IN the mind of Martin Luther the idea of purgatory eventually was branded as absurd. He started by denying the need of indulgences; he ended up writing a book De abroganda Missa in 1524, in which he denied the usefulness of the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice. No need to satisfy for sin, he said in 1530, since Christ satisfied super abundantly. The position of the first reformer has been resurrected by many authors in recent times. Luther thinks man is so immersed in sin that his nature is totally corrupt. He is completely rotten; he is a real dunghill. Christ dies and covers over all of man’s sins from the sight of God with the cloak of his unique sacrifice. The mistake here is simple but terrible in its consequences: the mistake is to presume that human nature cannot be reformed; we can neither get better nor worse; there is no expiation possible for sin amongst men. Merit is attributed only to Christ himself. You cannot transform the world either. Luther empties the redemption of Christ of its meaning, and his disciples today continue to do the same.

The existence of purgatory is a jibe at any Lutheran tendencies that lie in our souls. Luther just makes explicit the reluctance of mankind to admit to the need or possibility of purification.

"It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins"(2 Mac 12:46), says the book of the Maccabees, commenting on the sum of money sent to the temple to pray for those who died in the battle. In the book of Revelation, St. John emphasizes that nothing unclean can enter heaven (cf. Rev 21:27).

St. Paul makes a beautiful comparison with a building when speaking to the Corinthians about their vocation as Christians. The entire paragraph is worth listening to as it elucidates the most positive aspect of purgatory. "According to the grace of God which has been given to me, as a wise builder, I laid the foundation and another builds thereon. But let everyone take care how he builds thereon. For foundation no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. But if anyone builds his foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – the work of which will be made manifest for the day of the Lord will declare it, since the day is to be revealed in fire. The fire will assay the quality of everyone’s work: if his work abides which he has built thereon, he will receive reward; if his work burns he will lose his reward, but himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" (1 Cor 3:10- 15).

Through fire even those works, which are strawlike, can be burned, purified, cleansed so as to be presented to God. Since this text has always been interpreted by the Fathers as implying the existence and function of purgatory, St. Thomas interprets it in the following manner, summing up the traditional teaching: "In the building constructed upon Christ, he says, good deeds are comparable to gold, silver and precious stones; venial sins on the other hand are comparable to wood, grass and straw. The Day of the Lord is that day in which his judgment will be made manifest, particularly during the tribulations which h sends to the earth, later on at the moment of particular judgment on reaching death, and finally at the universal judgment. The fire which tests and purifies is now that of tribulation here on earth, then the fire of purgatory after death, and finally that of the universal conflagration at the moment of the last judgment."

Purgatory, then, exists. The church has always affirmed so quite clearly. By that word is understood the place or state where a transitory fire purifies those sins which are venial and yet weigh the soul down after death, and where the temporal punishment due to sins forgiven after baptism is paid off. Tradition over the first few centuries of the history of the Church gradually clarified the notion of purgatory. Purgatory is outside time. The souls there can no longer merit. But they can be helped by prayers from the Church militant on earth, especially by the sacrifice of the Mass. Purgatory will end with the last judgment.

Garrigou Lagrange summarizes a chapter from a treatise by St. Catherine of Genoa (c. 1500 A.D.) on purgatory on the following words: "Heaven has no gate and whoever wishes to do so can enter, for God is all mercy and stands with open arms to admit us to his glory. But the being of God is so pure that should a soul see in itself the least trace of imperfection, and at the same time see that purgatory is ordained to take away such blemishes, it plunges into it, and deems it a great mercy that it can thus remove them. The greatest suffering of those souls is to have sinned against the divine goodness."

This attitude to the revealed truth of purgatory is the correct one confirmed by the constant teaching of the Church. We think of purgatory often in human terms and, and we are amazed that we would be punished for such trifles as venial sins. Many present-day authors, when dealing with the notion of sin, have opted for the Lutheran idea mentioned above. They put it in different terminology however: they tend to say that everyone can only have one fundamental option: either for God or against God. This idea of a once only decision for or against God seems to be used primarily to reduce personal responsibility for sin, but its clear secondary effect is to eliminate any need of purification, any sense of the temporal punishment due to sin.

What is temporal punishment? When a man commits a mortal sin he opts for creatures against God. Thank God however, it is not a fundamental option, in the sense that he can always opt back for God’s grace. He can, with God’s grace, repent of his sin. He can seek forgiveness in the sacrament won for us by the passion and death of Jesus. So God forgives his sins, as he forgave the paralyzed man let down through the roof (cf. Lk 5:20). But man has sinned. He did reject God. So there is first of all an imbalance. You cannot simply break a china cup, and then put it together again immediately. You must pick up each piece. You must pay a price to restore the harmony destroyed by your action. You are forgiven. You must be punished. If we were truly sorry for our sins, we would willingly undergo this punishment in order to restore the balance upset by our selfishness. If we do not succeed in doing so during this life, we will be able to do it in the next.

It is also possible to die with venial sins on our soul. What is a venial sin? Even as a child I remember people saying: "venial sins do not really matter," as if they were some kind of minor misdemeanor, of no importance, as if they were the mere cut of a sharp-edged piece of paper. Venial sin is an impurity brought into the soul by a person not doing God’s will in some small way. Venial sin is the result of selfishness: it does not block off supernatural grace from the soul, that is to say, God can still remain dwelling in the soul. However venial sin allows the process of growing near to God, which is the fundamental purpose of life. It is a blemish. And as a blemish, it stops us from getting to God directly if we die with venial sin on our soul. So on dying we see them clearly, we look at God’s clarity, and we rush headlong to look for that place of purification where we can prepare ourselves for an eternity with God.

Finally, bad habits are also real. St. Thomas explains how penance in its sacramental form takes away mortal sin, forgives it, thus allowing supernatural grace to return to each person. "A mortal sin from the point of view of its being an inordinate conversion toward creatures, toward a created goodness, causes a certain disposition (tendency) in the soul, or even a habit if the act is repeated frequently. As we have said, the guilt of mortal sin is forgiven in so far as the aversion of the mind from God is removed by grace. When you remove however that part of mortal sin, which arises from the aversion to God, there remains that aspect which corresponds to the inordinate conversion toward creatures. Thus it can easily happen that though the guilt is forgiven, the disposition from the preceding acts, which caused the sin to remain: these are called remains of sin (peccati reliquiae). They remain weakened, and diminished; they do not dominate man." These dispositions are in the soul at death if they have not been eliminated by constant purification during this life. Again, as soon as death comes, we perceive these dispositions quite clearly, and we are consumed with a great desire to be rid of them. Purgatory is offered to us as an opportunity to do so. We plunge into its fierce torments in order to present ourselves pure and immaculate in the sight of God. There will be regret that we did not perform this cleansing task during our life on earth. But that regret will in fact be drowned at the discovery that we are in any case saved from eternal damnation, bound for eternal life with God, even though we have to pass through torments to get there. The soul, which must take itself to purgatory, is like an adventurer at the edge of a desert. The sun is hot, so hot. He has little water. Across miles of dry sand he can see the mountain where his treasure lies, where cool breezes blow, where he can rest forever. So he sets off to tramp across, fierce heat beating him to the ground. The difference between the adventurer and the soul who must take a march through purgatory is that the soul, unlike the adventurer, will definitely reach the mountain. However hot the sun or the sand, they cannot separate him from God.

The last point to be considered is the state of the souls in purgatory. We must distinguish between the pain of loss and the pain of sense. There is a parallel between hell and purgatory, in so far as both are places of punishment. There is one difference however. Hell lasts forever. Purgatory ends with the last judgment. This difference is all the difference. Because when people die and see that there remains in them an inordinate desire for the things of the world, they willingly undergo what amounts to a separation from God in order to be able to present themselves purified in his sight. Thus theologians usually conclude that the first pain of purgatory is the separation from God. What it means here is the delay of the beatific vision really. And this delay is all the more excruciating now since the separated soul is capable of appreciating exactly what that means. For us here on earth, separation from God seems at first sight no great penance. We have to pray and we have top work hard at meditating the gospel and controlling our reluctant wills before we realize that only by having God as the center of our lives, can we really live, even on this earth. But for the separated soul that idea is completely clear. When we die we realize that God is the end and object of all things; we can visually appreciate - - because the eyes of the soul are clearer than the eyes of the body - - that in him all things subsist (cf. Col 1:17). Now the soul knows that it was always destined for God. Here I am, we will say, within sight of the goal of all time, the treasure of all time, perfect beauty, entire satisfaction and completion. Here I am with only one desire left, that of God, and I cannot have him for a long time.

Thus the hunger within this life is ultimately recognizable, as the hunger for truth and God, becomes an al-consuming spiritual fire in purgatory. The souls of the faithful departed are parched of God, burning to be with Him, fainting at the very thought that He still far from them, consumed with a determination to bear their sufferings well so that they cannot come to Him as soon as His will permits. I am looking for You since the very dawn of my life, and here I am now languishing, like dried up rocky soil without water, parched is my soul, when shall I appear before the face of my God (cf. Ps 62:1-2 and 41:2)?

Secondly, according to Tradition and the teaching of many authors on this matter, the pain of sense will also be a pain of fire akin to the pains of hell. The Church has not pronounced on this matter, although some think that the more probable opinion is that there is punishment in purgatory through fire. And that fire is very intense indeed, causing a more intense suffering than all the pains of this earth could ever do. God again uses a human instrument to subject the sinfulness of the creature who was too attached on this earth to creatures. The souls in purgatory long to be with God, and they are held back by their own imperfections and defect, which are gradually being burned away from their souls. Slowly then the sufferings brings them nearer to God. In time they will reach him.

On the basis of pointing out the positive side of purgatory I have emphasized the sense of salvation, which the souls there have. Let me also point out that they are not meriting with their sufferings. They are engaged in a sheer task of purification. It is a task much more harsh, much more difficult than any similar task on earth. They are suffering all the horrors of the man who dies of the thirst in the desert, of cancer in a lonely ward, of hunger in a crowded rat-infested ghetto. Let us make no mistake about that. Anything, which has ever been communicated to us by reliable writers, insists on the intensity of the sufferings in purgatory. There is real suffering. The point I wish to underline is the attitude of the souls in purgatory toward their sufferings. Even if they may have to remain there until the end of time on this earth, they are willing to do so, such as their love for God, such their determination to cleanse their souls of all those inordinate attachments, which still linger there. There is no anxiety in purgatory. There is no fruitless and desperate remorse as there is in hell. Purgatory is a sign of God’s mercy. He provides us with this opportunity for complete purification. As Msgr. Escrivá says we can compare the reason for the existence of purgatory to the affection of a mother who "takes her child, puts him in the water, soaps him, scrubs him, smartens him up and even dabs a bit of perfume on him, until he’s dazzlingly clean." Purgatory is the great cleansing operation whereby the soul is cleansed and made beautiful enough helped by the prayers of all of us here on earth, and all those who have finally won through to heaven – to be able to reach God, and really rest forever.

I have to confess that at this point I still remember distinctly the phrase with which I began this section on purgatory. And the reason I remember it joyfully is that it is one of those phrases learned from a catechism, which always meant something profound in my own mind at any rate. "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Mac 12:46). That phrase has a certain rhythm, and a certain beauty. It stays with you. I learned it, as many of you will have done, around the age of six. Many people now are afraid to consign phrases to memory, as if their minds were so many broken cisterns, which carry nothing and they are afraid to try them. Yet to "learn off by heart" a phrase like the one mentioned in the Maccabees is very useful for it enables us to offer an act of sacrifice during the day, in our work, at our sport or anywhere, for the soul in purgatory that needs it most.

It is a dogma of faith that the holy sacrifice of the Mass, prayers, indulgences, alms, sacrifices, and fasting help to alleviate and even shorten the sufferings of the souls in purgatory. That is, of course, only a logical consequence of that statement from the Old Testament. The souls in purgatory cannot merit, they can do nothing to shorten their own sufferings. They must wait to be purified. But we can help. We can still merit. And if we help them, won’t they help us?

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