Purgatory: Why & How Long

among the place is referred to as hell in the Bible is what we know as purgatory where the souls of the just men are cleansed by a temporary punishment in order to be admitted into their eternal country into which nothing unclean may enter so says the Catechism of the Council of Trent st. Agustin is the first who have said that even the least pains in purgatory are greater than whatever pain is imaginable in this world but why suffering what is the point of suffering in purgatory today we'll be following Canon George Smith's classical scholastic catechism and Canon Smith says that there are two possible ways to look at this first do we not feel that there is something wrong if sin can be gotten away with if he who is perfectly just is in some cases not perfectly just in a way it is not fair if those who deserve punishment receive none odd thing this thing called justice at the same time purgatory is a great mercy for nothing unclean can enter heaven but even the just man sins seven times a day if that is so what hope is there for any of us and so seeing our sins Canon Smith says we would despair like Judas and the devils were it not for the consolation of a place like purgatory we deserve punishment but we can hope for mercy so continues Canon Smith there are two reasons for their suffering for sin one is atonement for sin and also the remaking of souls to be pleased to be pleasing to God that is to bring our souls back to the virtue which they had before they were damaged by sin and that can be a slow process many of us typically see purgatory as simply paying the price for our sins but this is so in two ways payment plain and simple I am injured or I have injured I need to pay the price or I need to be saved to keep from dying but more I pay in another way and that is by rehabilitation suffering when a body is carved and pulled and twisted and being restored back to its original shape and its full function souls in purgatory could in God's omnipotence pay the price for their sins in an instant but it would still be unfitting if God also repaired the damage in an instant purgatory would certainly cease to be a deterrent to sin and again it would seem to the fair-minded that justice was not served if the glory and grandeur of a newly created soul and a soul formed in virtue thrown away in a single instant of selfishness were then restored instantly simply because God is merciful does it do our children any good if we forgive their transgressions and repair the damage of those transgressions but exact no price from the offender no it doesn't they become more self-centered and have no gratitude they lose all appreciation of the gravity of their offense and so also of the price of their Redemption they will only sink lower next time and continue to grow more ungrateful nevertheless souls which pass from this life to the next with no mortal sin on them but only venial sin or the punishment due to sin do not go directly to heaven but must wait in purgatory where they will be cleansed by willingly suffering until their unworthiness is purged out of them until they are hammered back into their original shape and they can pass then into the kingdom of the Blessed where their bodies will one day move in perfect accord with their souls and their souls will move in perfect accord with the will of God it is only through punishment that such unruliness as would dare affair the infinite God can be rectified and this is the purpose of purgatory and what are those punishments keep in mind these souls suffer willingly for they see the justice and the mercy of their position and they long to be with their Creator first there is the suffering of the lover he has died in a state of loving God the degree of that love is determined by how he spent his life and will determine his glory in heaven at death this love is no longer fettered by the material world the distractions of the flesh and it is drawn towards God as the source and summit of all its love and as the one true benefactor loving even himself to the point of dying on a cross for him alone thus that soul knows happiness we cannot imagine in this world and yet it is cut off and held back from the consummation of that love from perfect union with the uncreated what suffering that must be this separation causes the most intense pain even like unto that fires of Hell itself and yet it does not diminish the love but rather flows from the great love that the soul has for God and purifies the soul according to the degree of that love this love causes the agony of separation to arise but also to be eclipsed by the agony of having so offended the one so worthy of all love and whom we now love unfettered by the frailty of the world and the flesh but make no mistake there is also a positive pain because we have attached ourselves to creatures in two ways both by the quantity of our sins and also by how deeply those sins are rooted in us the first the quantity of sin determines the intensity of the pain that we will suffer in purgatory while ii how deeply rooted the sin is in us determines the length of our stay in purgatory so it's someone with many sins but who is not too much under the power of the sin will suffer intensely but not for a long time on the other hand one who has committed even a single sin but is very attached to it will suffer a long time but not very intensely and let's remember when we're talking about intensity and time this is purgatory the slightest pain in purgatory cannot even be measured by earthly standards and a thousand years is as a single day to the Lord there is however good reason to believe that the soul's suffering is increased as it nears the end of its time in purgatory since the longer it stays the more pure it becomes and the closer it gets to God and it's happiness is increased and yet it is still separated from him the separation the pain of agony is increased thus its happiness increases and so does its suffering finally it is thought following the writings of st. Catherine of Siena that the pains of purgatory are purely spiritual while Saint Thomas Aquinas holds out the idea that those purified are purified in the same fires where the Damned are punished in hell either way purgatory is a place of the most intense sufferings what's the point of all that well last week we learned that those who died wearing the brown scapular will not only enjoy the protection of the mother of god in this life but will also not suffer the fires of hell we also learned that that promise does not mean that those souls would not go to purgatory you can die wearing a scapular and still end up in purgatory so having looked somewhat at purgatory today we would be inclined to hope that there is some way to avoid that too after all it seems that most of us would be destined for purgatory since we spend so much of our time wrapped up in this very real battle between the flesh and the spirit it is likely we will not die in a perfectly pure state there are of course plenary indulgences granted by the church from the infinite treasury of Christ's expiation remitting all the punishment owed force in such an indulgence is even applicable at the moment of death for those who have received the apostolic blessing in danger of death but there is another promise associated with the scapular it's known as the Sabatini privilege the first mention of this privilege was on March 3rd in 1322 when a bull was issued by pope john xxiii many contest the authenticity of the bull but that doesn't really matter because the teachings in that bull have been upheld by subsequent popes as fact according to the bull mary in an apparition to the pope made an additional promise that the scapular wearer can be delivered from purgatory on the first saturday after his death provided that the conditions of the privilege are met those conditions are three where the brown scapular continuously lead a chaste life and recite the little office of the Blessed Virgin every day now this last requirement to recite the little office of the Blessed Virgin every day can be changed or substituted with the saying of a rosary with the permission of a priest which permission I readily grant you all here today so there is yet another great blessing from the Queen of Heaven those who wear the brown scapular continuously lead a chaste life which can always be achieved even if one may have fallen in the past in this regard and say the little Office of the Blessed Virgin will be rescued by Mary herself from the pains of purgatory on the first Saturday after their death Saturday being the day the church specially dedicates to the Blessed Mother in that last requirement the little office of Mary I have just commuted for all parishioners and all who are here today to the saying of a rosary every day say a rosary wear a scapular live a chaste life and Mary will lead you out of purgatory herself on the first Saturday after your death pray to die on a Friday the Sabbatini privilege I the mother of grace shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in purgatory I shall free Mary's mercy extended to her children even after death how many more ways could God show his love for us in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Ghost amen

Channel: Sensus Fidelium

Views: 53,018

Keywords: catholic, christianity, God, Jesus Christ, holiness, salvation, purgatory, four last things, death, fire, heaven, cleaning, bible, gospel, devotion, religion, bellarmine, hope, faith, charity, prayer, virtue, st thomas aquinas, st catherine of sienna, truth, ewtn, mass, church, church suffering, rosary, little office

Id: BKMrhwnh5nU

Length: 12min 4sec (724 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2017