This essay about Purgatory comes about because of my insatiable curiosity. It is not meant as a diatribe against the Catholic belief. On the other hand, it is meant to determine what is meant by Purgatory and what we must do while we are here on Earth to enjoy the benefits or lack of benefits of Purgatory.
There was a time about eight or nine years ago when on Monday evenings Miss Chicka, my wife, and I would watch a program on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). I suppose that we watched this program on Monday evenings for about four years or thereabouts. The main attraction was that the EWTN program featured a woman called Mother Angelica who was entertaining in herself. We were primarily interested in a news program run by Aaron Brown who was an erudite fellow who came on after Mother Angelica. As far as I know, Mother Angelica never met Aaron Brown but it seems to me that they were a duet made for broadcasting. Mother Angelica was a glib spokesman for the Catholic Church who attracted viewers such as myself because of her Irish wit.
Unfortunately Mother Angelica had a stroke that deprived her of speech. She was succeeded by a strict constructionist named Johnette whose last name was of eastern European origin. Johnette was very much like Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court in that she wanted to know exactly what the writers of Bible verses really meant. The fact that we are more than 2,000 years past the writing of the Bible made very little difference to Johnette. She was still looking under every nook and cranny to determine the true meaning of every word in the Bible.
Remember we only watched this program on Monday evenings. During the time that Mother Angelica ran the program, it had two priests who discussed various interpretations of church doctrine including Purgatory. Clearly they accepted the idea of there being a Purgatory at the end of the line. But they were not enthusiastic about discussing the virtues of Purgatory. They more or less said, “Here it is. Believe it or not.” Clearly they were not endorsing spreading the gospel about Purgatory.
All of this happened when I could still see, which was under the reign of the previous Pope, preceding Joseph Ratzinger. I believe his name was John Paul. For more than seven or eight years, I have been pondering the doctrine of Purgatory. When Joseph Ratzinger assumed the Papacy, he announced that he wished to take the Church back to the second century. It is possible that in the second century of the Common Era, Purgatory was not a doctrine of the Catholic faith.
In any case, during the reign of Joseph Ratzinger, there has been much less attention paid to the prospect of Purgatory. So before the idea of Purgatory goes by the boards, which it may never do, I wanted to hear of the virtues of Purgatory. I had thought that under Joseph Ratzinger who seemed to want to take the Church backward, we would have more concentration on Purgatory. Ah, but that is not the case. Ratzinger is a fellow fairly high in his eighties who may just have forgotten this doctrine of the Catholic faith.
But no matter. My curiosity led me to question what Purgatory is all about.
Apparently, Purgatory is a step short of Heaven. If I understand correctly, once a person is good and dead, he will proceed to Purgatory where his sins will be purged from him. This of course is the reason for the title of Purgatory. The question then follows. Suppose that the Pope or some other high official in the Catholic Church expires so that he winds up in Purgatory. Let us also assume that he has kept the vows of celibacy for his entire life. He has not even winked at a comely girl. My curious nature demands to know how long such a person would serve in Purgatory.
The next question involves who administers Purgatory. Is it God Himself or has he delegated this to Jesus?
The next issue involves me personally. If a non-believer such as myself gives up the ghost, is he floating around until his fate is ultimately determined? I know that some of my readers would say that Ezra should proceed directly to Hell. But that is not a charitable view. To whom should I present my case for going directly into Heaven? I do not subscribe to the idea of Purgatory. I would cite that lack of belief for my entry directly into Heaven.
Now according to the priest on EWTN, there have been cases where souls have lingered for many many years in Purgatory. Presumably these supporters have been so conflicted and have not prayed hard enough or have not supported the Church in its holy works so that the person incarcerated in Purgatory should be released. I am wondering whether or not there is a list of those in Purgatory and the number of days or years or millennia along side their names to show how long they have been in Purgatory.
As you can see, my curious nature was aroused by Mother Angelica. If she believed in Purgatory or not is open to dispute, I suppose, because Mother Angelica, as a result of her stroke, can no longer speak. But for me, as part of my continuing education I would like to know what the virtues or non-virtues of the doctrine of Purgatory are.
Now there is one other aspect of Purgatory that has to do with semantics. Prior to my leaving to serve in the Army from 1942 to 1945, I did not know of the existence of the word laxative. The word that we used in those days was purgative. Later on, when I returned from the Army I suppose that I was corrected by a female in the family who said that the proper term for a purgative was now called a laxative.
When I was a small child, my older sister Opal and I attended a baseball game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. As part of a promotion project, handfuls of a laxative called Feenamint were passed out. Feenamint came in very small tablets coated with sugar. They were much like the so-called P K Chewing Gum that existed for a long time with the rest of the Wrigley products. My sister Opal let me have a Feenamint and I barely made it home, thus avoiding a colossal disaster.
Well, this is the end of my inquiry into Purgatory and purgatives. As I stated at the outset, I do not mean for this inquiry to be anything more than an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity.
For all the years of my life, curiosity has led me to attempt to educate myself. And so it is that if there are those of you who read these essays who are so inclined to educate me on the virtues or even the non-virtues of Purgatory, you will find me a willing listener. Again, my intention is not in any way to demean those beliefs. My intention is simply to learn.
And now, having stated my case, both for curiosity and learning, I will retire to my chair in the living room and await the responses from those who are more accomplished in the field of religious belief, particularly Purgatory, than I am. I am willing to listen to all comers.
E. E. CARR
October 20, 2012
Essay 706
~~~
Kevin’s commentary: First essay published after the storm! This essay and eight of its brothers were held up by Ms. Sandy. I am no more experienced than Pop is, here, I’m afraid.
My question about Purgatory has to do chiefly with timelines. Since those who die live on eternally in the afterlife, and eternity is a rather long time, and Christians probably don’t subscribe to ideas like the heat death of the universe and even if they did I’m sure heaven would be exempt… I simply wonder whether Purgatory works on astrological or human timelines. If a trillion trillion years is an infinitesimally small slice of eternity, who is to say that even a minor sin won’t land me in Purgatory for some insanely long, yet finite amount of time? I guess that it’d still be decently interesting though, since you’re in the only place where the whole population is gradually rotating through. In heaven and hell you have new entrants, sure, but there aren’t really that many other places to go. Unless there’s like, social climbing in heaven? Heaven’s heaven? Concentric circles, dante-style? It’s all unclear.
I’ve always wondered too, what happens if an asteroid or something hits Earth, or there’s a nuclear war or something of insanely epic scales that kills all humans and almost eliminates all life on the planet. After a few hundred million years, lets say the life that survived whatever happened is in a position to re-evolve sentience. Now, such creatures would at least be DNA-based and a little bit like us. They would probably re-derive arithmetic and calculus and physics and whathaveyou but what they almost certainly would not re-derive is the story of Noah’s ark, Adam and Eve, and especially not the magic man from millions of years ago and his book that tells you how to get into heaven. Would the criteria for heaven change to accept these new creatures? If not, would Puragatory just gradually empty into heaven, and then that’s just locked in for the rest of time? Who is the last person to leave purgatory? Does he lock the door on the way out?