Today November 2

Today is the glorious feast of All Souls', when we pray for those in Purgatory, either specifically or generally. We may pray for a certain dead person, someone in our family, say, even though we haven't a window into the next world to know whether they are still in Purgatory or not. We know Purgatory exists, and that some, perhaps many, go there on their way to heaven. Because believe me, that is the only way they're going if they are in Purgatory. It's sort of a one-way trip; a way-station on the way to heaven. It is, above all, a place of cleansing.

"The description of heaven in chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation ends with the words, 'Nothing defiled shall enter.' There is no question of a passing mark. We must be wholly clean. Small sins, committed without reflection and forgotten too quickly for repentance, are still imperfections, defilements. Worse sins, deadly sins, repented of quite sincerely, yet not sufficiently, with no intensity in the sorrow to match the evil of the sin, hold us this side of perfection. They dim total purity." - Frank Sheed.

You may say that's splitting hairs. But think about what heaven is -- the direct presence of God. An uncleanness on us, even a very small one, would be unbearable! We would welcome -- even insist, if we could -- a total cleansing before entering that bright light, that Presence. And that is what Purgatory provides, by the immense mercy of God.

That cleansing may -- and probably will -- involve suffering. And that's not bad. The training of an athlete involves suffering -- but it's strengthening and necessary. "Sin is the thrust of the will to what we want against what God knows is right. By its very nature the acceptance of suffering makes for the correction of that wrongful thrust, for the will takes to itself precisely what it does not want because it sees the will of God in it." - Frank Sheed again.

What will that suffering entail? Scripture doesn't say. There are oblique references to fire, since (controlled) fire is a cleansing element, and, indeed, "Our God is a consuming fire." I've heard also that the deep longing for God, from whom one is (temporarily) separated, is something of the nature of the suffering there. My wisest friend says Purgatory is where we learn the lessons we failed to learn on earth. Education can be somewhat a cause for suffering -- I'm just speculating -- but at the very least it is a challenge.

The theologian Frank Sheed makes the comparison to being in a hospital. And then the prayers we offer this day (and other days) for the people in Purgatory make a lot of sense. When someone we love is in the hospital, we pray that they may be soon out of there -- not, of course, before being totally healed -- but speedily. And he points out that this may involve a miracle, but there is nothing unfitting in asking God for a miracle.

So let us join our prayers with all our brothers around the earth for all the departed in Purgatory, that they may soon enjoy the beauty and bliss of heaven.