On a certain All Souls’ Day, I asked parishioners how many of them would love to go to purgatory, and nearly every hand in the church went up. While I was edified by their faith in the purifying grace of purgatory, I asked them to aim instead to go straight to heaven. Why save the purgation for the afterlife, when we can practice it now through the purifying charity of Christian living. No one aims to receive an “i” or “incomplete” in an important promotion exam. We want to graduate with honors. (I do not suggest, however, that Purgatory is an “i”).
There is no feast that so much unites the entire Church as the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, also called All Souls’ Day. Why do I say this? Because on this day the whole Church is one in prayer. While some think of the Church as a building, many often think of the composition of the Church as just you and me inside a sacred space, and no more. But truly the Church has three arms. Yesterday, we celebrated All Saints in heaven and learned that they form with us members of the same Body of Christ, the Church. They have fought the good fight of faith and won the victory. Now they rejoice eternally in heaven. Hence, we call them members of the “Church Triumphant.” We who are still in the fight belong to that segment called, “Church Militant.” We are unambiguously military men and women fighting a spiritual war against evil. Remember the popular Christian hymn, “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the Cross of Jesus….” The world is a war zone, a battle field in which we fight to free ourselves from the enemy’s grip. We who are in battle are admonished by St. Paul to be battle-ready by donning our military garb, which he enumerated in Ephesians 6:10-20.
Today, we remember the third arm of the Church called—“Church Suffering.” These are the men and women who have meant the most to us, and have gone before us in faith, yet waiting to be purified for the glory of heaven. The way I often explain it imperfectly is that the holy souls in purgatory have been judged and found worthy of God; however, on their way to heaven, they had to make a stopover at the “car wash” to get their “vehicle” cleaned and waxed, so it might shine out. We call them “Church Suffering” not because we know the extent of suffering to which they undergo in purgatory, but because their journey is “delayed.” If you have experienced a delay in your flight as you travel, you know how disconcerting that can be. When you are boarded and already taxiing then told the flight can’t proceed because of some mechanical, electrical or whatever problem; often you’re made to sit in the aircraft for hours. Your journey is delayed, your hope of catching the next flight tumbles. In the afterlife when duration is not counted in minutes and hours—in fact, there is no time, only eternity—that can translate to several decades or centuries in human terms. That is the suffering in purgatory. Some saints, though, who passed through purgatory have revealed in visions to the living that, “yes,” there’s fire, as hot or hotter than the fire with which the goldsmith purifies gold.
If I ask you to show by the raise of hand if you think that there’s something worth fixing in your life, I’m sure everyone will concur. We cannot carry them to heaven, just as we can’t fly a faulty plane. We cannot presume to walk into our own clean house if we had stepped on mud, without first removing our sludge-infested shoes. Jesus made explicit that “only the pure in heart can see God” (Mtt 5:8) and that “we should be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Mtt 5:48). He has done the essential saving work of redeeming us from our sins, and opening heaven to us. We’re then to let go of every sin, and attachment to sin. Only Perfect Charity opens our eyes to see that to which mortality blinds us; and we can only thank God for this final purifying gift.
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo