|
PRIVATION of God punishes man for having turned away
from Him. The pain of sense, on the contrary, punishes
the soul for having turned toward creatures without
reference to God. In venial sin this second disorder
exists without the first.
Both the Greeks and the Latins maintain this pain of
sense: a positive affliction, sorrow, chagrin, shame of
conscience. And most theologians admit that all souls
in purgatory suffer this pain to the end. [421]
But the schismatic Greeks, although they admit the
existence of this punishment of sense, deny the
existence of fire in purgatory, whereas they recognize
that fire exists in hell. The Council of Florence did
not condemn this opinion of the Greeks. The Latins, on
the contrary, hold that the pain of sense is nothing
else but the purgatorial fire. [422] After long
discussions and wide historical researches on this
particular point, it seems wise to conclude with St.
Robert Bellarmine and Suarez as follows: "Although the
existence of fire in purgatory is less certain than
that of fire in hell, the doctrine which admits a real
fire in purgatory must be classified as a sententia
probabilissima. Hence the contrary opinion is
improbable." [423]
This view rests on seven reasons: first, the consent of
scholastic theologians. Second, the authority of St.
Gregory the Great. [424] Third, the authority of St.
Augustine. [425] Fourth, the concordant testimonies of
St. Cyprian, St. Basil, St. Caesarius, of the liturgy,
which begs refreshment for these souls. Fifth, the
unanimous decision of the Latin fathers at the Council
of Florence. Sixth, the very probable foundation found
in First Corinthians. [426] Seventh, particular
revelations, for example, those of St. Catherine of
Ricci. She suffered forty days to deliver a soul from
purgatory. A novice, touching her hand, said: "But, my
mother, you are burning." "Yes, my daughter," she
replied, "this fire is not seen, but it consumes like a
burning fever."
How can fire cause suffering in souls separated from
their bodies? As we said above, [427] fire is an
instrument of justice, as baptismal water is an
instrument of grace. A soul which has refused the
instruments of mercy must suffer from the instruments
of justice.
The mode of this action remains mysterious. This fire
has the power to bind the soul, [428] that is, to
hinder it from acting as it would and where it would.
It inflicts on the soul the humiliation of depending on
a material creature. An analogy is seen in paralyzed
persons who cannot act as they would.
Are These Pains Voluntary?
St. Thomas replies: "Yes, in the sense that the soul
wills to bear them, as benefits imposed upon it by
divine justice. It realizes the suitableness of this
vivid pain, to purify the depths of the soul, to erase
all egoism and self-seeking. The soul, though it had
not courage during life to impose upon itself this deep
interior suffering, now accepts that suffering
voluntarily." [429]
Do souls in purgatory suffer also from the demons? St.
Thomas gives a profound answer. [430] They suffer only
from divine justice. They do not suffer from the
demons, because they have carried away the victory over
these demons. And God does not use good angels as
instruments for this purification. The suffering is
inflicted by divine justice, which is always united
with divine mercy.
Where is purgatory? The place cannot be determined with
certitude. As revelation is not explicit, we can only
make conjectures. What we know is that the poor souls,
separated from their bodies, no longer deal with those
on earth, though exceptionally they may appear to
instruct us or to ask our prayers.
Do the sufferings of purgatory diminish progressively?
[431] Yes and No. As "the remains of sin" disappear,
little by little, the pain also diminishes. But as the
desire to see God grows more vehement, the consequent
pain grows too. Purgatory, we recall, is measured by
discontinuous time. [432] One spiritual instant in
purgatory may last several days of our solar time.
[433]
How Long Must Souls Remain in Purgatory? [434]
Purgatory itself will last until the last judgment.
[435] "And these shall go into everlasting punishment,
but the just into life everlasting." [436] Purgatory
will then be no longer. The last of the elect will
find, before dying, sufficient purification. "There
will arise false Christs and false prophets, and they
will perform great prodigies, even so as to deceive, if
possible, even the elect." [437] A little before this
text we read: "Unless those days had been shortened, no
flesh should be saved, but for the sake of the elect
those days shall be shortened." [438] The end of the
world will come when the number of the elect is
complete. Then purgatory will have an end.
But if the question regards the duration of purgatory
for a particular soul, we can but answer that the
punishment will be longer and more intense according to
the expiation required. [439] Suffering corresponds to
guilt, and its duration corresponds to the rootedness
of sin. Thus one soul may suffer long, but with less
affliction than another, whose more intense affliction
brings earlier deliverance.
Let us illustrate by an analogy. Punishment on earth,
say scourging, may be severe and brief, whereas
imprisonment may be long and less severe. In the
spiritual order, too, penance for a grave sin may be
brief and severe, while for faults less grave but more
deeply rooted, it may be long and mild.
Dominic Soto [440] and Maldonatus say that purgatory is
so severe, and the suffrages of the Church so
efficacious, that no soul remains there more than ten
or twenty years. Theologians, all but unanimously,
reject this view. Souls converted at the last moment,
after a life of grave disorder, remain in purgatory
much longer than ten or twenty years. Theological
opinion, in general, favors long duration of
purgatorial purification. [441] Private revelations
mention three or four centuries, or even more,
especially for those who have had high office and great
responsibility.
To escape false imagining, let us again recall that
purgatory is not measured by solar time, but by
eviternity and discontinuous time. Discontinuous time,
we have seen is composed of successive spiritual
instants, and each of these instants may correspond to
ten, twenty, thirty, sixty hours of our solar time,
just as a person can remain thirty hours in ecstasy
absorbed by one sole thought. Hence there is no
proportion between our solar time and the discontinuous
time of purgatory. But if it be revealed that a soul
has been delivered from purgatory at a definite instant
of our time, it means that this instant corresponds to
the spiritual instant of its deliverance.
|
|