"Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy
place?" (Ps.24:3) "Who can stand when He appears? For he is like a
refiner's fire."(Mal 3:2)
The inspired writers of the Old Testament had a great perception of the
majesty, the awful holiness of God. They knew that nothing defiled can
stand before Him. Yet we know from St. Paul (1 Cor 13:12) that in heaven
the soul has a vision of God, sees Him face to face. That of course is
metaphorical language, but yet it conveys awesome truth. A soul has no eyes,
nor does God have a face. But it does mean the soul will know God directly.
How could that be? When we see someone on this earth, we take into our eyes
and brain an image of him. That works well enough, for although any image
is finite or limited, so is the person. But what image could make God known?
None of course. So the soul must know God without an image. This can be
only if God Himself directly joins Himself to that soul, to do what an
image would do in seeing others.
What then needs to be the absolute purity of a soul, to which He who is
like a refiner's fire joins Himself! Surely, God will not join Himself to
anything defiled.
Yet that is precisely what Luther thought, what they think who claim
infallible salvation. Luther claimed ("Epistle" 501, to Melanchthon): "Even
if you sin greatly, believe more greatly." The man may be, and really is,
total corruption, according to Luther. But God does not mind that, Luther
said. The Holy Spirit could even dwell within total corruption--we are
thinking of St.Paul's words (1 Cor 6:19) that we are the temples of the
Holy Spirit! Will the Holy Spirit dwell in total corruption? Or will
absolute Holiness join Himself to total corruption after death? Most
certainly not.
Luther thought justification was not a real cleansing - it was just that
the merits of Christ, like a white cloak, would be thrown over the sins of
the sinner. God would not look under the rug. But the man himself would
remain totally corrupt.
Therefore it is obvious: there must be some means of purgation after death,
if the soul is not fully refined and pure. So there must be a purgatory.
Thank heaven there is a purgatory - otherwise, so many could never see God
for all eternity.
Logically, if one follows out Luther's fancy, a man who goes out and kills
several others and then turns the gun on himself should go at once to be
joined to the infinite purity of God! Yes, for Luther wrote (Weimar ed.vol
2, p. 371; Letters I, "Luther's Works," American ed. vol 48, p. 282: "Be a
sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more
boldly.... No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit
fornication and murder a thousand times a day."
So, Judas Maccabeus was quite right in having sacrifices offered in the
Temple for the souls of those fallen in battle who had sinned by wearing
amulets (2 Mac. 12:42-46). But, our Protestant friends will object: that
book is not part of inspired Scripture. To which we reply: A prominent
Baptist Professor, Gerald Burney Smith, once ("Biblical World" 37, 19-29)
surveyed every means he could think of to determine which books are
inspired and which are not. He found no possible way unless there would be
a divinely protected teaching authority to decide. Of course, he denied
there was such an authority. He reported that Luther said if a book
preaches justification by faith strongly it is inspired. But that cannot be
true--for Luther never proved that was the criterion, and further, he could
write such a book, and so could I, and it would not be inspired. Also many
books of the Bible do not preach that either). Yet we Catholics do have
such a teaching authority, the Catholic Church, as we find from a study of
apologetics. That teaching authority has determined that the Books of
Maccabees are inspired. Really, no Protestant should quote Scripture at
all, for he has no means of knowing which books are inspired - unless of
course he wants to accept the authority of the Catholic Church for that!
So we hope our Protestant friends will begin to be kind to their departed,
and pray for their souls, which in many cases will come before the
"refiner's fire". Still further, and more importantly, we hope they will
not just think nothing need be done if they commit grave sin - merely
thinking it is all right will not make it so!
