By DON FIER
The goal that every human being yearns to attain, knowingly or unknowingly, is the state of supreme and definitive happiness that can only see its fulfillment in the beatific vision. The joy that will be ours if we die in the state of sanctifying grace — either immediately after death or following a period of purification — is beyond all imagining and indescribable in human terms.
“Gathered around Jesus and Mary, the angels and the saints,” those blessed souls who achieve the ultimate end for which man was created “form the Church of heaven, where they will see God ‘face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12). They live in [an everlasting] communion of love with the Most Blessed Trinity” (Compendium of the Catholic Church, n. 209).
“Unequivocally,” says Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, “the essential object of heavenly happiness is God. He is the foundation and fulfillment of the joy of the blessed, in whom their souls find perfect rest” (The Catholic Catechism [TCC], p. 262). This corresponds beautifully with St. Augustine’s often-quoted affirmation: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions, book 1, chapter 1).
However, as we saw last week, even though each citizen of Heaven beholds and enjoys the one triune God and is perfectly happy, the degree and depth of happiness depend on the merits with which each person enters Heaven.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) next takes up a topic that is alluded to above, the temporary state or condition of those whose entrance into Heaven is delayed due to the need for purification. On the one hand, “all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation” (CCC, n. 1030). On the other hand, because nothing impure can enter Heaven (cf. Rev. 21:27), they are consigned to spend time in Purgatory to satisfy the demands of God’s justice.
Although the suffering of the Poor Souls is “entirely different from the punishment of the damned . . . the tradition of the Church . . . speaks of a cleansing fire” (CCC, n. 1031) that must be endured in order for them “to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (CCC, n. 1030).
The Church’s doctrine on Purgatory is closely related to her teaching on the communion of saints. As we saw in our prior examination of article 9 of the Creed (see volume 148, nn. 6-7; February 19 and 26, 2015), the Mystical Body of Christ consists of the Church Militant on Earth, the Church Suffering in Purgatory, and the Church Triumphant in Heaven.
The Poor Souls in Purgatory, assured of reaching Heaven, count on the Church Militant to come to their aid so they can more quickly join ranks of the Church Triumphant, for they are unable to help themselves.
In an outstanding work entitled Charity for the Suffering Souls (CSS), Fr. John A. Nageleisen summarizes the Church’s dogmatic teaching on Purgatory, which faithful Catholics are bound to firmly believe, as consisting of two essential elements:
“There is, in the next world, a temporary place for the atonement of venial sins, and temporal punishments of sin, as man is found guilty of on his departure from this world; the faithful can, by prayer and good works, especially by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, assist souls suffering in Purgatory” (p. 5).
Moreover, although the Church has made no official declarations on matters such as the location of Purgatory, the nature and duration of suffering of its inhabitants, etc., “we would be guilty of culpable temerity if we were to reject the generally accepted doctrine of the holy [Church] Fathers and of notable spiritual writers relative to . . . other points concerning Purgatory” (ibid., p. 6).
Let us first consider temporal punishment due to sin. In the case of mortal sin, guilt is fully remitted in sacramental Confession. However, forgiveness does not automatically return things to their state prior to when the sin was committed. In its traditional teaching, the Church has used satisfaction of a debt to explain the need for temporal punishment.
Think of a teenage boy who, in a fit of anger, throws something and breaks his mother’s cherished statue. Truly repentant for his regretful action, the young man apologizes and his mother wholeheartedly forgives him and even gives him a warm embrace. However, there is still the matter of the broken statue: It must be replaced or repaired to set things right. Likewise, the debt of temporal punishment due to sin, as required by God’s justice, must be satisfied in this life or the next.
As noted earlier, it is also the teaching of the Church — based both on Sacred Scripture and Tradition — that nothing impure can enter into Heaven. In other words, as expressed by Fr. Hardon, “Anyone less than perfect must first be cleansed before he can be admitted to the vision of God” (TCC, p. 273). Indeed, this corresponds to the admonition of Jesus to His followers that we are called to “be perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
Even among exemplary Christians who depart this world in God’s grace, does it not seem probable that many — perhaps even the vast majority — will be tarnished by weaknesses and imperfections, some of which they are not even aware? Even actions which our clouded intellects perceived as being good, under God’s penetrating gaze, will now be recognized to have been tainted by self-interest. All of these must be cleansed from the soul before it enters Heaven.
St. Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510), an Italian saint and mystic who received many insights on Purgatory during ecstatic prayer, proposes beautiful imagery regarding its purifying fire:
“When gold has been purified up to twenty-four carats, it can no longer be consumed by any fire; not the gold itself but only dross can be burnt away. Thus the divine fire works in the soul: God holds the soul in the fire until its every imperfection is burnt away and it is brought to perfection, as it were, to the purity of twenty-four carats — each soul, however, to its own degree. When the soul has been purified it remains wholly in God, having nothing left of the self in it; its being is entirely in God who has led this cleansed soul to Himself. The soul can suffer no more, for nothing is left in it to be burnt away” (Fire of Love! Understanding Purgatory [FoL], pp. 59-60).
It is only then that the soul is ready to behold God face to face.
Great Joy
The Church teaches that pain suffered in Purgatory is of two types: the pain of loss and the pain of sense. Of the two, it is the common opinion of Church fathers and theologians (and the certain teaching of the Church) that the more intense of the two is the pain of loss.
What do we mean by this? Pain of loss refers to the intense torment of being temporarily deprived of the face to face vision of God.
According to Fr. Hardon it is intense on two counts: “The more something is desired, the more painful its absence, and the faithful departed intensely desire to possess God now that they are freed from temporal cares and no longer held down by the spiritual inertia of the body; they clearly see that their deprivation was personally blameworthy and might have been avoided if only they had prayed and done enough penance during life” (TCC, pp. 278-279).
While the pain of loss is spiritual, the pain of sense concerns sensible pain. Since man is a composite of matter and spirit, body and soul, and in this life we sin through body and soul, it is fitting that we undergo sensible pain in Purgatory.
“Temporary deprivation of God’s vision [pain of loss] is the soul’s punishment in Purgatory for having, on earth, turned away from God, its supreme good,” explains Fr. Nageleisen. “But the soul also sinned by turning to created things and enjoying in their possession a spurious delight and satisfaction. The punishment for this illicit sensual enjoyment is sensible pain” (CSS, p. 46).
There is less clarity among theologians about the nature of sensible pain, but most hold that it relates to corporeal fire — this is also the testimony of many apparitions and private revelations. But how can this be since the soul has left the body behind?
The explanation of St. Thomas Aquinas is that “all bodily sensation is from the soul” (Summa Theologiae App., Q. 2, art. 1). In other words, the soul feels pain as if it were a bodily sensation. With regard to both types of pain, the Angelic Doctor teaches, “The least pain of Purgatory surpasses the greatest pain of this life” (ibid.).
Yet in the midst of intense suffering, the Poor Souls experience great spiritual joy for they are certain of salvation and ultimate union with God. “No happiness can be found worthy to be compared with that of a soul in Purgatory,” says St. Catherine of Genoa, “except that of the saints in Paradise” (FoL, p. 23).
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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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