Back when I was a child, that’s right, five years ago, in my home parish, at
the back of the church there were four wall safes where you could pop in
your coins for different purposes. I understood what three of them were
for: “The Poor”, “Flowers” and “Building Fund”. But there was a fourth
one which said “Holy Souls”. Being a child, I imagined that that meant
nuns. They were “holy souls”. But it actually meant the Holy Souls in
Purgatory. I later learnt that the way it worked was, that for every five
pounds given, a Mass would be said for the Holy Souls. We had a similar
box in my previous parish, except that inflation had caught up with things,
and a Mass intention went into the bulletin for every ten pounds instead.
When I was at secondary school, we were told in history that Purgatory
was one of the dividing lines of the Reformation. Luther railed against the
selling of indulgences and offering of Masses for the deceased, and the
other Reformers followed suit. Following the reforms of the Council of
Trent (sometimes called the Counter-Reformation), indulgences still exist,
but they are no longer sold – you can get them automatically without being
given a certificate or anything like that. You can get an indulgence either
for yourself, or for someone else who has died, and if the person who has
died doesn’t need it, then I presume God assigns it to someone else
instead. You can’t give them to someone who is still alive. An indulgence
can be either partial, which means it takes away part of your purgatory, or
plenary, i.e. it takes away the whole lot. A partial indulgence is easier to
get, and might include simply saying a few prayers. A plenary indulgence
usually requires, in addition to whatever is stipulated, not being attached to
any sins, going to confession, receiving Holy Communion and praying for
the Pope (such as saying the Our Father and the Hail Mary). You don’t
need to do all those on the same day. You may or may not know that there
is also something a bit like a plenary indulgence as part of the Last Rites of
the Church, called the Apostolic Pardon. Unlike a plenary indulgence,
there aren’t any other conditions attached, so if you are unconscious and
unable to go to Holy Communion or confess your sins, then the Sacrament
of the Sick will take away your sins and you still get to receive the
indulgence. But I guess that if you were guilty of GBH and still thought
that the recipient deserved everything he got, then the indulgence would be
only partial, not plenary.
So, what is Purgatory, then? The Church speaks about Purgatory as a
process of purification in order to enter heaven. At school, the history
teacher spoke about it being a bit like a washing machine, getting our soul
clean for heaven. CS Lewis wasn’t a Catholic, but he believed in
Purgatory too, and he justified it like this:
“Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if
God said to us, ‘It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags
drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will
upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the
joy’? Should we not reply, ‘With submission, sir, and if there is no
objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.’ ‘It may hurt, you know’ – ‘Even so,
sir.’ ” (CS Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, chapter 20)
So Purgatory is not about God inflicting punishment on us because we
weren’t good enough, it’s about being purified by the grace of the Lord.
Think of it a bit in terms of alcohol gel – if our skin is intact, then it
doesn’t hurt, and the germs are outside our body. But if the skin on our
hands is broken, which means germs could have gotten inside, then the
alcohol gel hurts as it cleanses our hands of any bacteria and viruses. If
the skin on our hands hadn’t become broken in the first place, it would
have been a painless experience. Similarly, without sin, we don’t need
Purgatory, but if we arrive before the Lord at the end of our lives and there
is still even the after-effects of sin, then we need Purgatory to make us
clean – and it might hurt a bit.
That leads to my next point – prevention is always better than cure. It is
always better to be prepared to meet the Lord, rather than to be caught
unawares. The foolish bridesmaids thought they had enough oil, but it
proved to be insufficient. Are we sufficiently “topped up” with God’s
grace, or are we in danger of being found lacking? There is a football
team called Aston Villa, and their motto is “Prepared”. But sometimes,
they go on the football pitch and the other team still wins.
Purgatory is a gift, part of the mercy of God, because without it, very few
would be able to get into heaven. This month we remember those who
have gone before us, and this Sunday those who have died in war. I
suggest that we not only “remember” them, but also pray for them – and
encourage others to do the same for us when it’s our turn.