You do understand, don’t you, that Purgatory is not a way to earn Heaven? Our entry into Heaven is given freely by the grace of God, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus. Our sins were fully paid for by Jesus when He endured the Crucifixion and rose again from the dead. If we did in His grace, we will be granted entry into Heaven.
Yes of course I know that Purgatory is not a way to earn Heaven.
Now, those of us entering Heaven who are still imperfectly purified (e.g., subject to venial sin, concupiscence, etc.) will be cleansed before entering Heaven. That’s all that Purgatory is: we aren’t earning Heaven or paying some final price; we’re just being cleansed before we can go in.
It’ll probably hurt, either physically or emotionally; but that’s just a consequence of the removal of our tendency to sin. It’s just like a doctor fixing a broken bone is helping us, but it hurts; the pain isn’t some sort of price to pay (“I’d heal you, but you aren’t willing to feel pain, so I can’t do it”), it’s just a natural consequence of the healing process.
**Thats not what I was taught nor is it what I read about in pre-Vatican 2 teaching about Purgatory. I was taught by the CCD that Purgatory is where we are tortured and suffer and atone and expiate and make “Satisfaction” to God’s justice for our sins. That Purgatory was the same as Hell but eventually, once we have suffered enough and made enough “Satisfaction” and “Expiation” for our sins we would get out unlike Hell which is eternal and permanent. One CCD teacher said that one minute in Purgatory was more agonising and painful than the worst pains on earth of a hundred lifetimes. We were also taught that 95 % of Catholics will suffer in Purgatory for what may seem like a thousand lifetimes or worse. The new “revisionist view” (which is what you and the new Catholic Apologists are trying to sell is that Purgatory is sort like a place or state akin to a nice hot shower to clean up before we get to go to Heaven.
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And it’s very clear from Scripture and Tradition that your belief “That the ONLY thing needed was to have real Faith in order to be ‘Justified’, a Faith which includes trust in Jesus as my Saviour who died for me in my place bearing my sin and guilt and appeasing God’s wrath at me for my sin” is incorrect: faith without works is dead.
Performing good works isn’t a way to earn salvation; it’s the way you accept God’s grace. As Jesus said, those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, etc. will enter Heaven, while those who do not will not. Not because every sandwich you give to the poor or whatever gets you a “point” toward salvation; but because doing His will is required to accept His grace.
I do good to and for others because He first loved me and gave His Life for me out of gratitude that I AM saved, NOT hopefully, might be, maybe. possibly be Saved. I trust Him that He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion that He is able to make me stand and that the Lord Jesus will lose none of those that are His whom the Father has given Him. I reach out with the hand of Faith ALONE by Grace He gives me to do so as a means of accepting His Grace and by that I am Justified. "Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners."
Those who sit around saying “Jesus’ sacrifice saved me, so all I have to do is believe in Him and I will enter Heaven” will be told “Not all who say to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter Heaven, but only those who do the will of My Father in Heaven.”
If you look into the matter more deeply, I think you will find that most Protestants also believe in Purgatory; they just don’t call it that. We all agree that “Nothing impure can enter Heaven;” you can either (1) agree with the Catholic Church that this means that everyone who enters Heaven will either (A) be clean already (e.g., through baptism immediately before death) or (B) be cleansed just before entering; or (2) come up with the various convoluted explanations that a lot of Protestant preachers invent to avoid saying the same thing.
