{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34557/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34557","id":"gutenberg_34557","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34557","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Purgatory"],"text":"Produced by Michael Gray, Diocese of San Jose\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHAPPINESS IN PURGATORY.\n\n  Published April, 1897,\n\n   in\n\n   THE CATHOLIC WORLD\n\n   A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science\n\n\n\nHAPPINESS IN PURGATORY.\n\nIT may be said of Purgatory that if it did not exist it would have to be\ncreated, so eminently is it in accord with the dictates of reason and\ncommon sense. The natural instinct of travellers at their journey's end\nis to seek for rest and change of attire. Some are begrimed with mud,\nothers have caught the dust of a scorching summer day; the heat or cold\nor damp of the journey has told upon them and their attire. Perhaps,\neven, the way has made them weary unto sickness, and they crave for an\ninterval of absolute repose.\n\nTravellers from earth, covered with the mud and dust of its long road,\ncould never wish to enter the banquet-room of eternity in their\ntravel-stained garments. \"Take me away!\" cried Gerontius to his angel.\nIt was a cry of anguish as well as desire, for Gerontius, blessed soul\nthough he is, could not face heaven just as earth had left him. He has\nthe true instinct of the traveller at his journey's end. Dust, rust, and\nthe moth have marked their presence, and even the oddities and\neccentricities of earthly pilgrimage must be obliterated before the home\nof eternity can be entered. _De mortuis nil nisi bonum_ is interpreted,\nnothing short of heaven for those who have crossed the bourne. But, if\nthe heavenly gates are thrown open to the travellers all weary and\nfootsore, \"not having on a nuptial garment,\" no heterogeneous meeting\nhere on earth could compete with the gathering of disembodied spirits\nfrom its four quarters. It is human ignorance alone which canonizes all\nthe departed, and insists on a direct passage from time to heaven. The\ncanonization is not ratified in heaven, because heaven would not exist\nif it took place. The Beatific Vision is incompatible with the shadow of\nimperfection. To act as if it were belongs to the same order of things\nas rending the garment of Christian unity.\n\nPurgatory makes heaven, in the sense that heaven would not be possible\nfor men without it. As well might we try to reach a far-off planet,\nwhich is absolutely removed from our sphere, an unknown quantity, though\na fact science does not dispute. Heaven without Purgatory is a far-off\nplanet which must ever remain beyond our touch and ken, for it would be\neasier that we in our present condition should traverse space than that\nthe sinner should see God face to face.\n\nThe vestibule of heaven, in which souls tarry in order to make their\npreparations, and to be prepared for the feast of eternity, can scarcely\nbe an abode of pure suffering. Heart and mind, as they exist in the\n_anima separata_--that is, understanding and love--are at rest. On earth\nmind and heart are the source of the greatest pain as well as the\ngreatest joy. The severest pain of body may be accompanied by happiness\nand a mind at rest, whereas remorse makes life unbearable. Hidden\ncriminals at large have not unfrequently given themselves up to justice\nin order to arrive at peace by a public execution, that being the\npenalty demanded by their tortured conscience. Death, however\nignominious, rather than remorse--the backbite of inwit, in the quaint\nlanguage of our forefathers. Remorse is not in the organs of sense, but\na purely intellectual operation, proper to man. It cannot be softened by\nworldly prosperity or riches, fame or success. On the other hand, a good\nconscience is a well-spring of happiness, be the outward circumstances\nof a man's life what they may. Bodily pain would add to the torture of\nremorse, just as it might deaden the joy of a good conscience, _per\naccidens_, as theologians say. Conjointly with the mind, the heart\ncauses the keenest sufferings and the deepest joys of human life, joys\nand sufferings which are acted upon in the same way indirectly by pain\nof body. A severe toothache, for instance, quickens the pangs of\nremorse, whilst it deadens joy proceeding either from the intellect or\nthe heart. It would madden a bride on her wedding morning, without in\nreality affecting her happiness. The root of both joy and grief is in\nthe soul, not in the body. Conscience is the \"worm which never\ndieth\"--that is, hell, the torment created by man himself for his own\npunishment. The same applies to Purgatory, as far as conscience has been\nsinned against. The soul has created its own torment, but in Purgatory\nthe fires die out because they deal with the _anima separata_, never\nwith the senses. In each case the nature of the fire, which may not be\nmaterial and is exercised on spirits, must remain mysterious to us. At\nleast we can understand it by analogy. Remorse in the tortured soul of a\nmurderer is sufficient to destroy the prosperous and pampered life of\nthe body. Intensify it by the measure of eternity, and it may alone\nconstitute hell. That is probably what theologians mean when they say\nthat the fire of hell and that of Purgatory are identical. What fire is\nto the body, that burning sorrow is to the spirit, who sees things in\ntheir true light, and weighs lost opportunities in the balance of the\nnext world.\n\nBy sorrow and love earth shows us the material, to speak in human\nlanguage, out of which Purgatory is made. The pangs of remorse deaden\nthe most intense bodily pain, and the power of love does more than\nrender hard things sweet. _Many waters cannot quench charity, neither\ncan the floods drown it_, says the voice of love in the Canticles.\nWhether human or divine, it is as a burning fire, which consumes all\nminor cares. I will not deal with passion, but with love in its noblest\nform and expression; the love, for instance, of a mother, or of a wife,\nor of an affianced bride. Earth has nothing better in the natural order\nthan disinterested affection, a foreshadowing of Purgatory as much as\nthe torture of remorse. Sin will not be there, neither will\nmoney-making; love will be the coin of the realm. _Non subtrahuntur\ndelici\u00e6 sed mutantur_. As the action of purification is perfected, each\nhuman intelligence in Purgatory will be more and more fixed on God. The\nsoul disengaged from the senses will learn all the more promptly the\nlesson of Purgatory, if it has not been learnt here, the perfect love of\nGod. There is joy in suffering under these conditions, a joy which makes\npain acceptable. A _promessa sposa_ will be patient with sudden illness,\nand racking pain, if they promise to be temporary. She can afford to be\nso as long as her heart is fixed on the wedding day. The _sposo_, indeed,\nmay weary of a sick affianced bride, and court another. This can happen\nin human things, but never in Purgatory. The souls there are fixed on\nthe Unchangeable One, who can never prove them false; so be the\nsuffering what it may, they can afford to bide his time, secure that the\nreward of their heart's long watching will never pass away. Their\nwedding day is far removed from the vicissitudes of earth, and the\nfever-tossed brides may suffer in perfect peace.\n\nOn earth it is more difficult to unlearn than to learn afresh, and it\nmust be feared that to the great majority Purgatory is an unlearning.\nThe idols, the false standards of the world must be swept away. In the\nfirst instant of eternity the soul has an intuitive perception of her\nerrors. It may be likened to arrival in a foreign land, of which the\nlanguage has been badly learnt at home. English-French will serve as a\ncomparison. It is very soon proved to be no French at all. The foreigner\nimmediately says: \"I am all wrong. I must begin again.\" He had much\nbetter have learnt no French--at least his professor will think so--for\nhe has to unlearn more than he learns, his expressions, his quantities,\nhis pronunciation. Fully aware as he now is of his shortcomings, the\nwork of imparting real knowledge will take time.\n\nWe say that knowledge is power. In Purgatory it is love; and who can\ncall the process of arriving at it all painful, even if accompanied by\ntorments? It is the burst of eternal day, coming gradually to those who\nascend the steep mountain-side of Purgatory.\n\nIn it, as in the Father's house, there are many mansions. Whilst the\nsaint may be punished with the pain of loss only, the sinner may be\nracked with fiery torments, \"saved yet so as by fire.\" Whatever the\n\"mansion,\" the suffering proceeds from the same cause, varying in\ndegree: remorse for the past, love of God in the present. That which on\nearth causes our torture and our joy is prolonged in Purgatory, with\nthis difference: _Here_ our minds and hearts are unquiet because they\nare not fixed on God: _there_ knowledge and love will be first\nestablished on their true centre, and then perfected.\n\nThere is one single and unique instance of purgatory on earth--not\npurgatory in the loose sense in which the expression is often used.\nSuffering by itself is not synonymous with Purgatory. There must be the\nabsolute certainty of heaven, which has been given only once. _Amen,\nAmen, I say to thee, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise_. The\nword was spoken by our Lord himself to one in fearful torture and\nignominy. Was the good thief conscious of pain with that divine promise\nringing in his dying ears? It may well be doubted.\n\nHe has spoken the same word to each of the holy souls: \"Thou shalt be\nwith me in paradise\"; and they are so moulded to his will that his hour\nis theirs. They long to hear _this day_, but the security of Our Lord's\npromise tempers their suffering and puts it far above all pains and\nsorrows of earth. Who would not submit to be crucified, if _To-day thou\nshalt be with me in paradise_ were the reward? Yet a state of\ncrucifixion and perfect security is that of the souls whose blessedness\nexceeds their torments.\n\nThese thoughts may possibly suggest comfort to some who confuse\nsuffering with unhappiness. They are not synonymous. Let us rather think\nof the holy souls as in the condition of the good thief. If they are\nsuffering the torments of crucifixion they have heard the word which is\nto be their joy through eternity: _Thou shalt be with me in paradise!_","title":"Happiness in Purgatory","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":1787}