In this month of November, the Church invites us with greater insistence to pray and offer suffrages for the faithful departed in Purgatory. For these brothers and sisters of ours, who "have also shared in the fragility proper to every human being, we feel the duty—which is at the same time a necessity of the heart—to offer them the affectionate help of our prayer, so that any eventual residue of human weakness, which might still delay their happy encounter with God, may be definitively erased" (1).
Nothing stained can enter Heaven, nor anyone who practices abomination and falsehood, but only those written in the book of life (2). The soul disfigured by faults and venial sins cannot enter God's dwelling: to reach eternal beatitude, it is necessary to be cleansed of all guilt. "Heaven has no doors," writes Saint Catherine of Genoa, and anyone who wishes to enter can do so, because God is all mercy and remains with open arms to admit them into His glory. But the being of God is so pure that if a soul perceives within itself the slightest trace of imperfection, and at the same time sees that Purgatory has been ordained to erase such stains, it casts itself into it and considers it a great mercy that it is allowed to cleanse them in this way. The greatest suffering of those souls is having sinned against the divine goodness and not having purified the soul in this life (3). Purgatory is not a lesser hell, but the antechamber of Heaven, where the soul is cleansed and enlightened.
And if it has not been expiated on earth, the soul has much to cleanse there: venial sins, which so greatly delay union with God; faults of love and lack of delicacy toward the Lord; also the inclination to sin, acquired in the first fall and increased by our personal sins... Furthermore, all sins and faults already forgiven in Confession leave in the soul an unsatisfied debt, a broken balance, which demands to be repaired in this life or the next. And it is possible that the dispositions of sins already forgiven remain rooted in the soul at the hour of death, if they were not eliminated by constant and generous purification in this life. Upon dying, the soul perceives them with absolute clarity, and out of the desire to be with God, it will have an immense yearning to free itself from these bad dispositions. Purgatory presents itself at that instant as the unique opportunity to achieve this.
In this place of purification, the soul experiences intense pain and suffering: a fire "more painful than anything a man can suffer in this life" (4). But there is also great joy, because it knows that, ultimately, it has won the battle and the encounter with God awaits it, sooner or later.
The soul that must go to Purgatory is like an adventurer on the edge of the desert. The sun burns, the heat is suffocating, water is scarce; in the distance, beyond the great desert that lies between, it catches sight of the mountain where its treasure is, the mountain where cool breezes blow and where it will be able to rest eternally. And it sets off, willing to walk that long distance on foot, during which the suffocating heat makes it fall over and over again.
The difference between the two is that the soul, unlike the adventurer, knows with absolute certainty that it will reach the mountain awaiting it in the distance: no matter how suffocating they may be, the sun and the sand will not be able to separate it from God (5).
We here on earth can greatly help these souls to cross more quickly that long desert which separates them from God. And also, through the expiation of our own faults and sins, we will make our own passage through that place of purification shorter. If, with the help of grace, we are generous in the practice of penance, in the offering of pain, and in love for the sacrament of forgiveness, we can go straight to Heaven. That is what the saints did. And they invite us to imitate them.
HCD