrifices and spiritual efforts, united to Christ's own sacrifice of love for us and applied on behalf of the departed, lend themselves to the "maturing process" of those souls. By receiving the effects of our love, they themselves grow in it, becoming cleansed in its fire of those things that held them unfit for immediate union with God when they crossed the eternal frontier by death.

Our loving deeds, words and prayers, offered for the Holy Souls, are capable of reducing their pain or even of removing it altogether as they progress in nearness to God. That is why the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the greatest help we can give Holy Souls. For the Eucharist is the Sacrifice of Calvary- the greatest act of selfless love- made present here and now. By participation in it, we are empowered to apply it to the departed souls who can no longer help themselves.

For, in all truth, our every act of true love, whatever it may be, is such only because of its union with Christ's supreme act of love on our behalf, which He thus made our own, enabling us to keep offering it up through the Holy Spirit with Him to His Father's glory.

The Saints have understood this well throughout the history of the Church. There seems to be not a single chosen soul upon whom the Lord has not impressed His desire that every possible spiritual help be given to souls of the departed.

This is true of the newly beatified Faustina Kowalska as it was of the Venerable Founder of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, Fr. Stanislaus of Jesus-Mary Papczynski, who placed assistance to souls in purgatory second among the three aims of his order. His conviction was:

"To beg God earnestly for the release of Souls who find themselves in expiatory flames or to come to their help by pious alms as well as by various other means, is to exercise the highest charity."

Together let us exercise this act of mercy so dear to God, so that all the departed, who for whatever reason were not ready for immediate union with Him, may by our prayerful love through Communion of Saints, more quickly enter the full joy of the Blessed.

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have sure hope and the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled or fade away, because it is being kept for you in the heavens. 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 that gold, which is corruptible even though it bears testing by fire- and, then you will have praise and glory and honor.

You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described, because you believe; you are sure of the end to which your faith looks forward, that is the salvation of your souls. (1 Pt. 1:3-9)

St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do you, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

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