Did Jesus teach that Purgatory is real?

The Magna Carta for all Christian evangelists is the great commission of Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you "(Matthew 28: 19-20). Note that Christ's command restricts the Christian evangelist to teach only what Christ has revealed and not his views.

Many Protestants think that the Catholic Church fails in this respect. Purgatory is a Catholic dogma that they don't think comes from our Lord. It has been claimed that this is one of the many invented dogmas that the Catholic Church forces its members to believe.

It is true that all members of the Catholic Church are obliged to believe in the dogma of purgatory. But it is not true that it is invented.

In responding to this statement, the Catholic apologist could turn to the classic text of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15 in which he explains how the soul suffers loss through a purgation of fire on the day of judgment, but is saved.

However, the question I want to consider is: "Is there any evidence that Jesus taught such a place?" If so, then the use of the Church of 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15 for purgatory would be more persuasive.

There are two passages in the Bible where Jesus taught the reality of purgatory: Matthew 5: 25-26 and Matthew 12:32.

Forgiveness in the age to come

Consider Matthew 12:32 first:

And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come.

Setting aside the question of what unforgivable sin is, note the implication of Jesus: there are some sins that can be forgiven in the coming age, whatever the age. Pope St. Gregory the Great says: "From this sentence we understand that certain crimes can be forgiven in this age, but some others in the age to come" (Dial 4, 39).

I would say that the "age" (or "world", as Douay Reims translates it) to which Jesus refers in this passage is the afterlife. First, the Greek word for "age", aion, is used in reference to life after death in Mark 10:30, when Jesus speaks of eternal life as a reward in the "age to come" for those who give up temporal things for his good This does not mean that Jesus is teaching that purgatory is eternal, since it teaches that the souls who are there can come out forgiving their sins, but he is affirming that this state of being exists in the afterlife.

Aion can be used to refer to a distinct period of time in this life, as in Matthew 28:20 when Jesus says he will be with his apostles until the end of "age". But I think the context suggests that it is used for the afterlife. Only a few verses later (v. 36) Jesus speaks of the "day of judgment", which, according to Hebrews 9:27, comes after death.

So what do we have? We have a state of existence after death in which the soul has been forgiven of sins, which in light of the Old Testament tradition (Psalms 66: 10-12; Isaiah 6: 6-7; 4: 4) and the writings Paul (1 Corinthians 3: 11-15) means that the soul is being purified or purified.

This state cannot be heaven, since there are no sins in heaven. It cannot be hell, since no soul in hell can have its sins forgiven and saved. What is that? It is purgatory.

By paying your dues

The second passage from the Bible where Jesus teaches the reality of purgatory is Matthew 5: 25-26:

Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you go with him to court, for fear that your accuser will hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and you will be put in prison; truly, I tell you, you will never go out until you have paid the last penny.

Jesus makes it clear that the offender must pay for his sins. But the question is, "Does Jesus refer to a place of repayment in this life or the next?" I discuss the next.

The first clue is the Greek word for "prison", which is phulake. St. Peter uses this Greek word in 1 Peter 3:19 when he describes the prison in which the upright souls of the Old Testament were held before Jesus' ascension and the one that Jesus visited during the separation of his soul and body in death. . Since phulake has been used to maintain a place in the afterlife in the Christian tradition, it is not unreasonable to conclude that it is how Matthew is using it in Matthew 5:25, especially when considering the context, which constitutes our second clue.

The verses before and after the passage under consideration include Jesus' teachings about things that pertain to the afterlife and our eternal salvation. For example:

Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven as our final goal in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-12).
Jesus teaches that our justice must overcome the justice of the Pharisees if we are to go to heaven (Matthew 5:20).
Jesus speaks of going to hell to be angry at your brother (Matthew 5:22).
Jesus teaches that craving a woman incurs the guilt of adultery (Matthew 5: 27-28), which of course would deserve hell if he did not repent of.
Jesus teaches heaven's rewards for acts of piety (Matthew 6: 1).
It would be strange for Jesus to teach the afterlife immediately before and after Matthew 5:25 but Matthew 5:25 refers only to this life. Therefore, I think it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus does not refer to a place of repayment for sin in this life, but to one in the afterlife.

A temporary prison

“But,” you say, “just because it's a place of repayment after death, doesn't mean it's a purgatory. It could be hell, right? "There are two clues that suggest that this" prison "is not hell.

First, the "prison" of 1 Peter 3:19 was a temporary place of detention. If Matthew is using phulake in the same way in Matthew 5:25, then it will follow that the prison that Jesus talks about is also a temporary place of detention.

Second, Jesus says that the individual must pay the last "penny". The Greek term for "pennies" is kondrantes, which was worth less than two percent of the daily wage for a first-century farm worker. This suggests that the debt for the crime is payable, and therefore a temporary punishment.

San Girolamo makes the same connection: “A penny of money is a coin that contains two mites. What he says then is: "You will not go on until you have paid for the smallest sins" (Thomas Aquinas, Golden Chain: Commentary on the four Gospels: Collected from the works of the Fathers: St. Matthew, added emphasis).

Contrasts with the debt owed by the wicked servant in Matthew 18: 23-35. The servant in the parable owed the king "ten thousand talents" (v. 24). A talent is the largest monetary unit, worth 6.000 denarii. A money is usually worth a day's wages.

So a single talent is worth about 16,4 years of daily wages. If the servant in the parable owed 10.000 talents, then he owed about 60 million denarii, which equates to nearly 165.000 years of daily wages. In other words, he owed a debt he could never have paid.

According to the narrative, the king forgave the servant's debt. But since he did not show the same mercy to those who owed him, the king handed over the wicked servant to the jailers "until he paid all his debt" (Matthew 18:34). Given the overwhelming amount of the bondage debt, it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus was referring to the eternal punishment of hell.

Matthew 5:26's "penny" stands in stark contrast to ten thousand talents. Hence, it is reasonable to suggest that Jesus refers to a temporary prison in Matthew 5.

Let's take stock of what we have so far. First, Jesus is talking about issues of eternal importance in the context. Second, use the word "prison" which in Christian tradition is used to refer to a state of existence in the afterlife that is neither heaven nor hell. And thirdly, this prison is a temporary state of existence in which satisfaction is committed for its crimes.

So what is this "prison"? It cannot be paradise, since heaven implies that all the sins of the past have been forgiven and compensated. It cannot be hell, because the prison of hell is eternal, there is no way out. It seems that the only interpretative option is purgatory.

The first Christian writer Tertullian believed the same thing:

[I] Since we understand that "prison" has indicated in the Gospel to be Hades, and as we also interpret "the maximum price" to indicate the smallest crime that must be rewarded there before the resurrection, no one will hesitate to believe that 'soul undergoes a certain compensatory discipline in Hades, without prejudice to the whole process of resurrection, when the reward will be administered through the flesh (A Treatise on the Soul, Ch. 58).

A maccabean environment

The purgatorial turn on these texts becomes even more persuasive when we consider the Jewish theological environment in which Jesus gave these teachings. It is evident from 2 Maccabees 12: 38-45 that the Jews believed in a state of existence after death which was neither heaven nor hell, a place where the soul could be forgiven of sins.

Whether you accept 2 inspired Maccabees or not, it gives a historical mandate to this Jewish belief. And it was that Jewish belief that the public of Jesus would bring to his teachings on forgiveness of sins in the coming age and a prison in the afterlife where a delinquent pays his debt.

If Jesus did not refer to purgatory in these texts, he would have needed to give some clarification to his Jewish audience. Just as a Catholic would immediately think of purgatory after hearing these teachings for the first time, so the Jewish public of Jesus would have immediately thought of that state of existence after the death that the soldiers of Judah Maccabees experienced.

But Jesus did not give any kind of clarification. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the age to come in Matthew 12:32 and the prison in Matthew 5: 25-26 refer to purgatory.

Conclusion

Contrary to what many Protestants think, the Catholic Church did not constitute the dogma of purgatory. It is a belief that comes from our own Lord as found in Sacred Scripture. Therefore, the Catholic Church can say in good conscience that he has been faithful to the great commission of teaching all that the Lord has commanded.