God’s goodness manifests itself in His compassion, which does not fail counting on His awesome faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23). These divine tender mercies, which are all over His works (Psalm 145:9), serve as the warrant for our salvation. God’s mercy became manifest in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:4; Jn. 1:14), who is the ultimate and definitive God’s self-disclosure.
Sovereignty entails a reign beyond space; it entails supremacy beyond time. That is to say, He pardons and subdues our iniquities precisely on account of His delight in mercy (Micah 7:18-19) and according to its everlasting span (Psalm 136:3).
Mercy, which indicates completely underserved favour expressed in withholding judgement, is intimately related to grace. With about 341 appearances in the Scripture, mercy is a substantial theme in the revelation (cf. Deut. 4:31; 1 Chronicles 16:34; Psalm 89:28; Hos. 14:3; Lk. 1:50; Lk. 1:78; Lk. 6:36; Eph. 2 – 4; Rom. 9:15; Titus 3:5; 1Peter1:3; et al). We access it as grace, yet it grows within the matrix of law. God has linked salvation to the observance of the law of love, but He himself is not tied to the law. He is beyond the law and originates salvation.
Nothing defines God. Absolutely, His paradoxical transcendence and proximity safeguards His ineffability, but at the same time offsets distance and makes currency of relational flow possible. God is more than any human conception of Him, and hence He is ineffable. However, mercy characterizes His divine majesty. Mercy is His signature, which follows His being—His existence and essence are perfectly integrated that there is no distance.
His ineffability profoundly matches His mercy, which is ever present. In fact, God’s name is mercy. His justice is made manifest in His mercy. This serves as a preface to the discussion of the grace of salvation relative to the doctrine of purgatory. Certainly, there is no repentance in the after death. But it will be preposterous to argue that there is no mercy in the grave. Nothing can limit God’s mercy because it is coterminous with His essence. There is no repentance in the grave but there is mercy in the grave (cf. Psalm 106:1; Psalm 107:1; Psalm 136:1 – 26).
Denying the eternal nature of the mercy of God is tantamount to a denial of His being. There cannot be God that is not almighty and all merciful. The beneficence of His being translates and funds the idea of purgatory. Some will be saved, but through grace they pass through a fire, they will be purified by a fire that is Christ.
Those who love God and neighbours imperfectly within the human circumstances pass through this purgation by the fire that is Christ. Suffice it to say that the purgation is in Christ—whoever is in Christ is already saved. But the garment will be cleansed of every stain and Christ does the final purgation, purification by deploying the merits of his redemptive event. This purgation happens in Christ and intensifies their friendship with him. This is theologically called purgatory, which many deny in principle but all profess in practice especially when everyone says the prayer for the dead, ‘Rest in peace.’ The scripture gives indications and allusions to purgatory in the following passages (cf. 1 John 5:17; Rev. 21:27; 1 Cor. 3: 11 – 15; 2 Maccabees 12: 39 – 45).
No repentance in the grave, and indeed, there is no conversion after death. Our actions, thoughts and inactions in other words our commissions and omissions relative to the existential appreciation of the law of the love of God and neighbour form a spiritual path and dynamism that pull one to the reality one’s life typified so as to reap the dividend of his virtuous or vicious capital. Hence, no repentance in the grave (Heb. 9:27) has been used to oppose the idea of purgatory. Indeed, when one dies judgement follows but it has to be noted that the passage in question is an affirmation of the sufficiency and definitive uniqueness of the salvific value of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice and never an expo of the last day. If anything it is more of an extra-mural lesson about the Christian vocation and destination.
No repentance in the grave on the part of man, but on the part of God mercy endures forever. Therefore, though there will no longer be an opportunity for conversion, souls who were in state of grace can still experience moment of mercy even after death because God’s mercy is not limited by space and time (cf. 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 89: 28).
Idea of heaven is not a zero-sum that excludes purificatory process or moment of mercy. Purgatory is an absolute affirmation of the priority of receiving over making; primacy of grace over merit. Christ purifies the saved by the fire of his love for nothing defiled will be in heaven (Rev. 21:27), yet not all sins lead to death (1 John 5:7). Indeed, purgatory is a final bath for the eternal banquet.
Being that we always speak of mystery with human language, analogically purgation is like the final bath for the eternal banquet of the Lamb (Rev. 7:9, 19:7). Throughout our lives we bath ourselves in-between the two great baths, which people do for us: regenerative bath at birth (baptism) and purificative bath at death (purgatory).
Those who receive heaven directly are those totally theophoric, totally transparent of light that is Christ. Christ Jesus, the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15) is a perpetual overture of the Father, who is the fontal source of fire and the fire-destination, leads our recourse to the embrace of divine tenderness. It is therefore noble and a holy duty to immerse our loved ones within the stream of Christ’s Paschal grace. Offering Masses for the dead, more than anything else, inserts our loved ones within the currency of salvific event of Christ which alone saves.
The feast of all souls is an invitation to a true and real communion with all our loved ones in prayers knowing full well that love never ends, and that since God’s mercy endures forever, then He can extend His mercy to them. Purgatory is, therefore, a confession that even though there is no repentance in the grave, there is always mercy beyond grave.
- Fr George Adimike writes from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.
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