Q: When I was evangelical, we said a “saved” person went immediately to heaven at death. In a recent homily our priest said most Christians, including himself, will likely go to purgatory at death. How can Jesus’ shed blood pay for a person’s sins but they not go to heaven at death? (Indiana)
A: Your priest is probably right that most people will do a stint in purgatory after they die. But going to purgatory does not mean that a person isn’t “saved” — it’s quite the opposite, actually. A person in purgatory is one who is ultimately and surely destined for heaven.
Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection did indeed save us from sin, making heaven possible for us. That is, whereas the original sin of Adam and Eve alienated humanity from God, Jesus’ perfect obedience to God’s will even to his death on the cross broke the bond original sin had over us. Through our baptism, by which we share in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are personally freed from original sin in our own lives.
But just because we can go to heaven, sadly it does not automatically follow that everyone actually will. Freedom from original sin makes us in principle capable of entering into heaven, but it is of course still possible for us to commit our own sins after baptism. We never cease to be creatures endowed with free will, and if we choose to distance ourselves from God through serious sin, he will respect our choice. This is what happens when souls go to hell because of mortal sins for which they had not repented.
We can never know for sure what happens between God and a soul right at the last moments of life. Still, it is common knowledge that while few people would seem to be incorrigibly wicked at the time of their death, the majority of us are not saintly paragons of virtue, either. Even those of us who take our faith seriously and sincerely seek to follow God’s will may stumble and fall, and the holiest among us can struggle with stubborn venial (that is, less serious) sins.
And as the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes: “It is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life. … On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death” (CCC 1472). Or in other words, even those who are saved through baptism and who have actively embraced their salvation may not be ready to enter into God’s direct presence immediately upon their death, because sin can leave lasting spiritual effects upon a soul.
The catechism also tells us: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC 1030-1031).
Although purgatory is not exactly a “punishment” in the way we would tend to use the term today, traditionally purgatory has been understood to involve a degree of suffering. One common image for understanding purgatory is as a cleansing or purifying fire. This image is also very scriptural.
For example, St. Paul references a saving fire in his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 3:15). And even in the Old Testament the prophet Malachi proclaims that the coming Messiah “will be like a refiner’s fire, like fullers’ lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the Levites, refining them like gold or silver, that they may bring offerings to the LORD in righteousness” (Mal 3:2-3).
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