WelcomePurgatory
Many Catholics today are a little unclear regarding the Church's teaching on Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1030-1031, teaches that "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name, Purgatory, to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned."
Imperfectly purified means that a person who has died loves God but still carries a certain ambivalence towards God, or perhaps better put, a certain attachment to sins. This means that the individual might have some lesser sins, called venial sins, on his or her soul. It could also mean that there are no venial sins, but there is what is called the temporal punishment due to sin. When we commit a sin, even a venial one, we reject God, at least in part. The result of such a sin should be the pains of hell. But through the mercy of God expressed perfectly in Christ's Passion and Death, the punishment of hell is taken away. This remittance of the sin and the punishment due to the sin happens through the sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) or, in the case of venial sins, it happens through a sincere Act of Contrition. However, there remains the temporal punishment due to sin. This punishment is our part in making up for our sins.
God knows us well. When we offend someone and we regret it, we want to make up in some way. We may apologize to a family member we have offended, but we often wish to do something special for that person as a proof of our regret for whatever way we offended that person. When we hurt God through sin, God forgives the sin, removes the eternal punishment, but we have to do something for God because we are the ones who committed the sin. In effect, we need to take some responsibility for our actions.
Through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, charitable acts, we take responsibility for our sins and we show God we are truly repentant for our sinful acts. Through these acts, we lessen each day the temporal punishment due to our sins. (By the way, the holy season of Lent is observed in part to encourage us in these acts which make up for our sins.) If we die without any temporal punishment for sins remaining and we have no venial sins, we send ourselves to heaven. If we die with a mortal sin, we send ourselves to hell. If we die with venial sins or some temporal punishment for sin remaining, we need to be purified and we send ourselves to Purgatory.
Indulgences, either partial or plenary, lessen the temporal punishment for sin. A plenary indulgence removes all the temporal punishment due to sin and partial removes some of the temporal punishment due to sin.
Rev. Richard M. Hogan
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