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.
Do you still not realize that the review for these rewards takes place IN HEAVEN, not at a purgatory door?
The review occurs AFTER the believers have been snatched out of this world, into new bodies dimensionally able to see Jesus as He really is in greater dimensionality, and we are removed to go with Him where He has prepared a place for us. That place is in Heaven. We are transformed to be fit for that place Jesus is preparing for us. Those are what PAUL taught, and Jesus explained to the Disciples in His Passover meeting with them (John 14) prior tot he crucifixion. I can understand why you would not be interested in the actual teachings from Paul and Jesus, since the Truth isn’t found in the magicsteerignthem the religion of catholiciism commands.
“In the Epistle I read, the building had stone, metal, straw and stubble before, and emerges with stone and metal after. That is a purified building.”
In a sense, the CHURCH is purified - when Jesus separates the wheat from the tares. But the building in the word picture is not a man’s soul. No amount of twisting can turn it into a man’s soul. Nor is the point about purification, but revelation.
But of course, that is allowing the Apostle Paul to give the interpretation:
“But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.”
And how DARE I quote the Apostle Paul, when we know the Catholic Church disagrees with him! < / sarcasm >
More catholic nonsense.
The thief died 300 years before the first catholic appeared on the scene.
They weren’t catholics then, they were real followers of Yeshua.
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That is correct because there's no such thing or place as purgatory. Did his execution for theft expiate the temporal punishments due all his OTHER sins or did his simple faith in Jesus Christ as Savior satisfy the sin debt God demands?
Bro, there are apologists on FR who will tell you even Abraham was/is a catholic. There is no reasoning with such.
If the day of Pentecost and the scene in the House of Cornelius are any indication, believing has immediate SALVATION/TRANSFORMATION results, not entry onto a yo-yo trail of sacraments.
We know that the judgment happens after we die. That is about all we know. Heaven is commonly understood as separate from Purgatory, and nothing in the passage on hand suggests otherwise.
I made this point earlier to you. Purgatory is not only a process of individual purification of the soul but also is thought of as a church.
the building in the word picture is not a man's soul
"You are God's building" is followed by a dozen "every man". Write your own epistle if you don't like this one.
False dichotomy. In his case, the purification occurred when he believed in Jesus, expressed remorse for his sins, and did the good work of defending the innocent and rebuking the guilty. He died a good Catholic death.
Except, by all the rules of English, "every man" does not apply to the "you", but the "we" - the builders:
"According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it..." "each...how he builds"
"Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident...the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work."
Sorry, but you really need to work on your English & reading. There are no crayons big enough to draw a picture that cannot be twisted if the viewer refuses to view...or a reader refuses to read.
I have no doubt how Kennedy came to decide the Constitution required homosexual marriage. When you want the answer bad enough, the text no longer matters!
I would ask you, what sin could you commit in the future, after professing belief in Jesus as your needed Savior, that would take God by surprise? When God births your human spirit from Above, His life is put into your human spirit and there is no "sin" which you can thereafter commit which would surprise the One Who knows the end from the beginning. You cannot earn Salvation and you cannot buy it on the installment plan of catholic troddery. The twisted reasoning of carts before horses is familiar. The Bible records ol' Nicodemus doing the same thing in John 3.
I wonder, really I do, that catholics are unable to see they are a religion of working your way to salvation, especially evident when they post assertions like, “and did the good work”. You really believe you earn some of the means to Heavenly life through your works somehow causing God to owe you Salvation becvause you ‘did the good work’? ... And the catholic mind will twist that question to fit the specious religion which is a Christian look-a-like but not Christianity.
I think, by the rules of any language, "every man" applies to every man.
Do you have any more questions?
When I ask questions of catholics, they are rhetoprical, for I do not expect truth to follow along with the ‘answerrs’ catholics tend to cling to. The ‘answers’ which spill forth from catholic minds tend to be reflections from the magicsteeringthem, thus not helpful in the main. When I use rhetorical questions, my goal is what is usually intended with such, to get the one questioned to think, to check if they actually know truth. Only you and God can be the judge of your mental response to a rhetorical question. Have nice day
“I think, by the rules of any language, “every man” applies to every man.”
Hmmmm...
“We worked all day. Every man was tired.”
Does that mean every man in the world, or every man who was on the team that worked all day?
English. It is what English Bibles are translated into...
No, it is not a “false dichotomy” at all. It is a relevant question that SHOULD be answerable by those who imagined the whole concept of purgatory from the start. How many years have they had to develop it???
Look, I appreciate the dilemma faithful Catholics find themselves in when they try to step up and defend the various and sundry unscriptural doctrines developed over the ccenturies. Do you, can you, admit that on this subject particularly the magesterium dropped the ball and could have worked a little harder on the details rather than leaving it up to the individual to figure it out for themselves?
Paul makes it easy in his instructions to Timothy:
“But avoid foolish and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself into godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7 DR)
You too.
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