Heaven, Hell & Purgatory
The Afterlife by Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo
From the Preface:
“Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo paints a picture for us of how the human soul, freshly departed from the body, experiences its entry into life beyond earthly existence. We usually sum up this tremendous experience in a short way. We say, perhaps, “the soul sees God face to face.” Or we say, “the soul sees itself in a new way.” Fr. Ruotolo tries to bring together the great variety of details that make up that one, supreme moment of entry into Purgatory and Heaven after the judgment. He also tries to show how the soul, which now sees itself as it really is, judges itself and recognizes its place in the next life.” - Fr. Christopher Rengers, O.F.M. Cap.
Why Purgatory?
Purgatory is necessary because God wants us to have perfect happiness in Heaven. And the only way to accomplish that is to be reformed in perfect love and to be purified of all our sins and evil tendencies.
A cruel act of Divine Justice?
When we talk about Purgatory, it is often presented as an inexorable or at least cruel act of Divine Justice.
Certainly, Purgatory is a place of most painful torments, and in comparison all sufferings on earth are like wild flowers surrounded by thorns. Even if the pains in Purgatory are most excruciating, however, they are the loving purification that makes it possible for the soul to reach the full bliss and happiness of Heaven.
It is a true contest of love: God, Who loves the soul, purifies it because He loves it. The soul, who loves God and longs for Him, is happy to be purified, even in the midst of excruciating pain, because it meditates with all seriousness on the gravity of its own sins that hinder it from the full delight of union with God.
It is therefore a real exercise of love between God and the soul, I repeat, that makes it necessary to eliminate our personal ideas of Purgatory. It is not the revenge of Divine Justice, a frightful prison where the soul moans as if in merciless galley-slavery...
God is Love. His mercy is infinite, and if we, the travelers in this vale of tears, do not think of Him in this light of infinite love, it means that we do not truly love Him.
Therefore, this treatise considers Purgatory in the marvelous light of the love of God for the soul and of the soul’s love of God, leading on to the meeting of the soul with God after purification, in the glory and happiness of Heaven.
We want to show, with our poor and unclear human light, the nature of this dazzling victory in the contest of love between God and the soul in Purgatory. It is because of love more than because of its fear of excruciating pain that the soul should feel its duty to live a holy life, after which it may be found worthy of the divine embrace in eternal happiness.1
References