Heaven, hell and purgatory

What the Catholic Church teaches


Saint Paul prompts a desire for heaven in his writing to the Corinthians: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.”

And despite that promise, some opt for something else.

Death is not the end for us. Our next destination, however, presents options. Heaven. Hell. Purgatory. All are in play.

When it comes to heaven, purgatory and hell, “we believe that (God) is all good, all powerful, … (so, of course,) He wants us to be with him forever” in the paradise of heaven, said Father Antony Minardi, O.S.B. of Marmion Abbey in Aurora, Illinois.

However, God also respects our free will.

“If we completely reject God, God is not going to force us to be there with God forever,” Father Minardi said. 

So, let us examine these three states of being – heaven, hell and purgatory. Because God calls himself “father,” and he calls us his “children,” the parent-child relationship provides some valuable insights into what we believe as Catholics. 


Heaven
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that heaven, in all its beauty, “is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.” In heaven, angels and saints – both the canonized saints and all souls who have entered heaven – “see (God) as He is,” “face to face.’”

Contrary to popular opinion, heaven is not merely a fulfillment of our Earthly material desires. Heaven is not the place where I finally get that impressive car I’ve always wanted, or the bigger house, or to eat all the desserts I’ve ever wanted without gaining weight, etc.

Beyond our Earthly desires, the CCC instructs that heaven satisfies humanity’s “deepest human longing,” that is, to enter into the perfect exchange of love between the persons of the Holy Trinity. Any materialistic view of heaven pales in comparison to the real thing. 

Thomas Aquinas explains in his “Summa Theologica,” that “God is the supreme (or highest) good,” and “everything is called good by reason of the similitude of the divine goodness.” The good and beautiful things that we see, hear and experience in this life are a reflection or weaker version of the best and highest good – God. Even every good desire we have on Earth is peripheral compared to our most integral desire for the love of God. Hopefully, the good things and wonderful people we encounter lead us to give thanks and praise to God, the source of all good things.

Conversely, when we place a person or a desire for Earthly goods above God, we miss the mark. In Exodus, we hear this as the first commandment: “I am the LORD your God, … You shall not have other gods beside me” (Ex 20:2-3). Placing even a good thing – like a parental love for one’s children or spousal love or love of any other good person or thing on Earth – in front of God is to have mis-ordered priorities, breaking the first commandment.
 
An apt example of this is in C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce.” One soul, a mother named Pam, arrives in purgatory with the opportunity to begin working towards heaven. However, she is so focused on reuniting with her son, Michael, in heaven that she doesn’t care if God is present in heaven or not. Her vision of heaven is reuniting with her son, and while reuniting with loved ones in heaven is not a bad thing, the angel guiding Pam through purgatory tries to explain to her that “natural feelings … go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods.”

Anything or anyone that displaces loving God as our first priority is problematic. Again and again, the angel tries to explain that “everything (other than God) is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him.” Good things on earth should lead us to greater love of God. When we see a beautiful sunrise, for example, our hearts can move to praising and giving thanks to God for another day. 

To reach this paradise, we need to be heading in the right direction. And “when it comes to our ultimate destination in life, heaven, the journey is long and can become challenging,” said Father Lance Warren of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in El Reno. 

Still, there are many things in this life we can do to help move in the right direction.

Father John Metzinger, pastor at Saint John Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon, reminds us that “we need to open our hearts to God’s grace each day. The sincerity of our daily surrender to the Lord will show itself in our desire to love God above everything else and in our efforts, each day, to share God’s love with our neighbor.”

Additionally, Father Minardi adds that it is also important to have a regular prayer life, go to Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, participate in confession regularly and live a Christian life. Lastly, Father Minardi said, we should strive to do these things “out of a sense of love, not obligation.”

In complex times that call for a major decision or choice, Father Warren recommends the Ignatian way of discernment.

“Use (one’s) imagination and picture everything that can or might happen, good or bad. The idea is to experience through prayer in our mind and soul what could be in store for us with one choice over another. Does examining our life after making this or that decision fill us with concern, uncertainty and worry? Or, does imagining life after a significant change fill us with joy, happiness and most importantly peace?

“In this way, we can have a better sense of what God wants from us in this life, all so that we can enjoy eternity with him.”

On the journey to heaven, Saint Paul reminds us that it’s important to remember we do not journey alone:

“We do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” (Hebrew 4:15-16). 

Purgatory
Purgatory, said Father Metzinger, is “a place of preparation before we enter into the presence of God.” 

In other words, purgatory is where “all those who die in God’s grace and friendship … undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,” according to the Catechism.

This purification, as we hear about in Scripture, is like gold being worked with through fire to eliminate any imperfections. As Saint Paul said, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor 3:15).

Our sinful works or inclinations will be metaphorically burnt up, or withdrawn from us, leaving our purest, most virtuous selves left to enter heaven. As you can imagine, being “tested by fire,” is not a pain-free process; purgatory will include suffering (1 Peter 7).

In Dante’s “Purgatorio,” purgatory is represented as a multi-tiered mountain with one level corresponding to each of the seven deadly sins. Each soul must combat and ultimately rid themselves of the inclinations to each level’s sin before progressing closer and closer to heaven’s gates.

Similarly, in one particular scene of C.S. Lewis’ book, “The Great Divorce,” there is a soul who enters purgatory with “a little red lizard” on his shoulder. The lizard, representing the sin of lust, must be removed – killed, in fact – in order for the soul to enter heaven. Upon learning this, the soul is filled with fear and hesitation because ridding himself of his sins will hurt. This soul has become quite attached to his sin, so much so that it believes if the lizard dies, so will he.

The angel ready to kill the lizard admits removing this sin will burn, but he will not die. “‘May I kill it?’” the angel asks. Finally, the soul allows the angel to kill the lizard which frees the soul from his sin, and at last, the soul enters heaven. While fictional, the works of Dante’s “Purgatorio” and C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce” capture the struggle of the work of purgatory.

While our souls are cleansed of all sinful inclinations, worthwhile suffering comes with the work of purification.  

Thankfully, the suffering of purgatory is not an imposed punishment from our loving Father. As Bishop Robert Barron explains in the final segment of his “Catholicism” video series, purgatory “has to do with the sinner’s perceived need to deal with the effects of sin.”

Barron also said, “The word ‘purgatory’ usually makes people nervous. It suggests a dark and gloomy limbo. But as C.S. Lewis observed, purgatory is simply ‘the washroom of heaven.’ It’s the place people go, after they die, if they are saved by God but not yet purified for heaven.”


Hell
In the realm of consequences, there is nothing more serious or torturous than hell.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines hell as the “state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed.” In Scripture, “Jesus often speaks of ‘Gehenna’ of ‘the unquenchable fire.’”

Out of all the descriptions of the afterlife, Jesus is the first to describe hell as a place of eternal suffering and punishment. And in this state of eternal suffering, the devil, his angels and the souls who “refuse to believe and be converted,” according to the CCC.

C.S. Lewis argues “the gates of hell are locked from the inside.” The CCC states that hell is a state of “self-exclusion from communion with God.” So, the souls who obstinately reject God’s love and refuse to love God in return are excluding themselves from heaven and purgatory.

The good news is hell is not imposed on us by God. Our loving Heavenly Father does not impose the punishment of hell like Zeus might clap thunderbolts on his enemies. God does not want any soul to go to hell. Rather, the devil, his fallen angels and any human beings who chose to reject God enter hell as the natural consequence of their decisions.

As the Catechism explains, “the chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.”

At our core, humans are designed to love and be loved by God. Nothing else will fulfill us. When someone chooses to reject God and refuses to be converted, they are choosing to reject the only one who can bring us ultimate happiness and life.

It is not surprising, then, that they are left with unhappiness – suffering, in fact – and after their death, an eternal state of what they’ve chosen: to be separated from God in hell.   

Meg Ferguson is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic. She holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in Catholic theology and specializes in catechesis.