Sunday, November 2, 2014

Purgatory: 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time (All Souls)


(Listen to this homily here.)

         This is a great time of year for hunters for birds and, soon enough, deer.  I love spending time outdoors hunting, fishing, camping or canoeing.  I confess I love letting my hair down and living on the land without showering or shaving for periods of time.  You guys know what I’m talking about—you’ll enter the world of primal manhood next Saturday when deer hunting opens! 
            When such an excursion ends, there comes a moment where I catch a whiff of myself.  It is usually in the truck on my way back to civilization.  I suddenly realize, I stink!  And when I look into a mirror a see a disheveled bum looking back at me.  Before coming back to home and work I take a treasured shower to get cleaned up.
            Consider this as a metaphor for purgatory.  Before entering heaven—our home—we must get cleaned up!  Any stink of sin and ugliness of evil must be washed away.
            We have always believed in purgatory.  We see this in Scripture in the second book of Maccabees.  The Maccabean brothers offered prayers and sacrifices for the dead.  Why would they do this if the deceased were in heaven?  People in heaven don’t need prayers.  We can infer they did so because they had an understanding of the dead needing their prayers on their journey to the afterlife.
            Our tradition has consistently taught about purgatory, especially in the Council of Florence and the Council of Trent.
            While many of our brothers and sisters in other Christian denominations struggle with this teaching, to me it makes logical sense.  If heaven is a place of perfection, only perfected souls can be there.  But what happens if someone dies with sin, or effects of sin, on their soul?  It simply makes sense that some sort of final cleansing must take place.
            We don’t know much about the details of this final purification because none of us have been there.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church has only four short paragraphs to describe it.  And here is a mind bender for you…when death occurs a soul leaves time.  Time itself is a creation of God and we live in this linear movement on earth.  At the same time, a soul both enters and leaves purgatory—it begins at death and ends when one enters heaven.  How can something have a start and end outside of time?  Chew on that one!
            The answer is, we simply don’t know—purgatory is shrouded in mystery in what it will look like, where it is (if it is a place) and what takes place.
            One image we may draw from both the Scriptures and the lives of the saints is fire.  One of the options for our readings today—from Wisdom—states, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God…As gold in the furnace, he proved them…”  Gold being purified in fire from impurities is a good example to consider in relation to purgatory.  But we shouldn’t think of a mini-hell because this purification will end.
            There is nothing to be scared of when thinking about purgatory.  Every soul there now will enter into heaven!  God sent His son to cross the bridge between death and new life, and he has promised to care for us.
            Another example to consider is giving birth to a child—I hear that isn’t a pleasant experience!  Yet think of the joy you moms and dads have when a new life enters the world.  And I don’t think birth is easy for the baby either.  While there may be pain and suffering involved in birth, at the end of the day there is immense joy.  While our final purgation may include some suffering, the final result—heaven—is on the other side.
            With all this said, it is a good and noble practice to pray for the dead.  We do this in a special way as we commemorate all souls.  We do so in every Mass.  We do so when we offer particular Mass intentions for departed loved ones.  And as we do, we may have great hope in the mercy and love of God.
            “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”

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