Topic:  Should we be afraid of Purgatory?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: June 9, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:  Should we, as Catholics, be afraid of Purgatory? It's hard for me not to equate it with hell. I know it is not hell, but it IS suffering like we cannot imagine.

Answer: 

Good to hear from you again, Bethanie; hope all the undergrads at the University of Houston are as interested in things religious as you are!

Please read in our "FAQ Library" under the subject, "After Death," the answers to questions that have been posted about Purgatory, in order to get a handle on what the Church says about this issue. Here, I'll make just a couple of comments.

First, nobody can tell you whether to be afraid of Purgatory or anything else for that matter.

Some fears are the result of irrationality on our part; those fears are not useful and should, probably, be dealt with in therapy.

Other fears -- like the Fear of the Lord which is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit -- can be quite good, of course. Fear of the Lord, which comes from the Spirit of God, helps us to acknowledge the power, goodness, love, majesty, and truth of God, while, at the same time, allowing us to acknowledge that we are limited, finite beings. This Fear of the Lord enables us to see our limits as gifts from God -- freeing us to be creatures and allowing us to recognize God as the Infinite and Eternal One-in-Three.

You have to figure out for yourself when to embrace fear, as a gift from God, and when to reject fear, as a servile expression of irrationality in your mind and heart. Happily, on most college campuses, trained professionals are available to help with that process; I would encourage you to take full advantage of those helping professionals.

Second, remember that Hell and Purgatory are very different. Hell is eternal; Purgatory is temporal. That means that Hell will go on forever and ever. But Purgatory will have a definitive end. Every single person in Purgatory will go to Heaven at some point-in-time in the future. My own sense is that anything that has a definite end should not be the cause of great fear in our lives; only those realities which cause endless suffering seem to be legitimate causes of fear.

Third, every single thing that God does, God does out of LOVE. God never acts in any way that harms us. God always works for our good and the good of all.

To be sure, our limitendness and our sins prevent us from always recognizing the loving kindness of our God. But just because you and I can't see the loving outcome of God's will and plan does not mean that God has somehow 'failed' to act lovingly. Remember the axiom scribbled, I believe, on a concentration camp wall in World War II, "I believe in the sun even though it isn't shining." You and I are invited to believe in God's-always-loving actions even though we can't quite see them or understand those actions fully.

So, this Christian confidence that God is always and in every case acting for our good out of the inifinity of Divine Love should provide something like an answer to your question -- don't you think?

Should we look forward to Purgatory? No, I don't think so; it is, after all as you suggested, a purging experience in which the consequences of our sinfulness are removed in not-so-pleasant ways.

But that purgation occurs precisely because God wants us to be fully prepared to enjoy forever the glory of heaven with God, with our Blessed Mother, and with all the saints. If we have to go through a little "cleaning up" in order to have that eternal joy, the purging is worth the price -- at least in my opinion!

So, should we be afraid of Purgatory? I'll let you make your own mind up!

Blessings,
Father Phillip