Reflections on Death and Punishment

 INTRODUCTION

I write here today to grow in understanding of my faith in God and, in particular, in my understanding of the Resurrection of the Dead.  During a final study group meeting at church, the subject of purgatory came up and suddenly I realized that I had many questions and some misunderstandings about the nature of death, judgment, and purgatory.  It occurred to me that a combined review of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and the Baltimore Catechism might focus my confusion and provide an anchor for gaining some answers. 

As I approached this study, I first turned to a prayer I could say at the beginning of every writing session.  I also asked, at the same time, for a patron saint of writing and I was presented with St. Catherine of Bologna.  Her book, “The Seven Spiritual Weapons” will eventually appear on my bookshelf.  But for now, and most importantly, I have incorporated her into my prayer for guidance, direction, and focus.

Father, guide my thoughts, Guardian Angel, guide my hands, St. Catherine of Bologna, stand by me as teacher and mentor as I journey in my quest for increased knowledge and understanding.  Amen

    

Approaching this task, I turned to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and noted the pages referencing Understanding, Knowledge, and the Resurrection of the Dead.  These areas of the CCC would give shape to my growth in knowledge and understanding of the Church’s teaching on this matter.

In starting any piece of writing, the opening line(s) is always the hardest for me.  Establishing the starting point is critical.  If I get it wrong, I usually find myself going down a rabbit hole of misdirection and then have to start all over again.  And the rabbit hole was definitely waiting for me.  I took note of the first reference beneath my reading notes on Understanding and turned to CCC 223.  As I read it, I was surprised that it made no sense and that I was, in fact, in the wrong part of the book. I checked back at my original references and there was nothing mentioning 223. 

I cannot explain it but it seems that the Holy Spirit intervened to point me in the right direction and my guardian angel made sure I was listening and got the message.  CCC 223 speaks to the implications of faith in one God and in particular coming to know God’s greatness and majesty.  At last, I had order.  Before understanding, you must have knowledge.  Before knowledge you must recognize God’s greatness and majesty.

KNOWLEDGE

As a youngster and teens, I grew up with the Baltimore Catechism.  There was daily religion study through 2^nd grade and it picked up again in 8^th grade.  In-between, depending on where we lived and the parish schedule, when I enrolled in public schools, I would attend Catechism once a week on a Wednesday or a Saturday.  The awareness of lifelong learning being a truism was brought home to me again this week when I discovered that my idea of the disposition of the soul after death was a bit skewed.  I knew that the soul had one of three destination after death, heaven, purgatory, or hell.  But, in our culture, the remembering of our loved ones in heaven is common.  In fact, common enough that the in-between state might be easily overlooked.  And, then there is the final resurrection with the return of Jesus Christ to earth. If the soul isn’t in heaven, if we are, in reality, waiting for the final judgement, why are we assuming our loved ones are in heaven?  Why do we automatically believe that a mortally sinful person is in hell?  Where and when do we step back from judging a soul’s disposition and, instead, proceed to knowledge and embrace understanding?

UNDERSTANDING

My answers are clearly laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Baltimore Catechism, the catechism of my youth.  There is an enormous difference between the two; not in what is taught but in the depth of what is taught.  There is an orderliness and structure in the Baltimore Catechism that I find more comfortable to learn from and I believe my simple and straightforward belief springs from its more streamlined structure.  When I was young, I didn’t need the details to hold the beliefs.  It was my uncluttered, uncomplicated pathway to truth.

This uncomplicated structure also influenced my writing style.  I’m a less-is-more person, more Hemingway than Faulkner. I’m essays and short stories, not full blown novels.  I’m attracted to the writings of Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah, and not so much to Saint Pope John Paul II and others who came before him.  But, as in all things, we grow and mature.  We are effected by outside influences.  We question.  So when I confronted my sudden confusion about the afterlife, it seemed only natural to turn to my old friend, the Baltimore Catechism.

In Volumes I and II, the Baltimore Catechism instruction on death and judgment is straight-forward.  Young minds receive uncomplicated explanations.  What is this?  This is that.  Young minds got the basic message.  I did.  Many others did too and the simple explanation served us well.  Volume III offered a bit more depths and Volume IV expanded with a final lesson for maturing minds.  It was a good starting point.

But somewhere along my own personal journey to knowledge, the right understanding of what it all meant became vague and confused.  The world interfered. I derailed from the Faith.  It all became meaningless.  By the time I returned, the Church had changed. The 70’s and most of the 80’s had flown by and what I returned to was not recognizable.  Fast-forward to 2022 and the question of death and judgment had been lurking for a while.  The children were raised.  They were grown, gone, and making families of their own.  And it all is happening for them within the loving embrace of the Faith, for which I am eternally grateful.  They are so beyond me in knowledge now and it’s time for me to catch up.

So, why the confusion?  Is the noise of the world and the diversity of opinion so glaring that truth is buried under the sheer weight of it?  In a word – Yes.  Cutting through all of the noise, I asked myself four questions.

1.      What happens after death?

2.      Will I be accepted, condemned, or something in between?

3.      If in between, what does that mean?

4.      How and when do we know our final destination before His return?

5.      What are the tools He gives us?

What Happens After Death?

As a child, we are taught that we are judged immediately after death.  Our faith and actions measure the love we have shared in our life. Though we likely have not arrived at the end of time and Christ’s return, we are still judged or condemned.  We are introduced to the idea of purgatory as a stop on our journey to heaven and union with God.

Will I be accepted, condemned, or something in between?

By the time we are older, in our teens, we have presumably matured into the understanding that purgatory is a place of purification where, through spiritual suffering, we are cleansed of our venial sins.  We cannot enter into the glory of God without this cleansing.   

If a soul is burdened with mortal sin without repentance, the soul and body is condemned to everlasting suffering.  But, as humans we cannot know the mind of God nor the heart of an individual at death.  We cannot judge what we do not know so we are meant to pray for the individual, even one who is known to be evil in life.  Their Particular Judgment is not ours to know or make.

We are given all the tools we need in life to enter the Kingdom of God at our deaths.  His grace, mercy, and love are abundant.  But it is how we use these tools that determines if we are raised to glory immediately upon death, or we are consigned to purgatory for a period of cleansing, or we are condemned to Hell.

What is the In Between?

Purgatory is a place of spiritual suffering for the cleansing of our venial sins. Since our body is separated from our soul after death, the suffering of purgatory is not physical.   It is a time when we face our sinfulness in order to be cleansed, to be washed clean, but it isn’t necessarily an entirely painful process. As we journey through our time of cleansing, we also know joy, the joy of the knowledge that we will eventually be gathered into the glory of God.  This is why it is important that we pray for the souls in purgatory.  They cannot pray for themselves but, to grow in selflessness, they can pray for others.  And I imagine this would also include praying for fellow souls in purgatory since the prayers would not be directed at themselves.   This thought is merely conjecture on my part.  Nothing is said in the catechism about this specifically.  We only know that the souls of purgatory can pray for others.

How can we know our final destination before His return?

The simplest answer is that He lets us know.  At an early age, we are taught of the Particular Judgment, that judgment that happens immediately after death.  We understand that being lifted to Heaven or being assigned to Purgatory are the goals we need to strive for.  The tools of using His mercy and Grace and Love are the roads to ultimate union with God.  At death, if we are consigned to Hell, there is no last chance.  If a soul is condemned to Hell, the soul AND body suffer with the knowledge that they failed in life to use the tools He gave us to forge a path to His Glory.  The way of judgment has never been a secret.

We then learn, with His return, the disposition of all souls that went before us, the General Judgment.  We witness the beneficent love of God.  His generosity becomes known to all as well as His fair and final condemnation.  For one who has had little and suffered much in life but loved, there is a reward.  For one who has had much in life but has loved little, there is condemnation.  To love insufficiently, no matter how little or how much you have in life, is the wide road to Hell.  In short, a place in Heaven cannot be bought. 

What are the tools He gives us to gain Heaven?

God offers us many ways to grow in friendship with Him.  Pray.  Do good works.  Examine our conscience daily.  Ask for forgiveness.  Offer an Act of Contrition after the examination. We cannot know the date and time of our death (Matt. 24:36) so it isn’t enough to plan to do better.  Always strive to do better and make amends for past errors.   What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? (Mark 8:36)

CONCLUSION

It is through prayer and being open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit that will lead us on our quest for knowledge, understanding, and ultimately friendship and union with God.  Study. Talk with others. Listen to the small voice that nags with a particular thought.  It isn’t easy.  The world is full of distractions and sparkly things that to delays and procrastination.  We are full of good intentions to pursue the questions but the Evil One does not want us to look too deeply and the important questions so he will always throw up an interruption or create some kind of commotion that will occupy our attention instead of pursue our question for knowledge, understanding, and unity with God.