Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Sixteenth Day.
The doctrine that sinners, even after the guilt and eternal punishment due to sin are remitted, have still, as a rule, to satisfy the justice of God in some way, has been acknowledged by the Church both in deed and by express word. By deed, because of her severe penitential discipline in the early days of the Church, because of the works of penance enjoined in the confessional, and the granting at all times of indulgences. By express word because of the definition of the Council of Trent. Now if according to the certain [pg 453] doctrine of faith, some temporal satisfaction remains to be made after the remission of sin and eternal punishment, what, we ask, will become of those souls who are suddenly called away before they have done such penance as their sins required—before they have given full satisfaction? Into heaven, where nothing impure can enter, they cannot be received until the full debt is paid. Into hell they cannot be cast, because they died in a state of grace and are friends and children of God. Therefore, reason says, there must be a place where those just and holy, though not yet thoroughly cleansed souls, must linger till purified completely, and fully worthy of God's sacred presence. Were it otherwise our reason would be darkened and troubled by doubts, either as to the justice or as to the infinite mercy of God. Reason tells us that there is a state of virtue not good enough for heaven, and a state of vice not bad enough for hell. Common sense tells us that there is a difference between sin and sin, and that consequently there must be a difference in the punishment.
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.
Seventeenth Day.
The souls in purgatory suffer. They are sent there to suffer. They are detained there to suffer. The time of action is gone; the time of passive suffering has come. Their whole existence, or life, is, as it were, taken up with suffering. What are they suffering? Of what kind and character are their sufferings? The pains of purgatory are just the [pg 454] same as the torments of hell, with the exception of eternity and despair. The difference between the two is, that the pains of purgatory come to an end, and are not severed from the sweet hope of eternal happiness. Like the pains of hell, so also the pains of purgatory are of two kinds. They are the pain of loss and the pain of sense. These two kinds of pain correspond to the twofold disorder contained in every sin. For every sin is first of all an aversion or turning away from God, the highest and uncreated good—either a complete aversion as in the case of mortal sin, or a partial aversion as in the case of venial sin. Second, every sin is a conversion to, or a turning towards, a created, real or apparent good as our highest good, which is, of course, a disorderly conversion. Now this twofold inordinateness must be expiated by a twofold corresponding punishment. For wherein a man sins, says the Scripture, therein is he punished.