Posted on 11/02/2015 6:56:55 AM PST by Salvation
All Souls’ Day by Jakub Schikaneder, 1888
I have blogged before on Purgatory. Here is a link to one of those blogs: Purgatory – Biblical and Reasonable. I have also written more extensively on its biblical roots here: PDF Document on Purgatory.
On this Feast of All Souls, I want to reflect on Purgatory as the necessary result of a promise. Many people think of Purgatory primarily in terms of punishment, but it is also important to consider it in terms of promise, purity, and perfection. Some of our deceased brethren are having the promises made to them perfected in Purgatory. In the month of November we are especially committed to praying for them and we know by faith that our prayers are of benefit to them.
What is the promise that points to Purgatory? Simply stated, Jesus made the promise in Matthew 5:48: You, therefore, must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In this promise is an astonishing declaration of our dignity. We are to share in the very nature and perfection of God. This is our dignity: we are called to reflect and possess the very glory and perfection of God.
St. Catherine of Siena was gifted by the Lord to see a heavenly soul in the state of grace. Her account of it is related in her Dialogue, and is summarized in the Sunday School Teacher’s Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism:
The Soul in the State of Grace– Catherine of Siena was permitted by God to see the beauty of a soul in the state of grace. It was so beautiful that she could not look on it; the brightness of that soul dazzled her. Blessed Raymond, her confessor, asked her to describe to him, as far as she was able, the beauty of the soul she had seen. St. Catherine thought of the sweet light of that morning, and of the beautiful colors of the rainbow, but that soul was far more beautiful. She remembered the dazzling beams of the noonday sun, but the light which beamed from that soul was far brighter. She thought of the pure whiteness of the lily and of the fresh snow, but that is only an earthly whiteness. The soul she had seen was bright with the whiteness of Heaven, such as there is not to be found on earth. †My father,†she answered. “I cannot find anything in this world that can give you the smallest idea of what I have seen. Oh, if you could but see the beauty of a soul in the state of grace, you would sacrifice your life a thousand times for its salvation. I asked the angel who was with me what had made that soul so beautiful, and he answered me, “It is the image and likeness of God in that soul, and the Divine Grace which made it so beautiful.†[1].
Yes, this is our dignity and final destiny if we are faithful to God.
So, I ask you, “Are you there yet?†God has made you a promise. But what if that promise has not yet been fulfilled and you were to die today, without the divine perfection you have been promised having been completed? I can only speak for myself and say that if I were to die today, though I am not aware of any mortal sin, I also know that I am not perfect. I am not even close to being humanly perfect, let alone having the perfection of our heavenly Father!
But Jesus made me a promise: You must be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. And the last time I checked, Jesus is a promise keeper! St. Paul says, May God who has begun a good work in you bring it to completion (Phil 1:6). Hence, if I were to die today, Jesus would need to complete a work that He has begun in me. By God’s grace, I have come a mighty long way. But I also have a long way to go. God is very holy and His perfection is beyond imagining.
Yes, there are many things in us that need purging: sin, attachment to sin, clinging to worldly things, and those rough edges to our personality. Likewise most of us carry with us hurts, regrets, sorrows, and disappointments. We cannot take any of this with us to Heaven. If we did, it wouldn’t be Heaven. So the Lord, who is faithful to His promise, will purge all of this from us. The Book of Revelation speaks of Jesus ministering to the dead in that he will wipe every tear from their eyes (Rev 21:4). 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 speaks of us as passing through fire in order that our works be tested so that what is good may be purified and what is worldly may be burned away. And Job said, But he knows the way that I take; and when he has tested me, I will come forth as pure gold (Job 23:10).
Purgatory has to be—gold, pure gold; refined, perfect, pure gold. Purgatory has to be, if God’s promises are to hold.
Catholic theology has always taken seriously God’s promise that we would actually be perfect as the Father is perfect. The righteousness is Jesus’ righteousness, but it actually transforms us and changes us completely in the way that St. Catherine describes. It is a real righteousness, not merely imputed, not merely declared of us by inference. It is not an alien justice, but a personal justice by the grace of God.
Esse quam videri – Purgatory makes sense because the perfection promised to us is real: esse quam videri (to be rather than to seem). We must actually be purged of the last vestiges of imperfection, worldliness, sin, and sorrow. Having been made perfect by the grace of God, we are able to enter Heaven, of which Scripture says, Nothing impure will ever enter it (Rev 21:27). And again, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the souls of the just made perfect (Heb 12:22-23).
How could it be anything less? Indeed, the souls of the just made perfect. How could it be anything less if Jesus died to accomplish it for us? Purgatory makes sense based on Jesus’ promise and on the power of His blood to accomplish complete and total perfection for us. This is our dignity; this is our destiny. Purgatory is about promises, not mere punishment. There’s an old Gospel hymn that I referenced in yesterday’s blog for the Feast of All Saints that says, “O Lord I’m running, trying to make a hundred. Ninety-nine and a half won’t do!â€
That’s right, ninety-nine and a half won’t do. Nothing less than a hundred is possible because we have Jesus’ promise and the wonderful working power of the precious Blood of the Lamb. For most, if not all of us, Purgatory has to be.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Article completely misses how one is made perfect - its by Jesus not anything we do.
http://www.gotquestions.org/purgatory.html
Amen! He paid the price for our sin and He paid it in full. He completed the work. It is finished!! We are made perfect by the imputation of HIS perfect righteousness. We are righteous in HIM.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
—2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus asks us to help him to carry his cross.
He needs for us to meet him at least half way, otherwise why did he go through all that effort if he could just snap his fingers and make it all happen?
Another “totally out of context moment” brought to you by someone with an agenda.
“43-45 You have heard that it used to be said, You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy, but I tell you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Heavenly Father. For he makes the sun rise upon evil men as well as good, and he sends his rain upon honest and dishonest men alike.
46-48 For if you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even tax-collectors do that! And if you exchange greetings only with your own circle, are you doing anything exceptional? Even the pagans do that much. No, you are to be perfect, like your Heavenly Father.”
In Matt 5, Jesus is showing that a superficial obedience to the Law is insufficient because the Law, correctly understood, goes so much further than ANY man can achieve.
It sets the foundation for what Paul wrote:
“No man can justify himself before God by a perfect performance of the Law s demands indeed it is the straight-edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are.
But now we are seeing the righteousness of God declared quite apart from the Law (though amply testified to by both Law and Prophets) it is a righteousness imparted to, and operating in, all who have faith in Jesus Christ. (For there is no distinction to be made anywhere: everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God s plan.)
Under this divine system a man who has faith is now freely acquitted in the eyes of God by his generous dealing in the redemptive act of Jesus Christ. God has appointed him as the means of propitiation, a propitiation accomplished by the shedding of his blood, to be received and made effective in ourselves by faith.”
It is the Blood of the Lamb that cleans us, not God torturing those who believe and have already been made clean. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” - Heb 10
Notice the tense: not “He will perfect”, but “He HAS perfectED”. Think about it.
He also said “today you shall be with Me in Paradise”, not “today you’ll enter the great spiritual washing machine and in a few millennia you’ll be with Me in Paradise”.
The concept of Purgatory pretty much nullifies Christ’s purpose. Eternity is a very long time, so if everyone’s soul can be cleaned up by a while in the great spiritual washing machine, the time required is negligible (however long) and a “savior” unnecessary.
I disagree with this take entirely. This is not a promise from Jesus but an imperative. This comes from the Sermon on the Mount which is Jesus sermon on what the "law" really demands. He is telling that if you wish to be saved by adherence to the law then you must keep it perfectly, just as the Father keeps it. He makes the same point later in the sermon when he says, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." The Scribes and Pharisees keep the law better than anyone and even that wasn't good enough - perfection is required if that is to save you. The Sermon on the Mount shows us that salvation by obedience to God's law requires a level of righteousness that no human can live up to. It shows us why we need a Savior.
Heb 9:27
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
The concept of purgatory contradicts Heb 9:27.
The time to KNOW if you are saved is NOW... while you are still alive. There is NO purification of that which is corrupt after death... Death IS the purification of that which is corrupt. We are made perfect IN HIM through HIS sacrifice ALONE when we receive Him... and you cannot receive Him after death.
In Revelation is says that the 144,000 washed their robes clean.
Paradise WAS the waiting place, the purgation place. It was not heaven. Christ was the first one into heaven.
**In Revelation is says that the 144,000 washed their robes clean. **
How? Through baptism and through repentance in the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation.
Agreed!
The concept of purgatory is no minor doctrine that would be left to be speculated at based on snippets here and there and pondering by some who died many years after the Scriptures were written. If purgatory was really part of the plan you’d think God wouldn’t be silent, or at best very cryptic (leaving us to fumble around in the dark about it), on the issue.
But if one holds that it is all true we go back to Luther’s question, if the church can release the suffering from purgatory why not do it out of Christian love and not just for $?
**(For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." II Maccabees 12**
Thank-you and God Bless!
I see that our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus who are Protestant are trying to beg to differ.
Once you start compounding your errors ... you are not really in the ballgame anymore.
Wonder about that myself. It doesn't say.
“Actually, we are commanded to love one another as ourselves and to love God with our whole heart mind and soul.”
We should love one another — but it has nothing to do with finally arriving in Heaven. (No Purgatory, except maybe it’s down the road from Oz.) Nothing we can DO will save us.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast.”
Titus 3:5 - “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Isaiah 64:6 - “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;”
“Jesus asks us to help him to carry his cross.”
Did He ask that? For us to help Him carry His cross? He commanded, “come, take up the cross, and FOLLOW me.” (Mark 10:21)
He needs for us to meet him at least half way, otherwise why did he go through all that effort if he could just snap his fingers and make it all happen?
He didn’t “snap His fingers”. Instead, he died on the cross. We don’t need to meet Him halfway; we don’t to DO anything except accept Him as personal Savior. (Ideally, though, after salvation we should be with Him 100%, not just half way.)
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