In his book, Purgatory, Fr. F. X. Schouppe explains the role of suffering in Purgatory as a way of making reparation to God for sins. At the end of the first part of his remarkable work, he includes two bits of advice that fall strangely on modern ears.

Fear – Spiritual Enemy or Ally?

The first counsel concerns Purgatory as something to be feared.    

“That fire, enkindled by Divine Justice, those excruciating pains, compared to which all the penances of the saints, all the sufferings of the martyrs put together, are as nothing, who is there that thinks he will be able to look upon them and not shudder from very fear?”  ¹

The modern world teaches that fear must always be avoided, or at the very least ignored. Many eagerly believe the Buddhist lie that “The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.” One particularly inane corollary to the lie circulates through communities of athletes: “Pain is fear leaving the body.” In the Christian context, however, fear has a place. For those with a well—formed conscience, it warns of coming penalties for those who succumb to temptations, which even the holiest people face, to sin.

Yet, such fear should not displace trust in God. Father Schouppe continues, “Yet it is not the intention of Our Lord that we should have an excessive and barren fear, a fear which tortures and discourages, a gloomy fear without confidence. No, He wishes that our fear should be tempered with great trust in His mercy; He desires that we should fear evil to prevent and avoid it; He desires that the thought of those avenging flames should stimulate us to fervor in His service, and cause us to expiate our faults in this world rather than in the other.”

Notice how Father Schouppe infused the element of God’s mercy with reasonable human fears.

Punishment as a Gate to Mercy

The second bit of counsel is to remain vigilant to avoid another common modern error. Nowhere does the good father say that either mercy or confidence replaces punishment or suffering. Rather, all work together. Everyone is admonished to endure just punishments and the sufferings that accompany them, while expressing confidence and trust in God’s Mercy. “If God reserves terrible chastisements in the other life for the least faults,” Father Schouppe assures his readers, “He does not inflict them without, at the same time, tempering them with clemency.”

Indeed, Purgatory itself is an expression of God’s mercy. After all, without Purgatory, there would be no recourse other than Hell for those who die with even the slightest sin on their souls. Heaven’s perfection can never be diluted by the existence there of any uncleansed imperfection.

Again, this is an unpopular idea in modern life, for many are wont to think of mercy as a release or pardon from just punishments. They often reflexively reject the possibility that they could be combined. However, Father Schouppe explains that “nothing shows better the admirable harmony of the Divine perfection than Purgatory, because the most severe Justice is there exercised, together with the most ineffable Mercy.”

Father Schouppe continues, “If our Lord chastises those souls that are dear to Him, it is in His love, according to the words, Such as I love I rebuke and chastise? With one hand, He strikes, with the other, He heals. He offers mercy and redemption in abundance: Quoniam apud Dominum misericordia, et copiosa apud eum redemptio?” (For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption.)

Excessive Self Confidence

Saint Lidwina (1380—1433), the Dutch mystic who was the subject of an earlier article in this series, once discussed Purgatory with a pious priest and some other visitors. The conversation turned to the sufferings of Purgatory. The priest expressed his total willingness to endure its sufferings. Seeing a vase filled with mustard seeds, he said that he would, “be satisfied to go there for as many years as there are grains of seed in this vase; then, at least, I should be certain of my salvation.”

The mystic admonished the priest. “Why [do you have] so little confidence in the Mercy of God? Ah! If you had a better knowledge of what Purgatory is, of what frightful torments are there endured!”

“Let Purgatory be what it may,” the priest replied, “I persist in what I say.”

Some time after the conversation, the priest died. One of those present at the earlier conversation asked Saint Lidwina to share her thoughts about the priest’s condition after death. “The deceased is well off, on account of his virtuous life; but it would be better for him if he had had more confidence in the Passion of Jesus Christ, and if he had taken a milder view of the subject of Purgatory.

Photo Credit:  © < Jl FilpoC >-commons.wikimedia.org

1. All quotations in this article (unless another source is mentioned) use the 1905 version of Father F. X. Schouppe’s Purgatory, published in Great Britain by Burns, Oates and Washbourne, Ltd. It is in the public domain and available through the Internet Archive. The spellings of certain words may have been Americanized.