Novmeber 4, 2009

Q: How can the Church teach about Purgatory when the word ‘Purgatory’ is not even found in the Bible?

A: It is true that the word “purgatory” is not found in the Bible; but, neither are the words “Trinity,” “Incarnation” or “Bible.”  Even though these theological terms are not found in the Scriptures these realities are firmly rooted in the biblical revelation.  The word “purgatory” comes from a Latin root which means “to purify or to make clean” and this is the purpose of purgatory: to cleanse us from our attachment to things that separate us from God.  Purgatory, according to the glossary in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” is a “state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven for those who died in God’s friendship, but were only imperfectly purified”; it is a “final cleansing of human imperfection before one is able to enter the joy of heaven.”  We know from Scripture that “nothing unclean will enter [heaven]” (Rev 21:27) and that holiness is necessary to see God (cf. Heb 12:14).  Purgatory is the Church’s teaching which explains the temporary, intermediate state souls endure who did not die in mortal sin but are not yet “perfect as [their] heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).

The teaching on the reality of Purgatory is found in both the Old and New Testaments.  There is an explicit passage in 2 Maccabees 12 which refers to the Jewish general Judas Maccabeus praying for some dead comrades to make “atonement for the dead that they might be delivered from their sin.  It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins” (2 Mac 12:45-46).  Prayers for the dead would be useless if their souls were in heaven or hell but the inspired Scriptures encourage us with the holy and pious thought to pray for the souls in purgatory. 

Jesus implicitly teaches that there are sins which can be forgiven in the next life when he says “whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mt 12:32).  Sin cannot be forgiven in hell or heaven so there must be an intermediate state where it can be forgiven “in the age to come” (cf. CCC 1031).  St. Paul also teaches about purgatory when he talks about the works that will (and will not) endure in God’s kingdom: “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor 3:15).  No one will suffer in heaven and no one will be saved in hell; therefore, there must be a middle state where sin is expiated.  The Catholic Church calls this reality “purgatory.”  For more information, read the “Catechism of the Catholic Church’s” section on purgatory (paragraphs 1030-1032).

This week’s apologist is Ben Akers, S.T.L., director of the Denver Archdiocese’s Catholic Biblical School and the Catechetical School. Send your question to: editor@archden.org.