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. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030)
1. It’s not just a giant waiting room.
Or a waiting game, or a place or time at all. As St. John Paul II said,
“The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence. Those who, after death, exist in a state of purification, are already in the love of Christ who removes from them the remnants of imperfection” (General Audience, 4 August 1999).
This makes it clear that after death, we will not all be sitting in the reception area of a doctor’s office, waiting for our name to be called so we can enter the Kingdom. We are outside the realm of time when we leave behind our earthly bodies, and as such, we have no measurement of what this purification requires.
2. It’s not re-judgment.
It’s not a trial for our souls. Our eternal resting place has already been determined, this is preparation for that place. Purgatory is the part of judgment where all of our imperfections, wrongdoings, ungodliness, and stains are purged before entrance into the Kingdom of God. Nothing impure or less than perfect may meet the Lord, and therefore we must be made pure in order to enter His Light. However, being made pure is not contingent on a second judgment; once we have “made it” to purgatory, so to speak, we already know we have been saved! We are simply being made perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, so that we can enter into eternal praise and worship of Him.
3. It’s not a do-over or a second chance.
Our particular judgment happens at the moment of our death. We are immediately judged and it is established whether we choose to spend eternity with the Lord and the Communion of Saints, or whether we choose an eternity separated from all that is good and holy. Purgatory is not an opportunity for us to be confronted by our mistakes and try again. At this point, it has already been determined that we are saved! We actively choose this chance for a little extra help to be absolutely perfect before we make it to our final state of being one with God.
4. It’s not an opportunity for repentance, nor is it punishment.
Purgatory is not a confessional; there is not priest waiting to absolve us of our sins upon becoming part of this reality. Similarly, this is not a state of torture for all of our transgressions. Once we are dead, we cannot repent, do penance, or actively choose to sin no more (because we are dead… It’s impossible to sin more.) The purification that we undergo is holy fire, but this does not equate to punishment. It is a purging and interior fire whose only pain lies in the fact that in that moment, we are not yet with God.
5. It’s not up to you at all!
Our purification and cleansing in purgatory depend on the prayers, penance, and indulgences of the living. After our deaths, we must rely on the goodness of those who survive to pray for us so that we might enter into the Kingdom. In purgatory, souls may intercede for the living, but not for themselves.
We only get one soul. The soul we are born with is the soul we will carry with us into eternal life. Because of this, everything we do in this life shapes what our souls will look like once we pass away. We are not just bodies! We are body and soul. The person we become during our earthly life does not disappear when we die! We have the opportunity now to become the whole person we would want to meet our Creator. Let us do our very best to live in such a way that we acquire a taste for heaven and let us pray for the purification of the souls in purgatory! November is set aside as a special month to pray for the souls in purgatory.
By SARA SPITT
Sara is currently a graduate Theology student at the University of Notre Dame through the Echo program. She enjoys pizza, coffee, and arguing with her father about whether or not Jesus was Jewish (he was, for the record). If you know Cardinal Dolan, please contact Sara because she would love to be working for him come 2017.
Patrick: I can give you some information on the Christian zombie state. You can have it now without having to wait for purgatory or heaven. It doesn’t take away your ability of think, reason, and remember; but it does deal with negative emotional states such as worry, anger, unforgiveness, compulsions, and addictions.
The Bible gives you clues on how to arrive. 1Peter 5:5-7 is a good place to start: “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you”.
Being exalted in due time is the zombie state. I call it Christian enlightenment. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-24 describes it.
Is purgatory the sheol (OT) or hades (NT) of Scripture? If it is, why call it purgatory? If it is not, how did it come into being?
The Catholic Church gets purgatory, in part, from 1 Corinthians 3:15 (but verse 13 makes it clear this refers to the final judgement, not a pre-heaven purgation). Also they claim support from the book of 2 Macabbeas 12:43-46 – not recognized as inspired scripture.
However, if purgatory and the prayers of the (departed) saints and Mary are so important, then the writings of the apostles and other New Testament authors (Mark, Luke, Jude) certainly do not reflect this.
Furthermore, the fact that prayers of living Christians as well as those of the ‘saints’ are supposed to be efficacious in purifying the souls in purgatory, that means that Christ’s death was not sufficient for our salvation.
Scripture states that it is HE who presents us faultless (Jude 24) – He is our sanctification…not those prayers offered on our behalf.
I suggest that Roman Catholicism is “another gospel” that Paul would have most strongly preached and written against (Galatians 1:8, 2:11 and 3:1ff)
Tradition, introduced early in church history – and embellished over time by Roman Catholicism’s hierarchy and Magisterium – have successfully produced this “other gospel”.
This is not to say that there are no truly born-again Catholics. But they would certainly be in the minority. Facebook and other social media show just how popular are the “saints” and the “mother of God”.
I agree. Many Catholics are not aware that Vatican II’s Dei Verbum 21 says: “Therefore, like the Christian religion itself, all the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture.” Tradition and the magisterium are also subject to regulation. Often there is resistance when I point this out to Catholics. I wish the Church would pay more attention to this.
The Spirit of Christ is emphasized in the epistles as our primary connection with Christ instead of Mary and the Eucharist. We need to get back to Biblical priorities.
2 Machabees 12: 43-46 probably refers to sheol. It was the holding place for the Old Testament people who died prior to the Redemption. Hades or Sheol is an interesting place in Scripture. Does Hades still exist, and are there still spirits of the dead in there? Jesus went there to preach to them during the three days and nights after His death and before His resurrection. Is this still a holding place for the dead? In the book of Revelation it says that death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire at the end of the world, so Hades must still be around at the present time.
“We are simply being made perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, so that we can enter into eternal praise and worship of Him.”
“After our deaths, we must rely on the goodness of those who survive to pray for us so that we might enter into the Kingdom”
“In purgatory, souls may intercede for the living, but not for themselves”
Interesting… what scriptures support these beliefs?
Is purgatory the sheol (OT) or hades (NT) of Scripture? If it is, why call it purgatory? If it is not, how did it come into being?
The Catholic Church gets purgatory, in part, from 1 Corinthians 3:15 (but verse 13 makes it clear this refers to the final judgement, not a pre-heaven purgation). Also they claim support from the book of 2 Macabbeas 12:43-46 – not recognized as inspired scripture.
However, if purgatory and the prayers of the (departed) saints and Mary are so important, then the writings of the apostles and other New Testament authors (Mark, Luke, Jude) certainly do not reflect this.
Furthermore, the fact that prayers of living Christians as well as those of the ‘saints’ are supposed to be efficacious in purifying the souls in purgatory, that means that Christ’s death was not sufficient for our salvation.
Scripture states that it is HE who presents us faultless (Jude 24) – He is our sanctification…not those prayers offered on our behalf.
I suggest that Roman Catholicism is “another gospel” that Paul would have most strongly preached and written against (Galatians 1:8, 2:11 and 3:1ff)
Tradition, introduced early in church history – and embellished over time by Roman Catholicism’s hierarchy and Magisterium – have successfully produced this “other gospel”.
This is not to say that there are no truly born-again Catholics. But they would certainly be in the minority. Facebook and other social media show just how popular are the “saints” and the “mother of God”.
I agree. Many Catholics are not aware that Vatican II’s Dei Verbum 21 says: “Therefore, like the Christian religion itself, all the preaching of the Church must be nourished and regulated by Sacred Scripture.” Tradition and the magisterium are also subject to regulation. Often there is resistance when I point this out to Catholics. I wish the Church would pay more attention to this.
The Spirit of Christ is emphasized in the epistles as our primary connection with Christ instead of Mary and the Eucharist. We need to get back to Biblical priorities.
2 Machabees 12: 43-46 probably refers to sheol. It was the holding place for the Old Testament people who died prior to the Redemption. Hades or Sheol is an interesting place in Scripture. Does Hades still exist, and are there still spirits of the dead in there? Jesus went there to preach to them during the three days and nights after His death and before His resurrection. Is this still a holding place for the dead? In the book of Revelation it says that death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire at the end of the world, so Hades must still be around at the present time.
“We are simply being made perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, so that we can enter into eternal praise and worship of Him.”
“After our deaths, we must rely on the goodness of those who survive to pray for us so that we might enter into the Kingdom”
“In purgatory, souls may intercede for the living, but not for themselves”
Interesting… what scriptures support these beliefs?