By Don Fier
Part 2
The teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on Purgatory, which we began to examine last week, is a dogma of our faith that is too much forgotten by many of the faithful. Yet it is quite probable that Purgatory will be the transitory state for the vast majority of souls who arrive at the moment of death in the state of sanctifying grace.
The early 17th-century bishop of Geneva and doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, who is so renowned for his magnificent writings on the spiritual life, once lamented, “Alas! We do not sufficiently remember our dear departed; their memory seems to perish with the sound of the funeral bells.” He was, of course, referring to remembrance of the Poor Souls in Purgatory.
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines Purgatory as “the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven” (n. 210).
The soul who attains Purgatory, affirms Mother Mary of St. Austin in a meticulously researched theological work entitled The Divine Crucible of Purgatory (DCP), “is impeccable because at the moment of death its will was fixed in God” (p. 11). In other words, the soul is no longer capable of sinning. At the same time, however, it is no longer possible for the departed soul to merit or do anything to shorten its period of purification. It is the duty of the Church Militant on Earth to come to its aid.
Temporal punishment due to sin, if not taken care of in this life, must be expiated in “the cleansing fire” of Purgatory. Likewise, all latent imperfections that are deeply rooted in the soul must be removed, for God’s presence is so pure and holy that “nothing unclean shall enter it” (Rev. 21:27). Lest one become complacent in thinking himself free of all imperfections and prepared for the beatific vision immediately upon death, consider the following reality:
“If we show outward kindness to a person we dislike, this is virtue; but if the dislike remains, it is a latent imperfection, a source of evil. We must go further and ask Our Lord to wipe out the very shadow of this dislike, and replace it by a real affection” (DCP, p. 74).
Mother Mary of St. Austin goes on to explain that the same applies to temptations toward pride, vanity, jealousy, self-indulgence, and so on. To suppress these temptations is meritorious, but before a soul has reached the level of perfection necessary to enjoy the face-to-face vision of God, it must go deeper and purge their very source: “Weeds must be uprooted, not pruned” (ibid.). If this degree of purification has not been accomplished on Earth, it will occur in Purgatory.
Another powerful reminder of the seriousness of the doctrine on Purgatory comes directly from Our Lady of Fatima. During Mary’s initial appearance to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal on May 13, 1917, Lucia dos Santos, the oldest of the three seers, asked about her own eternal destiny and that of her two younger companions, now-Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
After our Lady assured Lucia that the three of them would go to Heaven, Lucia asked about two other friends who had recently died. Of the first, 16-year-old Maria das Neves, our Lady responded, “Yes, she is in Heaven.” Regarding the second, an 18-year-old girl named Amelia, Mary responded, “She will be in Purgatory until the end of the world” (Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary, p. 58). Should not the fate of a simple shepherd girl who lived at a time and in an environment without all the temptations we face in today’s world be a warning to us?
Another poignant reminder comes from the great doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430). As recorded in his Confessions, the saint relates with touching emotion the final deathbed request of his mother St. Monica: “Lay this body anywhere; let not the care for that any way disquiet you: this only I request, that you would remember me at the Lord’s altar, wherever you be” (book IX, chapter 11).
It was a request St. Augustine complied with for many years thereafter. If he and his long-suffering and saintly mother were so convinced of the reality of Purgatory and the efficacy of suffrages for the deceased, should it not be likewise for us?
Can such a degree of perfection be attained on Earth so that one can avoid Purgatory? We know that baptized babies who die before attaining the age of reason — and thus with no stain of sin on their souls — go straight to Heaven. Likewise, martyrs who have shed their blood and died for Christ leave this life with a degree of perfect love of God so as to avoid Purgatory.
What about the rest of us; is it possible to rid ourselves of all attachments during this life?
Indeed, it is possible, for “one of the functions of Purgatory is to effect that purgation which should have come to pass in this life” (Fr. Martin C. D’Arcy, SJ, Death and Life, p. 148). In undergoing total purification on this side of death, one is able to gain merit; in Purgatory, growing in merit is no longer possible.
Two great Carmelite saints and mystics, Saints John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, wrote much about what is required of those souls who generously dispose themselves to endure purification before death, which includes “passive purification, both of sense and of spirit” (Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, p. 32).
In his Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross speaks of what God gratuitously affects in souls who “do their part in purifying and perfecting themselves and thereby merit God’s divine cure” (book I, chapter 3). Why is God’s divine cure necessary?
“No matter how much individuals do through their own efforts, they cannot actively purify themselves enough to be disposed in the least degree for the divine union of the perfection of love. God must take over and purge them in that fire that is dark for them” (ibid.).
But how blessed is the soul who takes up his cross and follows Christ unreservedly, for “the soul that endures it here on earth either does not enter that place [Purgatory], or is detained there for only a short while. It gains more in an hour here on earth by this purgation than it would many there” (ibid., book II, chapter 6).
Purgatory And Scripture
In concluding our consideration of Purgatory, let us briefly address an objection posed by our Protestant brethren regarding the Church’s teaching: It lacks a biblical basis and was invented by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages
While it is true that the word “Purgatory” does not appear in Sacred Scripture, is not the same true for “Trinity” and “Incarnation”? But as has been discussed before in this series, many truths of the faith are not explicitly stated in divine Revelation. They are, however, implicitly present in Sacred Scripture and Tradition for the Church’s magisterial office to develop more fully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In an article entitled “The Doctrine of Purgatory,” Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, states: “The classic text in the Old Testament bearing witness to the belief of the Jewish people in the existence of a state of purgation where souls are cleansed before entering heaven is found in the Book of Maccabees.”
Judas Maccabeus and his army had just completed a successful campaign against the Edomites. In recovering the bodies of his fallen soldiers, Judas found amulets of the idols of Jamnia (forbidden by Jewish law) under the shirt of each. He collected 2,000 drachmas of silver as a sin offering and offered prayers for them in expectation that they would rise again, and therefore “made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Macc. 12:45). Implicit in this action was the belief of an intermediate state of purgation.
In the New Testament, the concept of an after-death cleansing from sin and its consequences is found in such passages as 1 Cor. 3:11-15, Matt. 5:25-26 and 12:31-32, and Luke 12:59. Furthermore, there is the testimony of inscriptions found in the Roman catacombs, ancient liturgies illustrating the custom of prayers for the dead, and the teaching of several early Church fathers. If all this were invented, would there not have been an outcry from the faithful?
The Church more formally taught her doctrine on Purgatory at the First and Second Councils of Lyons (1245 and 1274) and again at the Council of Florence (1438-1443). In response to the Protestant revolt, the Council of Trent issued a special Decree on Purgatory in 1563. This teaching was renewed by the Second Vatican Council in paragraph 51 of Lumen Gentium.
“From the beginning,” the Catechism thus teaches, “the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God” (CCC, n. 1032).
Let all the faithful take this teaching to heart.
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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