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What is the Church's teaching on Heaven, Hell,
and Purgatory?
Why do Catholics pray to Mary
and to the saints?
Chris
{
What is the Church's teaching on Heaven, Hell,
and Purgatory and why pray to Mary and the saints? }
John replied:
Hi Chris,
Regarding your first question, the Church teaches that all three exist as:
actual places or
conditions.
Heaven and Hell are eternal. Purgatory is temporary.
Hell is for the damned; it is reserved for those who reject:
God
His great
mercy, and
His Love.
Heaven is the final destination for all those who are saved by grace.
Purgatory is temporary. It is where those who have been saved by grace
are completely sanctified by grace so as to be able to fully experience
the joy of God's eternal love. If we want to give Purgatory a geographic
location, it's a suburb of Heaven.
The late John Paul II described all three as a condition where souls are
immersed by God's love, however, in the condition of Hell, the damned have shut themselves off
from God's love and this great love becomes a source of eternal torment.
In Purgatory, the love of God works as a refiner's fire. While the soul
may suffer, it is a healing pain and indeed the souls experience the joy
of knowing that their eternal salvation is assured.
In Heaven,
the soul is completely free of selfish desires and thus completely free
to be all that God has made us to be.
As for your second question with respect to praying to the saints, a prayer
to a saint is a request we make to a saint for their prayers on our behalf.
We do it, just as we would ask one another here on earth to pray for us.
With
the death, burial, Resurrection of Christ, the veil between Heaven was
forever torn asunder. Nothing separates the Church on Earth from the Church
in Heaven, therefore it is appropriate that we ask our fellow Christians
in Heaven to join us in prayer.
Hope this helps,
John
Mike replied:
Hi, Chris —
Seeing that Purgatory can be a difficult teaching to explain to any Protestant, I wanted to share with you a few things to keep in mind when faith-sharing.
Catholic Notes:
When talking with friends and family about Purgatory, it's important they know the basics:
Purgatory does exist.
Purgatory is not a third place along with Heaven and Hell nor is it a second chance.
Purgatory has nothing to do with Limbo, which was only a theological opinion and was never a doctrine of the Church.
Souls in Purgatory have been saved just as much as the souls in Heaven.
Purgatory is like the Holy Hospital of Heaven.
Purgatory refers to a temporary state of purification for those who have
died in the state of grace but still need to get rid of any lingering imperfections
(venial sins, earthly attachments, self-will, etc.) before entering the perfection
of Heaven.
Purgatory has nothing to
do with one's justification or salvation. Those in Purgatory are justified; they are saved. Purgatory
has to do with one's personal holiness and the burning away of remaining self-love. Revelation
21:27 It's our personal holiness because each person uses their free will differently in life to make good or bad choices on our pilgrimage to our particular judgment.
The Scriptures tell us, Our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29) We believe that All Consuming Fire is Our Very Lord Jesus Himself burning away all the self-love from our souls.
This article by Emily Stimpson from Our Sunday Visitor (osv.com) September 29, 2013 will also be helpful.
If you struggle to understand the Catholic view of Purgatory, this analogy may help:
Think of sin as a self-inflicted wound in your life.
When we physically hurt ourselves, many times we have to be brought to the hospital and the doctor or nurse will put an alcoholic disinfectant in our cut or wound. It will hurt ... a lot!!! but it's a good hurt; it's a holy hurt, that is needed to make us physically better.
We also have to distinguish between less severe physical injuries where we cut ourselves and require stitches and more severe injuries, like a NASCAR racing driver who gets into a major collision and ends up with third or fourth-degree burns over 90 percent of their body. There are varying degrees of damage that we do to our bodies, not only physically, but spiritually too!
Because Revelation tells us that nothing impure can enter Heaven (Revelation 21:27) and because God Himself is all Holy, we too, have to be all Holy to enter Heaven. To achieve this, any remaining self-inflicted spiritual wounds (meaning self-love) from our pilgrimage on earth has to be burned off, healed, and purified.
If our spiritual injuries are along the line of just needing stitches, that healing period where our self-love has to be burned off will be short;
but if our self-inflicted injuries are along the line of third or fourth-degree burns, the healing process will take longer.
Saints in the past have had private revelations from the souls in Purgatory. They, (the Holy Souls in Purgatory), have shared that, while the (healing|burning) fires of God's Love in Purgatory are painful (Hebrews 12:29, Exodus 3:1-6), at the same time they had an internal, burning joy because they knew they were being conformed to the image of God and their final destiny would be Total Union with Him.
Instead of the alcoholic disinfectant that the doctor gave us to heal our physical injuries so we can re-enter the Earthly world again, in Purgatory, we experience a holy, healing pain under Jesus' Care which purifies our souls and prepares us to enter Eternal Life with God who is all Holy. Our prayers and good works can also help the Holy Souls currently in Purgatory by 1.) purifying their souls and 2.) preparing them to enter Eternal Life with God, who is all Holy.
Interested in helping the Saved, Holy Souls in Purgatory?
Think of the number of saved Faithful Departed who have passed from this life to the next since 33 A.D.: many with major spiritual injuries. There's a lot! This is why praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory is very important — and they can't wait to be purified for Heaven! (Revelation 21:27) If there are any Catholics (who live in the United States) reading this answer, who have a strong devotion to praying for the Holy Souls, check out my other website at:
I work with another colleague, Brian Bagley on this. Together we are trying to re-kindle this devotion among the lay faithful and Catholic clergy in praying for the Holy Souls and for those interested. We will send out a FREE Purgatory Prayer Program for you to get started.
If the topic of Limbo arises, it's important to remember that Limbo was only a theological opinion talked about by some of our greatest saints. It was never a doctrine of the Church. It was Pope Benedict's desire to close down talking about Limbo as it appeared to interfere with explaining the Catholic faith in a clear manner.
Hope this helps,
Mike
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