Purgatory

Question

Comments

Do You Reject the Concept of Purgatory?

Note: "Purgatory is the state in which those suffer for a time who die guilty of venial sins or without having satisfied for the punishment due to their sins." (Baltimore Catechism) The souls in purgatory - called 'Holy Souls' - suffer dreadfully for their sins, but they are assured of eventually reaching heaven. It is believed that most of the souls that are saved must pass through purgatory.

Consider:

* If there is no purgatory, how can it be said that some sins may be forgiven in the next age (see Mt. 12:32)?

* If there is no purgatory, why does Scripture speak of not being released until all debts are paid (see Mt. 5:26, Lk. 12:59)?

* If there is no purgatory, how can it be said that persons "will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor. 3:15)? Do you mean to suggest that there is fire in heaven?!

* How do you suppose that "the wrongdoer will receive recompense for the wrong he committed, and there is no partiality" (Col. 3:25) if there is no purgatory?

* How do you suppose there can be prayers for the dead (see 2 Macc. 12:39-46, 2 Tm. 1:16-18) if the dead cannot be helped by prayers ("those in heaven do not need prayers and those in hell cannot be helped by prayers")? Note that Scripture says to "withhold not your kindness from the dead" (Sirach 7:33) and Old Testament Jews (not to mention today's Jews) are known to pray for the dead. Why pray for them if they cannot be helped by prayers?

* If one must have a sufficient degree of holiness to see God (see Heb. 12:14), how do you imagine that those who die short of this holiness, but not deserving of hell, become worthy to see God if there is no purification of purgatory?

* How can you deny a temporary state distinct from heaven and hell when Scripture speaks of Christ preaching to the spirits in prison (see 1 Pt. 3:18-20)?

* How can you assert that sin can go unpunished considering that Scripture says that sin does not go unpunished (e.g. Sirach 7:8, Wisdom 1:8)?

* How can it be that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil" (2 Cor. 5:10), if those who have committed evil - but not sufficient evil to warrant hell - are immediately rewarded with heaven? Is it not clear that departed souls not deserving of hell, and also not yet worthy of heaven, would require an interim destination?

* Do you believe that there can be no punishment left after sin is forgiven? Then why did King David suffer God's punishment even after God forgave him (2 Sam. 12:13-14)? If someone intentionally broke your window, do you not see how it is possible to both forgive him and to require him to make restitution? In fact, would there be any justice if restitution wasn't required for those who committed crime?

* If you injured someone, wouldn't it only be natural to want to "make it up" to them, even if they had already forgiven you? Can you not imagine persons who truly love God welcoming the chance to atone for their sins in purgatory - despite the great suffering?

* Would you attend a fancy wedding "dirty and in picnic clothing"? Wouldn't you feel out of place? Why is it you wouldn't feel out of place entering heaven without purification? Wouldn't you welcome the opportunity to "wash yourself and dress appropriately" before entering, even if suffering was involved?

* If your body was sick, would you not consider taking unpleasant treatment in order to heal it? How can you not see that it may also take something unpleasant to heal the soul?

* Do you object to the concept of purgatory because you believe the term "purgatory" is a "recent invention" of the Catholic Church? If so, you should know that the concept of purgatory has always been held. The term, however, was coined later. The same may be said for the term "Trinity", but you don't reject the concept of the Trinity simply because the word was coined later, do you? Do you not see that sometimes it is necessary to coin a word?

* Do you reject purgatory because the term "purgatory" is not in the Bible? Did you know that the term "Bible" is also not in the Bible? Or the term "Trinity"? 

* Doesn't common sense tell you there must be a purgatory? God is just and surely not all those who will be saved are deserving of immediate heaven!

Also See Indulgences / Prayers for the Dead

Closing Quotations...

"From the very beginning the Church has always prayed for the dead, as did even the Synagogue before her (2 Mach. xii. 46)" (Liturgical Year)

Q: "How does God punish venial sin?" A: "He punishes it in this life by all kinds of temporal evils, and after death by the torments of purgatory." (Catechism of St. John Neumann)

"Not all who suffer temporal punishment after death come in for the everlasting punishment which is to be after judgment. To some, what is not remitted in this world is remitted in the world to come." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, 5th century A.D.)

"The punishment of purgatory is not intended chiefly to torment but to cleanse: wherefore it should be inflicted by fire alone which is above all possessed of cleansing power." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"'He shall be saved, but as if by fire.' And because it is said that he shall be saved, little is thought of that fire. Yet plainly, though we be saved by fire, that fire will be more severe than anything a man can suffer in this life." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, 5th century A.D.)

"When he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil." (St. Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century A.D.)

"If anyone shall say that after the reception of the grace of justification, to every penitent sinner the guilt is so remitted and the penalty of eternal punishment so blotted out that no penalty of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in the world to come in purgatory before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened: let him be anathema." (Council of Trent)

"That there should be some such fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they have loved the good things that perish, through a certain purgatorial fire." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 421 A.D.)

"For if anyone knows that any of these sins dominates him, if he does not do penance worthily and for a long time, if such time is given him, and if he does not give abundant alms and abstain from those same sins, he cannot be purged in the transitory fire of which the Apostle spoke, but the eternal flames will torture him without any remedy." (St. Caesar of Arles, c. 540 A.D.)

"It is impossible for evil to be pure and without the admixture of good, just as the supreme good is without any admixture of evil. Consequently those who are to be conveyed to beatitude which is a supreme good must be cleansed of all evil. Wherefore there must needs be a place where such persons are cleansed if they go hence without being perfectly clean." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"Gold which as been purified to a certain point ceases to suffer any diminution from the action of the fire, however great it be; for the fire does not destroy gold, but only the dross that it may chance to have. In like manner, the divine fire acts on souls: God holds them in the furnace until every defect has been burnt away and He has brought them each in his own degree to a certain standard of perfection. Thus purified, they shall rest in God without any alloy of self, they become impassible because there is nothing left to be consumed." (St. Catherine of Genoa)

"I see that as far as God is concerned, paradise has no gates, but he who will may enter. For God is all mercy, and his open arms are ever extended to receive us into his glory. But I see that the divine essence is so pure - purer than the imagination can conceive - that the soul, finding in itself the slightest imperfection, would rather cast itself into a thousand hells than appear, so stained, in the presence of the divine majesty. Knowing then, that purgatory was intended for her cleaning, she throws herself therein, and finds there that great mercy, the removal of her stains." (St. Catherine of Genoa)

"I believe that no happiness can be compared with that of a soul in purgatory, except that of the saints in paradise. And this happiness increases in proportion as the rust of sin is consumed away by the fire, enabling the soul to reflect, more and more clearly, the rays of the true sun, which is God. The suffering, however, does not diminish. On the contrary, it is love kept back from its object which causes the pain; and consequently the suffering is greater according as God made the soul capable of a greater perfection of love." (St. Catharine of Genoa)

"For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones but also wood and hay and stubble [1 Cor. 3:12], what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God...[?] It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials... But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built... It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions, and then returns the reward of our good works." [Origen ("the greatest scholar of Christian antiquity" - although he would eventually be excommunicated and be regarded as a heretic), 3rd century A.D.]

"The soul in purgatory, separated from the body which weighted her down and distracted her by a thousand vain preoccupations, is now entirely absorbed by the one desire of becoming at length perfectly pleasing to God. Towards this end her whole energy is directed; and so too is the force of the torments for whose violence she is so grateful. Purgatory is a crucible where the dross of sin is burnt away, until every debt is cancelled. When its flames have effaced every stain and every wrinkle that marred the soul's beauty, then she flees away to her Spouse, truly a blessed one and sure of offering no obstacle to the complacent love of her Lord. Yet to what a sad length her exile is prolonged! True, she is united by charity to the inhabitants of heaven: but the fire which torments her is of the same nature as that of hell" (Liturgical Year) 

"Everyone is presented in judgment just as he is when he departs this life. But nevertheless, it must be believed that there is, for the sake of certain lesser faults, a purgatorial fire...in view of the fact that Truth does say that if anyone speak blasphemy against the Holy Spirit it will be forgiven to him neither in this world nor in that to come. In this statement we are given to understand that some faults can be forgiven in this world and some in the world to come. For if something is denied to one in particular, the intellect logically infers that it is granted for some others. But, as I said before, this must be believed to be a possible disposition for small and lesser sins." (Pope St. Gregory I the Great, 6th century A.D.) 

"It is said (2 Machabees 12:45): 'It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.' Now there is no need to pray for the dead who are in heaven, for they are in no need; nor again for those who are in hell, because they cannot be loosed from sins. Therefore after this life, there are some not yet loosed from sins, who can be loosed therefrom; and the like have charity, without which sins cannot be loosed, for 'charity covereth all sins' (Proverbs 10:12). Hence they will not be consigned to everlasting death, since 'he that liveth and believeth in Me, shall not die for ever' (John 11:26): nor will they obtain glory without being cleansed, because nothing unclean shall obtain it, as stated in the last chapter of the Apocalypse (Apocalypse 22:14). Therefore some kind of cleansing remains after this life." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"[I]t is sufficiently clear that there is a Purgatory after this life. For if the debt of punishment is not paid in full after the stain of sin has been washed away by contrition, nor again are venial sins always removed when mortal sins are remitted, and if justice demands that sin be set in order by due punishment, it follows that one who after contrition for his fault and after being absolved, dies before making due satisfaction, is punished after this life. Wherefore those who deny Purgatory speak against the justice of God: for which reason such a statement is erroneous and contrary to faith. Hence Gregory of Nyssa, after the words quoted above ['If one who loves and believes in Christ,' has failed to wash away his sins in this life, 'he is set free after death by the fire of Purgatory.'], adds: 'This we preach, holding to the teaching of truth, and this is our belief; this the universal Church holds, by praying for the dead that they may be loosed from sins.' This cannot be understood except as referring to Purgatory: and whosoever resists the authority of the Church, incurs the note of heresy." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"Finally, since Truth in the Gospel asserts that 'if anyone shall utter blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, neither in this life nor in the future will it be forgiven him' [cf. Matt. 12:32], by this it is granted that certain sins of the present be understood which, however, are forgiven in the future life, and since the Apostle says that 'fire will test the work of each one, of what kind it is,' and ' if any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire' [1 Cor 3:13,15], and since these same Greeks truly and undoubtedly are said to believe and to affirm that the souls of those who after a penance has been received yet not performed, or who, without mortal sin yet die with venial and slight sin, can be cleansed after death and can be helped by the suffrages of the Church, we, since they say a place of purgation of this kind has not been indicated to them with a certain and proper name by their teachers, we indeed, calling it purgatory according to the traditions and authority of the Holy Fathers, wish that in the future it be called by that name in their area. For in that transitory fire certain sins, though not...capital, which before have not been remitted through penance but were small and minor sins, are cleansed, and these weigh heavily even after death" (Pope Innocent IV, 1254 A.D.)