This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
All Souls Day. On this day we commemorate specifically, as can be seen from our readings, all those Christian souls who have passed on from this life, who have gone before us. We think of and pray for the dead.
The readings are not all about Purgatory. They are about the dead, and how their hope in God is not in vain. The readings are all about hope.
The readings are not all about Purgatory, but this day is. If it were not so, there would be no All Souls Day–only yesterday’s feast, All Saints Day. The definition of a saint is one who is in Heaven. If all faithful Christians who passed were in Heaven, All Saints Day and All Souls Day would be the same thing.
Yet, this is not “Purgatory Day,” but rather, “All Souls Day.” The focus is not on the difficult purification that souls must undergo after death prior to reaching Heaven but rather, appropriately, on the value of the faithful Christian soul itself, how God cherishes it, and how He holds it in His hand.
As such, we could thing that Purgatory is something of an eccentric, even embarrassing doctrine, one that no one really understands and no one knows what to do with.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. The first reading underscores the meaning of Purgatory perfectly: “As gold in the furnace, He proved them.”
Purgatory is actually critical and central to what is essential to Christian doctrine: Namely, the process of salvation and sanctification.
Jesus came to shed His blood for us. This was a big deal. He wasn’t going to do that and leave us in a state of half-baked mediocrity.
No, Jesus came for the big prize. He came for our complete purification and sanctification in order to realize–as the object of the game–our complete exaltation. He wanted nothing less for us than a true and transforming participation in the divine nature. You don’t get that unless your free will is completely and totally centered on Him, purified from any other attachments. The big prize.
To insist, however, that this purification come to complete fulfillment in this broken world, full of the fruits of sin and constant temptation, would be harsh. Most of us who are striving to choose God consistently, and keep away from the complete rejection of His path for us that is serious sin, will, however, die with some attachment to creatures and some habits of lesser sin that we have not shaken. These habits constitute weaknesses and impurities that would cause undo suffering in the presence of God.
“As gold in the furnace, He proved them.” There are some who posit that the purifying fire of Purgatory is the presence of the fullness of God’s love itself, which causes suffering in our souls due to their unworthy attachments. That this love itself is what burns away the impurities in the gold.
Whatever the case, Purgatory–purification after death–is a mercy, both because God does not allow us to be condemned due to our minor attachments, and because He allows us a finite period after death by which our souls reach the fully sanctified state for which He created us. It is a mercy because, despite minor faults with which we may die, we still come to reach the fullness of the elevated destiny won for us in Christ–the glory of which we cannot even begin to fathom here on earth.
There is a further mercy about Purgatory: The Church teaches us that we can lighten/shorten the time of souls’ purification through our prayers for them. One can infer here that our prayers bring special grace to fortify these souls, as protein does a body builder, as they go through their spiritual “workout” after death. Prayers for the dead are our way of participating in mercy of God by which He prepares them for profound eternal union with Himself.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think of persons you have loved, who have passed. Speak to Jesus about them, about the reasons He loves them so much, what He loves about them. Ask Him to speed their period of purification, if it is still ongoing (and if not, to apply your prayers to another soul in need). Consider visiting a cemetery today or in the next couple of days. If you do and you pray for your special departed friend there, fulfilling some basic requirements you will find here, you can win for them immediate culmination of their purification and entry into Heaven. Also: Read through the readings for today again, and praise God for the hope He gives to us for eternal salvation and sanctification.
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