Purgatory is arguably the most misunderstood teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Catechism clarifies its teaching. Simply put, it teaches that purgatory is a state of purification, prerequisite to the state of heaven, of which it assures us. It differs from the state of hell.
Most Roman Catholics accept their Church’s teaching on purgatory but feel it doesn’t apply to them. After all, at every funeral I have ever attended, the priest reassures the beloved that their deceased loved one has gone to a better place, reunited with all their pre-deceased loved ones in heaven, enjoying an incomparable intimacy with God. Is this really very likely?
While comforting, these words do not fit what Jesus taught. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt 7: 13-14) Jesus explains why.
His Greatest Commandment insists we must do our best to do God’s will. Firstly, we must love God with our all. Must this not mean we must love God more than the person we love most? Jesus, speaking as God Incarnate, said we must. (Matt 10: 37) Secondly, we must love our neighbour (all God’s children) as we love ourselves. Must this not mean we must love all the least loveable? Jesus said we must. (Luke 6: 27-31) Do you know anyone (including yourself) who has done their best to love God and all His children as much as Jesus insists? Is it any wonder that, at our death, few of us enter through the narrow gate? How can this be the will of a God that unconditionally loves us? Let’s put ourselves in God’s shoes.
Imagine you have found the person you love, and can’t live without, but know that they don’t love you. Since you cannot be complete without their love, must you not wait, as long as you live, for them to choose to love you as much as you love them? The choice to love, or reject you, is theirs alone. You can not force anyone to love you. Must it not be the same for God?
The Meaning of Life Video Series and Chapter 13 in Discovering Life’s Purpose establish with sound reasoning the knowledge (though not absolute, as good as it gets) that God loves us and wills that we love Him and all His children as He loves us in eternal intimacy in heaven. Like us, God cannot force us to love as He loves us. He had to give us free will for our choice, to love Him as He loves us, to be ours.
God knows most of us are incapable of doing our best to love Him, as He loves us, while we are alive on Earth. He knows His material gifts to us are so intoxicating that we cannot avoid using them as we will, rather than as He wills. So, must He not continue to provide us an opportunity, to love as He does, after our death? Must He not free us from His material gifts in a state with all His other children who share our incapability?
What must that state be like? It can’t be hell where torments equally distract us. Hell is not even an option for a God who unconditionally loves us. Hell is our self-imposed separation from God. It can’t be heaven because that is what that state prepares us for. Must it not be purgatory, from which all are assured of salvation? God awaits us with infinite patience. Must not purgatory be God’s greatest gift to us? Thank God for purgatory! Still, should we not minimize our time there by upping our game on Earth?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.