I’d like to start with a little catechesis on Purgatory and then dive in a little deeper

by looking at what a few of our saints have said.

P1030 says this: 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 heaven.

There are a few points here.

1. Everyone in Purgatory is on their way to heaven. They will enter heaven

when God deems them ready.

2. Purgatory is not a 2nd chance. Some people will say this. I was talking with a

guy at work about death and the afterlife and he said that some people

believe you get a 2nd chance after death. I’m slow so I didn’t think to ask if

he was talking about Purgatory, but some people believe that. Purgatory is

for those “who die in God’s grace and friendship”.

3. This assumes we’re aiming for heaven! Very important. It says “those who

die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified.” We’re

aiming for heaven. We don’t want to just do the bare minimum and hope

we make it. This is probably more of an issue for guys than you ladies, but

the idea here is that if we’re striving for heaven, and we fall short, praise

God for purgatory; but if we aim for purgatory, and we fall short – not

good.

Why do we believe?

The first reason we believe is God’s holiness. God is all holy. He is infinitely holy.

Think of Isaiah 6 from which we get our prayer at Mass, The Sanctus. Isaiah sees a

vision of God on His throne and angels crying out holy, holy, holy is the Lord of

hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

In Revelation 4, John has a vision of the worship in heaven and the four living

creatures, day and night never cease to sing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God

Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”.

1 Jn 5 “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.”

And we could go on and on. God is all holy. He is holy beyond what we can

imagine.

The second reason follows from the first – we can’t see God unless we are holy.

Go back to the vision of Isaiah. After he sees the angels praising God he says,

“Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a

people with unclean lips. Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in

his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And

he touched my mouth, and said “Behold, this has touched your lips; your

guilt is taken away, and you sin forgiven.” Is 6:5

This was like his purgatory. An angel made him pure with fire from the altar.

Rev 21:27 Nothing unclean will enter heaven.

Now, imagine for a moment that there is no Purgatory. There’s only Heaven or

Hell and nothing unclean will enter Heaven. In other words, only those who are

totally pure at the time of death will enter heaven. Where would most of us end

up? Purgatory is an incredible grace, an incredible mercy.

Here’s another image that I got from Fr. Groeschel. Imagine you’ve been out

working all day. You’re covered in dirt, grease, sweat (or you’ve been in your art

room and you’re covered in paint and glue and all kinds of other stuff you’ve been

working with). You come home and the person you love, your husband, your best

friend, has prepared a magnificent meal. The dining room is set with the finest

china. Everything is sparkling clean, the chairs look perfect, and the person says,

welcome, I’m so glad to see you, please come in and join me. What would you

say?

WAIT! Let me get cleaned up first so I can sit at your table as I ought. Even if the

shower and the scrubbing hurts, you would be glad to do it in order to be properly

prepared for the banquet that has been prepared for you.

You clean up joyfully. This person has gone way overboard in this incredible act of

kindness and generosity and in joy and total gratitude you want to be cleaned up.

This is what we hear from the saints, like St. Catherine of Genoa and St. Bridget of

Sweden; they speak of the intense desire of the souls in purgatory to be made

pure. Let’s look at what these 2 mystical saints have revealed about Purgatory but

first let’s recall that there’s 2 sides of Purgatory. We tend to focus on the

purification part of Purgatory but there’s another side. That’s the side of

reparation or debt. The classic story is you throw a stone through your neighbor’s

window. You go over and apologize and your neighbor forgives you, but you also

need to repair the damage to the window. That’s the other side of Purgatory and

that’s the side that Bridget seems to focus on.

Bridget was in a vast space with many souls. Some were surrounded by fire;

others in frigid water. All were suffering. They accepted it because they

understood it was necessary. Jesus stood beside Bridget. He was not angry, not

sorrowful, but appeared patient. Watch he said. He directed her attention to a

particular soul. The man was surrounded by a fire that appeared to penetrate his

very essence. His face showed pain but also acceptance. He did not rage, but

accepted it. This soul has been here for 700 years. She was shocked. She never

imagined purgatory could be so long.

What did he do?

Jesus’ answer, his sin was common. He complained. He was ungrateful.

Throughout his life, He received blessing after blessing from my hand, health,

family, meaningful work, sufficient food. Instead of giving thanks, he complained.

It was too hot, or too cold, the food was not to his liking. His work was tedious.

His family was imperfect. His neighbors were annoying. The Priests were boring.

Every day, he found something to complain about. He poisoned others. His

complaints spread discontent to everyone around him. His wife and children were

affected. His negativity was exhausting.

Jesus’s voice grew heavy. He never thanked me. Not once was he ever grateful for

the gifts I had given him.

Bridget asked: Is complaining so serious? Is it not just a small fault, a minor

imperfection.

Christ turned to face her directly. Let me show you what complaining really is. She

saw scenes from his life. She saw them as heaven saw them. His wife had

prepared breakfast. Simple but nourishing. She had risen early to make it. The

man sat down, looked at the food and frowned, this again? Could we not have

something different for once? Bridget watched his wife’s face. Her expression

became totally sad. The angels saw not only the words, but the effect of the

words on his wife. They saw the wound in her heart. Jesus said, every complaint is

a rejection of my providence. When he complained about the weather, he was

rejecting my creation. For his family, he was rejecting the souls I had given him.

The deeper sin was what his sin did to others. Nothing she did was ever good

enough. His kids saw deficiency in everything. They learned from their dad.

Scenes of his life continued.

Complaining at his work. Complaining at the length of the Mass, the quality of the

sermon, the behavior of other parishioners. She watched him with his neighbors

spreading discontent. She saw the cumulative effect. A wife whose joy slowly

died, children who grew up believing life was disappointing, a community

poisoned by his complaining.

He’s in purgatory not only for his own sin, but for all the effects of his sin on

others. The 700 years is not because I am harsh, but because the debt is that

large. The poison continues in descendants. All of that has to be burned away.

Bridget started to get concerned. She was concerned about her own complaining.

Jesus told her: Not all complaints are equal. There is a difference between

expressing genuine hardship and wallowing in ingratitude. There is a difference

between acknowledging difficulty and refusing to see blessing. This man had no

genuine hardship. His life was good compared to most.

Even those with genuine suffering can choose gratitude or bitterness.

The martyrs praised me from their crosses.

It’s all in the heart? A grateful heart can be joyful in prison. An ungrateful heart

can find misery in paradise.

Jesus showed her more. The next soul was in purgatory for 3 days. Bridget found

this even more surprising than the 700 years.

The soul was a woman who was a peasant. She had lived a hard life. Her face

showed the marks of suffering. She was poor. She worked hard every day. She

buried 3 of her 6 children before they reached adulthood. Her husband was often

ill and so she had to work to make up for his illness. She did not complain. Every

morning, she thanked me for another day of life. Every evening, she thanked me

for the food on her plate. When her children died, she wept, but she also said, the

Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. She offered

her sufferings for the souls in purgatory, for the conversion of sinners, and those

in pain. Everything was an offering. What remained in her soul was only the

smallest residue of imperfection.

2 lives – one comfortable and complaining, the other difficult and grateful.

Jesus showed Bridget many more souls. A wealthy man who gave often to charity.

His gifts were genuinely helpful. But he gave for attention. He wanted to be seen

as this wonderful generous guy. He was being purified not because of greed, but

because of vanity.

Another was a woman who had been harsh in her speech. Not malicious exactly

She never lied, never spoke behind people’s backs, but was blunt to the point of

cruelty. She corrected without compassion. She was right in what she said but

wrong in how she said it. She had wounded countless souls with truth delivered

without love. Her purification was teaching her what her words felt like to others.

She saw a woman who had loved her children, but wrongly. She was possessive,

controlling; she saw them as extensions of herself, rather than persons with their

own destinies. In purgatory she was learning release, to let her children belong to

God and not to her.

Bridget asked what determines the length of purification?

There are several factors.

1. The depth of attachment. A sin committed once in weakness is different

from a sin committed repeatedly until it becomes habit. The deeper the

attachment, the longer the purification.

Here, Joni thought of the lizard in C.S. Lewis’s Great Divorce. The little lizard

is on the man’s back and constantly whispering temptations in his ear. I

believe in the story the temptations were to lust. The angel asks the man if

he can kill the lizard, and a dialog ensues. On the one hand, the man wants

to get rid of the lizard, but on the other hand, he doesn’t know how he can

live without his pleasures. The lizard keeps whispering in his ear, and says

how can you go on without me? We can probably all relate to this; a sin

that has become part of us that we can’t live without. How we let God kill

that sin could be another talk. I’ll just mention very briefly that St. Teresa of

Avila is a tremendous inspiration for this. She waffled back and forth for 19

years until she final fell on her face weeping copiously and begged God for

mercy.

2. The effect on others. Sins that harm only the sinner are purified more

quickly than sins that harm others.

3. The degree of knowledge. A sin committed in ignorance is different than a

sin committed with full knowledge of its evil. This is why priests and

religious often face longer purifications than laity.

4. Failure to repent and repair. A sin that is confessed, repented and repaired

as much as possible while still on earth requires less purification in

purgatory. This is why we are given a penance in confession. The penance is

paying our debt.

5. Prayers of the living. Souls in purgatory can’t help themselves, they can only

wait and suffer, but the living can help them. Masses offered, prayers said,

indulgences applied to them. Souls who have people praying for them are

released sooner. Many souls are in purgatory longer than necessary

because no one is helping them. This is why the church teaches the faithful

to pray for the dead. This is a great act of charity. Not just your own dead,

but all the souls who have no one to pray for them.

I’m going to digress for just a moment and touch on Indulgences. The

Church has what she calls a treasury of merit from Jesus Christ and the

saints. And, with her power to bind and loose, she has the authority to pay

debts from this treasury. There are basically 2 types of indulgences: plenary

and partial. An indulgence requires some work, for example, praying the

rosary, visiting a pilgrimage site, praying for the dead, etc. For a partial

indulgence, only the work is needed, assuming the person is in a state of

grace and has the proper disposition of faith and mercy. As the name

implies, a partial indulgence pays part of a person’s debt. A plenary

indulgence pays the whole debt. To gain a plenary indulgence, you have to

do the work plus receive communion, go to confession, pray for the Pope,

within a reasonable time period of the work – I’ve heard 7 days, 20 days,

but some reasonable time period, and, the fine print, you have to be free

from all attachment to sin (all sins).

The church also recommends the apostolic pardon (or blessing). This is a

plenary indulgence given by a priest to a person who is dying. It is given

after the last rites, which would generally cover the confession, eucharist,

and prayer for the Pope. The person still needs to be free from all

attachment to sin, but if there’s anytime when we can achieve that, it will

be when we’re dying.

Finally, there is 1 day in the year when a person can receive the equivalent

of a plenary indulgence, but without the need of total detachment. That

day is Divine Mercy Sunday. This is based on the words of Jesus to St.

Faustina and is summarized by the Marian Fathers:

Today, go to confession, and receive Him worthily in communion. Or,

if we’ve gone to confession recently, that suffices, provided we’re

still in a state of grace when we receive communion. That’s it.

(Extraordinary Graces | The Divine Mercy).

Bridget had 1 more question. How can we avoid long purification?

1. Practice gratitude every day. Thank me genuinely, not just words. Look at

your life and see your gifts. This one practice, if it had been faithfully

followed, would have emptied purgatory of half its souls.

2. Repair what you can. If you have harmed others, seek their forgiveness. If

you have damaged relationships, heal them. If you owe debts, pay them

while you can.

3. Accept sufferings. Every pain you experience can be transformed into

purgatorial fire. If you want to know what offering it up looks like, read

Joni’s book ‘The Pain of Grace’. This has been her life. I saw her doing this

way back when we were dating, over 40 years ago. She hadn’t yet fallen

apart, but she had issues, and there were times when I would come up for a

visit and because of her love for me, she would be gracious and not make a

fuss about how she was feeling. There’s a whole lot more to say so I

encourage you to read her book. It’s an easy read – lots of stories.

4. Pray for the dead. What you give will be given to you. If you pray for a soul

and that person is released from Purgatory, you can be absolutely certain

that he or she will remember you when it’s your turn.

5. Receive the sacraments, especially confession. It remits sins but also some

of the sufferings due them. Eucharist unites you to my sacrifice and applies

its merits to your soul.

Christ showed her one more thing. He showed her the moment of release. The

fire stopped; the darkness lifted. The soul saw light, a warm light, a welcoming

light. Angels came to escort the soul upward. On the person’s face, she saw joy so

profound it erased all memory of suffering.

No matter how long the duration, it ends. The souls would tell you every moment

was worth it. The joy far surpasses the suffering. But they would also tell you, do

what you can now.

Some words from St. Catherine of Genoa on the souls in purgatory from her

Treatise on Purgatory.

Ch 7. On death, the soul casts herself quickly and willingly to her appointed place,

hell, purgatory or heaven. The soul in purgatory intensely desires the purification

of purgatory, and even though the pains are comparable to hell, in comparison

with the loss of God, it is as nothing.

Ch 8. Heaven has no gates. He who will may enter for God is all mercy.

But I see that the divine essence is so pure – purer than the imagination can

conceive – that the soul, finding in itself the slightest imperfection, would rather

cast itself into a thousand hells than appear, so stained, in the presence of the

divine majesty. Knowing that purgatory was intended for her cleaning, she throws

herself therein, and finds there that great mercy, the removal of her stains.

The greatest misery of the souls in purgatory is to behold in themselves aught

that displeases God, and to discover that, in spite of His goodness, they had

consented to it.

And again,

Ch 9b. The soul sees how God never ceases to attract her to her last perfection,

and that He does so through pure love alone. She sees too, that she herself,

clogged by sin cannot follow that attraction toward God. It is the view of these

things which causes the pain of the suffering souls in purgatory, not that their

pains aren’t great, but they count as far worse that opposition which they find in

themselves to the will of that God whom they behold burning for them with so

ardent and so pure a love.

It reminds me of a story I read recently in the life of Padre Pio. This takes place

late in his life. The priest that he normally goes to for confession is away, and

there is a young priest who is with him to help him get around in his old age, and

so he goes to him for confession. After the confession, the young priest says to

Padre Pio: Father, there is no correlation at all between the sins that you

confessed and your weeping as you confessed them. Padre Pio responded: you

see sin as breaking a rule, it’s not, it’s a betrayal of love.

Ch 1. The souls in Purgatory are exempt from all self-love. They cannot commit

sin, nor merit by refraining from it.

They retain no memory of either good or evil respecting themselves or others.

They see nothing but the operation of the divine goodness which is so manifestly

bringing them to God that they can reflect neither on their own profit nor on their

hurt.

Catherine had said elsewhere that when the soul first enter Purgatory, she knows

why she’s going there, but from that point on, she no longer thinks about herself.

She is totally consumed with God.

2b. The pain never diminishes, but as to the will, so united is it to God by pure

charity, and so satisfied to be under His divine appointment, that these souls can

never say their pains are pains.

Ch2. There is no peace to be compared with that of the souls in purgatory, save

that of the saints in paradise, and this peace is ever augmented by the inflowing

of God into these souls, which increases in proportion as the impediments to it

are removed.

Repeat this last one slowly!!

I want to add 1 more mercy about Purgatory and that is Our Lady. In her Diary

(#20), St. Faustina said that she

Saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call her “The Star of

the Sea.” She brings them refreshment

In her revelations to St. Bridget, Our Lady said

I am the mother of all the souls in Purgatory; and all the sufferings which

they merit for the sins committed in life are every hour, while they remain

there, alleviated in some measure by my prayers.

This kind mother sometimes condescends even to enter in that that holy prison,

to visit and console these her afflicted children.

So, I leave you with this thought. Imagine yourself in Purgatory, you’re suffering,

and then you see Our Lady. Imagine the joy and consolation you would feel at

seeing Our Blessed Mother there!

God Bless you all.