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Antidote to Purgatory is in the Eucharist
[adapted fromMichael H. Brown's
Secrets of the Eucharist
]
Liveslived without Mass and love for God are atoned for by intense sufferings inpurgatory. Some say a moment there can be more difficult than the hardest life.Minutes are like years. There are flames there, too, we are told, and they makethe hottest flame on earth seem like a cool breeze by comparison.
This is not to frighten, but to inform. Whilefearfulness is wrong, so is an attitude that is Pollyanna and "feelgood" --that makes it seem like anything goes, that we don't have to worry about sin,that there is only the bright side of eternity.
Let's be truthful: There can besuffering in the hereafter, and that includes the in-between state calledpurgatory.
Many souls find themselves there due to pride and lust.The sin of pride is the root of many other sins. Pride is self-centered andtherefore the opposite of love. Pride is seeking power and attention. Pride isbelieving what we do is superior to the work of another. Pride is believing weare always right. Pride is conceit, a puffed-up sense of self worth,haughtiness, and self-satisfaction.
This is verydangerous because when we're arrogant -- when we think we're better than others-- we're doing spiritual violence to those we feel superior to. It is pridethat inspires the miser. It's pride that inspires the tyrant. It's ethnic pridethat starts so many wars. Pride leads to materialism and other offenses --offenses that send people to a purgation that is most painful.
We can't get directly to heaven unless, duringlife, we are humble and demonstrate a tireless desire to be in heaven with theLord.
And one of the most effective ways of doing
that
is to spend time in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Those with insightsinto purgatory have told us that we should practice perpetual Adoration in ourhearts and that we should prepare for Communion by meditating beforehand. Wemust carefully set forth an abode for Christ -- praying to Him before Mass --and also invite Him to remain with us by our love for Him. We must throwourselves entirely into His divine arms, into His Sacred Heart, and then thereis no reason to fear anything in the hereafter. If every morning we say aprayer to Our Lord and adore Him to make up for the Adoration that is lackingin so many churches -- if we pray as if in abandoned chapels, making up for theemptiness in so many churches -- how much we relieve Him and cause Him to wantto make a special effort on our behalf when we need Him during our final hours!
Only if we adopt God's Will as our own -- only ifwe rid our actions of self will and instead do everything for God -- do we headtoward the kind of perfection necessary to enter heaven.
To do something through self-will and self-loveis self-defeating. If there is a motive that involves self will instead ofGod's Will, we are not living the Eucharist -- whereas if we live the Mass weare walking with Jesus to Calvary and thus to our own resurrection.
We best live God's Will through reception of theEucharist. When we receive Communion or pray before the Blessed Sacrament, theLord lends insights into who we are, what we need to do, and what we need topurge. We need only to pray with our hearts as we worship -- as we plead formercy, as we
adore
.
That's when Jesus communicates.That's when we get our bearings. And that's when we get an idea of what we needto do as our purgation -- the cleansing that leads to heaven -- here on earth.
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