Thoughts upon Purgatory

Only those who die in a state of grace, meaning those who are 'saved' (divine life in the soul), will enter purgatory if needed. Only those that are bound for heaven will go through a process of purgation, a process that may not be necessary for everyone who dies in the state of grace. Purgatory is not a second chance, or a lesser hell, nor an excuse to postpone our sanctification, but is the porch of Heaven where we hose off the remainder of dirt that has clung to our soul before we stand before God. Since the state of the soul at the moment of death may not be fully prepared for the Beatific Vision, may not be in a state of perfect love, may not have been entirely sanctified, God will purge our souls of any contamination in the soul, such as inordinate affections, misguided passions, attachment to temporal goods, etc. 

When we die, our souls may be in such a state which necessitates the completion of our sanctification in love, in order that we may fully love God and enjoy his glorious presence without any of these hindrances in the soul. We are not speaking of contaminates as in unforgiven sin, but we are talking about the effects of sin which have been forgiven, which are the temporal punishments that are due to sin. The destructive nature of sin greatly impacts the spiritual condition of the soul, and even though we go through a process of sanctification while in the body, our soul may not have fully traveled through the entire process whereby the soul is perfected in love. Therefore purgatory is not the remission and forgiveness of sins, by rather the “punishment” or "temporal punishments" that are due for sin, mainly the debilitating effects of sin upon the soul. 

The residual effects of sin must be addressed by an all holy and just God, in order for the soul to be in such a state which is fully pleasing to our almighty God and Father. Since our God is a jealous God, he does not overlook our faults, he does not ignore the state of our souls, but rather ensures our sanctification in order that we may have ‘that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord’. This cleansing, or purging, has been described as fire where by one is saved but as through fire, where the less beautiful aspects of our being are removed from us (1 Corinthians 3:15). This fire can be expressed as the purifying fire of God’s love, in order that after this purgation, only that fire and which it refines may remain in the soul for all eternity. It is the love of God that purifies our hearts and purges us from all sin and its effects.

How is a less than perfect state of the soul dealt with after death? What happens to someone who has not yet been entirely sanctified through relationship with Christ on this side of heaven? How is one who has not yet been made perfect in love in all ways be transformed further in preparation for life with God? Before we address these questions, it is important to address the presence of concupiscence in the soul. Concupiscence is one of the temporal consequences of Adam’s sin, and all those who are not born in the state of Adamic perfection, which is all of us whom God has not preserved from this effect, struggle against this effect. Concupiscence is not sin in and of itself, but it can be referred to as sin only in as much as it is the result of sin and leads to sin. Since this concupiscence lays primarily in the soul, and since we are not cleansed from this effect on this side of heaven then it is in need of cleansing prior to our entrance into heaven. Since not all go through a final purgation on one’s way to heaven and since we are not cleansed from concupiscence on this side of heaven, then in view of purgatory we are speaking primarily concerning other effects such as contamination in the soul, inordinate affections, misguided passions, attachment to temporal goods, etc, all which are a result of our lack of mastery over concupiscence which could have been accomplish by the help of God’s grace. It could be said, that unlike the other effects of sin, concupiscence is removed from the soul at the time of death.

Let’s examine the article of death. Human nature is a composite unity of body and soul.  In other words, human nature is not complete without the other constituent part. Therefore, death is the moment at which human nature is torn in two, the ripping of the soul from the body, an experience which is repulsive to us. Nevertheless, Christ, in his act of redemption through his death and resurrection, reveals to us a profound work of God by which he purifies and saves the soul from all effects of sin. Therefore, there is something to be said concerning the moment of death and its immediate effects upon the soul, and it would be in this context when the temporal effect of concupiscence is addressed. But are all the effects of sin dealt with in the mere article of death? Jewish and early Christian thought says no. But how then did they understand the atonement? How is the salvific work of Christ made efficacious in this final purgation? The key concept here is that the article of death does not cleanse a man rather cleansing is done in a relational manner by the fires of God’s love. The work that God does in the soul 'in' purgatory is the application of the Atonement not personal work.

But how should we understand and describe what it is that the soul experiences in this state of purgation? First, the soul is passive as God actively engages and works upon the soul. By analogy, we are like a child, muddied by the world, standing on the porch of our home as our parent hoses us off in order that we may be clean enough to enter into the house. In similar manner, the salvific work of Christ is applied to our soul in an active manner, as we simply stand still for God to work sanctification in our souls. This process cannot properly be characterized as a duration of time since, as far as we know, this process is instantaneous, similar to the notion of glorification which is maintained by Protestants.

Second, since the soul has contamination in the soul, such as inordinate affections, misguided passions, attachment to temporal goods, etc, there will be suffering involved in this process. How is this so? During this purgation, negatively, the soul is in a state deprived of its full nature in union with the body, with which it was created. The soul, which is apart from the body will suffer in this state of deprivity. For example, the soul that may be overly attached to temporal goods will be separate from them, and by analogy, as an individual suffers withdraw from their absence of chemical dependence, in like manner, our souls are deprived of those temporal goods on which we placed the kind of dependence upon them as are proper only to God. During this purgation, positively, the fire of God’s love burns in us much like how the love of a father and his desire for our best impacts our heart, and in a sense, by this love for us, we find that the desire for less than God will begin to be purged from our soul. To the extent to which we can behold God as he is, we become more and more desirous for him, and part of our suffering is that He cannot yet be viewed in his purity, but by it are readied and encouraged through our suffering, and further desire the purification that we are undergoing, and come to further understand its necessity.

It is during this purgation, that the love of God changes the soul, and prepares it for life with him. Therefore at the time of the resurrection, when our soul is united to the body, the soul will be perfect in the sight of God, and therefore the souls union back with the body will not cause any contaminates to the body from the soul. Unlike the state of the soul that is not in the grace of God, where by, at the resurrection, the bodies of the lost will be highly contaminated with a soul that is highly deprived from the love of God, and their nature shall be as a rock, and they shall fall into hell as naturally as a rock falls to the ground when released by a hand.  Interestingly, the only exception to this ordinary continuity of relational cleansing and process of sanctification is the extraordinary moment of the second coming at which time all the souls in purgatory will be completely cleansed by virtue of the power of Christ’s coming, the resurrection of the flesh, and by the working of God’s powerful love in the soul.