Lesson Six - Purgatory

Text by Pat Austin, St. Patrick's Cathedral RCIA Instructor

Purgatory is an official teaching of the Catholic Church. The word purgatory comes from "purge," to make pure or to cleanse. The basis for this teaching of the Church is Divine Revelation.

The scriptures do not specifically mention purgatory. However, the idea of purgatory is implied. Scripture says that we need to be holy (pure - clean) to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says through parables that we will pay until the last penny. In scripture, the book of Maccabees, it says to pray for the dead. Why pray for souls if everyone goes directly to heaven? From the beginning of the Church to today, the Church has always prayed for souls of the dead.

Definition: Purgatory is that state or condition into which souls enter to be cleansed or purified from the effects of unforgiven sin or to endure temporal punishment for sins already forgiven.

The actual word purgatory has been used since the 1200's A.D. to refer to this "purification" after death. Before the 1200's A.D. the Christians sometimes used the phrase "place of tears" or "place of darkness" to refer to the purification after death.

The Council of Trent - circa 1500 A.D. stated that Purgatory exists. Souls go there who need to be purified. Prayer, especially the Mass, greatly help these souls.

Explanation

God has two images of every person: what God knows you can be and what you are right now. You can not enter into Heaven until you are what you can be. You must be whole, complete for you. If you do not reach that condition here on Earth, then you will be made whole in Purgatory IF you deserve Heaven.

Sin keeps us from being what we should be. Every sin causes us to be less. We will not go to Heaven until we get rid of our lessness and become whole. Another way to say this: every sin has temporal punishment as a result of that sin (we are less than what we could be).

Sin causes a spiritual loss, not physical loss. God will forgive the sin but you have to take care of the loss/lessness called temporal punishment. If you do not do it here on Earth, then you will gain back your loss in purgatory so that you become what you can be -- whole.

Sin is like a two-sided coin. One side of sin is the act and the other side of sin is the effect. God forgives the act (sin); you have to take care of the effect (your loss, lessness, temporal punishment). This is because you made the choices that caused your loss; you are responsible for your actions, not God.

Purgatory takes care of this lessness if we failed to take care of it while we lived. Purgatory helps us to be what God intended us to be. Purgatory strips away our imperfections. It purifies us so that we are worthy of God.

Total lessness at death would mean Hell. God is the judge of that.

Souls in purgatory can do nothing for themselves while they wait to be purified. We are not sure of just what the purifying is but it is some type of suffering. Jesus constantly tells us that you will be punished until the debt is paid in full. The suffering of purgatory is not a "piece of cake." It is tough but the soul has hope. Some say that the suffering is like Hell except the soul knows that Heaven is theirs when they are worthy.

We can help the souls in purgatory by:

• Mass and prayer for the souls
• Self-denial for the souls
• Good works for the souls

How much suffering in Purgatory takes away how much lessness? We don't know. How much lessness for each sin? We don't know. All of this is God's judgement.

How long is the suffering of Purgatory? We really can't say because time as we know it does not exist in eternity.

Reference: Text - first paragraph on page 186 to the middle of 187.