When we go from a dark room to bright sunlight outside, we are temporarily blinded by the light, and it takes a little time to adjust. When we are driving, if the sun is low, we are blinded and we lower our vizors so that we can see better. God is the brightest light of all and if we are not ready for the brightness of seeing God face to face in heaven, we have the opportunity in purgatory to prepare ourselves to be able to see the brightness of God face to face in heaven. It is a joyful in the sense that the destination is clear: heaven. The holy souls are a step nearer than we are to our final destination: heaven.
The prophet Jeremiah went to the potter’s house one day and saw the potter working with clay making pots. If any pot did not turn out as the potter intended, he reshaped it as he wanted it to be (Jer 18:1-6). In an interview, Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, said this is what purgatory is like: God takes us and fixes us so that we turn out right (God and the World: Believing and Living in Our Time: A Conversation with Peter Seewald, pp129–130). Although the Protestant Reformation threw out the doctrine of purgatory, we see indications of purgatory in Scripture. In Matt 12:32, Jesus says “whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” So Jesus has indicated that sins are forgiven in this life but also after death, in the age to come; that is Jesus fixing us broken pots in the next life. The Second Book of Maccabees, one of the seven extra books in Catholic Bibles that the Protestant Reformation threw out but which we have in our Catholic Bibles, tells us that it was a holy and pious thought that Judas Maccabeus made a sacrificial offering to remove the guilt of soldiers who had died (2 Macc 12:43-46). So, Sacred Scripture tells us of the possibility of healing in purgatory what is broken.
Although baptism washes away original sin, the effects of original sin mean that we still have attractions and temptations to sin. Oil and water don’t mix and as long as we are weighed down or burdened with the effects of sin, we are still not ready for heaven because God and sin are opposites like oil and water not mixing. Purgatory is where we are healed. St. Catherine of Siena wrote on purgatory and Pope Benedict spoke about her and her writings in a Wednesday Audience so he regards her and her writings highly: “The soul . . . presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God”. (Pope Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience, January 12, 2011) Comparing ourselves and our sins to God’s infinite love, we can see that we have a journey to make, a journey of purification. When St. Catherine of Siena became aware of the infinite goodness of God and of the distance between her and God, the need for purification was like a fire within her. The purification to be able to meet God is like a fire within us, not a fire outside us burning us, but the interior fire of purification in our hearts to get ready for the infinite goodness of God.
We can easily imagine that part of the purification in purgatory to get ready for heaven is to forgive those who have hurt us and to rid ourselves of dislike or bias or hatred of others because there is one heaven for us all. There is one heaven for the Ukrainians and Russians, and the same heaven for the Palestinians and Israelis. Purgatory is a time to shed whatever would keep us from entering heaven with all others.
Just as the souls in purgatory have to love each other with the pure love of God before they are ready for heaven, we too can love the souls in purgatory by praying for them. We know that death is not the end, and we love them even though they are no longer with us. The best way of loving them now is to forgive them for any hurt they have caused us.
Once in a while someone talks to me who is troubled because they were not at peace with someone who has died. My advice is to make peace with that person now. In your heart, forgive that person now and love them by praying for them. Tell God and them that you are sorry for whatever was wrong on your part and ask pardon from God and from them for whatever was not right on your part. Tell God and them that you forgive them for whatever was wrong on their part. Pray for them, and the greatest prayer for them is Mass because it is Jesus offering himself to the Father. As we pray for them, we can pray that they will be able to love with the pure love of God that Jesus showed us, the love that is necessary to enter the kingdom of God in heaven.
The Protestant Reformation threw out the doctrine of purgatory and if ever we turn a funeral Mass into a celebration instead of praying for the deceased, we are also throwing out purgatory. What happens then? The person who most needed our prayers, the deceased, is left without our prayers. How do they feel about it? We can imagine they are very distressed because their funeral Mass was hijacked instead of being something powerful to pray for them and help them on their journey to heaven. A funeral Mass is to pray for the deceased. Imagine how powerful a funeral Mass would be if everyone in the church prayed for the deceased! Padre Pio said, “we must empty purgatory with our prayers.”
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2025
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More for November 2: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
God’s magnificent plan for us after death: purgatory
Purgatory and praying for the holy souls
Homily Excerpt: Praying for the souls in purgatory
Stories about praying for the dead