WHY must souls thus suffer
before being admitted to see the face of God ? What is the matter, what is the
subject of these expiations ? What has the fire of Purgatory to purify, to
consume in them ? It is, say the doctors, the stains left by their sins.
But what is here understood by
stains? According to most theologians, it is not the guilt of sin, but the pain
or the debt of pain proceeding from sin. To understand this well, we must remember
that sin produces a double effect on the soul, which we call the debt (reatus)
of guilt and the debt of pain ; it renders the soul not only guilty, but
deserving of pain or chastisement. Now, after the guilt is pardoned, it generally
happens that the pain remains to be undergone, either entirely or in part, and
this must be endured either in the present life or in the life to come.
The souls in Purgatory retain
not the slightest stain of guilt ; the venial guilt which they had at the
moment of their death has disappeared in the order of pure charity, with which
they are inflamed in the other life, but they still bear the debt of suffering
which they had not discharged before death.
This debt proceeds from all
the faults committed during their life, especially from mortal sins remitted as
to the guilt, but which they have neglected to expiate by worthy fruits of
exterior penance. Such is the common teaching of theologians, which Suarez sums
up in his Treatise on the Sacrament of Penance. “We conclude then,” he says,”that
all venial sins with which a just man dies are remitted as to the guilt, at the
moment when the soul is separated from the body, by virtue of an act of love of
God, and the perfect contrition which it then excites over all its past faults.
In fact, the soul at this moment knows its condition perfectly, and the sins of
which it has been guilty before God ; at the same time, it is mistress of its
faculties, to be able to act. On the other hand, on the part of God, the most efficacious
helps are given to her, that she may act according to the measure of sanctifying
grace which she possesses. It follows, then, that in this perfect disposition,
the soul acts without the least hesitation. It turns directly towards its God,
and finds itself freed from all its venial sins by an act of sovereign loathing
of sin. This universal and efficacious act suffices for the remission of their
guilt.
All stain of guilt has then
disappeared ; but the pain remains to be endured, in all its rigour and long
duration, at least for those souls that are not assisted by the living. They
cannot obtain the least relief for themselves, because the time of merit has
passed ; they can no longer merit, they can but suffer, and in that way pay to
the terrible justice of God all that they owe, even to the last farthing. Usque
ad novissimum quadrantem.
These debts of pain are the
remains of sin, and a kind of stain, which intercepts the vision of God, and
places an obstacle to the union of the soul with its last end. Since the souls
in Purgatory are freed from the guilt of sin, writes St. Catherine of Genoa, there
is no other barrier between them and their union with God save the remains of
sin, from which they must be purified. This hindrance which they feel within
them causes them to suffer the torments of the damned, of which I have spoken
elsewhere, and retards the moment when the instinct by which they are drawn
towards God as to their Sovereign Beatitude will attain its full perfection.
They see clearly how serious before God is even the slightest obstacle raised
by the remains of sin, and that it is by necessity of justice that He delays
the full gratification of their desire of everlasting
bliss.
This sight enkindles within
them a burning flame, like that of Hell, yet without the guilt of sin.
