A friend and i were talking about Purgatory

[R_C]

The correct translation of the thief on the cross is, “THIS DAY I TELL YOU…you will be with me in paradise .” I think it would actually be pretty foolish of us to think we could go from this stinking flesh full of sin right into the presence of God without preperation. That includes burning off the sins, purging the old self. Some of us (myself fully included) will need Purgatory because we are simply not ready for heaven.

I wonder where does this “correct translation” come from…

The Biblia Sacra Vulgata from the 5th Century reads:

et dixit illi Iesus amen dico tibi hodie mecum eris in paradiso

The Douay–Rheims Bible, which is a Catholic translation directly from Latin to English, reads:

And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.

The CEI Bible (Conferenza Episcopale Italiana), official bible of the Italian Catholic church, also reads the same way.

As a matter of fact, if we were to disregard the sacred scriptures that the Church professes to be reliable and go into other Protestant translations, you may visit biblegateway and enter Luke 23:43 and go through *all *the English translations, to see that none of them translate the way you suggest.

However, there is one translation that uses that wording:

And he said to him: “Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise.”

This is the “new world translation” by the Watchtower Society. I need not even mention how unreliable it is…it even dares to translate This means my body…and even Martin Luther himself said:

Who, but the devil, has granted such license of wresting the words of the holy Scripture? Who ever read in the Scriptures, that my body is the same as the sign of my body? or, that is is the same as it signifies? What language in the world ever spoke so? It is only then the devil, that imposes upon us by these fanatical men.

By virtue of obedience we believe in the sacred scriptures that the Magisterium has preserved and translated for us.
Do not be too harsh on the flesh…if the Son took flesh, it was to glorify it, and if His resurrection was also in the body, it was to divinize it…

The Father of the Church Irenaeus wrote in the second century:

If the Word became a man, It was so men may become gods.

The Father of the Church Athanasius wrote in the fourth century:

Just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man, so also we men are both deified through his flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life.

Finally, St. Augustine wrote in the fifth century:

To make human beings gods, He was made man who was God"

Even in Holy Mass - though we don’t hear this prayer - the priest or the deacon say while preparing the chalice:

By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

So, while we ought to order our disordered appetites and fight against the three concupiscences, but our flesh, like everything God did through the Lord, is good, very good.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

I believe the soul is the one that must undergo purification, and yes, I think it will take a considerable purification before we can stand the wholly marvelous presence of God.

“My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it.” Private revelation to St. Faustina Kowalska, with imprimatur