I am not so sure. First, where are you getting this idea that souls in hell cannot have compassion. Is it official church teaching?
No, I don’t think it is. The Church teaches that we are made in the image and likeness of God, which includes the ability to have compassion. Even humans in the fallen state can have compassion “if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children…”
Ultimately, humans are incapable of Agape without the Spirit of God, but it is not impossible for us to have basic human compassion.
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Second, this is a parable spoken by Jesus and is not necessarily an account of any actual event. The purpose of the parable is not to establish purgation but rather to show that wealth which the Pharisees sought was not the way to heaven.
I agree with this also. However, Jesus used images and events in His parables that were common knowledge for the people of His day. Farmers, fishermen, rich and poor, etc. There is also no reason to think it is not an actual event, or at least an event that the listeners would find familiar. He did not use parables to teach doctrine, per se, but there are eternal truths embedded in them.
I think the rich man is in Hell not purgatory. The last 3 verses are one key,
“28 for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’”
The one who should rise from the dead is of course, Christ. The inference is that the rich man’s brothers will join him if they do not hear Christ. The rich man does not want his brothers to go to the same place. Why not? If it was purgatory they would eventually merit heaven and that is a good thing. But if it was hell they would be condemned eternally. I think the parable is one of extreme contrast between the super rich man who eats sumptuous meals and the super poor Lazarus who doesn’t even have clean bandages for his sores. Doesn’t make sense then if the rich man can eventually join the poor man in heaven.
Not really, no. However, it is definitely a torment to be separated from our attachment to sin, and it would be disingenuous to characterize the purification any other way. Anyone who embraces sanctification in this life knows that separation from one’s sinful ways involves suffering, in this life, as well as the next.
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Also you have that verse 26 to deal with:
“26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’”
If “…none may cross from there to us.” How is the rich man going to cross from purgatory to heaven? He can’t. He is condemned in hell.
I think this is the most salient point.
He may also have been in the “prison” into which Christ went after death, to preach the gospel. Those persons were kept in a place of waiting, the just for heaven, and the unjust for hell.
