Purgatory's Appeal
RE: Tom Bethell's The Decline of Faith:
Mark30339| 7.2.11 @ 11:28AM
The letters of Paul are quite clear about the folly of a life dedicated to becoming worthy in the presence of God. I think Paul would see our Catholic formulations on a purgatory theory as an extension of this folly -- now we can even dedicate our deaths to becoming worthy in the presence of God.
Yet Paul would embrace the purgatory experience as an ESSENTIAL part of living in the here and now. He had dedicated his life to God by torturing and killing the heretical Jews for Jesus. He realized that mankind is never worthy of God, and that he in particular was utterly repugnant in relation to the Will of God -- yet God's Son still embraced Paul in genuine love. That is the purgatory experience: owning up to your own wretchedness, suspending your self-condemnation, and realizing that the loving Creator God already knew that you would be lost before you were found.
I think the best scriptural foundation for purgatory in the here and now is the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The father allows the son to disrespect him and squander his property -- yet yearns for the day when his lost son will be found. When the son is found, the father's boundless joy is not only a marvel -- it is an ANNOYANCE to the second son, who clearly lives by judgment and relative worthiness. I see the Prodigal's Brother as lost in the Land of Deserve with few prospects for ever being found. If there is such a thing as creating space for God's love, living in the Land of Deserve shrinks that space.
Mr. O'Hannigan, Mr. Bethell, there is no purgatory boot camp where you can successfully separate yourselves from the rest of us and finally become worthy of God. When you are ready to give those egos a rest, perhaps you will sit down and have a cup a coffee with us. We don't bite, and we won't judge.
Rich D| 7.3.11 @ 12:01AM
Where do you get this skubula? There is someway that a mortal can live and/or behave either in the here and now or in some hereafter (Land of Deserve?!) that can limit the love of God?
I am called to judge your works, and your message is a cause for stumbling (skandalizo, skandalon). A man without judgement is certain to fall.
Rich D| 7.3.11 @ 12:05AM
Typo - skubala.
Tony in Central PA| 7.3.11 @ 8:59AM
Great post !
I often think as Christians if we had to explain our faith in a brief, yet powerful story to somebody who knew nothing about it, the story of the Prodigal Son would be the best option. I'd never considered the situation of the older brother as you described it but I will from now on.
Rich D| 7.3.11 @ 11:50PM
What?! That parable is not about either brother! How does the older brother explain the Christian faith?
Tony in Central PA| 7.5.11 @ 9:11PM
You know, this is yet another example of how two people can read the same thing and have a completely different understanding of it.
If I had to explain the Christian faith in a very simple, short, yet entertaining way to somebody who didn't know anything about Christianity or Jesus, I would start with this story. Why ? Because it contains deep, relatable insights into human nature, but more importantly, it offers an image of God ( the Father ) that is true. Christianity reveals God to be a loving Father, not an angry tribal chieftan or a forever - detached impersonal entity. I think there are people who consider themselves Christians, some of them posting right here in this thread, who have a mental image of God very different from the Father in the Prodigal Son story.
Everybody can relate to the older brother if they are or had an older brother. Older brothers tend to be the rule - followers. In the Jewish world of the first century, they were the principle heirs ( a small detail that while not actually written in the Gospel but would have been known to Jesus' listeners ) that makes the story richer still. There are plenty of people who appear to " Do right " but they may not actually be doing it for the right reasons. You can bet the older brother was pretty PO'd when his Father gave his younger brother his share of the inheritance. Seeing him return to his Father's warm welcome was the last straw.
Mark made a good point about Purgatory with respect to the older brother. While the sins of the younger brother were serious, they were obvious to him and everybody else. With the older brother, he may have behaved outwardly upright, but his motivations are more selfish than they appear. The older brother has no interest in forgiving and welcoming his lost brother. The Father gently tells him he loves him and everything that he has belongs to him. But he also tells him the seriousnes of the situation from which his younger brother has been delivered and that they should be joyful. Its easy to imagine that the father was similarly forgiving of the older brother many times.
Jesus reminds us that we must forgive as we have been forgiven, and I think this is what Mark was getting at with his post. In Luke 12:59 Jesus warns about the consequences of being forgiven personally but not forgiving others, " ... I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny ". Catholics understand this as a refernce to Purgatory. It can't be hell, because nobody gets out.
Mark30339| 7.13.11 @ 4:44PM
Tony, what a thoughtful piece. Some of us older brothers actually snap and become prodigal sons. The resulting contempt we have for our selves exposes a lifelong posture of judging, comparing and assessing; Faith had been a quest to be more worthy of God's grace than our brother. When we realize how repugnant we are in relation to the Will of God, we can be like Judas and judge ourselves unworthy of life itself, or we can be like Paul and surrender our unworthy selves to the loving Creator God Who already knew that we would be lost before we were found.
Paul's response is the essential experience, you can call it a purgatory experience, or born again, or transformed by Christ -- but it is ready for us in the here and now. Brazilian Bishop Dom Helder Camara has written about the prodigal son and his brother as follows: "I pray incessantly for the conversion of the prodigal son's brother. Ever in my ear rings the dread warning: the one has awakened from his life of sin; when will the other awaken from his life of virtue?" (1962).
To me the pieces by Bethell and O'Hannigan sound like yearnings by the Prodigal's brother, and so miss the point just like the Pharisees around Jesus. We need to see the illusion of virtue in this life, and not hope for some future purgatory that will somehow make us even more virtuous. We need more followers of Christ who understand His invoking Hosea 6:6 at Matthew 12:7 when He says "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice."
