More on Purgatory

Father Alvin asked me to check out his postings on Purgatory here. They are so good, and so relevant to the Catholic-Orthodox debate as well, that I am taking the liberty of copying some here. I will add my own tuppence in a separate post.

[T]he key to understanding the Catholic teaching on "temporal punishments" is to realize that these punishments are not external acts of divine vengeance but are the existential consequences of our sins to ourselves and to others. Since God has willed that we suffer these consequences, they are and must be an expression of divine justice.

Catholics and Protestants alike must acknowledge that a clarification of doctrine is now taking place in the Catholic Church with regards to the notion of "the temporal punishments of sin." This clarification has been authoritatively expressed in the CCC:

To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. 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 sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain. (1472)

The language of punishment is retained, yet note the insistence that this "must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin." It is sin that brings with it, by divine ordination, its own punishment.

Note also that the temporal punishment of sin is explicitly connected with that "unhealthy attachment to creatures" that sin causes within us and from which we must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory."

Note also the possibility that perfect contrition, i.e., conversion that flows from charity, can "attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain." When the individual has been healed, when he has been delivered from his personal attachment to sin through love of God, the temporal punishment is ended. There is no further penalty to be imposed, precisely because the temporal penalty of sin is identical to our bondage to sin. Once we have been liberated from sin, there can be no more "punishment."

I believe it is accurate to say that according to the CCC, sinful attachment to evil and creaturely goods is the temporal penalty and punishment of sin. To speak of pardoning or remitting this temporal punishment is simply a juridical way of speaking of that existential liberation from the power of sin which God achieves in our lives, either before death or afterwards. John Paul II also appears to have identified temporal punishment with that attachment to sin from which we must be purified:

Temporal punishment expresses the condition of suffering of those who, although reconciled with God, are still marked by those "remains" of sin which
do not leave them totally open to grace. Precisely for the sake of complete healing, the sinner is called to undertake a journey of conversion towards the fullness of love. In this process God's mercy comes to his aid in special ways. The temporal punishment itself serves as "medicine" to the extent that the person allows it to challenge him to undertake his own profound conversion. This is the meaning of the "satisfaction" required in the sacrament of Penance.

The problem is the distorting dominance of forensic language in the Western tradition. We are all struggling to move beyond this dominance, not only in our articulation of the sacrament of penance and purgatory but also in our articulation of the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ. Rather than jettisoning the language, which would be an un-Catholic way of doing things, the Catholic Church has chosen to supplement and correct this language with terminology and images that better express the absolute love and mercy of God and his transforming power, thus achieving a reinterpretation of the forensic. I cite Pope Benedict's latest encyclical, esp. the remarkable section on the last judgment (par 41-48), in support of my position. I believe that the present teaching of the Catholic Church on purification and penance is now more firmly grounded in Scripture and the wider catholic tradition. It is certainly less vulnerable to Reformation objections.

Is this "clarification" of "temporal punishment" contrary to the Council of Trent? That is a decision only the Magisterium can make, and since it is the Magisterium itself that is stating this clarification, the Catholic, at least, must assume continuity of teaching, not discontinuity. The Protestant critic is of course free to assert that the Catholic Church has simply changed her teaching, but I hope that he will at least acknowledge this "change" by altering his polemic.

Let's not get lost in secondary matters. The Catholic Church teaches that the infinite Creator is a triune community of absolute love. The Catholic Church teaches that in his love for humanity, God himself has assumed our human nature to reconcile sinners to himself. The Catholic Church teaches that in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God himself has offered to himself a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the world. The Catholic Church teaches that when God speaks to the sinner, through his ordained minister, the words "I absolve you for your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," the sins of the penitent are utterly and completely forgiven and the penitent is reborn in the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Church teaches that God justifies sinners by Christ alone, by grace alone, and that by his act of justification he incorporates the individual into the divine life of the Holy Trinity. All of this is very, very good news!