Purgatory: Middle Ground

This post is not about that quaint spot in Colorado.

I am currently reading a little book called: The Amazing Secret of the Souls in Purgatory. It is an interview with woman who sees people who are in purgatory and who offers up sacrifices or delivers requests for them. Took me about 25 minutes to read the book - but now I have to keep going back and re-reading it because parts are popping into my thoughts.

After writing this opening, I realize that I any have lost you already, you don't believe in Purgatory, or you can't find it in the Bible, so it must not exist. Well, there isn't a passage in the scriptures that directly describes the trinity - but we believe. Purgatory is a part of Catholic teaching that includes traditional beliefs, things that are revealed through the ages. I linked this to a site that talks about the history and the doctrine.

Oddly enough if I were writing about Sylvia Platt or some other person who could channel the dead, it would have more credibility - and that is truly messed up. In my days thus far I have learned that just because all don't understand it - or it is new to me, doesn't mean that it isn't credible.

I wanted to write a little something about this book because I had an interesting conversation with my sister-in-law about a family member who belongs to a faith outside of Christianity. Living in the Bible Belt, I find myself frequently explaining that there is a moment when Catholics choose The Faith as adults - Confirmation - and that is akin to "accepting Christ as your lord and Savior". Note I said akin - not identical. Choosing to follow Christ and let him be the director of your life is a day to day - and often moment to moment decision. I have always thought it was a good idea to have the Alter-call moment where you realize Christ is real - but that moment doesn't last forever. We can call ourselves Christians, and still use free will to choose a behavior that is against the very beliefs we profess.

So why do we Catholics have Purgatory? Let's start with the basic premise that God loves us passionately and obsessively every last soul of His creation. Ever been chased by Him - or seen Him lead someone back to Him, you know what I mean, then. Read the story in Hosea if you have forgotten, God creates enough drama that the woman comes back to Him, and He speaks kindly to her and restores everything so that she will know He loves her. How do you reconcile a God who is obsessed by His Love for us, and yet is bound by the terms that no one gets to the Father except though the Son - and must by His very nature be both Merciful and Just? What happens to those who only heard about Christ in passing, or never heard of Him at all? What about the Dali Lama - or the Hindus or the Jews or the Native Americans who practice a spirituality that is not about Jesus - but has elements that certainly honor God? What about those of us stuck in a cynical world full of evil who have questions about God and His fairness and His existence? There has to be a fair solution for what happens to good souls who die - God loves them obsessively. He would have a "loophole" as it were so that He would not lose them to Satan ( we believe He sent His son to be crucified, would only make sense that He would bend the rules as far as possible to get us to Heaven). People inherently have a conscience which can discern good from evil, it is through this conscience that the soul can become blessed. Thus - Purgatory.

Interestingly enough the question is asked of Maria about how people arrive in Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Her answer was wondrous and I wanted to share: God gives every soul at the hour of death the grace sufficient to forgive their sins - to believe in Him, even if they did not know about Him during their entire lives. If one asks for sincere forgiveness, it is given - paid by the Blood of the Lamb. People who go to Hell choose to go there - God offers them Mercy, begs them to accept the gift He has already paid for, and they refuse it as a conscious decision. (Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical on Mercy that discusses this in detail).

Those who see God are faced with the knowledge of who and what they are - pride is out of the equation and we are faced with our own reality. Often times a person will choose Purgatory as a means of purification. You wouldn't go to a holiday celebration in your gardening clothes with your hair greasy neither would you want to appear in the presence of God without feeling clean and prepared. Purgatory gives you time for purification until you decide you are ready to go to Heaven.

Truth is, there is no way to be sure about what happens after we die - there is room for interpretation even in the scriptures. I wanted to share this because Purgatory brings me comfort - helps me to feel like even those I feel are lost - from drugs, from alcohol, from mental illness - from darkness - still have hope - still have the potential to be in Heaven with God one day.