Lovely article. After reading this, I no longer fear going to purgatory for purification. I read that souls in Purgatory seek Padre Pio's intercession, longing for his prayers, sacrifices, and suffering to find peace and be released. Let us remember to pray for the poor souls daily, especially those without anyone to pray for them. 🙏
That is one of the nicest things you could possibly say. Of course, we want to go to Heaven, but also know God wants us to be with him and if Purgatory is a necessary step, it is for our good.
Nice article. I think you nail the animating principle of the parable of the wedding garment.
To me, purgatory is an example of the Church's faith illuminating and extending our capacity to reason about Christ's love after we die. We Catholics did not make up purgatory. We understand the Church has three parts: The Church militant (those of us in the fight here on earth), The Church suffering (purgatory), and The Church triumphant (heaven). I found purgatory difficult to understand but the following analogy inspired by Scripture made it easier to grasp. Purgatory is like the rehabilitation of a person who has already been rescued from a fire. Christ is the rescuer. Purgatory is like emergency treatment and rehabilitation after rescue: the person belongs to the rescuer and will live, but must still be healed. Hell is not rehabilitation after rescue; it reflects the person who refuses the hand of the rescuer and remains outside the life Christ offers.
The frightening and deceptive reality is that, during earthly life our intellect and will remain capable of conversion: we can turn from sin. We can experience a change of heart toward God and must do so right to the end. But after death we cannot change our orientation. The will is either fixed in love of God or fixed in a disordered self-love that seeks an unreachable happiness apart from God—as though the self were its own god.
I like Pope Benedict XVI's description of purgatory as a “blessed pain” in which Christ’s love burns away what is false and makes the person fully of God. He says the soul experiences at least three things:
- A profound awareness of God’s goodness and beauty.
- A painful recognition of its remaining imperfection and attachment to sin.
- An intense longing to be completely united with God.
The soul is alive in Christ’s love, yet suffers because it is delayed from possessing the Beloved fully.
Pope Benedict XVI also cites these passages:
- “Each person’s work will be revealed. The Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work is burned up, that person will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire...” ~ 1 Corinthians 3:13–15.
- "Nothing unclean will enter” the heavenly Jerusalem. ~ Revelation 21:27.
Lovely article. After reading this, I no longer fear going to purgatory for purification. I read that souls in Purgatory seek Padre Pio's intercession, longing for his prayers, sacrifices, and suffering to find peace and be released. Let us remember to pray for the poor souls daily, especially those without anyone to pray for them. 🙏
That is one of the nicest things you could possibly say. Of course, we want to go to Heaven, but also know God wants us to be with him and if Purgatory is a necessary step, it is for our good.
Nice article. I think you nail the animating principle of the parable of the wedding garment.
To me, purgatory is an example of the Church's faith illuminating and extending our capacity to reason about Christ's love after we die. We Catholics did not make up purgatory. We understand the Church has three parts: The Church militant (those of us in the fight here on earth), The Church suffering (purgatory), and The Church triumphant (heaven). I found purgatory difficult to understand but the following analogy inspired by Scripture made it easier to grasp. Purgatory is like the rehabilitation of a person who has already been rescued from a fire. Christ is the rescuer. Purgatory is like emergency treatment and rehabilitation after rescue: the person belongs to the rescuer and will live, but must still be healed. Hell is not rehabilitation after rescue; it reflects the person who refuses the hand of the rescuer and remains outside the life Christ offers.
The frightening and deceptive reality is that, during earthly life our intellect and will remain capable of conversion: we can turn from sin. We can experience a change of heart toward God and must do so right to the end. But after death we cannot change our orientation. The will is either fixed in love of God or fixed in a disordered self-love that seeks an unreachable happiness apart from God—as though the self were its own god.
I like Pope Benedict XVI's description of purgatory as a “blessed pain” in which Christ’s love burns away what is false and makes the person fully of God. He says the soul experiences at least three things:
- A profound awareness of God’s goodness and beauty.
- A painful recognition of its remaining imperfection and attachment to sin.
- An intense longing to be completely united with God.
The soul is alive in Christ’s love, yet suffers because it is delayed from possessing the Beloved fully.
Pope Benedict XVI also cites these passages:
- “Each person’s work will be revealed. The Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work is burned up, that person will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire...” ~ 1 Corinthians 3:13–15.
- "Nothing unclean will enter” the heavenly Jerusalem. ~ Revelation 21:27.