I Need Your Discipline

Nothing aside from possibly Mary the Mother of God seems to raise Protestant hackles quite as much as Purgatory.. Protestants often say that Purgatory is not in the Bible and therefore is not a legitimate belief. Setting aside quibbles over the sufficiency of Scripture, Purgatory is indeed a valid and even Scriptural belief.

First, we must understand that nothing unclean may enter heaven. Revelation 21:27 states, “But nothing unclean shall enter [heaven], nor anyone who practices abominations or falsehoods…” All Christians accept that they still commit sins, even after baptism or conversion. If this is true then how does one enter heaven with such sin on his or her conscience? Is it simply dismissed upon death?

The answer is found in 1 Corinthians 3:15, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”  This verse and the rest of the chapter speak of laying a foundation for our lives (Jesus, faith, salvation, etc.) and then building upon it. This is a metaphor for our lives as Christians and how what do “echoes in eternity.” Here St. Paul is clearly saying that some of what we build in life may not matter in the hereafter, it may be destroyed. Already we see the vague references to some kind of cleansing in the life to come.

You see, St. Paul believed in Purgatory, even though he did not call in that (it did not get that name until long after he died). He was Jewish and knew the Maccabean story. In this story, the Jewish rebels fought against their oppressors in order to preserve their religion and culture.  During one of the battles some of the rebels committed a sin, so their leader offered prayers on their behalf because he was expecting them to rise again.  He “did this with the view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. This he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from sin.” - 2 Maccabees 12:45-46.

St. Paul never repudiated this belief, so it only makes sense to read his writings in 1 Corinthians in context of this belief. St Paul also practiced customs associated with belief in Purgatory, such as praying for a deceased friend (2 Timothy 1:16-18) and baptizing for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29-30).

Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ also taught from this belief. As something of a contemporary of St. Paul and a good Jew, Christ would have known about and most likely practiced the same things as Paul regarding the dead. In Matthew 5:26, he told his audience that they ought to make amends lest they end up in prison, because “you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”  Early Christians understood this to be a parable for atoning for sins in this life or the next. Tertullian, only a century or so removed from Christ’s earthly ministry, wrote,

It is therefore quite in keeping with this order of things, that that part of our nature should be the first to have the recompense and reward to which they are due on account of its priority. In short, inasmuch as we understand "the prison" pointed out in the Gospel to be Hades, and as we also interpret "the uttermost farthing" to mean the very smallest offence which has to be recompensed there before the resurrection, no one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline, without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection, when the recompense will be administered through the flesh besides. http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-22.htm#P3085_1117545

None of this in any way abrogates or supplants Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.  Anyone that dies and then finds himself in Purgatory is assured of going to heaven.  Purgatory is merely the temporal payment for sins.  Philippians 2:23 admonishes believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Catholics believe that Purgatory is just part of that process, because, as I said before, “nothing unclean will enter heaven.”

Purgatory is a sign of hope, for we know that we have made it. The souls in Purgatory “are assured of their eternal salvation.” -CCC 1054.  They just have to work it out a little more, just as though anyone going to a wedding will brush off his jacket, smooth her dress, straighten his tie, or touch up her lipstick before going inside the Church.  

So we see that Purgatory is indeed in Scripture.  The ancient Jews believed in it, the Apostles never repudiated it and continued beliefs and practices consistent with it, and even Jesus taught in its context. We should do as the Apostles did and keep praying for those in Purgatory while doing our best to avoid it.

God bless us all.