We
scrambled him into the car and bolted for the hospital.
The blood, the pain, and the look of deep worry on
his parents’ faces were enough to keep Tim whimpering
all the way to the emergency room. But once we got
there, and my wife handed him to the nurses, his whimpering
spiked into a wail of fright and pain as they laid
his twisting little body on the board and tightly laced
its cloth flaps in place, immobilizing him. Within
moments, the doctor had arrived and began to work on
repairing Tim’s wounded eye.
“Mommmmy!” our
little boy shrieked, red-faced and wide-eyed, as he
writhed within the confines of the papoose board. “Help
me, Mommy! It hurts,” he screamed.
My
wife and I stood by in anguish, helpless to help
him, watching the doctor clean and stitch the wound.
It
hurt us terribly to see him hurting like this, but
there was nothing we could do. We knew we had to
let our son undergo this painful and frightening
procedure;
we were actually doing what was best for him. The
doctor could cure him, but only at the price of
the pain involved
in stitching the wound. (The doctor did a good job.
After the wound healed, there wasn’t even a scar
to show for it.)
That
incident happened many years ago, but the lesson
I learned about pain and love have stayed with
me vividly
since then. My wife and I wanted to stop Tim’s pain
because we loved him, but we also knew that if he underwent
the painful process in the emergency room, he would
be much better off for it. So, out of our love for
him, we had to let him face the pain so that the best
thing for him – healing – could take place. It was
hard, but it was necessary.
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And
this fact is true of purgatory: that healing process
of purification that many must endure before they
enter into heaven. It’s the temporary condition, after death,
where any remaining temporal punishment due to sin
sins that have already been forgiven by God is expiated
and the soul is cleansed from the effects of sin. Before
we delve into the finer details of what this means,
let’s first step back and get a “big picture” look
at what purgatory is (and isn’t).
You
can think of purgatory as a kind of divine emergency
room for souls; the process through which God, the
Divine Physician, removes all traces of venial sins
unrepented of before death, and heals our self-inflicted
wounds of serious sin that we accumulate in this
life. In purgatory, our wounds are healed, the
scars are
erased, and our souls are scrubbed by God’s fiery
love, washed white as snow by the shed Blood of the
Lamb,
made ready to enter into the eternal wedding feast
we call heaven.[1]
Is
Purgatory Biblical?
Now,
it’s one thing for a Catholic to simply explain
what the Church teaches about purgatory, but it’s
another thing to show a Protestant that this doctrine
is in the Bible. For Protestants, purgatory is an
offensive doctrine. They see it as conflicting with
the truth that Christ died “once for all” for our
sins.[2] Arguments
against purgatory range from the “It’s not taught
in the Bible” variety to the “It denigrates the
finished redemptive work of Christ on the Cross,”[3] variety.
For
example, a Protestant might ask you, “If Jesus Christ
died ‘once for all,’ why then do you Catholics think
you need to suffer in purgatory for your sins? Wasn’t
his death sufficient to save you from your sins? The
Bible says it is in passages such as Hebrews 10:14: ‘But
this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his
seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits
until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one
offering he has made perfect forever those who are
being consecrated.’”
This
is a fair question, and to answer it properly,
you must be careful to explain several key issues
that are part of the “bigger picture” of the biblical
doctrine of purgatory. You must also be careful
that you understand (so you can properly explain
to others)
what purgatory is not. Misconceptions about
what the Catholic Church really teaches about purgatory
are often the basis for Protestant objections.
Clear those misconceptions up, and you’re well
on your way to helping a non-Catholic see the truth
of this
biblical doctrine.
Before
we examine what purgatory is and isn’t, let’s
spend a moment considering what St. Paul taught about
purgatory, a “final purification”[4] performed by God on the soul of a departed Christian,
a process that that involves suffering. This is the
most central of all biblical texts, and we will return
to it later in this chapter. For the moment, though,
read and ponder what the Bible says here about what
happens to some souls when they are purified after
death:
“According to the grace of God given to me, like
a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and
another man is building upon it. Let each man take
care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation
can any one lay than that which is laid, which is
Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation
with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each
man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will
disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire,
and the fire will test what sort of work each one
has done. If the work which any man has built on
the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss,
though he himself will be saved, but only as through
fire” (1 Cor. 3:10-15).
This
purification purges away all the dross that clings
to the soul, things that St. Paul describes metaphorically
as flammable materials such as “wood, hay, and straw.” These
things are burned away in this judgment by God. Conversely,
that man’s good works — which St. Paul compares with “gold,
silver, and precious stones” — are refined and
retained.
That’s
the essence of the doctrine of purgatory. Now we
must clarify a few points, starting with clearing
up misconceptions.
What
Purgatory Is Not
As
the Catechism says, “Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the
time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as
to work out his earthly life in keeping with the
divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny.
. . .
“Death
puts an end to human life as the time open to
either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested
in Christ.[5] The New Testament speaks of judgment
primarily in its aspect of the final encounter
with Christ in his second
coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each
will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance
with his works and faith. ” [6]
Second, purgatory is
not a place where the soul works or earns or in any
way does something
to cleanse himself — all purification that takes
place in purgatory is done by God to the soul. Or,
to put it a different way, in purgatory, the soul
remains passive as the saving blood of Jesus Christ
washes away the impurities and temporal effects due
to sin from the soul. This is because those who go
to purgatory are assured of their salvation; there
is nothing for them to do – Christ does it all in
his merciful act of preparing his beloved to enter
into the wedding feast.
Third,
purgatory is not where people end up who are “too
good” to go to hell and “not good enough” to go to
heaven. This is a third common misunderstandings
of this doctrine. There is no such thing as a “middle
ground” when it comes to salvation. As Christ explained
in his teaching about the sheep and the goats in
Matthew 25:31-46, there are only two ultimate options,
heaven and hell. St. Paul emphasizes this when he
said: “[G]od will repay everyone according to his
works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor,
and immortality through perseverance in good works,
but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey
the truth and obey wickedness.”[9]
Since
there are only two ultimate destinies possible for
all human beings, heaven or hell, the issue of purgatory
must be understood as simply a part of the process
for some souls who are destined for heaven. If you
die unrepentant in the state of mortal sin, you will
go to hell. If you die in the state of grace and
friendship with God, you will go to heaven. You may
first need to be purified of any lingering sins or
selfishness, however minor, that would block your
complete union with the all-holy God, but that purification – purgatory – is
simply the temporary prelude to your receiving your
eternal reward.
What
Purgatory Is
The
doctrine of purgatory was part of the deposit of faith,
once for all handed down to the holy ones (Jude 3).
It is part of the Sacred Tradition of the Church, taught
by the councils and Fathers, and it is also discussed
in Scripture. It is a temporary process[11] of purification, performed by and
through the love of God on the soul of one who has
died in the state of grace and is destined for heaven.
Although
the word “purgatory,” which means purification, isn’t
found in the Bible, many non-Catholics are surprised
when they discover that the teaching is clearly there.
Before we consider the new testament information,
we must first look at the main Old Testament passage[12] that
points to the reality of suffering of the departed
being mitigated through prayer and sacrifice.
2
Maccabees 12 contains an episode in which sacrifices
are made in the temple on behalf of dead soldiers
who were punished for a rather minor form of superstition.
The passage concludes with the words: “In doing this
[Judas Maccabeus] acted very well and honorably, taking
account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting
that those who had fallen would rise again, it would
have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.
But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is
laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it
was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement
for the dead, that they might be delivered from their
sin” (2 Macc. 12:43-45).
Unfortunately,
since many Protestants reject 2 Maccabees as not
being part of the Old Testament canon, quoting
this passage
won’t cut much ice with them. You may as well be quoting
from the Yellow Pages. So let’s consider the places
in the New Testament where purgatory is mentioned.
The most explicit of these is by St. Paul in, 1 Corinthians
3. But before we examine that passage, let’s look
at a few other instances.
Lazarus
and the Rich Man
In
Luke 16, Christ mentions a third state after death
not heaven not hell where he discussed the temporary
fates of Lazarus and the Rich Man This is a glimpse
of a third state that exists after death — not heaven
or hell:
“There
was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine
linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And
at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of
sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from
the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and
licked his sores.
"The
poor man died and was carried by the angels to
Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted
up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus
in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham,
have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the
end of his finger in water and cool my tongue;
for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham
said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime
received your good things, and Lazarus in like
manner evil things; but now he is comforted here,
and you are in anguish. And besides all this,
between us and you a great chasm has been fixed,
in order
that those who would pass from here to you may
not be able, and none may cross from there to
us.’
“And
he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to
my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that
he may warn them, lest they also come into this place
of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and
the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No,
father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from
the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If
they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be convinced if some one should rise from
the dead’” (Luke 16:19-31).
Remember
that Abraham and Lazarus were not in hell; nor
were they in heaven. This was because the Lord
had not
yet died on the cross, so the gates of heaven were
still closed. These two men were in a special place
of waiting (what theologians sometimes call the “Limbo
of the Fathers”). This was the place (or state) in
which the souls of the just anxiously awaited Christ’s
redemptive sacrifice on the cross that would enable
them to finally enter into heaven.[13]
Notice
too a striking element of this passage: Christ
tells us that the Rich Man was interceding on behalf
of
his brothers who were still alive. Christ Himself
gives us the evidence of a deceased person interceding
on behalf of the living. Now, this would seem to
indicate that the Rich Man, although in a place
of “fiery
torment,” was not in hell. After all, the damned
are incapable of showing charity, and the Rich
Man was clearly doing so for his brothers. The
Rich Man
may have been in purgatory, since he was praying
for his brothers. This is an act of charity of
which the damned in hell are incapable.
In
Matthew 12:32, the Lord mentions a sin that cannot
be forgiven even “in the world to come,” implying
that there are some sins that will be forgiven
after death (St. Augustine interpreted this passage
this
way, with regard to purgatory, in City of God 21:24:2).
Similarly,
in the teaching about the Unforgiving Servant,
Christ concludes with the fact that the wicked
servant,
even after his debt was canceled by the king, was
thrown into prison for maltreating his fellow servant
and told, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all
that debt because you besought me; and should not
you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had
mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord delivered him
to the jailers, till he should pay all his debt” (Matt.
18:32-34).
Then
Christ adds this chilling warning to us: “So also
my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if
you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matt.
18:35). Clearly, the Lord didn't mean that the
Father would literally lock people in prison in
this life.
Rather, he is referring to what will happen to
those who die in a state that includes the hardness
of
heart to a brother or sister; stored up anger,
grudges that have never been abandoned, unwillingness
to
forgive, etc. All of these kinds of defects in
the soul -- plus others of different types -- will
need
to be eliminated, so that the one who dies with
these defects yet adhering to his soul can be purified
from them and then be able to enter into glory,
the
presence of God Himself.
Echoing
this theme, St. Peter speaks about the souls who
are “in prison,” awaiting their entrance into heaven
(cf. 1 Pet. 3:18-19, 4:6).
The
process of cleansing we Catholics call “purgatory” (from
the Latin word purgare which means “to purify”)
involves pain, but it is necessary for God to make
us pure and clean and whole, ready to meet him
face- to-face in heaven.
The Catechism says: “All
who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still
imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their
eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification,
so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter
the joy of heaven” (CCC 1030, emphasis added). This
refers to the fact about heaven that “Nothing unclean
shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination
or falsehood, but only those who are written in the
Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27).
Why
can nothing unclean enter heaven? The Prophet Habakkuk
says it’s because God is all holy, and He will not
allow anything in heaven with Him to be less than
holy and spotless: “Too pure are your eyes to look
upon evil [O Lord], and the sight of misery you cannot
endure” (Hab. 1:13).
“The
Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification
of the elect, which is entirely different from
the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated
her
doctrine of faith on purgatory especially at the
Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of
the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture,
speaks of a cleansing fire (CCC 1031; cf. 1 Cor.
3:15; 1 Pet. 1:7).
Ironically,
for a doctrine that is so inextricably associated
with Catholicism, the Catholic Church has not said
all that much, “officially,” about purgatory. The
Council of Trent (1535-1548) was the setting for
the Church’s formal definition of the doctrine of
purgatory. Here’s what the Council said: Whereas
the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost,
has, from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition
of the Fathers, taught, in sacred councils, and very
recently in this ecumenical Synod, that there is
a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are
helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally
by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar; the holy
Synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavor
that the sound doctrine concerning Purgatory, transmitted
by the holy Fathers and sacred councils, be believed,
maintained, taught, and every where proclaimed by
the faithful of Christ.” [Session 25, November
4, 1563].
Two
Kinds of Punishment
Some
people get mixed up at this point. They wonder
why there should be a purgatory at all, given that
Christ’s
work on the cross completed his mission of redemption.
After all, Christ Himself said, “It is finished” just
before He died on the cross. There are two issues
at work here, and people often confuse them. The
eternal penalty due to sin is hell, but that is
distinct from the other, inevitable, penalty that
arises when
we sin: the aftereffects that play out across space
and time.
For
example, let’s say a married woman commits the sin
of adultery. The eternal penalty incurred by her
mortal (i.e. “deadly”) sin is the complete eradication
of sanctifying grace from her soul. She renders
herself spiritually dead, just as dead as if she
had put
a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. She has
the promise of forgiveness from Christ if she repents
of her sin, and the Lord will reestablish the life
of sanctifying grace in her soul when she receives
the sacrament of confession.
She
is forgiven, and she is back in a right relationship
with God. The eternal penalty due to her sin (had
she remained unrepentant and died in that state)
would be the eternal death we call hell. But that
penalty has been removed, washed away by the shed
blood of Christ on the Cross (“He was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed” [Isaiah. 53:5]; “But
God shows his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we
are now justified by his blood, much more shall we
be saved by him from the wrath of God” [Rom. 5:8-9]).
However,
the saga of the woman’s adultery isn’t over. There
are the temporal effects due to sin that remain.
Even though she is forgiven and back in the state
of grace, those temporal effects remain. They are
not eliminated by Christ’s death on the cross.
Perhaps
she became pregnant. Perhaps she contracted a sexually-transmitted
disease. Perhaps her marriage was shattered as a
result of her actions. There are many possible side
effects that are due to sin, and any one could happen,
and those consequences are not expunged, even though
the sinner has repented. And this is why purgatory
exists.
God
permits this process of purification precisely
because he wants the souls of his beloved sons
and daughters
to be perfect and clean, free of blemish or stain.
And when we sin, this “wounds” the soul. The wound
may be healed through the sacraments, but a scar
remains. Those scars the temporal effects due to
sin must also be expiated and removed.
The Catechism then
quotes the teaching of Pope St. Gregory the Great
on purgatory: “As for certain lesser faults, we
must believe that, before the Final Judgment there
is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that
whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the
age to come. From this sentence we understand that
certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but
certain others in the age to come” [St. Gregory
the Great, Dialogue 4:39].
Sin’s
eternal and temporal effects – two different things
To
understand more clearly the need for purification
from the temporal punishments due to sin, let’s
rewind back to the beginning of human history,
back to the Garden
of Eden.
When
Adam and Eve committed the “original sin” in the Garden
(cf. Gen. 3:1-7), they disrupted their intimate friendship
with the Lord. When they fell from grace, they lost
their many supernatural gifts of grace and union with
God, and they lost many of their natural gifts, such
as freedom from their passions, control over their
will, and a preternaturally enhanced human knowledge.
Their gift of immortality was taken away. And with
that loss came a series of other “temporal punishments,” consequences
of their sin, that continue, embedded in the human
condition, down to our own day.
Sadly,
we all have a share in these punishments. Earlier,
before the Fall, God had warned Adam and Eve about
the result of sin: “You may freely eat of every tree
of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it you shall die” (Gen. 2:17).
This
truth was echoed by St. Paul when he said, “The wages
of sin are death” (Rom. 6:23). So death came for our
first parents, but not all at once. Spiritually, it’s
true that they died that very day, because their life
of grace and their union with God had vanished: “The
man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of
the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the
Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where
are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of thee in
the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself’ ” (Gen. 3:7-10).
But
we also see that, following on the heels of their
spiritual death came a series of natural consequences
that also
spelled death for humanity and all creation: Speaking
first to the Serpent, God curses him for his wickedness
in tempting Adam and Eve: “Because you have done
this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above
all wild
animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you
shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your seed
and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you
shall
bruise his heel [Gen. 14-15].
Then,
turning to Eve and her husband, he said, “I will
greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in
pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire
shall
be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
And
to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the
voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of
which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed
is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat
of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles
it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the
plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you
shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for
out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust
you shall return” [Gen. 3:16-19].
Adam
and Eve were forgiven of their sin, and the eternal
penalties of that sin, for them and all the rest
of humanity that repents and asks forgiveness,
is eliminated by Christ’s death on the cross.
But the suffering and temporal effects due to
sin sickness,
anguish, death remain (cf. CCC 1008, 1472, 1505).
This
principle of a separate temporal punishment due
to sin is seen throughout the Bible. A striking
example
is the tragic aftermath of King David’s double-
barreled sin of adultery and murder:
The
prophet Nathan said to David, “You are the man.” Thus
says the Lord, the God of Israel, “I anointed you
king over Israel and gave you the house of Israel
and of Judah; and if this were too little, I would
add to you as much more. Why have you despised the
word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?” David
said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And
Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away
your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because
by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the
child that is born to you shall die” (2 Sam. 12:7-14;
cf. Num. 12:1-15, 22:12, 27:12-14).
Restitution
Clearly, the penalty of physical death they incurred
would come gradually. Toil, pain, difficulty, sickness,
death. That was the declining arc of existence
that Adam and Eve had set themselves on when
they disobeyed
God. And those penalties lie squarely in the category
of what we Catholics call the “temporal effects due
to sin.” These are distinct from the “eternal penalty” due
to sin, which is hell, eternal separation from
God.
As
we saw earlier, purgatory has nothing to do with
salvation. Rather, it is part of the preparation
of the saved who are about to enter into the
joys of eternal life. Purgatory is God’s way
of eliminating the temporal effects due to sin,
but it has no
connection with the eternal penalty (hell) merited
by our sin.
Only
Jesus Christ, through His saving death on the
Cross, is capable of expiating and remitting the
eternal
penalties due to our sins. He paid the price
for our sins but even so, there are numerous side
effects of our sins that remain and which
must also be dealt with. For example, the three
most
dire consequences of Adam and Eve’s Original
Sin[14] are sickness, death, and concupiscence
-- a catastrophe you and I must share in since
we are descended from Adam and Eve.[15]
Now, when Christ died on the cross,
He redeemed us from the eternal penalty due to
that sin (as well as all of our personal, actual
sins), but He did not thereby eliminate the temporal effects
that were caused by that sin: primarily sickness
and death. The temporal effects due to sin extend,
sadly, far beyond just physical illness and death.[16] They include the spiritual impurities
and weaknesses that cling to the soul.
The
Case of the Stolen Big Screen
In
the purification we know as purgatory, we undergo
a process of expiation and purification of those
temporal
effects due to sin. God removes the effects of sin
on the soul, and expiation is what we sometimes call “restitution.” It
involves the repayment of a debt that is incurred
by the sin. Consider this analogy.
Let’s
imagine you had figured out a clever way to steal a
very expensive “big screen” television from your local
electronics emporium without getting caught. You steal
the TV, get it home, and immediately begin feeling
remorse over your crime. This step equates with the
sinner whose conscience torments him, prodding him
to repent. Then, you feel so badly about what you’ve
done, you go to the store, find the manager and confess
that you stole the TV (this step equates with the
sinner making a good act of contrition).
The
store manager thinks for a moment and says, “I’ll tell
you what. By law, you are guilty of a felony, regardless
of the fact that you are here confessing to me. I could
call the police and have you arrested. You would be
tried in court and sentenced to a long, unpleasant
prison term as punishment for your theft. You would
forever have a felony on your record. You’d be barred
from getting certain kinds of work, your life would
be ruined as a result of this theft” (this equates
with God’s just punishment that the sinner deserves).
“But,” the
manager smiles. “Since you’ve confessed this crime,
I’m not going to call the police. I’m not going to
have you arrested and tried. There will be no jail
for you. I will treat this as if it had never happened.”
You
are ready to faint with relief. You didn’t deserve
this forgiveness, but you’re ecstatic. You’re going
to be let go without paying the penalty. As you shake
the store manager’s hand gratefully, and turn to leave
the store, he taps you on the shoulder. “Now, I’ll
expect you to bring the TV back to me today.” That’s
restitution the replacement of the stolen item.
Clearly,
even though you’ve avoided the legal penalty your crime
deserved, you still are obligated to return the TV
to the store. If you didn’t, you would in effect be
nullifying the store manager’s kindness. You can’t
keep the TV. And if you had damaged or sold it, you
would be expected obligated as a matter of justice
to pay the sum equal to the value of the TV.
A
Common Objection
“So we are always
of good courage; we
know that while we are at home in the body we are
away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not
by sight. We are of good courage, and we would
rather be away from the body and at home with the
Lord. So whether we are at home or away,
we make it our aim to please Him. For we must
all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so
that each one may receive good or evil, according
to
what he has done in the body” (2 Cor. 5:6-8).
As
you can see, the texts as they stand say nothing
whatsoever that would exclude purgatory. They are
not saying that after death the saved person goes
immediately to heaven. Purgatory is quite compatible
with these passages (when they are quoted correctly,
of course).
The
Early Christians Believed in Purgatory
But
in addition to the weight of biblical evidence for
purgatory, it’s very important that Catholics also
point out that this doctrine was universally believed
and taught in the early Church. Doing so will show
that purgatory, far from being a “Catholic invention” as
most Protestants assume, was believed from the very
beginning by Christians.
The
most explicit extra-biblical evidence for the belief
in the doctrine of purgatory in the ancient Church
is found in its liturgies. Without exception, in
the East and the West, the various Eucharistic
liturgies
contained at least one memento mori, “remembrance
of the dead.”
There
would have been no point in praying for the dead
if it was certain that they were already in heaven,
as
they would have no need of prayers. If they were
in hell, prayer could do them no good. But the
Church
knew then, as she does now, that there is a “middle
state” where some who die in the state of grace and
are assured of their salvation can benefit from our
prayers. And since we here on earth cannot know with
certainty if a given person (aside from canonized
saints and certain Christians such as the Blessed
Virgin Mary,
the Apostles, etc.) is in heaven yet, we pray for
the souls of the faithful departed as a petition
to the
Lord to shorten any time they may have to spend undergoing
what St. Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3:10-17.
This
intermediate state of purification that some souls
pass through on their way to heaven is called purgatory.
Catholic historical theologian, Edward J. Hanna, points
out a significant piece of historical evidence for
the antiquity of the Christian belief in purgatory:
“The
teaching of the Fathers, and the formularies used
in the Liturgy of the Church, found expression in
the early Christian monuments, particularly those
contained in the catacombs. On the tombs of the faithful
were inscribed words of hope, words of petition for
peace and for rest; and as the anniversaries came
round the faithful gathered at the graves of the
departed to make intercession for those who had gone
before. At the bottom this is nothing else than the
faith expressed by the Council of Trent (Session
25, “On Purgatory”), and to this faith the inscriptions
in the catacombs are surely witnesses [The Catholic
Encyclopedia; New York: Robert Appleton Co.,
1911, vol. 12, p. 577].
The
Fathers of the Church were adamant about the
existence of purgatory. Around the year 392, St.
John Chrysostom
wrote about the need for Christians to assist
the souls of the faithful departed through prayers:
“Let
us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were
purified by their father’s sacrifice,[18] why would we doubt
that our offerings for the dead bring them some
consolation? Let us
not hesitate to help those who have died and
to offer our prayers for them.”[19]
St.
Augustine also wrote frequently about purgatory
and the need for offering prayers for the dead.
Besides showing his own and the early Church’s
recognition that 2 Maccabees is part of the Old
Testament canon of inspired Scripture (over against
the Protestant argument that it is not), he summarizes
the early Church’s teaching on purgatory and
prayers for the dead in Christ:
“We
read in the book of Maccabees that the sacrifice
was offered for the dead.[20] But even if it were found nowhere
in the Old Testament writings, the authority
of the universal Church which is clear on this
point
is of no small weight, where in the prayers of
the priest poured forth to the Lord God at His
altar the commendation of the dead has its place.”[21]
Many
of the early Church Fathers , such as St. Augustine,
wrote lengthy treatises on the process of purification
some souls undergo after death and before their
entry into heaven (cf. St. Ambrose, Sermon Twenty on
Psalms, 117; St. Jerome, Commentary on Amos,
100:4; St. Augustine, Commentary on Psalms 37 and On
the Care that Should be Taken for the Dead; St.
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Mistagogic 5:9;
Pope St. Gregory the Great, Dialogue 4, 39;
Origen, Homily Six On Exodus; St. Gregory
of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead (A.D. 382); St.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the
Philippians 3:4-10 (A.D. 398); and Serapion, Prayer
of the Eucharistic Sacrifice 13:1-27 (A.D. 350),
are just a few of the vast number of examples one
can find in the writings of the earliest Christians.
The fact is, the earliest Christians believed in
and taught the biblical doctrine of purgatory. They
were Catholic, and they upheld this important but
often misunderstood and vilified Catholic doctrine
that comes to us from Christ and the Apostles (cf.
1 Cor. 3:10-17).
St.
Augustine often mentioned purgatory and prayers
for the dead in his writings. In one place he said,
“We
read in the book of Maccabees that the sacrifice
was offered for the dead (cf. 2 Macc. 12) But even
if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings,
the authority of the universal Church which is clear
on this point is of no small weight, where in the
prayers of the priest poured forth to the Lord God
at His altar the commendation of the dead has its
place” (On the Care that Should Be Taken for the
Dead 1:3; cf. 15:18).
Writing
at the middle of the fourth century, St. Ambrose
of Milan remarked about the Old Testament’s use of
the “fire” image as the process of purifying one
from evil speech:
“Howbeit,
now must I needs confess the Prophet Isaiah’s confession,
which he makes before declaring the word of the Lord: ‘Woe
is me, my heart is smitten, for I, a man of unclean
lips, and living in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, have seen the Lord of Hosts.’ Now if Isaiah
said ‘Woe is me,’ who looked upon the Lord of Hosts,
what shall I say of myself, who, being ‘a man of
unclean lips,’ am constrained to treat of the divine
generation [i.e. explain the trinitarian relationship
of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to God the
Father]?
"How
shall I break forth into speech of things whereof
I am afraid, when David prays that a watch may be
set over his mouth in the matter of things whereof
he has knowledge? O that to me also one of the Seraphim
would bring the burning coal from the celestial altar,
taking it in the tongs of the two testaments, and
with the fire thereof purge my unclean lips!” (On
the Mysteries, 132).
The
reason Catholics, from the earliest years of the
Church, have always prayed for the dead is because
they have known, having learned it from the Apostles
themselves, that for many, perhaps most, who die
in a state of friendship with God, there is a process
of purification that involves suffering. And prayers
on behalf of our deceased brothers and sisters
in the Lord can help alleviate and even shorten that
suffering.
Feel
the Burn
No
discussion of purgatory would be complete without
mention of the ubiquitous image of fire. The fire
imagery,
so closely linked to the doctrine of purgatory, is
not, as many imagine, a “medieval invention” of a
sadistic Catholic Church, bent on frightening poor
peasants
into repentance.
No.
Throughout Scripture, fire is an image frequently
used to explain God’s wrath and punishment (e.g.
as in the fires of hell, cf. Matt. 18:8-9, 25:41),
but it also
appears as a manifestation of his power and love
and presence (as in the burning bush with Moses
[Exod.
3:2] the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites in
the desert [Exod. 13:21] and tongues of flame that
appeared
over the heads of Mary and the Apostles on the Day
of Pentecost [Acts 2:3]).
And
perhaps the most pointed example of this fire imagery
in Scripture is the statement, “Our God is a consuming
fire!” (Heb. 12:29; cf. 2 Thess. 1:17). God’s love
for us consumes and burns away those things that
keep us from complete union with him: inordinate
self love,
inordinate love of things or other people, etc. In
this life, his fiery love helps us rid ourselves
of these base attachments through our acceptance
and offering
up of the sufferings that come our way.
The
Bible emphasizes this beneficial, purifying aspect
of suffering when it is accepted as something that
God at times sends our way to help us: “You have also
forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: ‘My
son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose
heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves,
he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.’ Endure
your trials as ‘discipline’; God treats you as sons.
For what ‘son’ is there whom his father does not
discipline?
“If
you are without discipline, in which all have shared,
you are not sons but bastards. Besides this, we have
had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we
respected them. Should we not (then) submit all
the more to the
Father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for
a short time as seemed right to them, but he does
so for our benefit, in order that we may share
his holiness.
“At
the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy
but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit
of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So
strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees” (Hebrews
12:5-12). After death, once we enter into that final
stage of judgment and entrance into our eternal reward,
we come face to face with the burning love of the Triune
God. Each of us will have to one day give an account
of our lives to Christ the Judge. Scripture says: “The
Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty
angles in flaming fire” (2 Thess.1:7).
St.
Paul's Teaching on Purgatory
The
reason fire is so closely associated with the doctrine
of purgatory is because St. Paul taught the doctrine
using that image to show us how God purifies the soul:
“According
to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master
builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building
upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon
it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one
builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious
stones, wood, hay, straw each man’s work will become
manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it
will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test
what sort of work each one has done. If the work which
any man has built on the foundation survives, he will
receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he
will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved,
but only as passing through fire” (1 Cor. 3:10-15).
Let’s
break this teaching on purgatory down to its basic
components: First, this passage deals with events taking
place after death, on “the day” of a man’s judgment
(cf. Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed for men to die once,
and after that comes judgment”).
Second,
the metaphor of fire St. Paul uses here describes
the way in which God tests the man’s life and “burns away” the
dross. This is a process of purification that he
compares to the way in which fire consumes, destroys,
and eliminates
flammable objects (wood, hay, straw) and, conversely,
refines and purifies precious metals (gold and silver).
Remember that the Latin word purgare, from
which we derive the English word “purgatory,” literally means “to
cleanse” or “to purify.” This is exactly what happens
in purgatory. The soul of the man St. Paul describes
as one who “built on the foundation of Christ” is being
purified by God’s fiery love. The passage also entails
the inference that the “man” being spoken of here
died in the state of grace and friendship with God.
St.
Paul refers to the necessity of remaining in
the “state of grace” (cf. CCC ) when her speaks
about our remaining in the “kindness of God”: “See,
then, the kindness and severity of God: severity
toward those who fell, but God's kindness to
you, provided you remain in his kindness; otherwise
you too will be cut off” (Romans 11:22). This
admonition, which was addressed specifically
to Christians, carries two truths: if you remain
in God’s grace you will be saved; if you choose
to depart from his grace and die unrepentant
in that state (i.e. grave sin, cf. Hebrews
10:24-29; 2 Peter 2:20-21; 1 John 5:16-17).
Third,
this process involves loss and suffering.
This element — the suffering — is perhaps the most controversial
aspect of the historic Christian doctrine of purgatory
because those who reject it do so out of a sense that
Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross are being
somehow impugned or minimized. But this is not at
all the case.
Fourth,
this process of purification is temporary and culminates
in the release of the soul from this state and his
entrance into heaven and the beatific vision: “he
himself will
be saved, but only as through fire.” The
Greek word used here is the future tense verb “sothésetai,” showing
that entrance into “final salvation” (i.e. what Christians
have historically called “the beatific vision”) is
an event that takes place after this temporary process
of suffering is completed.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia explains:
“At
the Council of Florence, Bessarion argued against the
existence of real purgatorial fire, and the Greeks
were assured that the Roman Church had never issued
any dogmatic decree on this subject. In the West the
belief in the existence of real fire is common....
How this fire affects the souls of the departed the
Doctors do not know, and in such matters it is well
to heed the warning of the Council of Trent when it
commands the bishops ‘to exclude from their preaching
difficult and subtle questions which tend not to edification,
and from the discussion of which there is no increase
either in piety or devotion’ [Catholic Encyclopedia,
1911, vol. 12, p. 578].
As
far as the fire goes, we can be content with saying
that Scripture and the early Church Fathers used
the image of fire to convey the reality of what
happens
in purgatory: a painful cleansing process of temporary
duration that takes place after death and before
one’s
entrance into heaven. Is it “real” fire? Probably
not, at least not as we understand fire in a physical
sense.
Will
this fiery process of purification hurt? Yes, as
St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3: the soul in purgatory
suffers and will enter heaven, “only as though passing
through fire.” Perhaps the most important lesson
we can learn from these facts is that we can avoid
purgatory
altogether, or at least an extended stay there, by
offering to the Lord our daily trials and pains.
These sufferings are purgatorial in themselves, if
they are
offered to God with a loving and contrite heart.
In this way, our suffering is purified and elevated.
It
becomes a participation in the redemptive sufferings
of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24). God
Whether
or not you or I will need to pass through the purifying
flames of purgatory depends on decisions we make
now. If we leave this world with clinging weeds
of inordinate
self-love, attachment to creatures, and venially
sinful bad habits, we will need those weeds cut
away and burned
off before we can enter heaven. If our souls bear
the scars of the self- inflicted wounds of mortal
sin,
we’ll need those scars removed by the Divine Physician.
It
hurts, yes, but it hurts so good, because we know
that the process is bringing us closer to Christ,
closer
to that moment when we can enter the wedding feast
of the Lamb, spotless and pure. Just as my wife and
I let our son Timothy endure the pain of having his
wounded eye cleaned and stitched up by the doctor
in the emergency room (a process that we had to
permit
so his eye would heal properly), so too, God permits
us to suffer the consequences of sin. Through purgatory,
he heals the wounds our sins have caused. Through
the pain and suffering “as if passing through fire” that
St. Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians 3, the Lord
purifies us and makes us whole again, ready to be
with him forever, face to face.
To
Summarize . . .
Matthew 12:32 is
not only helpful in showing that some sins are
remitted in the “age to come” (i.e. In purgatory),
but it also illustrates that Christians can lose
their justification (i.e. “right standing before
God) through serious sin.
In Matthew 18:21-35 we see evidence
of purgatory as well as the fact that a Christian can
forfeit his justification
by serious sin: “So also my heavenly Father will
do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your
brother from your heart.”
In Luke 16:19-31, we see Lazarus in a place of tranquility and
rest (paradise). The Rich Man, however, finds himself
in a place of fiery torment. Clearly, neither of
these places (the two men were in two separate sections
within Hades [Hebrew: Sheol = the underworld])
was heaven, since Christ had not yet died on the
cross and heaven was closed to all the righteous,
who waited
patiently for that day (cf. Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter
3:18-20). Notice too that the Rich Man was interceding
on behalf of his brothers still on earth. This is
a clear example — given by the Lord Himself — of
intercession being made after death for those still
alive on earth.
2
Maccabees 12:38-46
Matthew
5:21-26
Matthew12:
32
Matthew
18:21-35
Luke
12:58
Luke
16:19-31
1
Corinthians 3:10-16
1
Peter 3:19; 4:6
The
Church Fathers on the Biblical Doctrine of Purgatory
and Prayers for the Dead:
Tertullian,
A.D. 211 — "We offer sacrifices for the
dead[24] on
their birthday anniversaries" (The Crown 3:3).
Tertullian,
A.D. 216 — "A woman, after the death of
her husband ... prays for his soul and asks that
he may, while waiting, find rest; and that he may
share in the first resurrection. And each year, on
the anniversary of his death, she offers the sacrifice" (On Monogamy 10:1-2).
St.
Cyprian of Carthage, A.D. 253 — "The strength
of the truly believing remains unshaken; and with
those who fear and love God with their whole heart,
their integrity continues steady and strong. For
to adulterers even a time of repentance is granted
by us, and peace is given. Yet virginity is not therefore
deficient in the Church, nor does the glorious design
of continence languish through the sins of others.
The Church, crowned with so many virgins, flourishes;
and chastity and modesty preserve the tenor of their
glory. Nor is the vigor of continence broken down
because repentance and pardon are facilitated to
the adulterer. It is one thing to stand for pardon,
another thing to attain to glory; it is one thing,
when cast into prison, not to go out thence until
one has paid the uttermost farthing; another thing
at once to receive the wages of faith and courage.
It is one thing, tortured by long suffering for sins,
to be cleansed and long purged by fire; another to
have purged all sins by suffering. It is one thing,
in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God
at the day of judgment; another to be at once crowned
by the Lord." (Letters 51:20).
Lactantius,
A.D. 307 — "But also, when God will judge
the just, it is likewise in fire that he will try
them. At that time, they whose sins are uppermost,
either because of their gravity or their number,
will be drawn together by the fire and will be burned.
Those, however, who have been imbued with full justice
and maturity of virtue, will not feel that fire;
for they have something of God in them which will
repel and turn back the strength of the flame" (Divine
Institutes 7:21:6).
St.
Cyril of Jerusalem, A.D. 350 — “Then we make
mention also of those who have already fallen asleep:
first, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs,
that through their prayers and supplications God
would receive our petition; next, we make mention
also of the holy fathers and bishops who have already
fallen asleep, and, to put it simply, of all among
us who have already fallen asleep, for we believe
that it will be of very great benefit to the souls
of those for whom the petition is carried up, while
this holy and most solemn sacrifice is laid out" (Catechetical
Lectures 23:5:9).
St.
Epiphanius of Salamis, A.D. 375 — "Useful
too is the prayer fashioned on their behalf, even
if it does not force back the whole of guilty charges
laid to them. And it is useful also, because in this
world we often stumble either voluntarily or involuntarily,
and thus it is a reminder to do better" (Medicine
Chest Against All Heresies 75:8).
St.
Gregory of Nyssa, A.D. 382 — "If a man distinguish
in himself what is peculiarly human from that which
is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life
of greater urbanity for himself, in this present
life he will purify himself of any evil contracted,
overcoming the irrational by reason. If he have inclined
to the irrational pressure of the passions, using
for the passions the cooperating hide of things irrational,
he may afterward in a quite different manner be very
much interested in what is better, when, after his
departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of
the difference between virtue and vice and finds
that he is not able to partake of divinity until
he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his
soul by the purifying fire" (Sermon on the
Dead).
St.
John Chrysostom, A.D. 392 — "Let us help
and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified
by their father's sacrifice,[25] why
would we doubt that our offerings for the dead
bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate
to help
those who have died and to offer our prayers for
them" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians 41:5).
St.
John Chrysostom, A.D. 402 — "Weep for those
who die in their wealth and who with all their wealth
prepared no consolation for their own souls, who
had the power to wash away their sins and did not
will to do it. Let us weep for them, let us assist
them to the extant of our ability, let us think of
some assistance for them, small as it may be, yet
let us somehow assist them. But how, and in what
way? By praying for them and by entreating others
to pray for them, by constantly giving alms to the
poor on their behalf. Not in vain was it decreed
by the apostles that in the awesome mysteries remembrance
should be made of the departed. They knew that here
there was much gain for them, much benefit. when
the entire people stands with hands uplifted, a priestly
assembly, and that awesome sacrificial Victim is
laid out, how, when we are calling upon God, should
we not succeed in their defense? But this is done
for those who have departed in the faith, while even
the catechumens are not reckoned as worthy of this
consolation, but are deprived of every means of assistance
except one. And what is that? We may give alms to
the poor on their behalf" (Homilies on Philippians 3:9-10).
St.
Augustine of Hippo, A.D. 411 — "There is
an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know,
when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that
place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered
for them. Prayer, however, is offered for other dead
who are remembered. It is wrong to pray for a martyr,
to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1).
St.
Augustine of Hippo — "But by the prayers
of the Holy Church, and by the salvific sacrifice,
and by the alms which are given for their spirits,
there is no doubt that the dead are aided, that the
Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their
sins would deserve. The whole Church observes this
practice which was handed down by the Fathers: that
it prays for those who have died in the communion
of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated
in their own place in the sacrifice itself; and the
sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their
behalf. If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for
the sake of those who are being remembered, who would
hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers
to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all
to be doubted that such prayers are of profit to
the dead; but for such of them as lived before their
death in a way that makes it possible for these things
to be useful to them after death" (ibid.,
172:2).
St.
Augustine of Hippo, A.D. 419 — "Temporal
punishments are suffered by some in this life only,
by some after death, by 'some both here and hereafter,
but all of them before that last and strictest
judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments
after
death will come to eternal punishments, which are
