Purgatory and Praying for All the Faithful Departed

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for November 2, 2011 | The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed | Carl E. Olson

“I’ve always had a hard time explaining purgatory,” the man said. “Didn’t the Second Vatican Council say that Catholics no longer have to believe in purgatory?”

That remark was made to me years ago, not long after I had entered the Catholic Church. Although I was saddened to hear it, it didn’t surprise me. In the course of studying various Catholic doctrines, I had learned that certain beliefs, including purgatory, were often avoided or even ignored by some Catholics. And this, unfortunately, meant that many Catholics don’t appreciate the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, which is all about praying for those who are in purgatory.

“I think purgatory is rather simple to understand,” I responded. “The problem is that we often have to do away with our flawed notions of purgatory.”

Growing up in a Fundamentalist home, I had been told purgatory was the belief that everyone gets a “second chance” after death. Purgatory, I had also been taught, was just another Catholic invention without any basis in Scripture. 

What I learned years later was quite different. I saw that the early Christians prayed for the dead, and that this practice was based, in part, on the actions of those Jews who had prayed for the dead (cf., 2 Macc. 12:41-46). As today’s reading from the Book of Wisdom indicates, the idea of spiritual cleansing was a common one in the Old Testament: “For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.”

It followed logically that if there was life after death for the just, those who were just would be cleansed fully and completely, if necessary, before entering the presence of God. This, of course, also flowed from the deepened understanding of death and resurrection given through the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Savior had promised, in today’s Gospel, “that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

But the early Christians recognized that not every disciple of Jesus is perfectly cleansed in this life from venial sins. St. Augustine explained that the Church’s prayers, the Mass, and the giving of alms provided spiritual aid to the dead. “The whole Church,” he wrote, “observes this practice which was handed down by the Fathers: that it prays for those who have died in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the sacrifice itself; and the sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their behalf.”

It is ironic that the culture of death, which is present in so many ways, is so afraid to face death squarely and honestly. It tries to cheat and avoid death, both mocking it and cowering before it in movies, books, video games, and music. We fear death because it is so mysterious and hidden. We fear it because it seems so unjust that the vibrancy of life can end so suddenly and completely. If this world is all that exists, then death is to be feared. But it also will not be denied.

St. Paul, on the other hand, embraced death—that is, the death of Jesus Christ. “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,” he wrote to the Christians in Rome, “so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” 

All Souls not only provides us an opportunity to pray for those who have gone before us, but also reminds us of our mortal end. We cannot deny it. But by God’s grace we can and should prepare for it, trusting that the Lord our Shepherd will guide us through the valley of darkness.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the November 2, 2008, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Book Excerpts:

• Purgatory: Service Shop for Heaven | Reverend Anthony Zimmerman
• Do All Catholics Go Straight to Heaven? | Mary Beth Bonacci
• Hell and the Bible | Piers Paul Read
• The Question of Hope | Peter Kreeft
• The Brighter Side of Hell | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Socrates Meets Sartre: In Hell? | Peter Kreeft
• Are God's Ways Fair? | Ralph Martin
• Be Nice To Me. I'm Dying | Mary Beth Bonacci
• From Defeat to Victory: On the Question of Evil | Alice von Hildebrand

Comments

[Marlene Cross]

In a suspended state of being, encounter the glory of love sought, now found. Forgiveness is offered like a golden spoon. Feed and rise into the luminous light of God's omnipotent presence.

[Mick]

From Luke 12:

"47) And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. 48) But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more."

If one who has been disobedient can be "beaten" severely OR lightly it would seem a third option, in addition to heaven and hell, must exist. Whether its existence is exclusively for the disobedient but unchurched, or also for the disobedient believer, I leave to others

[DeaconSmith]

I said nearly the exact same things to my 9th/10th grade CCD class last evening. The analogy I used to describe it goes like this.

An image of heaven that we get from Scripture, specifically the Book of Revelation, is that it is a great wedding feast (the wedding feast of the Lamb). Like any wedding, invitations are needed. All souls, ultimately, are either invited to the wedding feast (heaven) or not (hell). Purgatory, is a time of preparation for the wedding feast, a time for getting cleaned up and dressed properly. One would never go to a wedding dirty or shabbily dressed. This lines up well with the Parable of the Wedding Feast from Matt 22:2-14. Purgatory is not a "second chance" to get an invitation to the wedding feast, but a time of preparation/cleansing/purification before we can "attend".