Trad Piety vs. An Abasement of Trust

Most of traditionalist piety is commendable: dressing the part for Holy Mass, keeping silence, frequent confession, recollection after Communion, etc.  But there is one thing that I hear somewhat often, and which I bristle at interiorly, and that is a form of trad 'humble-bragging' about the personal expectation of "doing time" in Purgatory after death.

The mentality goes something like this: emboldened by the words of heavy-hitting saints such as St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, St. John Vianney, and others who affirmed how narrow the path to perfection is, the Catholic aligns himself with this traditional view of the fewness of the saved. They are aware, in reactionary fashion, of the presumption rampant in the Novus Ordo churches that "Grandma is in Heaven now," or to the teaching of universal salvation that "Hell is empty" purported by more liberal theologians. There is an inherent tendency to overcompensate as a means of differentiation--if in the NuChurch, everyone is saved, then in the TruChurch, almost no one is. We then expect to be in purgatory when we die as a matter of pious, measured realism.

Now, we know our Lord says in scripture says that the way is narrow, and few find it (Mt 7:14). But if you have, in fact, found the Way, and God gives you the grace you need to be saved, and wants to forgive your sins before you even ask, and wants you to trust Him as a loving Father--why is it that we don't take Him at his word? Is it maybe because we don't, in fact, trust Him?

I think when Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal re-converted my wife and I, she included a "bonus gift": for around the same time I went from not being able to stand the insufferable piety of Jesus' "Little Flower" to suddenly finding refuge in St. Therese's Little Way. 

St. Therese was 100% orthodox in belief while appearing unorthodox in praxis. 

When she found out that her novices talked occasionally that they would probably have to expect to be in Purgatory, she reminded them that we in fact offend God when we don't trust enough that we would (or could) get to heaven right after dying. She corrected them saying:

“Oh! How you grieve me! You do a great injury to God in believing you’re going to Purgatory. When we love, we can’t go there.” 

(RECOLLECTION, SR. MARIE OF THE EUCHARIST LETTER TO HER FATHER, ISIDORE GUÉRIN 8 JULY 1897) 

While still only a novice, the saint commented about this with one of the sisters,  Sr. Maria Philomena, who believed in the near impossibility of going to heaven without passing through purgatory:

"You do not have enough trust. You have too much fear before the good God. I can assure you that He is grieved over this. You should not fear Purgatory because of the suffering there, but should instead ask that you not deserve to go there in order to please God, Who so reluctantly imposes this punishment. As soon as you try to please Him in everything and have an unshakable trust He purifies you every moment in His love and He lets no sin remain. And then you can be sure that you will not have to go to Purgatory."

There has always been this tension in the Church of the emphasis on the humanity of Jesus versus his divinity; the fear of God versus the love of God; God as just Judge versus God as the Good Shepherd. Maybe it is because I know my past, my sin, my weakness and incapacity to anything great which now attracts me to the Little Way of trust; of magnifying my own dependence in recollection, rather than my deficiencies that put all the onus to be saved on my efforts. God is big, capable, willing, and worthy to be trusted. He can do the heavy lifting. Why, then, do we think everything rests on us to accomplish what He can do effortlessly?

I know it sounds harsh, but it's almost akin to a kind of trad "humble-bragging" to assert this "I'm going straight to Purgatory when I die" mentality. If I had to speculate as to the root of this psychology, it may very well be rooted in pride, which is according to many priests is the thorn in the side for trads. If people want to persist in this, that is their prerogative. But they should also not impede those who like Therese, see everyone else taking the stairs to Heaven, and realize their incapacity to follow given the ardor, resolving to take the elevator instead.

When you think about the constant use of paradox and parables by Christ that turned conventional religious thinking of the time on its head, you start to see that maybe St. Therese's status as a Doctor of the Church is warranted. It is so "radical", this abasement to simply trust, love, and surrender, that it flies in the face of conventional piety and rigor. 

It is, in effect, "another way" to find our way home for those of us too weak, too infirmed, or too spiritually simple to go the conventional route. It gives those of us who feel otherwise shut out from the possibility of Heaven....hope. Hope that we can be saved not by our strength, but by our weakness; not by our great personal feats, but in our trust in the One who can do the impossible.

Although it can be trad-fashionable to assume we are all going to end up in Purgatory or worse, Hell, I'd rather abase myself in poverty to trust with the Little Flower, in the spirit of her words, "what pleases Him is that He sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in His mercy… That is my only treasure...why should this treasure not be yours?"

"Thy Damnation Comes From Thee"

"[St. Vincent Ferrer] relates that an archdeacon in Lyons gave up his charge and retreated into a desert place to do penance, and that he died the same day and hour as Saint Bernard. After his death, he appeared to his bishop and said to him, "Know, Monsignor, that at the very hour I passed away, thirty-three thousand people also died. Out of this number, Bernard and myself went up to heaven without delay, three went to purgatory, and all the others fell into Hell" 

(from the sermon "The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved" by St. Leonard of Port Maurice)

A few years ago I saw a neat couple videos to give some perspective on our place in the universe and our time on earth in relation to eternity. Sometimes these visuals can help drive home how insignificant our lives are in the grand scheme of things. And yet, despite the relatively small role we play here on earth, our choices carry with them consequences of immeasurable effect. They mean the difference between an eternity of loving peace or tormented suffering and unending regret.

I know some people of sensitive composition get shook up by the reality of the fewness of the saved in both Scripture and Catholic doctrine. But it is something we have to face as a reality, not because of the holy fear and trembling it should rightfully inspire, but because God gives us no shortage of opportunities to repent (and grace, for those who ask) and be saved because He wants us to be saved. 

I don't really think about it until we venture out in a crowd among the general public, but we truly are in a little Catholic bubble here (I'm referring to our family, and families like ours). Consider these rough statistics:

• In a crowd of 1,000 people here in America, 210 of those people would self-identify as Catholic (Pew).
• Of those 210 Catholics,  43 attend Mass weekly (CARA).
• Of those 43, 4 believe the use of contraception is wrong (versus 39 who use and/or approve of it) (LiturgyGuy/Pew) 

I could keep drilling down, but you soon run into percentages of a person. The point, however, stands--if you had to put down a wager,  it should be a given that more souls are lost than are saved. Scripture supports the view; St. Peter for one: "And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Pt 4:18). 

"What do you think?," asks St. John Chrysostom, "How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!" 

St. Jerome is even less optimistic: “Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved.” 

There is no shortage of quotes by the saints affirming the same (my friend A.G., here, for one).

But what is St. Leonard the great preacher trying to instill in us--defeat and despair at our sinfulness, and a loss of hope that salvation is even possible, no less probable? No! The words of our Lord:

"Those interior inspirations, that clear knowledge, that constant remorse of conscience, would you dare to deny them? All of these were so many aids of My grace, because I wanted to save you. I refused to give them to many others, and I gave them to you because I loved you tenderly. My son, My son, if I spoke to them as tenderly as I am speaking to you today, how many others souls return to the right path! And you... you turn your back on Me. Listen to what I am going to tell you, for these are My last words: You have cost Me My blood; if you want to be damned in spite of the blood I shed for you, do not blame Me, you have only yourself to accuse; and throughout all eternity, do not forget that if you are damned in spite of Me, you are damned because you want to be damned: 'Thy damnation comes from thee.' "

To think of souls "falling into hell like snowflakes," to use the words of Our Lady and St. Teresa of Avila, should fill us with horror and sadness at those lost, but we should also not be scandalized, for God is a just judge. "Will He be angry every day?" (Ps 7:11). "As a father has mercy on sons, the Lord has mercy on those who fear Him." (Ps 103:13). "The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy" (Ps 33:18). "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him: and in them that hope in his mercy" (Ps 147:11). See a theme here?

Fr. Ripperger recently said in an interview that there were only two times he was scared as an exorcist: the first time he performed one, and during one exorcism in which he asked God to punish a particular demon "in a way he had never been punished before" and God manifested the power of his justice. "The fear wasn't in relation to the demons, since they are on a short leash. What I was looking at was the severity of God's punishment for those who don't obey him and reject him." 

"And if that doesn't strike the fear of God in you...nothing will."

Does this mean our chances of being saved are in the ballpark of becoming a pro-athlete, maybe .0001%? Becoming a professional athlete depends on a lot of things: natural ability, skill, hard work, training, ability to suffer, and luck, to name a few. 

But our ability to become a saint depends on one thing one thing only: our love of God and neighbor, and our trust in Him. It doesn't take skill, it doesn't mean having a reserved spot on the A-list. It is within the natural realm of all the baptized! God does not make himself out to be a hoity Manhatten director or judge on America's Got Talent trying to weed out the losers as fast as possible. He is trying to bring in as many people under His roof as possible--but nobody is listening! They are all just going their own way, choosing to drown rather than grab the hand of grace which is being extended to them. Is that God's fault, or ours?

To quote someone somewhere, "if we do not become a saint, it is because we did not want to become one." It's true, saying Yes to God in order to achieve that salvific vision necessitates saying "no" to other things--like the world, the flesh, and the devil and all his empty promises. And yes, you must be part of God's family (ie, baptized) to enter into that conduit channel of grace that makes salvation possible. 

But aside from that, YOU CAN BE SAVED, and our good and merciful God ACTUALLY DESIRES IT. He MAKES IT POSSIBLE in the bloodbath His Son cleanses us by. When you know love, you will know the fear of God. And when you fear God, you will rightly love Him. And when you love Him, you will never want to be apart from him as a slave to sin. For "if the Son sets you free,

you will be free indeed" (Jn 8:36)

Purgatory And Christian Charity

 

A friend recommended a film to me, Purgaotry (2021) by a Polish Catholic director, which my wife and I plan to watch this evening. I will let you know how it is in the next few days. 

For Catholics, we believe the state of Purgaotry is a savage grace our Lord extends to us for our purification after death. The souls who go to Purgatory are saved, but experience the temporary (but very real) pains of Hell, for as Scripture says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev 21:27). God's justice is just that--just. He gives us every opportunity and grace to repent in this life, and through our hardness of heart and apathy, we often choose the alternative--sin. 

But even for those who die in a state of imperfection with the stains of venial sin, they will be purified in the most painful way--by the flames of Hell. The only difference is that it is not forever, and how long we remain in purgatory after death depends on how much work or burning away needs to be done on our souls to bring us to perfection. Make no mistake--Purgatory is a grace. The Lord could send us straight to Hell, which is what we deserve. 

Of course, Protestants don't believe in Purgatory, this "third state," because they don't believe in differentiation between mortal and venial sin, and erroneously deny tradition as "man-made." The saints who go straight to Heaven are those who die in a state of grace and have done the requisite penance in this life to atone for their sins (again, something Protestants take issue with based on Martin Luther's erroneous theology). But Catholics do. We recognize the Church Militant (those fighting the good fight here on earth), the Church Triumphant (the saints in Heaven), and the Church Suffering (those in Purgatory). 

Here on earth, we can do the spiritual works of mercy by praying for the souls in Purgatory. One of the best ways for this is to obtain a plenary indulgence for the dead at every opportunity.

 

The following is an excellent explanation of what one must do to gain indulgences. It is taken from The Gift of an Indulgence by the Apostolic Penitentiary and based on the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, Fourth Edition, July 1999 (for more information cf. Manual of Indulgences, 2006, USCCB).

1. This is how an indulgence is defined in the Code of Canon Law (can. 992) and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 1471): "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints".

2. In general, the gaining of indulgences requires certain prescribed conditions (below, nn. 3, 4), and the performance of certain prescribed works.

3. To gain indulgences, whether plenary or partial, it is necessary that the faithful be in the state of grace at least at the time the indulgenced work is completed.

4. A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day. In order to obtain it, the faithful must, in addition to being in the state of grace:

— have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;

— have sacramentally confessed their sins;

— receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive Jesus while participating in Holy Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required);

— pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

5. It is appropriate, but not necessary, that the sacramental Confession and especially Holy Communion and the prayer for the Pope's intentions take place on the same day that the indulgenced work is performed; but it is sufficient that these sacred rites and prayers be carried out within several days (about

20) before or after the indulgenced act. Prayer for the Pope's intentions is left to the choice of the faithful, but an "Our Father" and a "Hail Mary" are suggested. One sacramental Confession suffices for several plenary indulgences, but a separate Holy Communion and a separate prayer for the Holy Father's intentions are required for each plenary indulgence.

6. For the sake of those legitimately impeded, confessors can commute both the work prescribed and the conditions required (except, obviously, detachment from even venial sin).

7. Indulgences can always be applied either to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but they cannot be applied to other persons living on earth. [The Gift of the Indulgence, Apostolic Penitentiary, 29 January, 2000, www.vatican.va].

The complete detachment from sin necessary to gain a plenary indulgence and mentioned in n. 4 is expressed in different words by the act of contrition below which says, “I detest all my sins…” This should be taken to mean all venial as well as mortal sin. This detachment from sin is not a feeling but simply an act of the will. 

There are various ordinary ways to obtain plenary indulgences for the dead. I try to engage in these spiritual works every opportunity I have, if not every day, because of my own debt to the Lord, but also as a work of spiritual charity. They are not hard (believe me, when compared to the pain of Purgatory), and are within reach of every Catholic:

Other works that may gain a plenary indulgence every day are a half hour of reading or listening to the Scripture, a half hour of adoration of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist whether in the tabernacle or exposed, or making the Stations of the Cross in an approved manner. Each of these works must include all the other conditions mentioned in n. 4 in the quotation above. One may fulfill the half hour of Scripture outside of a church and alone. 

Sometimes I will listen to Scritpure being read for a half hour while driving. Sometimes it will be a half hour visit to the Lord in Adoration, or a communal rosary before Mass in church. I only know a handful of people close to me who have died, so instead of "earmarking" these indulgences, I just offer them to Mary to dispense to a soul as she sees fit. 

I have committed so many sins in this life, that I am still working out my salvation with fear and trembling while I still have breath. But I also try to not let any opportunity to exercise charity go wasted, whether corporal or spiritual. You can too. Can you imagine the indebtedness of a forgotten soul, with no one to pray for them, being released from Purgatory because of your prayers here on earth on their behalf as an advocate? I have to believe there is merit there. 

Yes, yes, we do not "buy" our way into Heaven through good works. We are saved by grace and grace alone. But the authority given to Peter to loose and bind (again, another scriptural mandate spurned by Protestants) allows the Church and Her Holy Pontiff the authority to do just that--loose and bind. As the Master says, "Don't I have the right to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you jealous because I am generous?'" (Mt 20:15). Demons recognize rightful authority when they see it, and they know when one does not possess such authority given by Christ to his priests (especially in exorcisms). And they will do anything they can to keep us from praying, including praying for the dead to loose them from the torment they are experiencing by Satan's hand. 

You can't fool God. He knows everything you ever did, every slander and idle word, every foul thing done in the dark. Yes, you deserve Hell. It is only God's grace--and your co-operation with that grace by the will--that keeps you from going there. Charity and good works (remember--faith without works is dead! Ja 2:26) goes beyond feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty, which we must do. It includes the spiritual works of mercy, including praying for the living and the dead.  We will be judged on our charity in this life. Don't let the opportunity to live it out pass you by.

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny." (Mt 25:25-26)