Almost Not Catholic Live: In Defense of Purgatory

Here is the first part of a talk I gave at my parish last week.

You can get it here. (I could not get any of the players to work).

I have written four posts about Purgatory. The first one was a short reflection in 2009, entitled:

"Purgatory: It's Your Choice"

The next three posts actually reflect the content covered in this talk. They are as follows:

Purgatory: Is it Against Christian Sensibilities?

Purgatory in Church History

Purgatory in the Bible

I also recommend the following resources on 

Purgatory (in no particular order):

Purgatory is Real

The Bible Teaches Purgatory (pdf)

"Where is Purgatory in the Bible?"

Scripture AND Tradition References on Purgatory (33 Scripture passages, 28 patristic passages)

Catholic Answers on Purgatory

Our Catholic Faith

Lord Shea on Purgatory

Decent Wikipedia article

Purgatory in the Bible

In the last post, I ended with a reference to Christ's words in Mathew 12:32 where Christ makes reference to a repayment for sin "either in this life or the next." Of course, this cannot be referring to hell because hell is not a repayment for anything but rather a punishment. Repayment implies reconciliation and restitution; punishment does not.

When God reveals himself to Moses, Moses hears God's voice from a burning bush (Exodus 3). Later this fire will lead the children of Israel in the desert (Ex 14). In Hebrews, the author (likely Paul) encourages us with the lives of the "cloud of witnesses" and concludes this discourse about the kingdom of God we receive that is "unshakable" (12:28) describing God as a "consuming fire". Just a few verses beforehand, he warns us that God "scourges every son he acknowledges" (12:6). What is this scourging? How is God a "consuming fire"?

Let's look at a few scripture passages that allude to an interpretation terminating in the idea of a postmortem purgation :

• Matt 5:26, 18:34; Luke 12:58-59- Come to terms with your opponent or you will be handed over to the judge (God) and thrown into prison and will not get out until ou have paid the last penny

• Matt 5:48- "Must be perfect"; Jesus makes it clear that perfection is an ontological requirement

• Luke 12:47-48- "some will receive heavy beatings but live"; for those who know the Master's will but don't act accordingly

• Luke 16:19:31- the dead rich man is suffering but has compassion (which means he cannot be in hell because compassion is a virtue of the Spirit)

• Phil 2:10- "every knee shall bow in heaven earth and "under the earth"

• Heb 12:14- "without holiness no one will see the Lord"; We must possess holiness. Do you possess it perfectly now? 

• 2 Tim 1:16-18- Paul asks for mercy "on that day" for Onesiphorus who is dead 

• 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6- Jesus preached to the spirits in "prison"

• Baruch 3:4- prayers for the dead

• 2 Macc 12:43-45- prayers are offered for the dead to help free them from sin (Luther removed Maccabees because of this)

• 1 Cor 3:10-15- works are judged after death and tested by fire

• Jude 1:23- people are being saved "out of the fire"; but hell is eternal separation from God (CCC 1035) therefore the fire cannot be hell
• Also see Matthew 12:32

(there were numerous other passages I could have included but did not so you could still read this comfortably on your iphone)

Where do we go from here? Where could I go? The Catholic Church claimed that purgatory existed. The early Church proclaimed that a place of purgation for the elect was impending if the temporal penalty of their sin wasn't paid. The Bible hardly makes a case against it. It wasn't against my Christian sensibilities nor did it diminish the work of Christ. No, purgatory affirmed Christ's commitment to me, the perfection of God, and my responsibility for my actions. Christ is the sacrifice that atones for my sins appeasing the justice of God. However, my actions still have temporal consequences and God requires justice. Did I reject Purgatory because of a man-made tradition that renders the word of God of no effect?

When one is faced with the reality that they may be so wrong, when their faith as they know it as containing certain propositional values has been unearthed with a flower spade revealing its shallow roots; one has two options. I'll explain them in my next post. Until thin, thank God for purgatory or pray to God to help you understand this beautiful but oft misunderstood dogma.

Purgatory in Church History

When I was studying the doctrine of purgatory, one of the most interesting facts that astounded me was just how explicit this notion was in the early Church Fathers. More than infant baptism or original sin, the notion of a coming purgation for the elect was eminent in their writings both East and West. 

In my previous post I explored whether or not this doctrine made sense generally as a Christian. Despite what I will convey here and my growing conviction of the apostolicity and orthodoxy of the doctrine during my studies, I still couldn't make the heart movement which I explained in my previous post. Before that movement, I had given assent to the doctrine per my understanding of (a) the authority of the Catholic Church to teach it and (b) the witness I noticed in Church history and Scripture that attested to it. 

In the The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity we are introduced to a "place of punishment". St. Clement of Alexandria in the dawning of the third century describes this place saying:

"Accordingly the believer, through great discipline, divesting himself of the passions, passes to the mansion which is better than the former one, viz., to the greatest torment, taking with him the characteristic of repentance from the sins he has committed after baptism. He is tortured then still more--not yet or not quite attaining what he sees others to have acquired. Besides, he is also ashamed of his transgressions. The greatest torments, indeed, are assigned to the believer. For God's righteousness is good, and His goodness is righteous. And though the punishments cease in the course of the completion of the expiation and purification of each one, yet those have very great and permanent grief who are found worthy of the other fold, on account of not being along with those that have been glorified through righteousness."-Stromata

St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century about five hundred miles away from Alexandria writes:

"For I know that many say, what is a soul profited, which departs from this world either with sins, or without sins, if it be commemorated in the prayer? For if a king were to banish certain who had given him offense, and then those who belong to them should weave a crown and offer it to him on behalf of those under punishment, would he not grant a remission of their penalties? In the same way we, when we offer to Him our supplications for those who have fallen asleep, though they be sinners, weave no crown, but offer up Christ sacrificed for our sins, propitiating our merciful God for them as well as for ourselves.”-Catechetical Lectures 23:9,10

St. Augustine of Hippo a few decades after St. Cyril writes:

"For our part, we recognize that even in this life some punishments are purgatorial,--not, indeed, to those whose life is none the better, but rather the worse for them, but to those who are constrained by them to amend their life. All other punishments, whether temporal or eternal, inflicted as they are on every one by divine providence, are sent either on account of past sins, or of sins presently allowed in the life, or to exercise and reveal a man's graces. They may be inflicted by the instrumentality of bad men and angels as well as of the good. For even if any one suffers some hurt through another's wickedness or mistake, the man indeed sins whose ignorance or injustice does the harm; but God, who by His just though hidden judgment permits it to be done, sins not. But temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then"-City of God 21:13

 At the Twenty Fifth Session of the Council of Trent, the Church affirmed:

"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 oecumenical 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 endeavour 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. But let the more difficult and subtle questions, and which tend not to edification, and from which for the most part there is no increase of piety, be excluded from popular discourses..."

The Catholic Church continues to proclaim this doctrine of purgation that affirms the dignity of the individuality of the human person and that is copiously present in the writings of the Church Fathers. What I found is that a lot of the historical and theological objections to purgatory had to do with the "difficult and subtle questions, which tend not to edification (or)...increase of piety." The Church certainly had in mind some of the late medieval nominalism that was marked by the most peculiar and subtle questions regarding theology. For example, "If the Eucharist falls on the ground and a mouse picks it up, does the mouse consume the Sacramental species of Christ?" The answers did little more than satiate the inordinate obsession of nominalists with the unending possibility of making language a game. Nevertheless, when the doctrine is understood in its Biblical, historical, and sensible context, it is quite manageable to understand.

Moreover, as the Council of Trent illumines, the doctrine of Purgatory compels us to a life of holiness and penance here on earth. When we sin we not only injure our relationship with God but also our relationship with ourselves and others. Purgation is the process whereby we make right the later two and will make it right either in this world or the next (Matt 12:32).

(Next: Purgatory in Scripture)

Purgatory: Is it Against Christian Sensibilities?

I like to start off a post about the Catholic doctrines that formerly caused me to squirm by examining whether or not it is against Christian sensibilities. Purgatory is one of those doctrines. In fact, Purgatory was the last doctrine I "got". So, is the doctrine itself repugnant to being Christian?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states:

"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. 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."

Did I just hear that the Catholic Church teaches assuredness of salvation? That's right. Those in Purgatory have the perfect promise of eternal salvation. To use an even better analogy, a friend of mine described Purgatory as being in a living room smelling dinner cooking. The longer you have to smell it, the more your stomach hurts. You are in pain not because you aren't going to get to eat it, but because you will.

Considering the quote from the CCC above, Purgatory speaks to the perfection necessary for entering heaven (Rev 21:27). Why make it a process? This was my hang up for quite some time. Thanks to Therese Frank, a wonderful catechist at St. Luke's parish, I came to understand just how wonderful this doctrine is.

There are a lot of what I like to call mental and historical "trampolines" needed outside of the Catholic Church. The trampolines are necessary to jump from the fifth to fifteenth century in Church history or to get one from one concept to the other while skipping over Biblical, historical or logical data. I started to notice these trampolines when I was studying different Catholic-Protestant questions. I could see the non-Catholic position made sense if only I just skipped over these centuries or kind of ignored that scripture passage or forgot about the logical consequence of a position. Ironically, my reluctance to understand Purgatory had a lot to do with one of my own "trampolines". This was the big one that gets you from earth to heaven.

Therese gently explained that Purgatory is a really beautiful doctrine. First, its a state of existence not a place. Second, and even more profound, Purgatory is God's way of saying, "I want you. No really. I want you, the person you are right now. Well, not in this state, but I want to know you in such a way that you will know the person that knows me as the person that I love right now." That did it for me. Let me unpack it.

The Holy Restart Button

In my old theology, there was no way I was knowing the new me in heaven. My mind was way too messed up to be thinking there. Yet, when I stopped to think about it, if I didn't know me then who knew God there? No, that wasn't right. But, how would I get there? All of a sudden Purgatory made a lot of sense. God wanted me! He wanted me, the individual me, so much that he would "finish the work he started" (Phil 1:6) no matter how long it took. God didn't just want some new version of me via the holy restart button; no he wanted Brent Stubbs, his unique son whom he knew in his mother's womb. He wanted a relationship whereby I would genuinely love him as the God I always loved.

Is this against Christian sensibilities? No way. In fact, the doctrine of Purgatory made me really believe for the first time that Jesus really wanted me. No trampolines needed, just the fire of His love.

(Next: Purgatory in Church History)

Purgatory: It's Your Choice

I am convinced that for those who have been given the gift of communal life, either in family life or holy orders, God has given us a tremendous opportunity to die to ourselves. Ultimately, this is what purgatory is. It is a shedding away of all selfishness, the root of sin, and an opening up to the full self-giving life of God. Every day in my family I am challenged to die to my selfishness and open up to selflessness--the very life of God. This is truly the path of purification. The question remains, will we seize the opportunity to grow in holiness through our communal sacrament, or will we wait until after death? I think, today, I chose the latter. Thank God for tomorrow. Lord Have Mercy. Christ Have Mercy. Lord Have Mercy.