The Comfort of Purgatory

As a former Evangelical Christian Apologetics writer, teacher and preacher reverting to the Catholic Church the Doctrine of Purgatory has been probably the hardest teaching of the Church with which to come to grips. Although similar concepts are not unknown within the pale of mainline Evangelical thought they are neither common nor exactly the same as Purgatory. Certain denominations believe in what they call “the middle state”…kind of a holding “place” between death and Heaven while awaiting the End of the Age with its general resurrection. None of them define this “middle state” to have any purpose other than a spiritual version of the TV talk shows’ “green room” where we wait until our time to “go on”.

But the Catholic Church defines Purgatory to have much more significance than that. The Catechism of the USCCB says it is, “A state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven for those who died in God’s friendship, but were only imperfectly purified; a final cleansing of human imperfection before one is able to enter the joy of heaven.” In short, it is the final step on our way from “sinner” to “saint”, from the kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of Christ that began at Baptism. The very word from which the name was coined “purgare” means “to absolve”.

While the purpose of this article, as can be gleaned from the title, is to show why this Doctrine is a comfort a certain amount of Apologetics cannot be avoided. It is not my intention to do a thorough examination or defense of it as others much better skilled than I have provided such things for the honest heart truly seeking to understand it. A good example is frequent host/guest on the “Catholic Answers” radio and television show Jimmy Akin’s fine article “How to Explain Purgatory to Protestants” on his website. The topic is also addressed in several articles on the Catholic Answers website and I don’t think I could recommend a better tool for the average Catholic to learn to be able to show “what we believe and why we believe it”. But we do need to look at a point or two…

Is the Doctrine of Purgatory Scriptural?

This is where we run in to a gray area, because the answer is “yes” and “kind of”.  It’s “Yes” if your Bible has the full Canon of Scripture which includes the Deuterocanonical Books (what the Evangelical Christians call “The Apocrypha”) such as I, II III Maccabees, etc. The Doctrine of Purgatory is easily demonstrable if such is the case. However, since the beginning of the Protestant Revolution those seven books have been removed…specifically because they do prove it and other areas of Church teaching to which Luther and those who came after him were opposed.

I have made the point in dealing with certain Protestants here on this site that insisting on only allowing the KJV or other post Luther translations to be used is no different than the Jehovah’s Witnesses insisting on using their New World Translation (which was also edited and, in places, mistranslated to fit their theology). However, just as in dealing with them it’s possible to steer them toward the Truth using the NWT so is it with the Evangelical Christian. It will also be just about as much work to accomplish.

This is where the “kind of” answer comes in. While the term “Purgatory” is not directly mentioned in the Bible there are amble verses which infer it. This is not uncommon at all with some of the major tenets of Christianity. “The Trinity”, for example, is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible but the foundational verses upon which the Doctrine was built are. Once again, this is not a full Apologetic so I will mention one verse here, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, and again refer the reader to better and more skilled Catholic sources mentioned above. 

So why is the Doctrine a “Comfort”?

The idea of “Purgatory” is a comfort because it gives us “hope”… not only for ourselves but especially for our loved ones. You see, as an Evangelical Christian unless a person has prayed and accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior in the manner prescribed by whatever denomination, organization or movement church you happen to be in (and though many won’t say it outright also abandon the Catholic Church) you “Go to Hell. Go straight to Hell. Do not pass GO. Do Not collect $200”.

Also, any unconfessed sin of any magnitude prior to death is enough to land you there.  That is, of course, unless you believe in “Once Saved, Always Saved” then it doesn’t matter if you sin or not…Heaven is your home. (In the analogy of Monopoly used above I guess it’s the equivalent of a “Get Out of Hell Free Card”). The teaching of the Church, on the other hand, is that there are differences in sin…mortal and venial…and those who die with venial sin on their soul will be purified in Purgatory (I use “in” for convenience sake since Purgatory isn’t so much a “place” as a “condition”).

And therein lies the “comfort” of the Doctrine. We have all had loved ones pass on from life in what we’re pretty sure was less than a “perfect state of grace”. In my own life I felt very guilty for years because I had failed to lead my Catholic Father, Mother and siblings “to Christ” and was certain because of that those who have passed away were in Hell.

But as I reverted to the Church and began to look more closely at the Doctrine I realized that those feelings were misguided. Do I know for sure where they are? No, of course not…none of us know where anyone is beyond a shadow of a doubt (we’re pretty sure about Hitler and those sorts, but don’t really know). But it’s a comfort to know that there is at least a hope for them as well as a comfort for us as we approach our time to walk through death’s door.