Purgatory is Based on a Promise of Jesus

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 11-01-15 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

Purgatory is Based on a Promise of Jesus’

Msgr. Charles Pope • November 1, 2015 •

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!”

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.

[af_vet_1981]

Swearing Oaths

The problem Jesus is addressing is not oaths as they were meant to be, firm promises, which He never negated, but oaths as what they had become under the corrupt teaching of the Pharisees. Under them, oaths had become a game of crossed fingers, where if you didn't swear in a binding formula, you could break any promise and not be held to account under the law. It had become a safe way to lie with regularity. The whole meaning of "swearing" had been corrupted. Jesus takes his listeners, not to some bizarre new rule about never making promises, but back to the primitive truth about integrity, that a man's own word must be his bond, and you should do what you say you're going to do, and if you don't, you've fallen short of the righteousness of God, and the law of love.

Think of Jesus in the role of judge, and changing the law by his rulings.

As I referenced previously in the chain, and is clear in the scriptures, one was permitted to swear or not swear, without sin. as long as one performed one's oath or word. Now, Jesus commands us not to swear at all, and still to perform our words. That is a change, no more oaths.


When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

[FourtySeven]

The individual is the "builder", and he is building up the Church. It is not the builder that is flamed, but the building - to see if the builder worked in stone or straw.

annalex: "The Epistle though speaks of the whole human being a God's building"

Nope. The person doing the work is the BUILDER. Not the BUILDING. He is the PLANTER, not the FIELD.

The last quote (from you Mr Rogers) should at least give one pause, especially considering 1 Cor 3:9 that you just quoted.

annalex is closer to the truth here it seems when one examines this passage again. Consider 1 Cor 3:10 which you quoted:

"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it."

You left something out though, namely the sentence, "But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon."

In other words, every man builds upon the foundation provided by Christ. Every man "builds", his own "building" that is himself (again verse 9).

When we include that the passage 1 Cor 3:8-11 it becomes:

3:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth, are one. And every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour.
3:9 For we are God's coadjutors. You are God's husbandry: you are God's building.
3:10 According to the grace of God that is given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation: and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

What St Paul is saying here is that he (St Paul) "laid the foundation" (in those who accepted the Gospel from him) and the newly converted becomes the "builder" who builds on this foundation, the foundation of the Gospel, the foundation Who is really Jesus (verses 5 and 7), builds a building that is also the believer. (Verse 9).

In other words, we are both the building and the builder (of our own lives. We build with God's help of course, but together with Him we build the building that is our own life). This is the only way to interpret this passage without contradicting it in some fashion (as you did when you insisted "Nope. The person doing the work is the BUILDER. Not the BUILDING. ". That clearly contradicts verse 9 that clearly states "you are God's building". Not "you are God's builder" but "building". This parallels the usage of the "potter and clay" imagery elsewhere in Scripture. We are the clay, not the potter).

Verse 11 sums up this relationship clearly putting God (Jesus) in the role of Who (and what) is the "foundation": Christ Jesus.

A "foundation" is not a "building" though a building is built on a foundation and this is where we see the cooperative relationship between God and Man; Man builds on what Christ (and only Him) founded. This takes us through verse 11.

Then from verse 12 onward we read St Paul's warnings of what can and does happen if Man does NOT cooperate with God, by building not with that which survives but with that which "is burned" (verse 15), then he will "suffer loss" but "still be saved".

So this entire passage 1 Cor 3:3-15, is talking about a man who is already saved, already assured salvation, but even after such assurance is "tested by fire" and that which he built that "remains" remains (and is rewarded for) but that which is consumed he is not rewarded for, but regardless he is saved no matter what.

So what state of life does this sound like? Do we see anyone being so tested in this life? I don't think we do, because even Scripture describes this kind of test as a future event (verse 13).

That future event can't be Hell, because no one who is "saved" goes to Hell. It can't be Heaven, since no one in Heaven is so tested. So that can only mean there is a future event where everyone is so tested (verse 13) and that event, that "state" if you will, the Church has called "Purgatory", since we are "purged" in that state of all that "burns" away.

[af_vet_1981]

I trust the NASB to be an uncommonly accurate and literal translation - more so than the KJV, and more so than the DR’s translation of the Latin translation.

Interesting, but I did not ask that. Should I take from that you acknowledge it is not inerrant or complete, nor are the manuscripts it is based on inerrant or complete, nor is Sola Scriptura inerrant or complete since at the time it was professed those professing it used a different set of manuscripts and translation than you espouse today ?

[Mr Rogers]

“In other words, every man builds upon the foundation provided by Christ. Every man “builds”, his own “building” that is himself (again verse 9).”

No. That is blatantly NOT what Paul is saying. At no time does he suggest the builder is building himself.

“In other words, we are both the building and the builder (of our own lives.”

Not in 1 Cor 3 (in the JB Phillips translation, to aid easy reading of paragraphs):

1-4 I, my brothers, was unable to talk to you as spiritual men: I had to talk to you as unspiritual, as yet babies in the Christian life, And my practice had been to feed you, as it were, with ‘milk’ and not with ‘meat’. You were unable to digest ‘meat’ in those days, and I don’t believe you can do it now. For you are still unspiritual; all the time that there is jealousy and squabbling among you you show that you are - you are living just like men of the world. While one of you says, ‘I am one of Paul’s converts’ and another says, ‘I am one of Apollos’”, are you not plainly unspiritual?

5-8 After all, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? No more than servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord gave each man his opportunity. I may have done the planting and Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow! The planter and the waterer are nothing compared with him who gives life to the seed. Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though each shall be rewarded according to his particular work.

9 In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God’s cultivation, or, if you like, a house being built to his plan.

10-15 I, like an architect who knows his job, by the grace God has given me, lay the foundation; someone else builds upon it. I only say this, let the builder be careful how he builds! The foundation is laid already, and no one can lay another, for it is Jesus Christ himself. But any man who builds on the foundation using as his material gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, must know that each man’s work will one day be shown for what it is. The day will show it plainly enough, for the day will arise in a blaze of fire, and that fire will prove the nature of each man’s work. If the work that the man has built upon the foundation will stand this test, he will be rewarded. But if a man’s work be destroyed under the test, he loses it all. He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire.

Nothing in the text supports that the builder is building his own life, and that God will burn out impurities from that life by pain after death.

[Mr Rogers]

“Should I take from that you acknowledge it is not inerrant or complete...”

You can certainly take it that the NASB translation of scripture is more inerrant than the Catholic Church’s Catechism, which rejects scripture and substitutes its own beliefs.

And I strongly suspect it is more accurate than the 1700s revision of the DR’s translation of the Latin translation.

[FourtySeven]

Nothing in the text supports that the builder is building his own life, and that God will burn out impurities from that life by pain after death.

Again another astounding claim! From your own translation you just posted (which is a nice one by the way at least for this passage)...

"9 In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God's cultivation, or, if you like, a house being built to his plan."

[af_vet_1981]

Nothing in the text supports that the builder is building his own life, and that God will burn out impurities from that life by pain after death.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

First Corinthians, Catholic chapter three, Protestant verses sixteen to eighteen ,
First Corinthians, Catholic chapter six, Protestant verses nineteen to twenty ,
Romans, Catholic chapter twelve, Protestant verses one to two ,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[Mr Rogers]

“Again another astounding claim!”

Not really. It helps if one reads paragraphs instead of sentence fragments:

“After all, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? No more than servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord gave each man his opportunity. I may have done the planting and Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow! The planter and the waterer are nothing compared with him who gives life to the seed. Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though each shall be rewarded according to his particular work. In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God’s cultivation, or, if you like, a house being built to his plan.”

A planter does not plant himself, nor plant stuff in himself. He plants the field, but he is not the field. He builds a building, but he is not the building. “We” and “You” are not interchangeable.

The “you” is obviously the church at Corinth:

“I, my brothers, was unable to talk to you as spiritual men: I had to talk to you as unspiritual, as yet babies in the Christian life, And my practice had been to feed you, as it were, with ‘milk’ and not with ‘meat’. You were unable to digest ‘meat’ in those days, and I don’t believe you can do it now. For you are still unspiritual; all the time that there is jealousy and squabbling among you...”

Reading 101.

[FourtySeven]

Those “sentence fragments” as you casually dismiss them as, set the proper context of the entire passage especially that which follows after verse 9. Anyone with “Reading 101” skills can see that.

[Mr Rogers]

No, they are not. This is not subject to debate or interpretation. The man who plants the field is not the field, and the builder of a building is not the building itself. If you believe otherwise, we have no basis for discussion since words apparently have no meaning.

[FourtySeven]

I’m not the one debating what the meaning of the word “are” is. Verse 8 clearly shows that St Paul, while indeed addressing the entire community of Corinth as a whole, is addressing each individual of that community as well (Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though EACH shall be rewarded according to his PARTICULAR work.)

Then onward, notwithstanding verse 9 itself, St Paul is clearly describing what each man does, what happens to each man, etc unless one wishes to make the bizarre claim that “the Church” (as a whole body) is “tested by fire” all at once at one event in the future (verse 13).

Words truly have no meaning if one makes that claim.

[Mr Rogers]

“Verse 8 clearly shows that St Paul, while indeed addressing the entire community of Corinth as a whole, is addressing each individual of that community as well (Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though EACH shall be rewarded according to his PARTICULAR work.)”

Each refers to each person working on the field, not each member of the church:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” - 1 Cor 3.6-8

The workers are are one team, and serve one purpose - the growth of the produce. They remain individual laborers, and will be rewarded appropriately by God. The church at Corinth is the field: “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.”

If that puzzles you, we have nothing to discuss. If words have no meaning, we cannot convey meaning with words - and words are all we have to use on FR.

[FourtySeven]

Nevermind, I withdraw my objections raised previously because I can now see I was in error. I apologize for the confusion I caused. The “works” described in this passage are “works” done by each man to build up “the Church” and thus the “building” (or “field”) is the Church, not each individual member’s life. Again I was wrong and you were right and I ask for your forgiveness and the forgiveness of any one else misled by my words.

I still humbly submit though that the passage describes a particular judgement of those works, and this judgement is a future event that is a trial by fire (or like it anyway) and even the “saved” go through it. I don’t see why the concept of “Purgatory” is antithetical to that passage (esp verse 13).

[af_vet_1981]

Correction to add dropped "I" :

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans, Catholic chapter twelve, Protestant verses one to two ,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[redleghunter]

The NABRE (Catholic)also has this:

Romans 8:

1 Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, (NABRE)

[redleghunter]

Why stop there? The official Catholic Bible the NABRE has the following:

Romans 8:

1 Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, (NABRE)

Either way does not change anything. Flesh is clearly differentiated from Spirit.

[af_vet_1981]

Each individual soul is the temple of the Holy Spirit (the Apostle Paul was explicit in chapter six) and look at the language again: “one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos”; he is writing about husbandry and buildings which are individuals (although they are part of one body). If a man’s work suffer loss because it is burned, and he is said himself to suffer loss but be saved himself by fire, how could it not be speaking of his work as himself ? Compare with both epistles of the Apostle Peter.

[af_vet_1981]

The Catholic Church was not founded on, nor does not teach, the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura. Some (most ?) Protestants have abandoned the Greek manuscript chain and the translations of them upon which Sola Scriptura was based. Why does it matter ? The KJV contradicts MrRogers's assertion that there is no condemnation of a Christian while a Christian is committing mortal sins (walking after the flesh), and not walking after the Spirit. I think the Evangelical term for this is backslidden Christians and they consider them to be OSAS no matter what sins the commit.

[af_vet_1981]

Correction
The Catholic Church was not founded on, nor does it teach, the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura.

[af_vet_1981]

Correction
The Catholic Church was not founded on, nor does it teach, the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura.