Toll Houses and Purgatory

I heard an interview the other day in which Father Thomas Hopko, dean emeritus of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary, held forth on the subject of the so-called "toll houses" in Orthodox thought. I have a great deal of respect for Father Hopko and his writings. In this interview he treated with his customary learning and common sense the intra-Orthodox controversy over what exactly we know of the spiritual progress of souls after death.

One thing he said, though, raised my ecumenical hackles. I mention it not so much to criticize Father Hopko, as to give an example of one of the ways it is possible to unfairly undermine any understanding between the Churches. Much of this happens when people casually throw off like, "of course this isn't anything like what the Catholics believe..." Those kinds of statements are really bad when, in fact, what you are describing corresponds very closely to Catholic belief!

In discussing the nature of "purification" the departed soul undergoes as it resists (or fails to resist) the siren calls of the tempting demons, Father Hopko contrasted this notion with that of the Catholic Church. He claimed, if I am remembering correctly, that where the Orthodox notion of purification was all about letting go of sinful attachments on the way to life with God, the Catholic notion is that this purification is penal in nature. For the Orthodox purification is healing; for the Catholics purification is punishment.

This is a partial truth at best.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1472:

Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth or after death in the state called Purgatory.

OK, the word here is "punishment." But, as Father Taft is fond of noting, words are words and things are things. What is called "punishment" is not really "penal" in the sense of exacting a penalty, but therapeutic. Tough love, if you will. This is indistinguishable to me from the kind of purgation Father Hopko, and most mainstream Orthodox, believe we undergo after death.

But wait, there's more! Namely, there's the Latin idea of "perfect contrition." If the attachment to sin is eliminated by repentance motivated by charity (as asserted in that same paragraph of the Catechism) then this surely proves that what is called "temporal punishment" is not a penalty but a purification. Where that cleansing has already occurred through the fire of love, no further pain is exacted. 

Now, I realize that the language we use does have implications. Theological emphases and tendencies within particular spiritualities follow trajectories set by such semantic choices. I have no illusions that people are likely to stop investing way to much importance to these choices. But I think we should notice when people do. Once we begin to pay attention, we might spark enough curiosity to follow those trajectories back to their source. What wouldn't that do for unity???