Is there Still a Place for Purgatory and Suffrages?
The Encyclical "Spe Salvi" & Our Lady of Mount Carmel
One of the most beautiful aspects of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in my village is witnessing so many people proudly wearing their scapulars. This ancient sign of consecration has held deep significance for many saints, including St. John Paul II. The primary purpose of the scapular is to remind the wearer of their relationship with Mary, opening their heart ever more to the gifts she wishes to bestow upon them.
The “Sabbatine Privilege” and the Oblivion of the Afterlife
Among the many graces associated with the Carmelite scapular, the "Sabbatine privilege" (i.e. “the privilege of the Saturday”) stands out. This promise, made by Mary to those who wear the scapular, ensures liberation from Purgatory quam primum (“as soon as possible”), provided they have maintained a regular prayer life and strived for a chaste love—sincere, non-possessive, and without ulterior motives.
Regardless of some historical controversies around this particular private revelation, many believers today remain indifferent, if not confused, when it comes to thinking about our life after this earthly pilgrimage.
There is a widespread oblivion regarding themes such as Purgatory and suffrage for the dead, partly due to the near-abandonment of these topics in contemporary preaching and our society's aversion to dealing with suffering and death.
Contemporary Contributions and the Magisterium in Spe Salvi
Nevertheless, recent theologians, both Catholic and non-Catholic, have made significant contributions to this subject by providing new ways to speak about the novissima (“the Last Things”) that can have an impact on our imagination and understanding. C. S. Lewis’ novel "The Great Divorce" is one such example.
Additionally, Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical letter Spe Salvi provides profound insights into Judgment, Purgatory, and suffrages. In numbers 44 to 48, Pope Benedict offers teachings rooted in ancient Tradition while drawing on contemporary theological research.
Purification and the Fire of Love
In Spe Salvi, Benedict describes the condition of humanity after death, focusing on those who have maintained an “ultimate interior openness to truth, to love, and to God” (46), yet have accumulated compromises with evil. Wearing the scapular and striving in fidelity to this Marian consecration is one of the ways to always maintain this crucial interior openness.
The question the pope asks at this point is: "Will all the impurity they have amassed through life suddenly cease to matter?” (46). One might well think that God in His love accepts us as we are, and this He certainly does! But should He really just leave us in this condition? C. S. Lewis can help us with one of his insightful analogies:
"Our souls ask for purgatory, do they not? Would it not break our hearts if God said to us, "It is true, my son, that your breath stinks and your rags ooze mud and slime, but here we are charitable and no one will reproach you for these things or turn you away. Enter into joy."? Shouldn't we reply, 'With submission, sir, and if there are no objections, I'd rather be clean first. "It might hurt, you know..." "I want it anyway, sir." (Letter XX to Malcolm)
In the face of God's infinite beauty that we finally glimpse more closely, the purification of ourselves is not an unjust punishment to satiate the wrath of a severe God, but a gift to desire, despite the fact that it may cost us a last suffering.
Benedict XVI refers to Paul’s description of purification by fire in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. Taking up some contemporary theologians, the pope identifies this fire with Christ Himself as Judge and Saviour. Before Him, all our masks with which we have shielded our little egos from God's love disappear and so we can truly be ourselves. Like any struggle with our ego, this causes suffering.
"But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. " (47).
Suffrages: Love Beyond Death
The pope emphasises that earthly temporal categories are inadequate to describe the duration of this purification (47). This is why one should not focus too much on the fact that the Sabbatine privilege is simply about being helped on a Saturday. The traditional indication of this day of the week is certainly not the heart of the promise, as the 1613 bull of the Inquisition on the subject already implied by saying that Our Lady’s help would simply come quam primum. The crucial point, rather, is that those who have had a special relationship with Mary in life will also benefit from her suffrage after death in a special and extremely effective way.
And it is precisely this dynamic of suffrage that the pope focuses on in No. 48. The problem, at least apparently, is this: if it is God's own love that purifies us, what is the use of our so-called “suffrages” in the form of prayers, Holy Masses and alms?
Far from being part of a mercantile logic of satisfaction, the ancient practice of suffrages has to do with the love that always seeks the good of the other and is capable of crossing even the boundaries of death. Benedict reminds us how comforting the Christian conviction is “that love can reach into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death” (48).
And because each of us is always closely bound to the other, rather than being an isolated “monad” (48), each of us continues to need the love of the others even after death:
“Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone”. (48)
Mary’s Unstoppable Love
In this dynamic of help prompted by love, the Virgin Mary, in her infinite love for each of her children, can certainly do much more than we can with our often lukewarm and distracted affections. For those who had already entrusted themselves to her, Mary does not wait to shower them with the suffrage of her motherly love. And she will certainly do this quam primum, without any delay, and without fear of getting down to work for us even on a Saturday. After all, love knows no waiting.
Picture: Statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Santo Stefano Quisquina (Sicily)