Purgatory

"Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place?" (Ps. 24:3) "Who can stand when He appears? For he is like a refiner's fire"(Malachi 3:2). The inspired writers of the Old Testament had a great perception of the majesty, the awful holiness of God. They knew that nothing defiled can stand before Him. Yet we know from St. Paul (1 Cor 13:12 )that in heaven the soul has a vision of God, sees Him face to face. That of course is metaphorical language, but yet it conveys awesome truth. A soul has no eyes, nor does God have a face. But it does mean the soul will know God directly. How could that be? When we see someone on this earth, we take into our eyes and brain an image of him. That works well enough, for although any image is finite or limited, so is the person. But what image could make God known? None of course. So the soul must know God without an image. This can be only if God Himself directly joins Himself to that soul, to do what an image would do in seeing others. What then needs to be the absolute purity of a soul, to which He who is like a refiner's fire joins Himself! Surely, God will not join Himself to anything defiled. Yet that is precisely what Luther thought, what they think who claim infallible salvation. Luther claimed (Epistle 501, to Melanchthon): "Even if you sin greatly, believe more greatly." The man may be, and really is, total corruption, according to Luther. But God does not mind that, Luther said. The Holy Spirit could even dwell within total corruption -we are thinking of St. Paul's words (1 Cor 6:19) that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit! Will the Holy Spirit dwell in total corruption? Or will absolute Holiness join Himself to total corruption after death? Most certainly not. Luther thought justification was not a real cleansing - it was just that the merits of Christ, like a white cloak, would be thrown over the sins of the sinner. God would not look under the rug. But the man himself would remain totally corrupt. Therefore it is obvious: there must be some means of purgation after death, if the soul is not fully refined and pure. So there must be a purgatory. Thank heaven there is a purgatory -otherwise, so many could never see God for all eternity. Logically, if one follows out Luther's fancy, a man who goes out and kills several others and then turns the gun on himself should go at once to be joined to the infinite purity of God! Yes, for Luther wrote (Weimar ed. vol 2, p. 371; Letters I, Luther's Works, American ed. vol 48, p. 282: "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly.... No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day."

So, Judas Maccabeus was quite right in having sacrifices offered in the Temple for the souls of those fallen in battle who had sinned by wearing amulets (2 Mac. 12:42-46). But, our Protestant friends will object: that book is not part of inspired Scripture. To which we reply: A prominent Baptist Professor, Gerald Birney Smith, once ( Biblical World 37, 19-29) surveyed every means he could think of to determine which books are inspired and which are not. He found no possible way unless there would be a divinely protected teaching authority to decide. Of course, he denied there was such an authority. He reported that Luther said if a book preaches justification by faith strongly it is inspired. But that cannot be true -- for Luther never proved that was the criterion, and further, he could write such a book, and so could I, and it would not be inspired. Also many books of the Bible do not preach that either). Yet we Catholics do have such a teaching authority, the Catholic Church, as we find from a study of apologetics. That teaching authority has determined that the Books of Maccabees are inspired. Really, no Protestant should quote Scripture at all, for he has no means of knowing which books are inspired - unless of course he wants to accept the authority of the Catholic Church for that! So we hope our Protestant friends will begin to be kind to their departed, and pray for their souls, which in many cases will come before the "refiner's fire". Still further, and more importantly, we hope they will not just think nothing need be done if they commit grave sin merely thinking it is all right will not make it so! And may our Catholics also be kind to the departed, and not virtually canonize them in funeral eulogies, making it seem no prayers for them are needed. St. Augustine, in his Confessions, written ten to fifteen years after the death of his mother, St. Monica, still asked for prayers for her soul! Therefore... . The chief suffering in Purgatory is the temporary loss of God. That is hard for us to picture now - when we so easily do without thinking of Him. But then, there will be distractions from our five senses, which are gone. More important, with death, the lights go on. We mean this: our intelligence has two components: the material brain in our heads; the natural power of the spiritual intellect to know. The power of a spirit to know is wonderfully great. But at present, the two are tied together, so that one does not function without the other. The material brain therefore holds down our present ability to know God. Therefore, even if the material brain in a given person is of highest quality, yet it is a poor thing compared to the power of the spiritual soul to know. But with death, with the connection broken, the natural power of our spirit to know asserts itself. Then we understand the information about God we took across the line with us, even without yet seeing Him directly. Then we will intensely desire Him -- but if the sentence is purgatory, we must do without Him for some period.

Is there fire in purgatory?. The eastern segment of the Catholic Church has no such tradition; the western does, and reports numerous apparitions of souls from purgatory. In any event, it is most important to get our bills paid now, as it were. If we pay them now, we get at the same time an increase in the power of the soul to eventually see God. But paying them in purgatory brings no such increase: it is just paying old bills. The MOST Theological Collection: Purgatory (outline only) 1. How does it feel to die? Before we go to purgatory we die. Now does that feel? The lights do not go off, they go on . Two components of intellect. Spirit intellect more powerful than a genius. Material brain has about 100 billion neurons , no two alike, they make synapses 1000 to 10000 each so that total of synapses is about 100 trillion. A computer would fill Texas. But here, the two are tied together. Then the nexus will be snipped. We get out of change: Aristotle on time. Our contact is the body. But we lose it. Now we are full of change: metabolism, and surrounded by change it. Three kinds of duration. :Purgatory is in aevum: no substantial change, no constant accidental change such as future, present, past sequence. How long as incomplete person? 4. 50 Soul knows God, not yet by vision , but understand the date in the great light, and without distractions. 6. 30 So it intensely wants Him. Will it reach Him? If will is in accord with Him when it leaves, yet, otherwise no--then it will both want intensely and flee from Him - a twisted condition that will never cease. 7. 10 2. It comes before the Judge of Infinite Majesty . It hardly knew that on earth-two poles in our relation. Joe Doaks and God's love. 8. 50 Here are some helps to grasp the lost dimension: a) Arnobius: "To understand thee, we must be silent" b) Dionysius: God is best known by unknowing. c) St. Gregory of Nyssa: The true vision of the One we seek, the true seeing, consists in this: in not seeing. For the One sought is beyond all knowledge. :" d) St. Augustine: "He must not even be called inexpressible, for when we say that word we say something." e) St. Thomas: Such things have been revealed to me that the things I have written and taught seem light to me." Explain all by analogical sense 11. 20 f) Astronomy:

Antares:more than triple diameter of distance earth to sun. Distance is 430 light years. Polaris: More than 600 lt. yrs. Andromeda: 2. 2 million lt. yrs. Quasars: 1 to 14 billion lt. yrs. Archangel flying in space. 16. 30 3. It comes before Infinite Holiness: Ps. 11:7: "God is sadiq and He loves sedaqoth". Great contrast of the gods of Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, who were amoral. 18. 00 If we make a study of OT, Intertestmental literature, NT, Rabbis, and Fathers we find that sin is a debt which Holiness wants to have paid. Sheggagah theme: Abraham going to Egypt, Leviticus 4. 21. 40 Hobah in Aramaic and Hebrew. Our Father. Servant who did not know. 1 Cor 4:4. Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. So we begin to see why there is purgatory for Holiness. 24. 50 Price of Redemption: Problem from 1 Cor 6. 20. Simeon ben Eleazar. 1 Cor 12. If one member suffers... Paul VI: "Every sin brings with it a disturbance of the universal order, which God arranged in His inexpressible wisdom and infinite love... . So it is necessary for the full remission and reparation of sins... not only that friendship with God be restored by a sincere conversion of heart, (LYONNET) and that the offence against His wisdom and goodness be expiated, but also that all the goods, both individual and social, and those that belong to the universal order, lessened or destroyed by sin, be fully reestablished, either through voluntary reparation... or through the suffering of penalties." 29. 00 Sinner takes from one pan what he has no right to. It is out of balance. Even one mortal sin is an infinite imbalance: So, if the Father willed complete reparation or rebalance, only way was to send an Infinite Person, His Son, who could generate an infinite rebalance, He did that. 30. 00 So Luther made a sad mistake, he denied purgatory. He said: The work of Christ is infinite , so we cannot add, need not do anything. But there is a syn Christo theme: Luther's mistake shows here. We are fellow heirs with Christ, "provided that we suffer with Him, so we may also be glorified with Him". Rom 8:17-18:"I judge that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us." Add 2 Cor 4:17:"That which is light and momentary in our sufferings, is working for us, beyond all measure, an eternal weight of glory for us."

32. 20 4. Two works to be done there: (1) In this life we must rebalance, with Christ, for our own sins. If not completely done here, must be done in purgatory. We can say: Thank Heavens there is a purgatory, or we could never reach the Vision of God if we have not completed this before death. (2) To see God face to face requires immense refinement of the ability of the soul to see. Ideally, it should be done in this life. If not fully done: Thank Heavens there is a purgatory. If we do these things in this life, there is a bonus, the increase of ability to see God. If done in next life, no bonus, just paying old bills. 33. 45 5. Kinds of suffering in Purgatory: (1) We said above, that the soul carries with it after death its memory of data. So it knows what God is like. Then there will be no distractions from senses. And the lights go on as we say. So it will intensely want God - but cannot have Him if not ready. This is great suffering. But the soul will flee to the fire, from Infinite Holiness. Cf. Cure of Ars. 35. 45 (2) Is there an added suffering? Western Church believes it, Eastern has been reluctant. Western has private apparitions--which are part of private, not public revelation. Explain the two. They speak of fire. Fire in ordinary sense is rapid oxidation that could not affect a spiritual soul. But it could express the intensity of suffering. Anthropomorphism. 200 stories of appearances with fire. 39. 30 Story of two religious who agreed to offer Mass for the one who died first. The one who did die appeared and asked why so slow. The other said: Your body is still warm in the bed. St. Margaret Mary's report on Blessed Claude de la Columbiere. St. Augustine 10 to 15 years after death of his mother asked for prayers for her. 42. 15 Vision of a soul there fifty years. What could 50 yrs. mean? There is no time there, but there are three kinds of duration. In aevum, there can be as it were steps or stages. If we imagine a graph with two lines on it, higher line stands for aevum, lower for time. We could drop a line from a point in aevum to time, and it could read various numbers of years. 43. 25 6. Joy in purgatory: from certainty of salvation. Compare to martyrs who gladly suffered, yet did suffer. 44. 00 7. They are unable to help selves, for they cannot merit. Time for that is passed. Col. 1. 24 tells us that one can make up for another. So, we can sacrifice and pray for them. They will somehow know of this

and pray for us. Many reports of great favors obtained in this way. If we get a soul into heaven, it will always be grateful- unlike many people in this life. 46. 50 8. Tragic mistake of Lutheranism : He thought he knew what faith meant- did not know. What St. Paul meant. His mistake led to belief in infallible salvation and no purgatory. Ledger with infinity written on it. Epistle 501. Iowa City slaughter Many Fundamentalists are attracted by this belief in infallible salvation. Yet they have nothing at all:just a mistake. The mistake will not forgive a mortal sin if they commit it. Tbey may have a long purgatory if they even get there at all. Some stop prayers for relatives in a few years. Some funeral eulogies are a disservice. 49. 30 9. A long difficult illness before death , endured in full and glad acceptance of the will of God, can eliminate much, perhaps all of purgatory for the individual. Cf. the Rabbinic tractate Semahoth III. 11:" R. Yehudah ben Ilai asserts that the ancient pious men, 'used to be afflicted with intestinal illness for about ten to twenty days before their death, so they might... arrive pure in the hereafter. '" 10. Sabbatine Privilege: There is a report of a vision on March 3, 1322 to Pope John XXII which promised deliverance from Purgatory on the first Saturday after death on three conditions: Wear the Scapular, observe chastity according to one's state in life, recite the Office: the large office for those already bound to it, the Little Office for others. Can be commuted by a priest who has the faculty, often done to a daily Rosary. Later copies of the Bull merely promise some special assistance. 11. Pius XI, Explorata res, Feb. 2, 1923:"... nor would he incur eternal death whom the Most Blessed Virgin assists, especially at his last hour. This view of the Doctors of the Church, in harmony wit the sentiments of the Christian people, and supported by the experience of all times, depends especially on this reason, the fact that the Sorrowful Virgin shared in the work of the redemption with Jesus Christ... ." Purgatory and God's Holiness A lost Horizon appeared before the dazzled eyes of Isaiah the prophet in the inaugural vision which made him a prophet. He saw the seraphim before the Throne incessantly crying "Holy, Holy, Holy." This vision so impressed Isaiah that thereafter in his writings his most usual; term for God was 'Holy'. St. Paul (1Cor:13:12) said we are to see God face to face. God has no face, and the soul has no eyes, but the Divinity could join itself directly to the human soul without even an image in between for no image could represent Him as He is.

St. Paul also told the Romans in 8:17 that we are "fellow heirs with Christ provided that we suffer with Him so we also may be glorified with Him". Elsewhere in Romans as well as in Colossians and Ephesians, filled in on his picture of members of Christ who need to be like him in all things, especially in suffering, to restore the damage to the order of holiness wrought by sin. When a soul comes before God, even when it perceives Him only dimly, it knows that He is "the refiner's fire". Who can stand when He appears? Therefore, if it sees itself as lacking anything it gladly goes to be refined by the fire. Saying "thanks to the holiness-goodness of the Father who has provided this means of becoming able to join ourselves to Him."