The Hell You Say!
By Robert Morgan, Catholic Evidence Guild of Guam

The subject of Purgatory has been discussed quite a bit both in the Pacific Voice as well as the secular media. A recent letter by a writer who claimed to be a Catholic trying to support the doctrine of Purgatory showed how confusing the images of our eternal destiny can be.

The well intentioned writer used two sections from the Gospel of Matthew that he said supported the Catholic teaching. One was “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 8:11-12)

The other was from Matthew 25:10-13:  “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Do these verses in fact refer to Purgatory? Unfortunately, they do not and one clear way to see this is to look at one of Jesus’ parables written down by Saint Matthew that actually does talk about Purgatory.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.” (Matthew 18:23-25)

Now, this parable continues on through verse 30 with the servant begging for mercy and the king being merciful. The servant, however, goes out and assaults another servant who owes him only a fraction of what he himself owes. When this servant begs for mercy, however, he is not heard and is thrown into prison “until he could pay the debt”.

We pick up in verse 31:

“When the other servants saw what had happened they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18: 31-35)

In this parable, we see two men sent to prison with a limit placed “until he should pay back all he owed.” Is it really a limit? How can someone who has had all their possessions confiscated pay back a debt while they are in prison and not able to work? Some might say that this is identical to the two quotes from earlier in Saint Matthew’s Gospel and that either all three refer to Purgatory or all three refer to Hell.

The limit is that someone else can pay the debt for each of the men. Certainly, the family of the man with the large debt will be working hard for a long time to pay it off, but when they do, he will be freed. The man with the smaller debt will be freed more quickly, and will therefore suffer less, than the man with the larger debt, but will require the same kind of support.

So it is with our prayers and sacrifices offered for the souls who are in Purgatory. These souls are prisoners of the King of Kings. When the King came to settle debts with them, they had not yet achieved his command to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) So now, they suffer in prison until they should pay back all they owe. When they are released from prison, they will enter directly into the Kingdom, having finally learned the quality of mercy they had lacked.

What then of the people “weeping and gnashing” as well as the ones to whom Jesus says “I do not know you?” There is no suggestion in context that either group gets a reprieve. In fact, other parables throughout Saint Matthew’s Gospel use the images of “weeping and gnashing” as well as Jesus “not knowing” someone as images of eternal punishment. (Matthew 7:23; 13:41-42, 49-50; 22:13; 25:30) They have been “cast outside” and so those who weep and gnash will do so for all eternity. After we die, if our name is not in the Book of Life, Jesus will not suddenly figure out who we are.

The two Gospel parables used by our well meaning friend to support the doctrine of Purgatory rather speak to the truth of the reality of an eternal Hell. As Aggie White expertly demonstrated in her recent article on Purgatory, there is ample Scriptural explanation for the Catholic doctrine. Some of the scriptures can be confusing and an attempt will be made to further sort this out in the next article in this series.

(This article along with many more may be found online at the Catholic Evidence Guild website www.cegguam.org )