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Friday, December 02, 2005
How does Purgatory look like?
THE Bible is not clear about how "purgatory" look like, and even the Catholic Church does not have any concrete teachings regarding how purgatory look like. This doctrinal question has not been decided yet but they leave it to the doctors of the church to solve it.
Regarding the location of Purgatory, theologians are almost unanimous in saying that it is situated in the interior of the earth, that the souls in purgatory and the reprobates are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls hell.
But there are some revelations of the Saints that really describe what Purgatory really look like. And one of the most detailed descriptions is of that vision of St. Frances of Rome, the foundress of Oblates, who died in Rome sometime in the year 1440. Revelations of the Saints are historical facts based upon human testimony. They are called "Particular revelations," because they differ from those found in the Holy Scripture, not forming part of the doctrine revealed for mankind, and not being proposed by the church to our belief as dogmas of faith.
There are two kinds of particular revelations, they are; Visions are subjective lights, infused by God into the understanding of the creatures in order to discover to them his mysteries. Such are the vision of the prophets, the apostles, and saints. This usually takes place when the subject is in the state of ecstasy. Apparitions, at least, frequently are objective phenomena, which have a real exterior object. Such was the apparition of Moses and Elijah at mount Tabor and several others, the apparitions of Mary at Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, and many more.
This is the testimony of St. Frances of Rome as published in the book Purgatory by Fr.F.X. Shouppe S.J. Chapter VI pages 11-12.
It has pleased God to show in spirit the gloomy shades of Purgatory to some privileged souls, who were to reveal the sorrowful mysteries thereof for the edification of the faithful. Of this number was the illustrious St. Frances of Rome, foundress of the Oblates who died in Rome in 1440. God favored her with great lights concerning the state of souls in the other life. She saw hell and its horrible torments; she saw also the interior of Purgatory, and the mysterious order--I had almost said hierarchy of expiations--which reigns in this portion of the church of Jesus Christ.*
In obedience to her superiors, who taught themselves bound to impose this obligation upon her; and her visions, written at the request of the venerable Canon Matteotti, her spiritual director, have all the authenticity that can be desire in such matters. Now, the servant of God declared that, after having endured with unspeakable horror the vision of hell, she came out of that abyss and was conducted by her celestial guide into the regions of Purgatory. There reign neither horror nor disorder, nor despair, nor eternal darkness; there divine hope diffused its light, and she was told that this place of purification was called also sojourn of hope. She saw their souls that suffered cruelly, but angels visited and assisted them in their sufferings.
Purgatory, she said is divided into three distinct parts, which are as the three large provinces of that kingdom of suffering. They are situated the one beneath the other, and occupied by souls of different orders. These souls are buried more deeply in proportion as they are more defiled and farther removed from time of their deliverance.
Lowest region is filled with fierce fire, but which is not dark like that of hell; it is a vast burning sea throwing forth-immense flames. Innumerable souls are plunged into the depths: they are those who have rendered themselves guilty of mortal sin, which they have fully confessed, but not sufficiently expiated during life. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number of their former sins. Lower purgatory- the saint beheld laics and persons consecrated to God. The laics were those who, after life of sin, had the happiness of being sincerely converted; the persons consecrated to God were those who had not lived according to the sanctity of their state, (priest, nuns and other religious orders).
Intermediate purgatory is destined for souls, which had deserved less rigorous chastisement. It had three distinct compartments; one resembled an immense dungeon of ice, the cold of which was indescribably intense; the second, on the contrary, was like a huge caldron of boiling oil and pitch; the third had the appearance of a pond of liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver.
Upper purgatory is the temporary abode of souls, which suffer little, except the pain of loss, and approach the happy moment of their deliverance.
(December 2, 2005 issue)
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