A couple days ago, I received a call from a young lady. She is an 11th grade student at Providence Academy, which is a nondenominational college prep program in the Saint Louis area.
She wanted to know more about a theological precept known as “compensation theodicy”, which is essentially an attempt to explain and resolve the problem with evil.
I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with her knowledge of Saint Augustine and concepts of the subject she wanted to talk about.
Please keep her in your prayers and she continues her spiritual journey so that she may have an intimate encounter with the ultimate Truth and come home to the Catholic Church.
One of her questions was about purgatory. As soon as she said, “a place where”; I interjected, “I’ll just stop you right there.”
There are many lies and misconceptions spread about purgatory, particularly in non-Catholic circles, but even by some well-intentioned Catholics. Ultimately the Church has never said purgatory is a place. The Church has simply said it is the “final purification of the elect”. This final purification occurs, as I alluded to earlier today, during the transition into eternity.
I told her about how we played a lot of baseball growing up, which meant a lot of broken windows. I told her how our parents generally forgave us right away, but the forgiveness did not somehow fix the windows. Something else had to happen.
I asked her to consider what would happen if I sinned in a way that caused her personal harm. Jesus may forgive me for my sin, but His forgiveness does not resolve the hurt and the pain she would feel as a result of my sin. Justice demands atonement.
Remember Saint Paul said in his letter to the Romans that we all fall short of the glory of God. At the same time, Jesus says in the Gospels that we will be glorified like the angels in heaven. In order for both statements to be true, something must happen between the point of death and the point that we are in heaven.
Jesus must purify us during that transition into eternity. We die short of the glory of God, in transition we are purified of anything not of God, then, there we are, in a glorified state in heaven.
I told this young lady that the only way any one of us will get into heaven is to be fully conformed to Christ, or as it says in Revelation, “nothing unclean will ever enter it”.
Think of the person that was found at the banquet without a wedding garment. The King found him and removed him from the party.
When we die, we are like that person. We are dirty from working in the vineyard…our clothes are a mess. We have attachments to the world and the flesh, we have guilt and remorse, and we owe justice for the broken windows in our lives.
After we die, Jesus bathes us in the fires of His Divine Mercy, and gives us wedding garments so we can enter into the heavenly banquet of the Lamb’s Supper. Through the purgative fires of Divine Mercy, attachments are broken, guilt and remorse healed, and justice and atonement fulfilled. That is purgatory.
That is an important perspective to remember as we continue to pray for our sister as she transitions into eternity.
Jesus said to Saint Faustina, “Today bring to Me the souls who are in the prison of Purgatory, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. Let the torrents of My Blood cool down their scorching flames. All these souls are greatly loved by Me. They are making retribution to My justice. It is in your power to bring them relief. Draw all the indulgences from the treasury of My Church and offer them on their behalf. Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice.”
This is exactly what we are doing for our sister in this Mass, and every Mass offered for her and others in our family. We are heeding the request of Jesus Christ Himself in the most excellent way possible by offering His Body, His Blood, His Soul, and His Divinity for the repose of her soul.
Through the Mass and the sacramental life, we get to participate in the work of Jesus Christ to repair the broken windows in her life, helping her enter into the beatific vision.
Thanks be to God!
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