A Blazing Fire or Healing Rays?

A Biblical Study of the Doctrine of Purgatory

The Day of the LORD

Lo, the Day is coming, blazing like an oven, when the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the Day that is coming will set them on fire…. But for you who fear my name will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.

Malachi 3:19-20a

A Doctrine of Faith

Purgatory is a doctrine of the faith, implicit throughout scripture and thus taught and believed through every age of the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) concisely defines its reality:

All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.

CCC #1030 – 1031 (emphasis added)

A number of Bible passages form the basis for our need for final purification. Some examples include:

• God’s will is that we be Saints. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
• In fact, Jesus commands us to be perfect as God the Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
• Because nothing unclean or impure can enter Heaven. (Revelation 21:27)
• God is working in us, however (Philippians 1:6). If we remain faithful in this life, this work can continue even after death.

Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord…. For the Lord disciplines him who He loves…. [God] disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness…. Later it yields peaceful fruit to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:5,6, 10, 11

“Whom I Love I Reprove”

When God wants to get your attention, it is seldom in ease and comfort. “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter heaven,” Jesus affirms in Matthew 19:23. The job of the Church is thus said to be twofold:

• Comfort the afflicted.
• Afflict the comfortable.

It is in difficulty that we turn to God, and in humility and silence we are most open to hear and follow. “You are lukewarm,” God tells His New Testament Church. “I wish that you were either cold or hot…. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire… Those whom I love I reprove and chastise. Be earnest therefore and repent” (Revelation 3:18, 19).

The genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:7

A Refining Fire

The refining fire theme in 1 Peter 1 and Revelation 3 echoes numerous verses in the Old Testament like Wisdom 3:1-7, Isaiah 48:10, Jeremiah 9:7, and Zechariah 13:9. This is the fire of God’s love! As believers, God’s Love is being “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). God’s fiery love can burn off the dross of sin and transform us into the very Image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18), if our works are laid on the proper foundation.

Each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day of the Lord will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will reveal what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:13-15

Lo, the Day is coming, blazing like an oven, when the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the Day that is coming will set them on fire…. But for you who fear my name will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.

Malachi 3:19-20a

A Blazing Fire or Healing Rays?

In Dante’s Inferno, great throngs of souls flee God’s justice to the shores of the river Acheron, impelled to cross toward the torments of Hell in order to escape the fire of God’s Righteousness (Canto 3). This is a frightening word picture. But those same blazing fires the evildoers experience in Malachi 3:19 are likened to healing rays for believers in verse 20. A truly faithful disciple who has been so accustomed to the fires of God’s burning love through his or her lifetime will “walk about in the flames, singing to God and blessing the LORD” (Daniel 3:24). It is these who will proceed directly to heaven.

Pray for Your Deceased Relatives and Friends

For the of the rest of us disciples – those of us who love Jesus, faithfully participate in the sacramental life, and are striving to build our works upon a firm foundation – we should not only believe in Purgatory, we should depend on Purgatory! Thus don’t canonize your deceased relatives, but pray for them. “From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God” (CCC 1032). Purgatory is not only a doctrine of faith, it is a doctrine of mercy. Praise God for His healing fire.