purgatory – Santuario de San Antonio Parish

Why do we believe in the resurrection of the dead?
We believe in the resurrection of the dead because Christ rose from the dead, lives forever, and causes us to share in this eternal life. When someone dies, his body is buried or cremated. Nevertheless, we believe that there is a life after death for that person. In his Resurrection, Jesus showed that he is Lord over death; his word is trustworthy: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (Jn 11:25b)

Why do we believe in the resurrection of the “body”?
In Jesus Christ, God himself took on “flesh” (Incarnation) in order to redeem mankind. The biblical word “flesh” characterizes man in his weakness and mortality. Nevertheless, God does not regard human flesh as something inferior. God does not redeem man’s spirit only; he redeems him entirely, body and soul. God created us with a body (flesh) and a soul. At the end of the world he does not drop the “flesh” like an old toy. On the “Last Day” he will remake all creation and raise us up in the flesh – this means that we will be transformed but still experience ourselves in our element. For Jesus, too, being in the flesh was not just a phase. When the risen Lord showed himself, the disciples saw the wounds on his body.

What happens to us when we die?
In death body and soul are separated. The body decays, while the soul goes to meet God and waits to be reunited with its risen body on the Last Day. How the resurrection will take place is a mystery. An image can help us to accept it: When we look at a tulip bulb we cannot tell into what a marvelously beautiful flower it will develop in the dark earth. Similarly, we know nothing about the future appearance of our new body. Paul is nevertheless certain: “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.”

How does Christ help us at our death, if we trust in him?
Christ comes to meet us and leads us into eternal life. “Not death, but God will take me.” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux) In view of Jesus’ suffering and death, death itself can become easier. In an act of trust and love for the Father, we can say Yes, as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Such an attitude is called “spiritual sacrifice:” the dying person unites himself with Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. Someone who dies this way, trusting in God and at peace with men, and thus without serious sin, is on the way to communion with the risen Christ. Our dying makes us fall no farther than into his hands. A person who dies does not travel to nowhere but rather goes home into the love of God, who created him.

What is eternal life?
Eternal life begins with Baptism. It continues through death and will have no end. Even when we are simply in love, we want this state of affairs to last forever. “God is love,” says the First Letter of John. (1 Jn 4:16) “Love,” says the First Letter to the Corinthians, “never ends.” (1 Cor 13:8) God is eternal because he is love; and love is everlasting because it is divine. If we are in love, we enter into God’s endless presence.

Will we be brought to judgment after death?
The so-called particular or personal judgment occurs at the moment of death of the individual. The general judgment, which is also called the Last Judgment, occurs on the Last Day, at the end of the world, when the Lord comes again. In dying every man arrives at the moment of truth. Now it is no longer possible to repress or conceal anything; nothing more can be changed. God sees us as we are. We come before his tribunal, where all is made right, for if we are to be in God’s holy presence at all, we must be “right” with him – as right as God wanted us to be when he created us. Perhaps we will still have to undergo a process of purification, or maybe we will be able to fall into God’s arms immediately. But perhaps we will be so full of wickedness, hatred, and denial of everything that we will turn our face away from love forever, away from God. A life without love, however, is nothing but hell.

What is heaven?
Heaven is the endless moment of love. Nothing more separates us from God, whom our soul loves and has sought our whole life long. Together with all the angels and saints we will be able to rejoice forever in and with God. If you have ever observed a couple looking at each other lovingly or seen a baby nursing who looks for his mother’s eyes as though it wanted to store up every smile forever, then you have some inkling of heaven. To be able to see God face to face – that is like one, single, never-ending moment of love.

What is purgatory?
Purgatory, often imagined as a place, is actually a condition. Someone who dies in God’s grace (and therefore at peace with God and men) but who still needs purification before he can see God face to face is in purgatory. When Peter had betrayed Jesus, the Lord turned around and looked at Peter: “And Peter went out and wept bitterly” a feeling like being in purgatory. Just such a purgatory probably awaits most of us at the moment of our death: the Lord looks at us full of love and we experience burning shame and painful remorse over our wicked or “merely” unloving behavior. Only after this purifying pain will we be capable of meeting his loving gaze in untroubled heavenly joy.

Can we help the departed who are in the condition of purgatory?
Yes, since all those who are baptized into Christ form one communion and are united with one another, the living can also help the souls of the faithful departed in purgatory. When a man is dead, he can do nothing more for himself. The time of active probation is past. But we can do something for the faithful departed in purgatory. Our love extends into the afterlife. Through our fasting, prayers, and good works, but especially through the celebration of Holy
Eucharist, we can obtain grace for the departed.

What is hell?
Hell is the condition of everlasting separation from God, the absolute absence of love. Someone who consciously and with full consent dies in serious sin, without repenting, and refuses God’s merciful, forgiving love forever, excludes himself from communion with God and the saints. We do not know whether anyone at the moment of death can look absolute Love in the face and still say No. But our freedom makes that decision possible. Jesus warns us again and again not to separate ourselves definitively from him by shutting our hearts against the need of his brothers and sisters: “Depart from me, you cursed … . As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.”

But if God is love, how can there be a hell?
God does not damn men. Man himself is the one who refuses God’s merciful love and voluntarily deprives himself of (eternal) life by excluding himself from communion with God. God yearns for communion even with the worst sinner; he wants everyone to convert and be saved. Yet God created man to be free and respects his decisions. Even God cannot compel love. As a lover he is “powerless” when someone chooses hell instead of heaven.

What is the Last Judgment?
The Last Judgment will take place at the end of the world, at the second coming of Christ. “All who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” (Jn 5:29) When Christ comes again in glory, his full splendor will shine upon us. The truth will come plainly to light: our thoughts, our deeds, our relationship to God and to other men – nothing will remain hidden. We will recognize the ultimate meaning of creation, comprehend God’s marvelous ways for the sake of our salvation, and finally receive also an answer to the question of why evil can be so powerful if God is in fact the Almighty. The Last Judgment is also our day in court. Here it is decided whether we will rise to eternal life or be separated from God forever. Toward those who have chosen life, God will act creatively once again. In a “new body” (see 2 Cor 5) they will live forever in God’s glory and praise him with body and soul.

• No doubt, the observance of the feast of all souls here in the Philippines is most unique – flowers, candles, food and drinks, and even music are part of the celebration. One cannot separate the bonding of the living and the dead, and among the living. Prayers and incensation are made and on top of these are the celebrations of the Eucharist. As if one can hear the very words of Jesus in one solemn tone: “do this in my memory!”

• The theological underpinning of the feast is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to the grave still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some come face-to-face with God. The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification.

• Superstition still clung to the observance. Medieval popular belief held that the souls in purgatory could appear on this day in the form of witches, toads or will-ó-the-wisps. Graveside food offerings supposedly eased the dead’s rest.

• Observances of more religious nature have survived. These include public processions or private visits to cemeteries and decorating graves with flowers and lights, recitation of the Holy Rosary and celebration of the Holy mass.

• Whether or not one should pray for the dead is one of the great arguments which divide Christians. Appalled by the abuse of indulgences in the Church of his day, Luther rejected the concept of purgatory. Yet prayer for a loved one is, for the believer, a way of erasing any distance, even death. In prayer we stand in God’s presence in the company of someone we love, even if that person has gone before us into death.

• The deeper religious truth – these are those things we confront in death – loss, change, and transformation. The common denominator in these three realities is the fact that one must give up something. It is possible for both loss and change to lead for transformation to occur unless something is lost and something is changed. Life is a continual process of losing. But in Jesus there is time for change towards transformation, a time comes for throwing stones away, for letting the water go so that it might be made into wine. For giving away five barley loaves so that a multitude may be fed, for the wheat to be crushed and become the Bread of Eternal Life.

About Fr. EJ and his other reflections.