2 Maccabees 12:43-45 says, "In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.”
Purgatory is also part of the Jewish tradition, even if that is not the word they use for it. Orthodox Jews today recite a prayer known as the Mourner’s Kaddish for 11 months after the death of a loved one so that the loved one may be purified.
St. Augustine said that, “temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death and by others both now and then; but all of them before the last and strictest judgment.” And his mother, St. Monica, asked her son to remember her soul in his Masses. This would make no sense if she thought her soul would not benefit from his prayers.
So the question is, can you avoid purgatory? Yes. According to Fr. Paul O’Sullivan in his booklet, “How to Avoid Purgatory”, he says that many make no serious effort to avoid purgatory and that a great number of souls go to purgatory simply because they’ve never been told how to avoid it. Avoiding it is the best course of action; but certainly not the easiest.
The reason why purgatory is necessary for some is that we have committed sins and have not yet made satisfaction for them. If our souls are stained with sin, we must be purified before we can behold the beatific vision. Purgatory is our purification and it is by no means a picnic, but it is a promise of heaven, even if one must continue to wait to attain it. In purgatory there is hope of heaven, but just because there is hope in purgatory does not mean we should desire it. We should, at all times, desire and strive for heaven and ask our Heavenly Father for just that. We should desire to make reparation for our sins while we are still on earth so as to avoid purgatory altogether.
It is interesting to me that so many assume they must spend time in purgatory and yet, when a loved one dies, they assume they’ve gone straight to heaven. While this is a very charitable thought, it lends itself entirely to a lack of charity because then we do not pray for their poor souls. It does no harm to assume they’ve gone to purgatory and to pray for them, because in the glorious event they’ve gone to heaven (whether or not they passed through purgatory), God will apply the prayers to someone else in need. There is no such thing as a wasted prayer.
Never let anyone convince you that you are being presumptuous in asserting that you can go straight to heaven. Unless of course you assume heaven will be given to you without any effort on your part. We can avoid purgatory, yes, but it requires much effort, by way of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and penance and without a doubt, suffering. We must strive to live holy lives or avoiding purgatory will, in fact, become unavoidable.
There are many means in which this can happen, again, by avoiding sin completely, but surely by frequent and good confessions, by doing reparation for sin while on earth (remember, you cannot gain merit once you’ve died), Jesus made a promise for Divine Mercy Sunday, under certain obligations of course, to wipe out any temporal punishment due to sin and there is always the Apostolic Pardon. You can also ask St. Joseph to intercede on your behalf for a holy, happy death.
My good friend St. Therese of Lisieux had a great teaching on purgatory and how to avoid it. She said you, “should not fear purgatory because of the suffering there, but should instead ask that you not deserve to go there in order to please God.” She even said it offends God if we don’t trust enough that we can get to heaven after dying.
A sister in the convent did not like St. Therese teaching that purgatory could be avoided and confronted her. She would not listen to St. Therese at all and St. Therese finally responded, “My sister, if you look for the justice of God, you will get it. The soul will receive from God exactly what she desires.” About a year after that conversation the sister died and St. Therese dreamed of her and heard, “You were right, I am now delivered up to the full justice of God, but it is my fault, if I had listened to you, I would not be here now.”
God desires us to be in heaven with Him. As St. Therese says, “He does not put us here on earth, where we are tested and are suffering after the fall, only to let us suffer again – and much worse, in purgatory. Everyone receives enough graces in order to go straight to God after passing the trials on earth. However, purgatory is an emergency entry to heaven for those who have wasted their time on earth. What God considered the exception, became the rule and the rule – to go straight to heaven – became the exception.”
Mystics throughout history say that the least suffering in purgatory is much greater than the greatest suffering on earth. Why? Because on earth we receive God’s infinite mercy but in purgatory, we are receiving His justice. God cannot desire useless sufferings for us.
At the moment of our death, we already have our place in heaven. There is no growing in grace once we’ve died, so we miss nothing by avoiding purgatory.
St. John says in 1 John 4:17-18 “In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect loves casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and he who fears is not perfected in love.
Trusting in God is enough. He can do ALL things. Even after a “messed up” life, God can still take one straight to Heaven if the dying person only has trust. Remember St. Ditmas, the good thief crucified next to Jesus on Calvary, he went straight to heaven!
Here is a quick list on some ways to avoid purgatory…..
1. Ask God if you can go straight to heaven. Pray this every day of your life.
2. Ask the saints to intercede on your behalf and assist you in avoiding purgatory;
3. Remove the cause for going to purgatory, which is sin;
4. Do penance. When our Lady appears to us she continually asks for reparation for sins.
5. Bear patiently what cannot be avoided; namely, suffering – whether physical, emotional, spiritual or mentally. These sorrows, as Fr. Paul O’Sulllivan says, “are in truth, God’s greatest graces.”
6. Confession, communion and Holy Mass. Confession applies the Most Precious Blood of Christ to our souls, wipes out our sins and gives us strength to avoid future sin. Holy communion likewise helps us to sin no more and pardons the sins we have committed. (although this would be venial sins, because one should not receive our Lord in the state of mortal sin). Assisting at daily Mass applies oceans of graces obtained by the sacrifice of Calvary to our own souls, each and every time we go. Jesus visited Zaccheus but once and in that one visit he obtained complete pardon of all his sins. So how is it possible that the same God of goodness and sweetness can come, not into our house, but into our very hearts in Holy Communion and not give us the same and even greater graces that Zaccheus received?
7. Another way to avoid purgatory is to forgive all those who have injured or offended you. Just as we forgive others, God will forgive us.
8. Perfectly resign yourself by offering your death to God.
9. Indulgences, partial or plenary, are remissions before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven (CCC 1471).
10. Divine Mercy Sunday, as I mentioned earlier, is another way to avoid purgatory. As with indulgences, there are stipulations, such as confession and receiving Holy Communion.
We must remember that heaven is not going to be handed to us, we must strive to live holy lives at all times. We must have the desire to avoid purgatory and be willing to undergo the trials and sufferings that will surely come our way.
