Each day until Divine Mercy Sunday on April 7th, I will email you one thought from that day’s brief reading from Fr. Michael Gaitley’s fine book, 33 Days to Merciful Love. I render full credit for these thoughts, respecting copyright laws, to Fr. Gaitley. Each reading ends with a prayer, which I ask you to pray with me for this intention: the conversion of our parish.
Day Eighteen
Purgatory. Protestants and many Catholics do not believe in it. Most men who do believe in it, including me, just want God to get us to the lowest rung of Purgatory. We can climb the rest of the way up on our own. Even if I have at least the humility to know that I need God’s help to get to the starting point, “I can take it from there.” This is male pride, certainly, but also God-given male energy: we look forward to the challenge of climbing the steep mountain of Purgatory. Climbing mountains is one of my favorite activities.
Therese had a different view of Purgatory, as most women do. If I ask a group of women: “who plans on going to Purgatory?” almost all of them will say they want to go straight to heaven. If I ask the same question to a group of men, we almost all say “I’ll be happy just to reach the lowest rung.”
But Therese is right on the Purgatory Question. Dare to desire to go straight to heaven. “The Fire of Love is more sanctifying than the fire of Purgatory,” she wrote. When one of her novices said how much she feared Purgatory, Therese replied: “You do not have enough trust. You have too much fear before the Good God …. who so reluctantly imposes this punishment.” God does not want to punish us. He does not want to see his dear child suffer in Purgatory. He thirsts to heal all our wounds now, taking us straightaway into His Sacred Heart. To be a saint is simply to believe in God’s merciful love, to surrender completely in loving trust, despite all the “evidence to the contrary” that there is no God or that He doesn’t care about us. If I can let go of my fears, and learn to trust God in this life, I won’t need to go to Purgatory. And that’s the far better plan.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Help me to live my life so I’ll go straight to heaven when I die.
Day Eighteen
Purgatory. Protestants and many Catholics do not believe in it. Most men who do believe in it, including me, just want God to get us to the lowest rung of Purgatory. We can climb the rest of the way up on our own. Even if I have at least the humility to know that I need God’s help to get to the starting point, “I can take it from there.” This is male pride, certainly, but also God-given male energy: we look forward to the challenge of climbing the steep mountain of Purgatory. Climbing mountains is one of my favorite activities.
Therese had a different view of Purgatory, as most women do. If I ask a group of women: “who plans on going to Purgatory?” almost all of them will say they want to go straight to heaven. If I ask the same question to a group of men, we almost all say “I’ll be happy just to reach the lowest rung.”
But Therese is right on the Purgatory Question. Dare to desire to go straight to heaven. “The Fire of Love is more sanctifying than the fire of Purgatory,” she wrote. When one of her novices said how much she feared Purgatory, Therese replied: “You do not have enough trust. You have too much fear before the Good God …. who so reluctantly imposes this punishment.” God does not want to punish us. He does not want to see his dear child suffer in Purgatory. He thirsts to heal all our wounds now, taking us straightaway into His Sacred Heart. To be a saint is simply to believe in God’s merciful love, to surrender completely in loving trust, despite all the “evidence to the contrary” that there is no God or that He doesn’t care about us. If I can let go of my fears, and learn to trust God in this life, I won’t need to go to Purgatory. And that’s the far better plan.
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Help me to live my life so I’ll go straight to heaven when I die.
I really enjoyed this novel, but somehow I think St. Therese has a more accurate perspective on Purgatory
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