By JOHN YOUNG
“I’ll be satisfied if I get to Purgatory.” I recently heard that statement from a Catholic, and I think that mindset is probably quite widespread. It may be said in a thoughtless way, or may even be a sign of humility, confessing that one is far from the holiness one should have. But if the person really means it this shows a very poor appreciation of what we should aim for in the spiritual life.
One thing that this attitude overlooks is the seriousness of the suffering in Purgatory. It is true that the soul there will fully accept the suffering, but it is also true that the suffering is intense, and should not be lightly dismissed as though it were a mere inconvenience to be endured after death before we can reach Heaven. Such dismissal trivializes the reality of Purgatory.
But there are more noble reasons for rejecting this outlook. For one thing, a person who seriously thinks that simply getting into Purgatory is good enough surely has a very poor understanding of the seriousness of sin, even of venial sin. Every sin is an offense against the infinite God, the God who loves us and has given us all the blessings we possess.
The person who goes to Purgatory has not done all that he should have to avoid sin: If he had he would go straight to Heaven, because Purgatory is a punishment for sins we could have avoided.
This complacent attitude also shows a poor awareness of what our Lord Jesus Christ underwent to make reparation for our sins when He endured the terrible sufferings of His Passion. Even a rather weak awareness of this should surely be enough to make us determined not to sin, and therefore to aim for Heaven, and not be satisfied with Purgatory.
Another consideration is the efficaciousness of our prayers. The holier we are the more effective our prayers will be — and surely the world needs the best prayers it can get! That applies not only in this world, but also to the prayers offered to God by the souls in Heaven: The holier the soul the more efficacious the prayers of that soul.
Also overlooked by this attitude of “I’ll be satisfied provided I get to Purgatory” is the fact that the better we become during our period on earth, the greater will be our happiness for all eternity in Heaven. This means that the holier we are the greater will be our Vision of God, and consequently the happiness we will experience in that Vision will be greater than if we had a lesser place in Heaven.
And that is no small matter! While everyone in Heaven will be fully satisfied, some will have a greater capacity than others, depending on the degree of grace in the soul at death. Those with more grace will have the Beatific Vision more deeply than those with less grace, and consequently will love God more intensely than those with less grace.
So to say that we will be satisfied merely to get to Purgatory is to imply that a more profound vision of God and love of Him do not matter much. Of course, that is not intended by the person who has this mindset, but it is implicit in his mindset.
So if one tends to have the attitude, “Even the lowest place in Heaven will do,” this shows a very poor understanding of the greatness of Heaven, and of the need to aspire to the holiness God expects of us.
But the most important consideration of all concerns the fact that we glorify God by our holiness, giving Him greater glory if we have greater holiness. The first of the two great Commandments is to love God above all things, and with all our powers (Matt. 22:37, 38).
This implies that we must aim for the greatest holiness attainable by us, and not be satisfied with a lesser degree, one that will require that we make reparation in Purgatory before reaching Heaven.
A major obstacle to appreciating the call to holiness incumbent on all of us is the materialism surrounding us on all sides. It is very hard not to be influenced by this, and therefore to fail to appreciate the grandeur of the destiny to which we are called.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2028, quotes these words of the Second Vatican Council: “All Christians…are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” The Catechism then quotes the paradoxical words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: “Christian perfection has but one limit, that of having none.”
This means that we are all called to be saints: that is, to be free from all sin and to practice all the virtues. If we fail to attain this state before death, this means that we have not reached the perfection God wants from us.
That applies at any period in history, but with a particular urgency in our own day because of the great evils in the world at present, and which are becoming rapidly worse, particularly in the Western world.
The closer we are to God the more effective we will be in combating the sin in the world, both by our actions and our prayers. To fall short of the holiness God wants from us implies falling short also of the good we should be doing.
In the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen: Ten just men could have saved a city in the days of Abraham, and ten just saints can save a nation today.
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(John Young is a graduate of the Aquinas Academy in Sydney, Australia, and has taught philosophy in four seminaries. His book The Scope of Philosophy was published by Gracewing Publishers in England in 2010. He has been a frequent contributor to The Wanderer on theological issues since 1977.)
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