Meditation Thirty-two, Second Week of October 2003

I Believe in Life Everlasting (2)

Purgatory is the Purification of the Soul

Begin with prayer to the Holy Spirit

Readings: 2 Macc 12:46; Matt 12: 31-32

The Jews and early Christians prayed for the souls of the dead that they would come into the fullness of eternal life. In other words, they hoped that their sins would be forgiven in the world to come, as Our Lord had indicated when speaking about the sin against the Holy Spirit. Both Catholic and Orthodox Christians have always prayed for the dead on their journey of purification. The name Purgatory, which means purification, came to be applied to this stage of our journey toward God in medieval times, although the earliest Christian writers and Church Fathers wrote of this reality and the need to pray for the dead. The Church's teaching on the cleansing of Purgatory has the fullest authority of the Council of Florence (1439) and the Council of Trent (1563). We also have the witness of the saints, who considered it a great act of charity to pray for the dead, that we might bring them "some consolation", as St. John Chrysostom said. Unfortunately, artists and poets like Dante have dramatized the purifying sufferings of Purgatory and made it sound like another hell, rather than a passage to heaven. The Council of Trent issued a condemnation of such horror stories. The Holy Souls (the proper description of these travelers to heaven) are in a state of perfect love of God. They joyfully accept His will and have achieved a level of peace beyond the greatest saints who would be still alive in this world. Much of the Church's popular teaching on Purgatory comes from the revelation of our foundress of the Oratory, St. Catherine of Genoa. Oratorians should be familiar with her teaching and should encourage others to pray for the dead. They should also prepare for their own journey by purifying their spiritual lives, cooperating as best they can with Christ's saving grace, and doing penance to reduce the punishment for sin. Christ has paid the total price for our salvation, but in the parables and especially in the teaching about bad feelings toward others, He indicates that we must do our own part. (Luke 12: 57-58)

Good reading on Purgatory: Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030 - 1032; Catherine of Genoa, edited by Hughes and Groeschel (Paulist Press); The Dream of Gerontius by Cardinal Newman (Alba House).

Quotation for Meditation

As she dwelt on this love, the condition of the souls of the faithful in Purgatory, where they are cleansed of the remaining rust and stain of sin, became clear to her. She rejoiced in her union with God in this loving Purgatory, and so did the souls in Purgatory, she realized, who have no choice but to be there, and this because of God's just decree. These souls cannot think, "I am here, and justly so because of my sins," or "I wish I had never committed such sins for now I would be in paradise," or "That person there is leaving before me," or "I will leave before that other one." They cannot remember the good and evil in their past nor that of others. Such is their joy in God's will, in His pleasure, that they have no concern for themselves but dwell only on their joy in God's ordinance, in having Him do what He will. They see only the goodness of God, His mercy toward men. Should they be aware of other good or evil, theirs would not be perfect charity. They do not see that their suffering is due to their sins, for that awareness would be a want of perfection, and in Purgatory souls cannot sin. Only once do the souls understand the reason for their Purgatory: the moment in which they leave this life. After that moment, that knowledge disappears. Immersed in charity, incapable of deviating from it, they can only will or desire pure love. There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared to the joy of the souls in Purgatory. This joy increases day by day because of the way in which the love of God corresponds to that of the soul, since the impediment to that love is worn away daily. This impediment is the rust of sin…. As for paradise, God has placed no doors there. Whoever wishes to enter, does so. All-merciful God stands there with His arms open, waiting to receive us into His glory. I also see, however, that the divine essence is so pure and light-filled - much more than we can imagine - that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand hells than appear thus before the divine presence. Tongue cannot express nor heart understand the full meaning of Purgatory, which the soul willingly accepts as a mercy, the realization that that suffering is of no importance compared to the removal of the impediment of sin. The greatest suffering of the souls in Purgatory, it seems to me, is their awareness that something in them displeases God, that they have deliberately gone against His great goodness. . . . All that I have said is as nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the Soul; for when God sees the Soul pure as it was in it origins, He tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to Himself with a fiery love that by itself could annihilate the immortal soul. In so acting, God so transforms the soul in Him that it knows nothing other than God; and He continues to draw it up into His fiery love until He restores it to that pure state from which it first issued. As it is being drawn upwards, the soul feels itself melting in the fire of that love of its sweet God, for He will not cease until He has brought the soul to its perfection. That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in Purgatory. . . And I see rays of lightning darting from that divine love to the creature, so intense and fiery as to annihilate not the body alone but, were it possible, the soul. These rays purify and then annihilate. The soul becomes like gold that becomes purer as it is fired, all dross being cast out. Catherine of Genoa (Paulist Press 71-72; 78-79.)

Quiet Time and Then Discussion

Questions for Meditation

1. Do I seriously pray for the Holy Souls - especially those whom I love?

2. Do I make an effort to have Masses offered for them and for those who have no one to pray for them?

3. Do I think of my own journey after death?

Prayer

Perfect Peace

(from the ancient Coptic Liturgy)

To these, O Lord, and to all those of whom we make remembrance, and to those also of whom each one thinks in his own heart, give rest in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Give them refreshment in the smiling fields of the Paradise of peace where there is neither sorrow nor pain. Grant to them the good things Thou hast promised, which eye has not seen nor ear heard. They have indeed sinned through ignorance and forgetfulness, for they were but men, living in this world and weighed down by the burden of a fleshly nature. O Thou who art a God of goodness and the friend of man, deign to pardon them, for there is no man on earth, even if his life were but of one day, who is not stained with sin.

Praying In The Presence Of Our Lord For The Holy Souls by Susan Tassone (Our Sunday Visitor)