Can We Avoid Purgatory?
Our Month of the Holy Souls continues this week, and hopefully, so do our prayers for our dear departed. We can never imagine the terrible sufferings that they go through in Purgatory. The very word Purgatory means the place of purging. And just as precious metals are purged and refined by fire, so too must our souls be prepared for heaven in the cleansing fires of Purgatory.
Our belief in Purgatory is based “on the fact that some die with smaller faults for which there was no true repentance, and also the fact that the temporal penalty due to sin is at times not wholly paid in this life” (Catholic Encyclopedia). To come before the presence of God and enjoy our eternal reward in heaven, we must first be made perfectly pure. The fires of Purgatory give us that final chance to be made clean enough to enter the gates of heaven.
In life we commit many sins. Some are so serious that they kill the soul and we call these sins mortal. They deprive us of the eligibility to enter heaven. If we die in the state of mortal sin, we will certainly avoid Purgatory, but only by receiving a punishment far, far worse, both in terms of the level of suffering and in the fact that it will be eternal. However, “not all sins are equal before God, nor dare anyone assert that the daily faults of human frailty will be punished with the same severity that is meted to serious violation of God’s law” (Catholic Encyclopedia). These lesser, or “venial” sins do not deprive us of heaven. However, they do provide an obstacle to our readiness to enter heaven. By the mercy of God, we have Purgatory and the chance to be brought to that state of readiness and perfection required to come before God’s presence.
While Purgatory is, therefore, an example of God’s mercy towards us, it is a severe and terrible punishment nonetheless. If we can avoid Purgatory and go straight to heaven when we die, that is surely preferable. And yes, there are a few ways to avail ourselves of such opportunities to avoid the cleansing fires of Purgatory altogether. God is indeed merciful! We must remember though, that we must still be purged and made ready for heaven, perfected in other fires of suffering we endure in this life. We often see our crosses as burdens, something we must put up with in acceptance of God’s will. The saints see their crosses differently—they are opportunities to join our Lord himself in his suffering, following in the most perfect manner possible the Way of our Saviour. Today, we should consider our daily crosses from a different perspective—as a punishment for our sins and a way to make reparation for them.
The most sure way of avoiding Purgatory is to do our Purgatory here on earth, in this life. We’ve probably heard it said of certain people at their funerals, that he or she has already done their Purgatory time, so great were their sufferings before they died. We can never presume this of course, and prayers must still be made for their departed souls. However, there is some truth in the saying, even if only God himself knows the details of any particular case. So when we suffer any little pain of mind or body, we should deliberately and sincerely “offer it up” not only for the suffering souls in Purgatory” but in reparation for our own faults, imperfections and venial sins. By doing this, we can avail ourselves of the mercy of God and channel our hurts and pains to shortening our stay in Purgatory and even avoiding it altogether. Let’s be thankful for these opportunities, for without them, we will surely suffer far worse pains after we die.
One last thought—“What goes around comes around.” Hopefully, by praying hard for the Suffering Souls in Purgatory and offering up our penances for them, we will earn the reward of having people pray for us when we die and find ourselves in the Land of the Forgotten. Pray for the Holy Souls, so that when we become one of them, others will pray for us.