Angelus News | July 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 14

apply in a recollected moment.
• • •
Purgatory has always been part of
biblical religion. Even before the rise
of Christianity, it was implicit in the
sacred texts and practices of the Jews.
Scholars identify purgatory with
Sheol, the abode of the dead, which is
mentioned more than 60 times in the
Old Testament. Sheol is clearly not
hell. It is populated by Israel’s heroes
as well as its questionable characters.
Job asks to be sent there for “a set
time” until God’s “wrath be past” (Job
14:13). It is possible to be sent to Sheol
“in sorrow” (Genesis 44:29). It is also
possible to “go down to Sheol in peace”
(1 Kings 2:6).
In Scripture, Sheol is imagined
vaguely as a place underground, where
disembodied souls persist as “shades”
(Isaiah 14:9).
The condition of the dead in Sheol
can be improved by the sacrificial
prayers of the living. In the Second
Book of Maccabees, written around
a hundred years before the time of
Christ, the general Judas Maccabeus
learns after battle that some of the
Jewish casualties had been found with
superstitious amulets.
Intending to remedy the sin, he “took
up a collection” from his living soldiers
and “sent it to Jerusalem to provide for
a sin offering.”
The chronicler of the battle then adds
Text of El Malei
Rachamim (“Merciful
God”) on a tombstone at
Powązki Jewish cemetery
in Warsaw, Poland. |
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
a personal judgment: “In doing this he
acted very well and honorably, taking
account of the resurrection. For if he
were not expecting that those who had
fallen would rise again, it would have
been superfluous and foolish to pray
for the dead. But if he was looking to
the splendid reward that is laid up for
those who fall asleep in godliness, it was
a holy and pious thought. Therefore he
made atonement for the dead, that they
might be delivered from their sin” (2
Maccabees 12:43–45).
The Jewish practice of praying for the
dead has endured through history and
continues today in prayers such as El
Malei Rachamim (Hebrew for “Merciful
God”), which begs mercy for the
departed soul and a “resting place … in
the Garden of Eden.”
• • •
With the New Testament the fate
of the dead becomes clearer. Sheol
is shown to be an intermediate state
between bodily life on earth and eternal
life in heaven. It is temporary, for judgment
and purification.
The Book of Revelation makes clear
that “nothing unclean shall enter”
heaven (21:27). Yet we know from St.
Paul that “all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
How, then, will those who have sinned
get through the gates?
Paul describes the process by which
the souls of the dead are prepared for
heaven. “Each man’s work will become
manifest; for the Day will disclose it,
because it will be revealed with fire,
and the fire will test 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).
So there is a purification after death.
Fire is the best metaphor Paul can find
for the operation. It burns up what is
useless and proves and preserves what is
everlasting.
Jesus speaks of a forgiveness God
extends “in the age to come” (Matthew
12:32), and Paul explains how God
does it.
The devotional life of the early
Church reflects this belief. Many of the
Fathers refer to prayers for the dead and
July 12, 2024 • ANGELUS • 11