OCR Text |
Show T - . PICTURES OF PURGATORY. A Kttlc.pamphlct that reaches us once a month, to our mind uses improper means 'to excite devotion to the holy souls in purgatory. It docs this through pictures. One of these pictures represents the upper up-per portion of living, naked bodies, with arms outstretched out-stretched in supplication, the lower anatomy invisible in-visible by reason of a lake of fire covering them. F orks of angry flame leap from this lake and threaten threat-en to burn up what is above as well as below the s.urface. The top of the. picture represents a St. Anthony shrine surrounded by the pious, to whom the holy souls are piteously appealing for help. The effect intended by the gfewsome thing is to bring the mind to the torture inflicted by fire, and to rescue bodies from fire, say bodies, for no idea of the soul is conveyed - by such picture, neither could it be. Whether the soul be in purgatory or hell, the body is certainly where it was placed to return to dust. Wc hayc in mind an aged Voman awaiting death, but much troubled about the suffering she must endure in the prison for holy souls. From youth up her mind has been inflamed by these pictures pic-tures of Purgatory, so that the entrance into this, state of purification to her mind is the same as if the house she lived in were afire and the flames leaped about her helpless body. Such notions are misleading for the ends of salvation, and death is robbed of tranquility of mind. Surely the blame for this should bo exposed. It is the opposite of the divine love for souls, and they deceive themselves them-selves who think that devotion for holy souls is more fervently excited by presenting the horrors of physical suffering. X'one know what manner of punishment is comprehended com-prehended by the cleansing of souls in purgatory. Fire is mentioned in Scripture. The word "fire" i i ' uu can nave a umercnt. application than the noun wc associate with that material thing which consumes other material things and reduces them to ashes. But the soul is not a material substance, and therefore nothing that is physical can penetrate pene-trate the soul. Hence, we take fire in the spiritual spir-itual sense of meaning, because it comes nearer than any other word to express the purification of the soul. And what is the soul"? Rebuking those who pretend pre-tend to locate the soul, our esteemed contemporary, the Providence Visitor, says the soul does not follow fol-low the same laws as a corporeal nature,; the soul is spiritual and has laws of its own. Among these laws is that of penetrability, which is a perfection lacking in bodies; that is, the soul is not excluded from occupying the same place as another soul while the soul is actually located in that space. In fact, it is a great error. to speak of the soul as occupying oc-cupying space at all; only bodies and material things occupy space; and the soul being of an entirely en-tirely different, ami higher order of being, really is not. limited or circumscribed by space. The difficulty dif-ficulty lies in our not being able to conceive of the soul without forming to ourselves some picture of what we imagine it to be like, something more or less material which we cannot fancy as not occupying occupy-ing space. Such questions, 'therefore, as in what parts of the body is thcsouL" or in what space is it after death, are really meaningless; the soul is in the whole body of a man and at the same time the soul whole and entire i in every individual part of a man's body. IIowMhis can be. we cannot fully un-derstand,though un-derstand,though w-eJijoV-it. to be true, riot from faith, however." but from pur reason; just as we know that we think, although wc cannot understand how we think. We have before us, in print, what appears to be a spiritual revelation to St. Catherine of Genoa of the way of purgation of the souls of Purgatory. Wc are not bound to believe in St. Catherine's revelations about Purgatory no more than we are "bound to believe in the passion story of five thousand thou-sand lashes, no more and no less, suffered by Christ at the pillar, with St. Bridget -as authority for mathematical accuracy. But there comes the consoling con-soling reflection that perhaps St. Catherine's description de-scription is so near to reason, and therefore i God's love, that it will chase from the mind the terror inseparable from death. The vision of the aged woman, before mentioned, passes before us. Tis for her, and others who may be in the same condition of mind and body, that we quote from St Catherine of Genoa. 'Tis for the purpose of repairing the mischief provoked by Purgatory pictures pic-tures that we present the other and brighter side. This holy soul (St. Catherine), yet in the flesh, found 'herself placed in the purgatory of God's burning love, which consumed and purified her from whatever she had to purify, in order tint after passing out of this life she might enter at once into the immediate presence of God. her He-' loved. By means of this furnace of love she unde stood how the souls of the faithful arc placed in Purgatory to get rid of all the rust and stain of sin that' in this life was left unpurged. As she, plunged in the divine furnace of purifying love, was united to the object of her love, and satisfied with all that He wrought in her, so she understood it to be with the souls in Purgatory, and said: The souls in purgatory, as far as I can understand the matter, cannot but choose to be there; and this by God'a ordinance, who has justly decreed it so. They cannot reflect within themselves and say, "I have done such and such for sins, for which I deserve to be here;" nor can they say, "Would that I had not done them, that now I might go to paradise;" nor yet say, "That soul is going out before me;" nor, "I shall go out before him." They can remember nothing of themselves or others, whether good or evil, which might increase the pain they ordinarily endure; they are so completely satisfied with what God has ordained for them, that He should be doing all that pleases Him, and in the way it pleases Him, that they are incapable in-capable of thinking of themselves, even in the midst of their greatest sufferings. They behold only the goodness of God, whose mercy is so great in bringing men to Himself, that they cannot see anything that may affect them, whether good or bad; if they could, they would not be in pure charity. They do not know-that know-that their sufferings are for the sake of their sins, nor can they keep in view the sins themselves; for in doing do-ing so, there would be an act of imperfection, which could have no place where there can be no possibllty of actually sinning. I don't believe it would be possible to find any joy comparable to that of a soul in purgatory, except the joy of the blessed in paradise, a joy which goes on increasing day by day, as God more and more flows in upon the soul, which He does abundantly in proportion propor-tion as every hindrance to His entrance is consumed away. The hindrance is the rust of sin; the fire consumes con-sumes the rust, and thus the soul goes on laying itself open to the Divine inflowing. ' It is as with a covered object. The object cannot respond to the rays of the sun, not because the sun ceases to shine, for it shines without intermission, but because the covering intervenes. Let the covering be destroyed, again the object will be exposed to the sun, and will answer to the rays which beat against it in proportion as the work of destruction advances. Thus the souls are covered by a rust that is, sin which is gradually consumed away by the fire of purgatory; the more it is consumed, the more they respond to God. their true Sun; their happiness increases in-creases as the rust falls off. and lays them open to the Divine ray; and so their happiness grows greater as the impediment grows less, till the time is accomplished. accom-plished. The pain, however, does not diminish, but only the time of remaining in that pain. As far as meir win is concerned, these souls cannot acknowledge the pain as such, so completely are they satisfied with the ordinance of God, so entirely is their will one with it In pure charity. St. Catherine makes it clear that separation from God is the greatest punishment of Purgatory. She says : All the pains of purgatory take their rise from sin, original or actual. God created the soul perfectly pure and free from every spot of sin, with a certain instinctive tendency to find its blessedness in Him From this tendency it is drawn away by original sin! and still more by the addition of actual sin; and the farther off it gets, the more wicked it becomes, because be-cause itls less in conformity with God. Things are good only eo far as they participate in God. To irrational creatures God communicates Himself, Him-self, without fail, as He wills, and as He has determined; deter-mined; to the rationzl soul more or less, according as He finds It purified from the impediment of sin; so that, when a soul is approaching to that etate of firt purity and innocence which it had when created the instinctive desire of seeking happiness in God develops itself, and goes on increasing through the fire of love which draws it to its end with such impetuosity and vehemence, that any obstacle seems intolerable, and the more clear its vision, the more extreme its pain Now because the souls in purgatory are without the guilt of sin, there is nothing to stand between God and them except the punishment which keeps them back, and prevents this instinct from attaining- its perfection; and from their keenly perceiving of what moment it is to be hindered even in the least degree-and degree-and yet that justice most strictly demands a hindrance' there springs within them a fire like that of hell |