Today, 2nd day of November every year is a day
set aside by the Holy Mother Church for us Catholics and Christians alike to
remember the ‘suffering’ church. It’s a day we pray for our departed loved ones
who are still on the path of purification and have not reached Heaven which is
our terminus. This brings to our focal hiceps and biceps the ephemerality and
emptiness of life. Beyond the lachrymose period which follows immediately after
death, the church invites us to continually pray for the souls of the departed
in order to help them reach the celestial state. The Catholic doctrine on
Purgatory may not have been expressly mentioned in the bible but purification
is mentioned (see Job 1:5, 1Cor.3:14-15).
The word Purgatory (which means, "Purgare",
in latin) means to make clean, to purify, to sanctify. In accordance with the Catholic
teaching, Purgatory is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those
who departing this life in God’s grace, and are not entirely free from venial
faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions;
for nothing unclean will behold the face of God (Rev 21:27). The word “Purgatory”
was never mentioned in the sacred book (bible) but it was embedded in the
bible, the same goes with the word “Trinity”.
Our Protestants brethren usually have
a problem with the teaching of the Church on Purgatory but yet, you often see
them say the common prayer of the dead “May their soul rest in peace…” this shows
that they seem to believe in an interim state of purification before heaven,
these same Christians still believe in the Trinity even though the word “Trinity”
was not mentioned in the Bible. To some Protestants, this is of the most
repugnant Catholic teachings, same goes with the Marian dogma. We arrive at the
doctrine on 'purgatory' the same way we arrive at the doctrine on the Trinity,
by making a logical inference from what God has explicitly revealed in the
Scriptures.
Now, let’s look at it from another dimension: When we lose
our loved ones, Catholics and Protestants alike usually pray for the dead. We
all pray, “May their souls rest in peace.” We also wish them well, we honor
them, we build memorabilia for them, we spend money during their funeral and we
immortalize their name, but wait a minute, if the souls of our loved ones are
in hell, why pray for them? Our prayers certainly will not help them, and if
they are in heaven, why pray for them? Our prayers cannot help those in heaven
because they have reached the terminus and are known as the “church triumphant”,
they have been privileged to behold the beatific vision.
In the Old Testament, when we read 2Maccabees 12:40-44, the
Holy book presents to us how Judas Maccabees took collection from his men totaling
about 2kg of silver and sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin-offering for the departed
soldiers who died during the fight against Gorgias. On discovering that these
men were carrying “sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids
the Jews to wear”, Judas and his companions discerned they had died as a
punishment for sin, he therefore made atonement for the dead that they might be
delivered from their sin. The holy book
stated it explicitly that he (Judas) did it because he believed in the
resurrection of the dead and he made provision for a sin-offering to set free
from their sin those who had died.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “All who die
in God’s grace, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their
eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to receive
the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven (1030).
In the new testament, Jesus was more explicit about purgatory
in his teaching in Matthew 5:24-25; when He taught: “Make friends quickly with
your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you
to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly I say
to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny” For
Catholics, this teaching is parabolic using the well-known example of “prison” and
the necessary penitence it represents as a metaphor for purgatorial suffering. But
for many Protestants, Jesus was simply giving instructions to his followers concerning
this life ‘exclusively’ and has nothing to do with purgatory. This protestant interpretation
is very weak contextually. This teaching is found in the midst of the famous “sermon
on the mount” where our Lord teaches about heaven (vs. 20) and about hell (vs.
29-30), and both mortal (vs. 22) and venial sins (vs. 19), in a context that
presents “the kingdom of heaven” as the ultimate goal (vs. 3-12). The word
purgatory is also embedded in the teaching of St. Paul to the Corinthians where
he talked about testing the works of the faithful after death. (I Corinthians
3:11-15). Purgatory exists and is a place of purification for sins committed
during one’s lifetime.
The Church in her wisdom has offered a plenary indulgence
for anyone who devotedly prays for the souls of the departed either by visiting
a nearby cemetery or a chapel from 1st to 8TH November.
An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporary punishment due to sins
whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly
disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the
Church which may be partial or plenary. Partial indulgence takes away some of
the punishment, while plenary indulgence takes away all of it.
All sins are not equal before God, nor dare anyone assert
that the daily faults of human frailty will be punished with the same severity that
is meted out to serious violation of God's law. On the other hand whosoever
comes into God's presence must be perfectly pure for in the strictest sense His
"eyes are too pure, to behold evil" (Habakkuk 1:13).
For unrepented
venial faults for the payment of temporal punishment due to sin at time of
death, the Church has always taught the doctrine of purgatory.
As we pray for our departed brethren who are still on the
path to heaven, the Church also draws our attention on the need to live a
saintly life and depart from our evil ways. It is a clarion call that reminds us
that one day we will leave this world and we will rely on the prayers of the
living to reach heaven. The Church encourages us to pray for the souls of the
departed. They are helpless and only our prayers can help them. Apart from
immortalizing their name and building institutions in their honor, it will do
our departed brethren more good if we continually spend time praying for their
soul, that God in his infinite mercy show them the way to paradise.
Finally, I encourage you to say this prayer with me:
Eternal
rest grant to them, O Lord, and let thy perpetual light shine upon them. Hail
Mary (x3)
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of
God rest in perfect peace. Amen.
Written by:
Anthony Aniebo
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