Universalism and the grace of purgatory

The ultimate power game played with sin and forgiveness is the threat of eternity in hell, which in many theologies is the majority destination. In contrast, all this abundant forgiveness points directly towards universalism: the confidence that all may enter heaven, and there is no hell.

This is not a doctrine to fear. It is not as if something terribly unfair is about to happen. The godly life is the best possible life here on earth, despite any superficial appearances to the contrary, so it matters not whether there is any heaven. If there is, the godly will be ready for it, the sinful will be in for a shock, and we shall all rejoice together. That shock is called purgatory: the simultaneous pain and joy of being a sinner looking into the face of God and being purged of all the harmful debris within ourselves that we have learned to detest – or will learn to detest in that moment. Saint Paul speaks of being purged or refined by fire like a precious metal: all that is bad in us will finally be burned away, and all that is good will live on in the presence of God.⁵⁸

Sometimes I dare to believe that as each one meets face to face with ultimate reality – with Yahweh Elohim – at the moment of death, each one will recognise in the eyes of God the compassion they have been seeking all their lives, and run to it. Other times I suspect that even in that final moment some will look upon the ultimate reality which is God, and in a final act of arrogance, pride and contempt, turn away. The question of universalism is the question of how many people make this second choice.

The church affirms the free will in this final choice, and defines those who make it.⁵⁹ ‘To die in mortal sin without repenting’ means to have committed evil – a grave matter executed with full knowledge and complete consent – and to have no trace of remorse, not even the fear or regret that define imperfect contrition. This final choice is ‘a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself’.⁶⁰ The consequence is defined only as separation from God,⁶¹ so if God is the upholder of all life, the consequence is the end of life; the bible speaks not of eternal punishment, but of a fire that consumes the debris of those who have gone to the second death⁶² and there just died, the sustaining compassion of their hearts destroyed. The question of universalism is whether all three conditions for mortal sin are ever fulfilled (grave matter, full knowledge, complete consent), and whether anyone, having reached that point, genuinely moves on with no hint of remorse or regret. The church advises that while ‘we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offence, we must entrust judgement of persons’ – that is, the status of their premeditation and subsequent remorse – ‘to the justice and mercy of God’.⁶³ For the rest of humankind, where the compassion of the heart is merely wounded rather than destroyed, where there is any hint of contrition, in that final moment the heart both recognises and attains its perfect fulfilment in the infinite compassion of God.

In its most clear and explicit rejection of the punitive model, the church states that the negative consequences of sin for the sinner ‘must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin’.⁶⁴ Two negative consequences are defined: the eternal and the temporal. The eternal consequence is the damage done to the relationship with God: this is repaired, by God’s grace, through contrition, and the infinite compassion of God. The temporal consequence is the ‘unhealthy attachment to created things’ that sin nurtures within us. Perfect contrition, where God is loved above all else, repairs the relationship with God, and undoes the unhealthy attachment to created things. With imperfect contrition, based on fear or regret, God is gracious, but we wilfully cling on to that unhealthy attachment to created things. All of that disappears in the final moment when we look upon God at the hour of our death. It is probably not helpful to think of the extent of that moment in earthly terms like minutes or hours or days, but that is the moment of purging, cleansing and perfecting, as our wilful foolishness melts away: it is a moment of perfect grace, finally letting go of our attachments to passing, material things, and converting our imperfect contrition of fear and regret into the perfection of love for God above all else.⁶⁵

Sometimes as I contemplate these helpful notions I momentarily imagine that I understand even indulgences – still there in the catechism⁶⁶ – as great public celebrations of penance, forgiveness, and successful detachment from created things, where we attain a profound communion with all those who have gone before.⁶⁷ But of this at least we can be sure: that there is no unforgiveness in God. The entire contemporary catholic theology of heaven, hell and purgatory is based on the image of a God of infinite compassion, who grants both grace and free will to humankind, even to the very end. At its most fundamental, it is about understanding and healing the damage we do to ourselves and to others, and restoring the harmony in our relationship with Yahweh Elohim, the ground of all being and the sum of all that is good.⁶⁸

58 Catechism items 1030 and 1031: ‘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… The tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire…’ Saint Paul’s image of the purifying fire, burning away ‘wood, hay and stubble’ and so purifying ‘gold, silver and precious stones’ is at 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, concluding: ‘if what you built is burned, you suffer loss, but you yourself will be saved, purified by fire.’ Paul refers to the image again in 1 Peter 1:7.

59 From Catechism item 1033: ‘To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from God for ever by our own free choice’. From Catechism item 1037: ‘God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a wilful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary – and persistence in it until the end’.

66 The Catechism of the Catholic Church, commissioned by Pope John Paul II in 1986 and published in 1992, is an official authoritative and comprehensive compilation of church teaching, assembled and published as part of the church’s ongoing response, decade by decade, to the agenda set by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) – and the first comprehensive compilation of church teaching in the church’s history. Earlier catechisms were booklets of only a few hundred words, designed for basic teaching (‘catechesis’), often in question and answer format.

67 Indulgences are not, generally, offered for sale, but are declared as part of a wider celebration in which those seeking them might participate. See Catechism items 1471, 1474 and 1479.

68 Limbo, once the theoretical destination of unbaptised infants, is not even mentioned in the 1992 Catechism – all part of the affirmation of a confident ultimate universalism.