Purgatory: The Purifying Fire of Divine Love

PURGATORY: THE PURIFYING FIRE OF DIVINE LOVE

II Maccabees 12:43-46: "And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

 
The above quote from the Second Book of Maccabees is usually cited as the foundational Scriptural reference for the doctrine of Purgatory.  Judas Maccabee the great liberator of the Jewish people from foreign dominance, sends a stipend to the Jewish priests for his deceased soldiers whom he loved, and who died fighting for the law of God, so that their sins may be forgiven and they might receive resurrection from the abode of Sheol (the shadowy place of the dead). 

What is the experience of Purgatory and what is our connection with the faiithful departed?  Let us start with the conceptual connection between knowledge, love, and attachment. First knowledge, the fundamental ingredient in any lasting relationship, for we can only love what we know.  For example, if someone said they wanted you to love their best friend like they do and they set off on a long explanation of why their friend is such a lovable, wonderful person.  At the end of their exposition you might feel interested in getting to know their friend but you could not say you love them, because your knowledge is second-hand, it has no existential quality in that you have never encountered them firsthand yourself.  Knowledge is the bedrock of love and relationship, to paraphrase the French philosopher Pascal in his famous writing the Pensees (My Thoughts) - if you wish to have faith in God, then fall on our knees in prayer, take holy water, go to Mass, do the things that others have risked to know and love the Eternal God.

Secondly, knowledge leads to love and love to attachment.  It is not surprising that the first people we usually love in life and feel an attachment to are our parents.  The self-giving and vulnerability of human love only grows within the context of real, honest communication, of mutual self-disclosure.   These attachments of love, as Catholics we believe, do not end at the grave.  The Church, the People of God, exists on earth, in time and in Heaven - the Church of Purgatory and the Communion of Saints.  Love is an active reality, it is the core of our being, as St. Augustine remarked, “my weight, is my love”, love does not end.  

So often when we pray for the eternal peace or eternal rest of the faithful departed, we can fall into a false impression that the redeemed live in some sort of Nirvana of blissful meditation, this is nowhere within our tradition.  Until the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness we all, the living and the departed have a ministry or love and prayer.  This leads us to see Purgatory as a refining fire, refining our being to love more purely.  On this side of the grave love is imperfect,  we all fall short of the perfect symbol of love which is Our Lord’s Holy Cross.  On earth it is impossible for human beings not to have some degree of self-interest and selfishness in loving.  In Purgatory the fire of Divine Love is an experience which allows us to shed the impulses toward self-centeredness as we exist more closely to the Light of Truth.  

Those who have experienced Purgatory take their love for us to the throne of God.  As the great Jesuit intellectual and Saint Robert Bellarmine reminds us, the Church that has suffered through Purgatory has been purified and therefore when we pray for our beloved dead, we should also ask them to pray for us.  

Purgatory and prayer for the dead is ultimately not a question of darkness, pain and suffering, rather it is an affirmation of the purifying power of the Divine Light and Divine Love and the consolation that we are never separated from our loved ones, in fact the love is purified in the glory of God.   

Rev. David A. Fisher,