As you came to Mass today I am sure you noticed that the trees that used to be filled with green leaves are now bare. As we move into November nature is dying all around us. The nights are getting longer, which also reminds us of the dying of nature. In the Church November has long been the month in which we make extra effort to pray for our deceased relatives and friends. It is also a time for us to bring to prayer our own inevitable passing from this life. The dying of nature all around us is God’s way of reminding us about the importance of these things.
Each person is composed of body and soul. Our bodies die, but our souls live forever. When death occurs, our souls leave our bodies and are immediately judged by Christ. Each soul goes to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. Hell is for those people who lived lives of disobedience to God, commit mortal sin and died with mortal sin on their souls. Heaven is for those people who, when they die can look God in the eye and say honesty, “I love you, Lord, above everything.”
What about Purgatory? Purgatory is for those people who truly loved the Lord when they died, who generally wanted to be in a good relationship with him and wanted to do his will while they lived. When they died they were in friendship with the Lord (CCC #1030). The souls in Purgatory are assured of their eternal salvation, but they need this final purification. The problem is that they did not love the Lord enough. Their love for him was real, and genuine, but their love for him was weak in some respects. It was not as strong as it should have been. Their love for the world or their attachment to certain sins was to strong. They were in friendship with the Lord, but not in perfect friendship with him. When they died they could honestly say “I love you, Lord.” Some could say it with more conviction than others. Yet, none of them had reached the point where they could say, “I love you Lord above everything.” The souls in Purgatory were on the way towards being able to say “I love you, Lord, above everything”, but had not reached that point when they died. Purgatory is a purification process. In Purgatory the soul is strengthened in its love for the Lord. Love that in life was weak or tepid is fortified and strengthened. In Purgatory the soul is purified and cleansed from attachment to the things of the world, purified and cleansed from attachment to sin, purified and cleansed from anything that would get in the way of the soul being able to say, “I love you, Lord above everything.”
How do we know Purgatory really exists? The word ‘Purgatory’ is not used in the Bible. However there are references in the Bible to praying for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:42-46). Also we can look to the practices of the Church. “From the beginning the Church has … offered prayers” for the dead (CCC #1032). There are even references to Mass taking place in cemeteries for the sake of the dead. Prayers for souls in Hell are useless – they remain in Hell. Prayers for souls in Heaven are unnecessary – they are already in Heaven. The fact that from the beginning the Church has prayed for souls indicates that there is a third realm, not Heaven or Hell, a third realm where souls could go when death occurs, and where prayers for them are beneficial. Also we can find existence for Purgatory in God Himself. In order for us to enter Heaven we have to be perfect, we have to be saints. Yet, many of us – I count myself first on this list – are not saints. If we need to be saints to enter Heaven, what about those who are not saints, who have an imperfect and weak love of God, yet have not rejected him? Our faith teaches that God is merciful, and one of the best ways to see his mercy is in the existence of Purgatory, where souls can go to finish up becoming the saint God wants them to be.
Why is Purgatory important? Purgatory becomes particularly important as we age. When you are young all the family and friends that are important in your life are alive and well. Slowly, as you age, the people near and dear to you begin to die: perhaps a grandmother when you are 12, or a aunt when you are 21. By the time you reach midlife, half the people who are important in your life might be alive, half might be dead. As you age beyond midlife, more and more, the family and friends that were so important to you, one by one pass away. This causes us to wonder, “What happens after we die?” “Where are my deceased relatives now?” “Will I see them again?” We like to think that there is hope for them, and hope for us when we die.
Incidentally, someone may ask how long a soul is in Purgatory. The soul is in Purgatory for however long it takes to reach the level of holiness needed to enter Heaven. He is there until he is able to look the Lord in the face and say in all honesty, “I love you above everything.”
When our relatives and friends are alive we often ask them out of love, “What can I do for you?” Once they pass away, we can continue to do good things for them out of love. Souls in Purgatory can benefit from what we do for them on earth. Remembering our deceased relatives and friends in our private prayer, gaining indulgences, almsgiving, doing penances, etc. are all things we the living can do to assist the souls in Purgatory. Most significantly, we can have Mass said for them (CCC# 1032). Your parish has a beautiful tradition of having Mass said for the souls of all your deceased relatives and friends throughout November. When you have Mass said for someone, you are directing the grace and power of that Mass toward the soul of the person you are having the Mass said for.
How does it work? How does it happen that our prayers for souls in Purgatory somehow help them? Well, we cannot say for sure how it works. The mechanics of it all cannot be perfectly described. It is like the internet or e-mail. I do not know how they work, but I know that they work. Likewise we are assured that our prayers for the souls in Purgatory really do help them, though it cannot be explained in precise detail.
Our hope regarding Purgatory is that those family and friends who are in Purgatory now, we have a real, a strong chance of seeing them again one day when we die, and being with them forever in Heaven, where we can spend all eternity reuniting. We can also be assured that our prayers for them now can truly help them in their needs. We also have the hope that in passing on our Catholic faith to our children, especially on Purgatory, that when we die we will have survivors who will pray for our souls. When we come to the end of our lives if we can say, “I loved the Lord, but I was no saint”, then Purgatory gives us great reason to hope, great comfort. Purgatory is a great sign of God’s mercy. In November let us make an extra effort to do what we can to help those who have gone before us.
