Understanding Purgatory

Praying for the dead is a big part of the Catholic Tradition. We pray for the souls of our departed loved ones, hoping that they might be welcomed into the Heavenly banquet. So, where are those souls in the space between death and Heaven?

The answer: purgatory.

Purgatory is the state of purification from temporal punishment for souls to be made perfect before entering Heaven. Here are some helpful ways to think of purgatory.

Mark Hart asks us to consider a wrinkled dollar bill. Most people have experienced the frustration of attempting to get a vending machine to accept a dollar bill that is wrinkled. When that wrinkled bill is the only thing standing between you and your Dr. Pepper, you try your best to flatten it out. (I've always found that holding it in two hands and rubbing it along the edge of the machine works well.) The best scenario though is to have a nice crisp dollar bill to give to the machine - no wrinkles works perfectly.

Purgatory is the phase of purification where all the "wrinkles" are smoothed out of our souls so that we can be accepted into Heaven.

Another approach: Imagine that your soul is a wooden board. Sin is like a nail that is hammered into the wood. It changes the wood. When we receive absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the sin is removed from our life. (Like a nail can be removed from the wooden board.) However, we are sometimes still attached to sin (removing the nail leaves a hole in the wooden board), and we need to be rid of that attachment to enter Heaven.

Purgatory is the phase of purification where the "hole" is filled, making the board perfect again. 

Last analogy: Let's say that you are feeling bored one night and decide that it would be funny to throw a baseball through your neighbor's window. The next morning, when you see your neighbor upset about it, you realize it wasn't funny at all. You go and explain to your neighbor that it was you and that you are sorry. Your neighbor forgives you, but the situation hasn't completely gone away. The window is still a pile of broken glass.

Purgatory is the phase of purification that fixes the window, freeing us from all the lasting effects of sin so that we can enter Heaven. 

It is possible for these effects of sin to be purified through prayer and good works on earth. However, it would seem that most of us die with an attachment to sin remaining.

Thank God for the gift of His mercy!