{"id":6691,"date":"2011-11-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=6691"},"modified":"2011-11-03T09:34:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T14:34:29","slug":"purgatory-a-sign-of-gods-mercy-and-hope-for-all-saint-hopefuls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/purgatory-a-sign-of-gods-mercy-and-hope-for-all-saint-hopefuls\/","title":{"rendered":"Purgatory – A Sign of God\u2019s Mercy and Hope for All Saint-Hopefuls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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So I knew coming into this post that I was going to be writing after a few others had their pick of All Saints and All Souls topics. But my blog is about becoming a Saint! And we can never learn too much about them, right?So, let us place ourselves in God\u2019s presence, and the Saints who surround Him and sing His praises, as we reflect on….purgatory…<\/p>\n

(I recommend the following link, \u201cWhat the H*** is Purgatory?<\/a>\u201d from Busted Halo<\/a>, to answer any basic questions, such as What is Purgatory? and Why Purgatory is not Limbo?…. If the discussion gets too heavy for you – just skip to the jokes at the end for now!)<\/p>\n

\"Dante\u2019s<\/a>

Dante\u2019s levels of Mount Purgatory. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

One or my earliest memories of purgatory is trudging through Dante\u2019s Comedy <\/a>in high school. I found his description of Purgatory very interesting – basically everyone there was sorted into categories and had to do some kind of penance, related to their specific sins, in order to move up to Heaven.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As I learned more about my Catholic faith, I received a new understanding of purgatory – one that I believe demonstrates the depth of God\u2019s love for<\/em>, and understanding of<\/em>, His people. Let\u2019s start with the premise that God is all merciful, Amen?! And because He is all merciful, He wants everyone to be with Him in paradise. Ideally, we all live saintly lives and make it to Heaven immediately upon death.<\/div>\n
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\"Exposition<\/a>

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.Photo from Wikipedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

Heaven is perfect. Why? Because God is there. Because the Holy of Holies is exposed. Think about how reverent we are\u00a0during the\u00a0exposition of the blessed sacrament<\/a>, adoration and when receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist. Can you imagine how much more pure it will be to see God Face to Face? If Heaven is perfect, it cannot let imperfection come into it. So what happens to us, who may or may not die with our saintly slate in a squeaky clean state?<\/p>\n

God, in His infinite<\/strong> mercy, knows His creation, Man, Us, very well, and gives us an opportunity to get to Heaven so long as we repent of our faults. However, we must be purified, cleansed, before we can enter into the perfection of Heaven (purgatory come from the Latin root purgare, which means \u201cto make clean\u201d or \u201cto purify\u201d<\/a>). So God created Purgatory, a way for us to purify ourselves after death in preparation for being with Him in Heaven.<\/p>\n

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I view Purgatory as more like a one on one classroom, where our specific sins or faults are addressed by a very kind teacher\/counselor\/friend, who shows us exactly how our sins have separated us from God in order that we fully understand the hurt we\u2019ve caused and therefore comprehend even more fully the grace and love that God extends in His invitation to Heaven. As the Catechism teaches<\/a>: All who die in God\u2019s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven (1030).<\/div>\n
Let me provide a real world example. Say that a woman seeks God earnestly and comes to believe that He is present in the Mass. She decides to immediately go to the next Mass that she can. She gets there, only to be told by the ushers that her skirt is too short (it is) and her tank top straps are too thin (they\u2019re almost nonexistent). She is able to quickly get home, change clothes, get to Mass before the opening song, and is welcomed into a loving Catholic community. Was it unmerciful of the ushers to prevent her from entering the first time?<\/div>\n
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We have good reasons for expecting folks to come to Mass decently dressed – reasons that relate foremost to a reverence for God and the Holy Mass, but also for our own good, because we are all sinners and may be tempted or tempt others through unchaste dress. The process of her changing clothes was a purification (like purgatory…) which enabled her to properly prepare to enter into the sanctity of Mass.<\/p>\n

To me purgatory isn\u2019t failure. Getting into purgatory means we made the cut. Some of the Saints in Heaven have undergone purgatory and now pray for us when we ask! The existence of purgatory provides us Saint-aspirants with hope, that even if we have not reached our daily prayer goals or said all our \u201csorries\u201d or completed our \u201cBeatitude checklist\u201d, God still loves us and allows us to be with Him, and furthermore, that we can still be cleansed and prepared for Heaven after death (without all the alluring distractions that life on Earth provides). Let us pray for all the souls in purgatory who are striving for the same goal as we are – to one day be in paradise, singing love songs to He who is Love Himself<\/em><\/strong>!<\/p>\n

OK enough serious stuff. Here\u2019s a joke from my bible study: A man is going on his way to heaven and on the way up through Purgatory he sees several people atoning for their sins and moving up, closer to God. As he approaches the top of Purgatory, he sees a man he knew who was a real sinner and only died recently. \u201cHow did you make it all the way up here already?\u201d he asks. \u201c \u201cEasy,\u201d the man replies. \u201cMy wife quit her job after she got the life insurance money and has been going to daily Mass every day, and while she\u2019s there she prays for my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

My husband\u2019s immediate response to this joke was. \u201cOf course. That\u2019s why I want to go first.\u201d \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

OK OK – One more purgatory joke from Busted Halo.<\/a><\/div>\n