PURGATORY, WHERE GOD FULLY AND FINALLY HEALS OUR LOVE WITH HIS Those who do not understand purgatory do not really understand either heaven or hell. Sometimes we picture heaven only as a big city where we enter and dance and rejoice forever; where we run around to find our deceased loved ones to give them a very big hug and be happy with them forever. This is a beautiful image of heaven. The reality is not very far from it; indeed it is much better. The problem with this image is that it is a poor one. It leaves so much out of the real joy of heaven. For instance, if someone were to run around in search of his loved ones, he will surely run past his ‘not-loved’ ones, still searching for the ‘special’ ones who were close to him in this life. This is far less than what heaven promises us. Perfect love is to begin to love like God, which means equal love for all. The meaning of salvation is to have God’s full life and love. It means to be healed by God, so that we have fullness of life which is also fullness of love. “I came that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn. 10:10) Love has two essential qualities: it is totally free and it involves total self-sacrifice. This is what God’s Life is in Himself and that is what He brings us into. That is the meaning of heaven. Our love is too self-centered. What Christ is doing from the Cross is to heal our love with God’s love. By His wounds we are healed. (Is. 53:4-5) Salvation involves constant reformation; that is why repentance is essential. It is wrong to think of the Blood of Christ as covering us. Christ does not cover us or our sins with His Blood; He purifies us and washes our sins away. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. About the saints, the Bible says: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:14). The phrase: “Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13) really means “Those who pray to God from their hearts will be healed.” Salvation means being healed so that we can live and love like God. Christ says that “not everyone who says to me “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) Salvation is not just something in the past; it is an ongoing process. It is a growth process in God’s love. A child can only inherit his father’s property when he has grown to maturity. That is why Paul says that we must grow until we come to “maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13) He says that with the whole church we must grow up in love (Eph. 4:14-16) Salvation is a free gift of God. It has a past, present and future. The past is our birth into God’s family through baptism. Nobody gives birth to himself and nobody deserves birth by any works. This is the meaning of the free gift of salvation. But when born we must grow to mature in God’s love. Because of that, free gift of salvation also includes the other sacraments through which God’s love and life freely flow into us to feed us and heal us and make us grow up healthily in Christ. And indeed, Christ warns that unless we eat and drink him we have no life in us (Jn. 6:53) And he specifically gave the Church the authority to forgive sins by the power of his Spirit. (Jn. 20:22-23) Baptism is what the Bible means when it refers to salvation in the past tense: “For in hope we were saved” (Rom. 8:24); “By grace you have been saved through faith.” (Eph. 2:5, 8) Faith is not something in our head; it is God’s Life given to us in baptism. “He saved us through bath of rebirth, renewal by the Holy Spirit.” (Tit. 3:5). On the Pentecost Day, the crowd asked Peter and the apostles what they must do; he said to them: “Repent and be baptized…” (Acts 2:37-38). Salvation has a present dimension: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), “For you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pet. 1:9). “Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet. 3:21) Salvation also has a future dimension: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 10:22; 24:1,13), “We shall be saved through the grace of Jesus” (Acts. 15:11).”Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Rom. 13:11), “he shall be saved but only as through fire” (Cor. 3:15), “Jesus will appear a second time to bring salvation” (Heb. 9:28) The idea that we have already been saved and once saved always saved is a big lie. It is a totally false doctrine. The passages above prove it false. Paul says: “I pummel my body lest I be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27), “So if you think that you are standing, watch out that you do not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12) “Separated from Christ, you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). We must hold out to the end to reign with Christ (2 Tim.2:11-`1) Heaven, Hell and Purgatory are described by the Bible as fires. Hell is terribly hot, Purgatory is hotter, and Heaven is hottest, because the intensity depends on closeness to God, the source. But in terms of pains, hell is the most painful. The fire of heaven is totally painless and full of ecstasy because of the purity of the souls in it (Is. 33:14-15). God appeared to Moses as burning bush. In the desert, God was present to his people as a pillar of fire (Exodus 13 and 14). The angels who stand closest to God’s throne are the seraphim, a Hebrew word for ‘the burning ones’. God the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire (Acts 2). Hebrews 12:29 says, ‘Our God is a consuming fire’. God dwells in unapproachable light. God’s love is fire. Christ says: “I came to cast fire on earth and how I wish it was blazing already.” (Lk. 12:49) The fire of Purgatory burns away impurities and leaves the soul pure for heaven (1 Cor. 3:15). Jesus called it a prison (Matt. 5:25-26).It is the purifying love of God flowing from the wounds of Christ. It is His Blood. It comes like the anger of a loving Father punishing his child to correct and save him. Salvation is a healing of the soul. Purgatory is where God finishes up the healing of living souls. The souls in heaven are those who have been made perfect (Heb. 12:23). But the fire of hell is the farthest from God because it is the state of souls running away from God. They don’t want his fiery love and cannot endure it. The fire of love that has been poured into their hearts from the beginning burns them forever and it forms a big conflagration. It is called the fire of God’s wrath, not because God gets bitter with anyone, but it hurts his fatherly love to lose his children. It is a damnation they bring unto themselves in spite of all his love. Our prayers can help the Holy Souls because of the power of fraternal love God has given to his children. God wants us to be co-Saviors with him just as we are co-creators with him in bringing life into this world through birth and in baptizing them into the Family of God, the Church. Let us strive to avoid sin and to do penance for our many sins. Above all, let us stop unnecessary doubts and arguments and receive the free gift of salvation given to us in the Sacraments of the Church and in the Word of God. Let us constantly show charity to our brothers and sisters in Purgatory and offer prayers for them. God can quicken their purification, but he wants to do it through our prayers; in that way he perfects us in his family love. He knows that if our love does not mature, we face the same painful purification. Only pure hearts can see God. (Rev. 21:27; Matt. 5:8) May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace. Amen
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:18:23 +0000
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