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ACCORDING to common doctrine, the chief pain is the
delay of the beatific vision. This delay is sometimes
called temporary pain of loss. But, in the proper
sense, the pain of loss is eternal, and hence found
only in hell.
These two pains of loss differ immensely in rigor, in
duration, and in consequences. The damned have lost
hope and charity; they blaspheme without ceasing; they
have a will obstinate in evil; they never repent; they
desire universal damnation. The souls in purgatory have
assured hope and inamissible charity; they love God;
they adore divine justice; they are confirmed in good;
they repent profoundly; they love all God's children.
This delay of the beatific vision differs notably from
that which existed in limbo before the death of our
Lord. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the
prophets, saw in this delay a punishment inflicted,
not, properly speaking, on their person, but on human
nature not yet perfectly regenerated. The time for
deliverance by Christ the Redeemer had not yet arrived.
This time has now arrived. Hence the delay in purgatory
is truly a suffering, the chief of purgatorial
sufferings.
Suffering in Purgatory and Suffering on Earth
Suffering in purgatory is greater than all suffering on
earth. Such is the doctrine of tradition, supported by
theological reasoning. [401]
Tradition is expressed by St. Augustine: "That fire
will be more painful than anything man can suffer in
the present life." [402] St. Isidore [403] speaks in
the same sense. According to these testimonies and
others similar to them, the least pain in purgatory
surpasses the greatest sufferings of the present life.
St. Bonaventure speaks somewhat differently: "In the
next life, by reason of the state of the souls there
retained, the purifying purgatorial suffering will be,
in its kind, more severe than the greatest trials on
earth." [404] We must understand him thus: For one and
the same sin, the smallest suffering in purgatory is
greater than any corresponding suffering on earth. But
it does not follow that the least pain in purgatory
surpasses the greatest terrestrial suffering. On this
point St. Bonaventure is followed by St. Robert
Bellarmine. [405] According to this last author, the
privation of God is without doubt a very great
suffering, but it is sweetened and consoled by the
assured hope of once possessing Him. From this hope
there arises an incredible joy, which grows in measure
as the soul approaches the end of its exile. [406]
Many theologians, notably Suarez, [407] rightly remark
that the sufferings in purgatory, especially the delay
of the beatific vision, are of a higher order than our
terrestrial sufferings, and in this sense we may say
that the smallest suffering in purgatory is more severe
than the greatest suffering on earth. The joy they have
in the hope of deliverance cannot diminish the
suffering they feel from deprivation of the beatific
vision. We see this truth in Jesus crucified: supreme
beatitude, love of God and of souls, far from
diminishing His pains, augmented them. St. Catherine of
Genoa speaks thus: "Souls in purgatory unite great joy
with great suffering. One does not diminish the other."
[408] She continues: "No peace is comparable to that of
the souls in purgatory, except that of the saints in
heaven. On the other hand, the souls in purgatory
endure torments which no tongue can describe and no
intelligence comprehend, without special revelation."
This saint, we recall, experienced on earth the pains
of purgatory.
This testimony of tradition is illustrated by the
character of great saints. While they are more severe
than ordinary preachers, they also have much greater
love of God and souls. They show forth, not only the
justice of God, but also His boundless love. A good
Christian illustrates the same truth. A Christian
mother, for instance, is severe in order to correct her
children, but the element that predominates is
sweetness and maternal goodness. Today, on the
contrary, it often happens that many parents lack both
severity and love. Those persons who do not undergo
purgatory on earth will have it later on. Nor must we
make too sharp a distinction between sanctification and
salvation. If we neglect sanctification, we may miss
salvation itself.
Privation of the beatific vision is painful in the same
degree as the desire of that vision is vivid. Two
reasons, one negative, the other positive, show the
vividness of this desire.
Negatively, its desire for God is no longer retarded by
the weight of the body, by the distractions and
occupations of this terrestrial life. Created goods
cannot distract it from the suffering it has in the
privation of God.
Positively, its desire of God is very intense, because
the hour has arrived when it would be in the enjoyment
of God if it had not placed thereunto an obstacle by
the faults which it must expiate.
The souls in purgatory grasp much more clearly than we
do, by reason of their infused ideas, the measureless
value of the immediate vision of God, of His
inamissible possession. Further, they have intuition of
themselves. Sure of their own salvation, they know with
absolute certainty that they are predestined to see
God, face to face. Without this delay for expiation,
the moment of separation from the body would coincide
with that of entrance into heaven.
In the radical order of spiritual life, then, the
separated soul ought already to enjoy the beatific
vision. Hence it has a hunger for God which it cannot
experience here on earth. It has failed to prepare for
its rendezvous with God. Since it failed to search for
Him, He now hides Himself.
Analogies may be helpful. We are awaiting, with great
anxiety, a friend with whom to discuss an important
matter at a determined hour. If our friend is delayed,
inquietude supervenes. The longer the delay, the more
does inquietude grow. In the physical order, if our
meal is retarded, say six hours or more, hunger grows
ever more painful. If we have not eaten for three days,
hunger becomes very severe.
Thus, in the spiritual domain, the separated soul has
an insatiable hunger for God. It understands much
better than
it did on earth that its will has a depth without
measure, that only God seen face to face can fill this
will and draw it irresistibly. This immense void
renders it more avid to see the sovereign good. [409]
This desire surpasses by far the natural desire,
conditional and inefficacious, to see God. [410] The
desire of which we speak now is a supernatural desire,
which proceeds from infused hope and infused charity.
It is an efficacious desire, which will be infallibly
fulfilled, but later. For the moment God refuses to
fulfill this desire. The soul, having sought itself
instead of God, cannot now find Him.
Joy follows perfect activity. The greatest joy, then,
follows the act of seeing God. The absence of this
vision, when its hour has arrived, causes the greatest
pain. Souls in purgatory feel most vividly their
impotence and poverty. A parallel on earth appears in
the saints. Like St. Paul, [411] saints desire to die
and to be with Christ.
We often hear it said that in the souls in purgatory
there is an ebb and flood. Strongly drawn toward God,
they are held back by the "remains of sin," which they
have to expiate. They cannot rush to the goal which
they so ardently desire. Love of God does not diminish
their pain, but increases it. And this love is no
longer meritorious. How eloquent is their title: the
suffering Church!
St. Catherine of Genoa speaks as follows: "Let us
suppose in the entire world only one loaf of bread.
Further, even the sight of this one loaf would satisfy
the hunger of every creature. Now man, in good health,
has by nature the instinct of nourishment and hence the
pain of hunger. If he could abstain from eating without
losing health and life, his hunger would cause an ever
more intolerable pain. If therefore man were certain he
would never see this unique loaf of which we have
spoken, his hell would be something like that of the
damned. Now the souls in purgatory have the certain
hope of seeing this unique loaf and of being entirely
sated by it. But they endure an ever increasing pain of
hunger until they enter into the eternal possession of
this bread of life, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord."
[412]
This analogy of hunger is developed by Father Faber.
[413]
Scripture is eloquent on this. "I will send forth
famine into the land, not a famine of bread . . . but
of hearing the word of the Lord, . . . they shall go
about seeking the word of the Lord and shall not find
it." [414] "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after justice." [415] "If any man thirst, let him come
to Me and drink . . . out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water." [416] "My soul hath thirsted
after the strong living God. When shall I come and
appear before the face of the Lord?" [417] "O God, my
God, to Thee do I watch at break of day; for Thee my
soul hath thirsted, for Thee my flesh, Oh, how many
ways, in a desert land, and where there is no way and
no water." [418]
If purgatory is less severe for souls who have sinned
only by feebleness, it must be more rigorous for those
who have for a long time failed in confession and
Communion. "Child of nothing, what hast thou to lament?
Sinner covered with ignominy, what canst thou reply?
What reproaches must one address to thee, who hast so
often offended God and so often merited hell ? My
goodness has spared thee, that thou mightest know My
love." [419]
Two Difficulties
Many souls are in purgatory who have sinned only
venially. Can punishment so severe be proportioned to
venial sins? St. Thomas replies: "Pain corresponds less
to the gravity of the sin than to the disposition of
the suffering soul. One and the same sin is punished
more severely in purgatory than it is on earth. To
illustrate. A man of delicate constitution suffers more
than does another from a legal scourging.
Why is one and the same sin punished more rigorously in
purgatory than on earth? Because in the absence of
merit, reparation becomes satispassion. Further, the
separated soul knows much better than it did before
that God is the one thing necessary.
These souls can no longer do anything for themselves.
They can only suffer. Hence we, who can still merit and
satisfy, should offer our merits and satisfactions for
them. Such offerings will never be lost. These souls
incapable of sin can lose nothing of what we obtain for
them.
A second difficulty appears. The more saintly a soul
is, the more it desires to see God. And pain
corresponds to desire. Is this just?
Our reply follows Suarez and St. Catherine of Genoa.
Souls in purgatory, desiring the beatific vision,
suffer from its delay, just as on earth the saints
desire to die and to be with God. This normal
consequence of intense love is a very noble suffering,
pleasing to God who tries us. But this great pain is
compensated by their greater abandonment to Providence
and their greater love of divine justice. And less
perfect souls suffer more from another point of view.
They have lost for eternity a higher degree of glory,
which would have been theirs had they been more
perfect.
Think of the sufferings of Jesus and of His Mother.
These sufferings were undoubtedly proportioned to
reparation for our sins, but also to the intensity of
their love. Suffering for sin grows with love of God.
[420]
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