I have a question. I am learning about the Catholic Faith and one thing that bothers me is when a Catholic says my aunt so and so died, but I know she’s praying for me or when they say they ask a loved one to pray for them. How do you know that the person can pray for you - especially if that person ended up in Hell or is currently in purgatory.
It is my understanding that those in purgatory may pray for us. Numerous saints have had visions or apparitions of souls in purgatory, sometimes even conversing with them. Remember that purgatory is a place of God’s grace. It is where we undergo final purification to enter into heaven. All the souls in purgatory are, in fact, saved. They simply do not yet stand in the presence of God in heaven, for no impure thing can enter heaven. Though they now rely on our prayers for help in their own process of purification, this does not preclude them from interceding for others.
Also, I thought that most people when they died were “asleep in Christ” or “gone to their eternal rest”.
As someone else has also already pointed out, we have no real understanding of how time in our created universe relates to time in heaven or purgatory. God created time when He willed the universe to be. It is a part of creation, which means that God and heaven, His eternal home, exist outside of time. This creates a metaphysical disconnect that we have no good way of thinking around. We cannot be sure how days, weeks, months, or years in this life correspond to life on the other side of the veil.
At a specific point in our historical timeline, Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, became a little babe through the womb of Mary. He lived, grew, engaged in His ministry, was crucified, died, and rose from the dead. It is a part of our history. But Jesus is also God the Son, and has been so since the very beginning–before time even began. We are told in the first chapter of John that He was the Word by which the Father created everything that has come to be. As God, Jesus’s every act is eternal in nature as well as a part of our history. His act of sacrifice for our salvation applies to every human who has ever lived from the beginning of time, to those of us who have come after Him, and to all who will live between now and the end of time as we know it. Therefore, heaven is open to us now upon our deaths, though we will not receive our resurrected bodies until the second coming of Christ at the end of time.
As to how we can know… well, we can’t always. Regarding who is in heaven, we may receive confirmation through miracles received by a saint’s intercession. When many people believe someone to be a saint and miracles are reported, the Church opens an investigation into the person’s life, death, and those reported miracles. This is the canonization process. The Church is quite meticulous and detailed in these investigations, and we can be assured that those who have been fully canonized by the Church are indeed in heaven. As for our less well known loved ones, we cannot be so certain. But we can always
hope that our loved ones that have gone before us are in heaven or purgatory rather than in hell, and in that hope, we can ask them for their prayers (as well as offer ours for their quick and safe passage through purgatory). Occasionally, we may even be blessed to receive some sort of personal confirmation of our hope through our private prayers and devotions.
Hope this helps…
