1.- The topic of the purgatory has been ill treated for centuries. It needs a revision. To begin with, several questions arise: Does the purgatory exist? What does God´s word say? What does the Gospel say? Are we going from the purgatory to the purification? Does that purification take place at the death? Is it a face of the judgment and the meeting with God? In which degree does the catholic doctrine of the purgatory mean an ecumenical problem? Do we already know now the situations in need of purification and that are against God´s kingdom?
2.- In the 2nd book of the Maccabees there is a classic passage about all this. In the cloaks of the fallen soldiers, they find objects consecrated to the idols, whose possession was severely prohibited by the Law: So it became clear to everyone why these men had died. Everyone blessed the intervention of the Lord, the just Judge who brings to light the most secret deeds. And they prayed to the Lord to completely pardon the sin of their dead companions. It is holy and in faith to pray for the dead (2 Mac 12, 40-46). It is said in the Sirach. May your gifts benefit the living and do not forget the dead (Sir 7,33).
3.- Jesus talks about a sin that will not be forgiven either in this world or in the other, the blasphemy against the holy spirit (Mt 12,32), then (it is deduced) that there are sins that can be forgiven in the other world. In front of Lazarus´ tomb, Jesus prays and thanks because his friend, is spite of the death, is alive (Jn 11,42), It is certainly an example that has not been followed very much. What we use to do is another thing, to pray for the death. Jesus denounces scribes´ prayer, who devour the widow’s and the orphan’s goods while making a show of long prayers (Mk 12,40). In the second letter to Timothy, Paul prays for Onesiphoras, who helped him in difficult moments and that, apparently, has abandoned him: May the Lord grant that he find mercy on that day (2 Tm 1,18). In the letter to the Romans, the death has a purifying function: If we are dead, we are no longer in debt to him (Rom 6,7); there are things whose end is the death (6,22); the death gives way to the adoption of our body by Him (8,23).
4.- More that the duration of the purification, it is meaningful the reconciliation of that who meets the face in flames and the feet in fire (Rev 1,14-15) of Christ the judge. The purification is a judgement dimension. In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes this advise to those who are at the Gospel´s service: No one could lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Then if someone builds with gold upon his foundation, another with silver and precious stones, or with wood, bamboo or straw, the work of each one will be shown for what it is. The day of Judgement will reveal it, because the fire will make everything known. The fire will test the work of everyone. If your work withstands the fire, you will be rewarded; but if your work becomes ashes, you will pay for it. You will be saved, but it will be as if passing through fire (1Co 3,10-15)
5.- Christian tradition has many testimonies about the prayer for the dead. For instance, in the 3rd century, Abercius´ famous epitaph ends as follows: “That who understands and agrees with these things, should pray for Abercius”. Saint Agustin writes the following prayer fit for his mother: “Already healed my heart of that wound, I pour before you, our God, another very different kind of tears for that maid servant of yours: those tears coming out from a disturbed spirit at the sight of the dangers that surround to everyone in his death. Because, although my mother, vivified in Christ, lived in such a way that your name is praised by her faith and her customs, I don´t dare to say that no word against your commandments could come out from her mouth. Therefore, taking aside her good actions, by which I thank you, I now request you the forgiveness of my mother´s sins… May she rest in peace with his husband. And, my Lord and God, inspire to everyone reading these things in front of your altar, to recall Monica, your maid servant, and Patrick, in other time her husband, by whose flesh you introduced me in this life” (Confessions IX,13).
6.- Let’s see Saint Gregory’s the Magnus experience, monk and pope (about 540-604). There were to brother in the monastery. Precious and Abundant. The first one fell severely ill and told the other that he was keeping a certain amount of money. The sick died and was buried with his money, while the monks were saying: “Go to your ruin with your money” (Acts 8,20). Thirty days after his death, my soul – says Gregory – began to suffer with the dead, to think with sorrow in his pains and to look for ways to liberate him from them, if that was possible. Then, calling to Precious, our monastery’s provost, I told him: the fire has tormented our brother for a long time. We should use charity to help him as far as possible to allow him to get free. Go and get busy to offer the sacrifice (of the Eucharist) during thirty successive days, so that there is no day without the immolation of the healthy host for his liberation. Precious left and obeyed. We got busy with another occupations, without counting the days. But the dead monk appeared one night to his brother Abundant. When he saw him he asked: How are you, my brother?. He answered: So far I was badly, but now I already am well, because to day I received the communion (the union with the others). Abundant ran to tell it to the others. The brethren carefully counted the days, and that was the day in which the 30th mass had been offered” (Dialogues, IV,55).
7.- Purgatory catholic doctrine has meant an ecumenical problem among the different Christian confessions. In the Middle age, seeming to the western (Latin) that the thinking of the eastern (Greeks) about the purgatory was less precise that theirs, requested them to subscribe a clear formula about this point. Constantinople’s emperor Michel Paleologo accomplished this request, through his delegates, in the second Lion´s council (1274): “Their souls are purified through purgatory penalties, if truly repented, they died before having satisfied with penance fruits that they committed or omitted” (Dz 464). The same is done in the union decree of the Florence’s council (1445): “The Greeks stumbled with the Latin’s idea of a purifying fire, above all because neither the Scriptures nor the Fathers know anything about it. In the union decree any concise definition was eluded, limiting it to affirm that, after the death, the souls will have to be submitted to purifying pains” (H. Jedin, Church´s History Manual, IV, Herder, Barcelona, 1973, 744).
8.- The new Saint Peter´s Basilica was initiated in 1506, inviting all faithful people to make contributions to pay for the expenditure, with the amount that everyone considered appropriate and granting indulgences to those doing so. Even special preachers were named. The abuses committed with the indulgences provoked the protestant reaction. Let’s see Luther’s position: “A traffic of masses for the dead, vigils, week, month and year anniversaries… and all, were established in relationship with the purgatory, up to the extreme that, practically, the mass was only used for the dead, when Christ had really instituted the sacrament for the living ones”; “Saint Agustin neither confirms the existence of a purgatory, nor cites any passage of the Scriptures obliging him to admit it”, “and we get to the already mentioned indulgences, that are for the living and the dead at the same time (always, of course, with money backing them)” (Schmalkalda´s articles), “in the past canonical punishments were imposed not after, but before absolution, to provoke the true contrition” (Thesis 12).
9.- Before the protestant reaction, the council of Trent (1563) teaches, “that the purgatory exists and that the souls detained there receive help through the prayers of the faithful and, above all, from the altar’s valuable sacrifice” (Dz 983). The Catholic Church Catechism discretely goes from the purgatory to the purification: “The Church calls purgatory to this final purification of the chosen ones, that is completely different from the punishment of the condemned” (num. 1031)
10.- Like it is presently made, it seems necessary to emphasize the purification function of the death and of the encounter with God, who judges and saves, he is the God of those living and not of those died: “ The purification comes from the death”, “we must neither emancipate it nor take it apart like a last article. Above all, because the Scriptures hardly talks about it”; “the protestants do not carry out that specific prayer for the dead. The living hope that the dead is in God, fills in them the place of our prayer. At the end, the difference is not so big as it could seem. They do not pray nominally for the dead, but they accompany the burial with prayers” (Dutch Catechism, Herder, Barcelona, 1969, 456-457)- According to them, “God´s salvífic gift is total, not partial. At the death, judgement takes place in a complete form. That who is dead, is justified from the sin (Rom 6,7)”(M. Schmauss. The creed of the Catholic Church, II, Rialp, Madrid, 1970, 975). “The pass from the death to the life of the resurrection is a purification, is to get painfully free from all what is against God” (New book of the Christian faith, Herder, Barcelona, 1971, 590). “The purification is the encounter with God, as far as that meeting judges and purifies the man, but also liberates and enlightens him, it saves and perfects him” (H. Küng, eternal life? Cristiandad, Madrid, 1983, 235). “God himself, the meeting with him, is the purgatory. From where it is deduced that is not necessary to go to any place, time or special event to understand what is the purgatory” (G. Greshake, Maguncia, 1976
* Dialogue: Over those topics that seem more important to us
- It is saint and pious to pray for the dead
- They devour the properties of the widows
- Jesus gives thanks because Lazarus is alive, in spite of his death
- The purification is a dimension of the judgement
- More than the duration, what is important is the reconciliation
- Purgatory’s catholic doctrine has meant an ecumenical problem
- We pass from the purgatory to the purification
- Death purifying function and the encounter with God is emphasized