ABOUT twice in my life I have heard homilies which referred to Heaven and even hell as a "condition" or a "state of being," period. Each time, before the period, I had hoped more explanations were coming, but no. Heaven and hell (no mention of Purgatory at all) ended like a dangling sentences.
I thought it made Heaven unattractive and hell, not that bad. It was also a foggy way to give an idea of the afterlife. If Heaven and hell were mere states of being, how do they differ from our being in the present state? This question was not resolved.
There's just no way of fully explaining the afterlife from the point of view of what we're used to in the natural world. It is said that the best rational explanation of it was made by the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquins in his Summa Theologiae, but towards the end of his life, he stopped writing after he was shown a glimpse of the Other Side.
It was in 1273 that Aquinas was celebrating Mass when he received the revelation whose details he did not disclose. But later to his secretary Reginald, he remarked: "The end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me."
There is good reason why Jesus Christ had said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Children don't complicate things. God's justice couldn't have made salvation a complicated matter. God gave us the Ten Commandments, not quantum physics as a requirement for salvation.
So when Jesus tells us that in His kingdom there are many mansions, believe Him like a child. In other words, Heaven is not just a state of being, but an actual place, though far different in kind and quality from the natural world we were born to and are to die in. And so is hell. And Purgatory, too.
Such have been affirmed by saints and modern Catholic mystics in good standing with the Church over the centuries. Even before giving up their ghosts, some, like Aquinas, have been given the chance to experience, with their bodily senses, the supernatural, nay, the preternatural.
While Maria Simma, the subject of the series in this space, was not given the chance to see Heaven, Purgatory or hell in her lifetime (d. 2002), she obtained information on the afterlife from the souls, call them ghosts, that were her frequent visitors in her small home in Austria.
SO WE CONTINUE with Simma, this time with her ghost-gathered information of Purgatory as an actual place, among other things, based on her interview by Nicky Eltz (whose book Get Us out of Here is available on Kindle online).
Q: Now please, what exactly is Purgatory?
Simma: Purgatory is a PLACE and a condition that every soul experiences when it still needs to do atonement and reparation for sins that it committed during its life before it too can join Jesus in Heaven. Very little is taught about it today, and when little is taught about Purgatory it leads far more people in becoming curious on their own and without any spiritual guidance they then stumble so easily into occult practices. Usually it's said that Purgatory is only a condition. This is only partially true, for it is most definitely also a place. It is also a time for waiting where the souls yearn for God. This yearning for Him is their greatest suffering. All Poor Souls experience this no matter at what level they find themselves. There are three main levels in Purgatory and I experience the souls that need relatively little for their deliverance into Heaven...
Q: What might some other differences be between the higher and the lower levels of Purgatory?
Simma: In the lowest level Satan can still attack the souls whereas he can no longer do that in the higher levels. It is true that we are tested while here on earth and that testing stops with our death. However, the souls in the deepest third of Purgatory must first suffer away the sins that they committed before our prayers, Masses and good deeds can be beneficial to them. And a part of that suffering in the deeper levels is that they continue being attacked by Satan. The many levels of Purgatory are different in the same way that all our earthly illnesses are different. One can be a mere irritation of a fingernail while another can consume the entire body like a fire. This fire exists only in the lower levels of Purgatory but not in the highest.
Q: Can our prayers block Satan from attacking those in the lowest level of Purgatory?
Simma: Yes, they can; and especially when we directly ask St. Michael the Archangel and the lesser angels to do that. And within these three main levels there are more levels? Yes, a very large number, because every soul is so very different when it arrives there. There are great sufferings and there are lesser sufferings and everything in between. There are probably as many levels there as there are souls because no two people or two souls, of course, are ever identical.
Q: When the Poor Souls suffer, do they experience joy and hope in any way?
Simma: Yes. No soul ever wishes to return here to earth because they have a realization of God that is very much clearer than ours is here. They never want to return to the darkness that we live in here.
Q: So God puts the souls there to cleanse them of their sins not yet atoned for and repaired?
Simma: No, this is usually taught incorrectly, and false teaching such as this can so easily turn people away. God does NOT put them there! The souls judge and then assign themselves to the appropriate level. It is THEY who wish to cleanse themselves before they join God. And realizing this specific truth about God's love for us is very important.
Q: So it is we who recognize that we're not yet pure and therefore need to be cleansed in Purgatory?
Simma: Yes, that's right. Do souls there ever revolt against their condition? Are they patient or do some of them not want the condition that they are in? No, they are patient and they want to suffer, knowing that through this they atone and repair everything. They become clean to arrive in front of God in an entirely brilliant condition. The more atonement and reparation that are done, the cleaner they become. (To be continued)