Purgatory, the place of God's final mercy

As the summer turns to fall and many plants turn from green to brown, it seems a natural time to reflect on death.  November has traditionally been a month when we think about and pray for our beloved dead.  
The month begins with the celebration of the myriad of people who are in Heaven who are not recognized as saints.  The second day of November is All Souls Day.  That day we pray for those who have died and are not yet in heaven.  We traditionally extend this praying to the whole month.
It is a holy and noble act to pray for the dead, but it is a practice that makes no sense if there is not a state of being called Purgatory.  When I was a kid, Purgatory was a scary place.  It was a place of punishment, pain and misery.  It was the product of an angry and perhaps vengeful God who wanted one last opportunity to make us suffer.  This understanding is terribly off the mark.
I think Purgatory is the place of God’s final mercy.  Imagine a young lady who is going to her prom.  At supper someone spills a Coke on her dress.  She rushes to the restroom and does her best to clean the mess.  The Coke is really gone, but a stain remains.  Can you imagine how embarrassed she will be at the prom, especially when they do “Call Outs” and the spotlight is directly on her?  If she could stop time and have the stain in her dress removed by a professional cleaner, would she do so?  Of course she would, and she would be glad and grateful for the opportunity.
God desires for us to be completely free from all sin, so that we are not burdened.  God expects all sin and all attachment to sin to be left at the door of heaven before we enter; not because He just cleaned the house and doesn’t want us messing it up.  
Rather, He wants us to be completely free from sin so that we can joyfully enter into full communion with Him.  We must become perfect before we enter into heaven, (see Rev. 21:27) for the sake of joy and freedom.
Becoming perfect requires us to be purged of all sinful desire, all selfishness.  Anytime we die to ourselves it causes us pain.  
Let us pray for our brothers and sisters who have preceded us in death, like we would pray for a living relative who was going through a physical or spiritual trail.  Let us also be solicitous to advance in perfection and be more prepared to enter into the fullness of His Kingdom!
 — Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected] 
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