Avoiding Purgatory

The word purgatory is not found in sacred scripture, so how can we be certain it exists?  Well, because the doctrine is found in scripture.  Jesus refers to the sinner who “will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matt 12:32) which suggests that one can be freed after death of the consequences of their sins.  In 1 Cor 3:15 St. Paul tells us, “He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”  If this is true, and we must believe scripture is, then the loss suffered would not be hell because you cannot be saved from there and it cannot be heaven because there is no suffering, or fires, in heaven.

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.

Examination

In early October my spiritual director advised me to do an examination of conscience every day, preferably in the evening.  I've heard many times over the years I should be doing one, it's just not something I've done on a regular basis.  I didn't do it regularly after he told me to do it either, because I would forget, or think about it and put it off and then forget.  Or I'd be too tired. Or I didn't feel like doing it.  On those days when I did manage to do an examination, I'd forget what I'd come up with by the time I went to confession, so it was losing some of its point.

I decided the best way to go would be to write down my examination.  Then, I would have those things (SINS!) on paper and I could take them into the confessional with me so I wouldn't forget anything. Taking a pad and pencil in the confessional is a good thing to do, especially for me, because then I can write down my penance, and anything else the priest (Jesus) may say to me while I'm in there.  Once I've confessed those sins, there is a certain amount of pleasure in ripping those pages out of the notebook and tearing them into little pieces before throwing them away.  Don't keep them, God has already forgiven those sins and forgotten them....so no need for us to dwell on them.

I have been diligent about doing the examination since I got a notebook, but truly only because my spiritual director told me to do it (obedience).  True, it was helpful in the confessional, but it's kind of "another thing to do in my day."  I don't need anything else to do in my day.

I did notice though, rather quickly, that when you write your sins down in a notebook, and you open that notebook daily to write down more stuff (SINS!), you want to confess them more frequently (really, who wants to take a "book" into the confessional with them?).  I have been in the habit of going to confession at least once a month for quite some time now, but I was moved to go a little more frequently so I could rip those pages out and tear them up (confess my SINS!).

Another benefit to writing down my daily examination of conscience occurred to me last Thursday when I again went to confession.  It had only been a week since my last confession and as I was looking at the things I'd written down, I realized that had I not written them down, I would have forgotten them!  Things that needed to be confessed would have been left UNconfessed because I would not have remembered them otherwise. YIKES!

Doing an examination not only helps us to confess all our sins, it helps us to get to know ourselves.  It's not about just knowing what we've done wrong, but knowing what we've done right and what we could have done better.  Maybe even to start recognizing those things we should have done but didn't.

Before doing an examination of conscience be sure to put yourself in the presence of God.  I like to ask the Holy Spirit to help me, in essence, asking God what He wants me to confess.  What I usually do is just quiet myself and pray:

"O come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Your well beloved spouse."

My Priest Knows Me

I love the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Sometimes at my parish it’s called the Sacrament of Mercy and I think that actually draws me even more to the confessional.  Why would you not want mercy?  That’s just crazy!  I was once visiting a parish out of town and was doing the Stations of the Cross and as I walked past the confessional I noticed a sign on the door that said, “Love Shack”.  Quite frankly I was a little disturbed by that name, but really, what could be truer?  I know we see the priest walk into the confessional, but it’s Jesus who hears our confessions, forgives us, and absolves us of our sins.  The priest is just the instrument through which Jesus works.

I didn’t make my first confession until I was 33 years old and I had a lot to cover.  I was very nervous that first time and it didn’t help I was at a communal penance service.  It always seems as though everyone can hear you, and so I was in no rush to go.  I looked around at all the priests who were available and all I could think about was getting the one young priest “on the panel” because I did not want any of the old guys hearing my confession.

That experience forever changed my life.  That’s the point of confession, to be changed.  To turn from your sin and run to a life in Jesus.  Not to say it’s easy, because it isn’t, but when have good things ever just fallen from the sky?  We have to work at them.  As much as I’ve come to love the sacrament of reconciliation, I know I have a lot more to learn about the mercy we are being offered.

The confessional has become a refuge for me.  The priest is welcoming and his attention is focused on healing the heart and soul.  Although I prefer to make confessions to my parish priest, others prefer the anonymity of confessing to a priest from a different parish.  I personally like the feeling of accountability I get when confessing to someone I see on a regular basis.  I know the priest does not remember individual confessions, but I leave the confessional with the sense of duty not to sin again, especially when I know I’ll be seeing that priest again very soon.

I have to admit, there are times when I want to go somewhere else for confession because I don’t want to confess to my parish priest, but humility is part of confession.  Turning away from our pride and admitting what we’ve done wrong.  Remember, Jesus already knows what you’ve done wrong, better than you do, but He wants you to be humble, just as He is humble.

I go to my parish priest for confession because he is my spiritual father.  It is the “duty” of every priest to make sure you get to heaven and so you can go to any priest and he will hear your confession and help you.  But there is a bond between you and your spiritual father that is not present with another priest.  Spiritual matters should not be taken lightly.  If your goal is to get to heaven, you have to be serious about doing what it takes to get there.

I’m not saying you can’t go to another confessor; because certainly there are times when it’s appropriate.  If you are out of town, on a retreat, you can’t make it during the scheduled confession times.  If you are in need of reconciliation, go wherever you can to find Jesus in that sacrament.

Just as you are the best one to take care of your children when they are in need, so your priest is the best one to take care of “his” children….you and me!