My perfection series from the viewpoint of the various authors, including the Doctors of Church, includes the truth that only the perfect see God. If one is not purified on this earth, one must be purified in another place. The purification of the senses and the spirit may happen here on this earth. This is according to God's Will, but one may pursue and ask God to help one cooperate with purification here and now.
As noted, the upbuilding of the Church, the Kingdom of God, cannot happen if a bunch of Catholics with strong egos are running around doing there own thing.
Egotism destroys the Church from within. Period.
The soul is purified from sin and the tendencies of sin, but also from something called "the moral matter". The moral matter includes the effects of sin, about which most people do not think.
Even after a sin is confessed and forgiven, the moral matter must be examined. Here is the Catholic Encyclopedia on this point.
Even after a sin is confessed and forgiven, the moral matter must be examined. Here is the Catholic Encyclopedia on this point.
The first effect of mortal sin in man is to avert him from his true last end, and deprive his soul of sanctifying grace. The sinful act passes, and the sinner is left in a state of habitual aversion fromGod. The sinful state is voluntary and imputable to the sinner, because it necessarily follows from the act of sin he freely placed, and it remains until satisfaction is made (see PENANCE). This state of sin is called by theologians habitual sin, not in the sense that habitual sin implies a vicioushabit, but in the sense that it signifies a state of aversion from God depending on the preceding actual sin, consequently voluntary and imputable. This state of aversion carries with it necessarily in the present order of God's providence the privation of grace and charity by means of which manis ordered to his supernatural end. The privation of grace is the "macula peccati" (St. Thomas, I-II.86), the stain of sin spoken of in Scripture (Joshua 22:17; Isaiah 4:4; 1 Corinthians 6:11). It is not anything positive, a quality or disposition, an obligation to suffer, an extrinsic denomination coming from sin, but is solely the privation of sanctifying grace. There is not a real but only a conceptual distinction between habitual sin (reatus culpæ) and the stain of sin (macula peccati). One and the same privation considered as destroying the due order of man to God is habitual sin, considered as depriving the soul of the beauty of grace is the stain or "macula" of sin.
The second effect of sin is to entail the penalty of undergoing suffering (reatus pænæ). Sin (reatus culpæ) is the cause of this obligation (reatus pænæ ). The suffering may be inflicted in this life through the medium of medicinal punishments, calamities, sickness, temporal evils, which tend to withdraw from sin; or it may be inflicted in the life to come by the justice of God as vindictive punishment. The punishments of the future life are proportioned to the sin committed, and it is the obligation of undergoing this punishment for unrepented sin that is signified by the "reatus poenæ" of the theologians. The penalty to be undergone in the future life is divided into the pain of loss (pæna damni) and the pain of sense (pæna sensus). The pain of loss is the privation of the beatific vision of God in punishment of turning away from Him. The pain of sense is suffering in punishment of the conversion to some created thing in place of God. This two-fold pain in punishment of mortal sin is eternal (1 Corinthians 6:9; Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:45). One mortal sin suffices to incur punishment. (See HELL.) Other effects of sins are: remorse of conscience (Wisdom 5:2-13); an inclination towards evil, as habits are formed by a repetition of similar acts; a darkening of the intelligence, a hardening of the will (Matthew 13:14-15; Romans 11:8); a general vitiating of nature, which does not however totally destroy the substance and faculties of the soul but merely weakens the right exercise of its faculties.
The point is this. That sin affects the heart, the intellect, the imagination, the soul. We cannot be purified without dealing with all of the faculties which were involved in sin. All those faculties must be purified after one receives the sacrament of Reconciliation.
To admit that the faculties have been affected involves a growth in humility. Even many years after a sin has been committed and forgiven, the moral matter of sin must be confronted if there are areas in the person which have not been purified.
A good confessor must be found.
Honesty is absolutely necessary.
Frequent confession and frequent Communion aid in the discernment of the moral matter.
One more time, the CCC.
To admit that the faculties have been affected involves a growth in humility. Even many years after a sin has been committed and forgiven, the moral matter of sin must be confronted if there are areas in the person which have not been purified.
A good confessor must be found.
Honesty is absolutely necessary.
Frequent confession and frequent Communion aid in the discernment of the moral matter.
One more time, the CCC.
III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY
1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.606 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:607
- As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.608
1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
- Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.611
- Check these posts out as well. Again, apologies for font problems...day of the gremlins....
- http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-short-treatise-on-grace-moving.html
- http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/on-sufficient-grace-part-two.html
- http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/grace-part-three-merit-and-holiness.html
- http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/part-four-grace-and-salvation-for-all.html
- http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/03/on-efficacious-grace-part-five-on-mini.html
