Purgatory in the thought of Saint Teresa of Liseux

Da Paolo Tessione - August 19, 2019

THE SMALL WAY THAT LEADS STRAIGHT TO THE SKY

If the question were asked: "Is it necessary to go from Purgatory before going to Heaven?", I think most Christians would answer in the affirmative. The doctrine, however, taught by Saint Teresa of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, in the footsteps of Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Catherine of Siena, can be stated as follows:

"God, most loving Father, wants us to leave this earth with the abandonment of the prodigal son who, repentant and confident, closes his eyes in the light of down here to reopen them immediately in Heaven, in the joy of the blessed vision without having to undergo purification in Purgatory some ".

Of course this requires repentance, humility and abandonment to Divine Mercy.

The Saint speaks to us of "a large number of small souls" and of "a legion of small victims" whom she wants to drag into the luminous wake of "spiritual childhood". In fact, he wrote: “How could my trust have limits? ".

Eco, unbeknownst to him, of what St. Thomas Aquinas had taught: “There cannot be anything from

part of us an overabundance of hope from the point of view of God, whose goodness is infinite “.

One of her novices, Sister Maria della Trinità, declared to the canonical processes that one day the saint asked her not to abandon, after her death, her "little way" of trust and love and she thus replied:

"No, of course and I believe you so firmly that even if the Pope told me that you were wrong, I would not be able to believe it"

Then the saint would reply: "Oh! first of all we should believe in the Pope; but do not be afraid that he will come and tell you to change your way, I will not give you time, because if, upon arriving in Heaven, I knew that I had misled you, I will obtain permission from God to come immediately to warn you. So far, believe that my way is safe and follow it faithfully "

The last popes, from San Pio X onwards, not only did not say that Santa Teresa was wrong, but they were pleased to underline the universality of the doctrine and the invitation of this "small way" to the point that Santa Teresa di Lisieux has been proclaimed "Doctor of the Church"

At the basis of his teachings are three fundamental theological truths:

• Every initiative comes from God as a pure free gift.

• God distributes his gifts unequally.

• With ever-equal love, since his love is infinite.

WE ARE ALL CALLED TO HOLINESS

For us, to love God means to let ourselves be loved by God. In fact, John says: "We love because He loved us first" (1 Jn 4,19:XNUMX).

Let us never worry about our weakness; on the contrary, our fragility must be an occasion of joy for us since, well understood, it is precisely our strength.

Instead, we must be afraid to attribute even a small part of truth and goodness. What we have has been offered to us as a gift (cf. 1 Cor 4,7); it does not belong to us, but to God. God wants humility of heart. Our merits are his gifts.

Yes, God gives, but distributes his gifts unequally. Each of us has a personal vocation, but we do not all have the same vocation.

Often one hears: "I am not a saint ... Perfection is reserved for the saints ... The saints did so because they were saints ...". Here is the answer: each of us is called to holiness, called to a more or less high degree of love and glory, some more, others less, thus contributing to the beauty of the mystical Body of Christ; what matters, for each individual, is to realize the fullness of his personal holiness, small or large.

Our Saint says about it:

“For a long time I asked myself why God has preferences, why all souls do not receive graces in equal degree; I wondered why he lavished extraordinary favors on saints who offended him, like St. Paul, St. Augustine, and why, I would say, almost forces them to receive his gift; then, when I read the life of the Saints that Our Lord has caressed from the cradle to the grave, without leaving a single obstacle in their path that prevented him from rising up to him, and preventing their souls with such favors as to make it almost impossible for them to stain him immaculate splendor of their baptismal garment, I asked myself:

why the poor savages, for example, die many and many even before they have intended to pronounce the name of God?

Jesus taught me about this mystery. He put the book of nature before my eyes, and I understood that all the flowers of creation are beautiful, the magnificent roses and the white lilies do not steal the scent of the viola, or the simplicity of the daisy ... If all the small flowers wanted to be roses , nature would lose its spring garment, the fields would no longer be covered with inflorescences. So it is in the world of souls, which is the garden of Jesus “.

Complementary inequality is a factor of harmony: "Perfection consists in doing the will of the Lord, in being as He wants".

This corresponds to the fifth chapter of the dogmatic Constitution of Vatican II on the Church, "Lumen Gentium", entitled "Universal vocation to holiness in the Church".

God therefore distributes his gifts unequally, but with a love always equal to himself, with an unchanging and simple love in the intensity of his infinite fullness.

Teresa, in turn: "I also understood another thing: the love of Our Lord is revealed just as well in the simplest soul which does not resist grace at all as much as in the most sublime soul". And it continues: both in the soul of the "holy Doctors, who have enlightened the Church" as in the soul "of the child who expresses himself only with weak weak squeals" or of the savage "who in his total misery possesses only the natural law to adjust. " Yes, equally, provided that these souls do the will of God.

The modality of the gift is worth much more than what is given; and God can only love with infinite love. In this sense, God loves each of us as much as he loves Mary Most Holy. His love cannot be, let us repeat it, but infinite. What a consolation!

THE PENALTY OF THE PURGATORY ARE USELESS

Saint Teresa does not hesitate to affirm that the sufferings of Purgatory are "unnecessary suffering". What do you mean?

Referring to her Offering of June 9, 1895, the Saint writes:

"Dear mother, you who have allowed me to offer myself to the good God. You know which rivers, or rather which oceans of grace, flooded my soul ...

Ah! from that happy day it seems to me that love permeates me and envelops me; it seems to me that, at every moment, this merciful love renews me, even though my soul leaves no trace of sin, therefore I cannot fear Purgatory ...

I know that for myself I would not even deserve to enter that place of expiation, since only holy souls can find access to it, but I also know that the fire of love is more sanctifying than that of Purgatory, I know that Jesus does not he may desire us unnecessary suffering, and that he would not inspire me with the desires that I feel, if he did not want to fulfill them ... ".

It is evident that the sufferings of Purgatory will be useless for Saint Teresa, since she is totally purified by merciful love, but the expression "unnecessary suffering" contains a much deeper theological meaning.

According to the teaching of the Church, in fact, the souls of Purgatory, being no longer in time, cannot deserve or grow in charity. The sufferings of Purgatory are therefore useless for growing in grace, in the love of Christ, which is the only aspect that matters to make our light of glory more intense. By enduring the pains that God permits, the souls of Purgatory atone for their sins and prepare, despite their past lukewarmness, to enjoy God in that face to face incompatible with the least impurity. However, their love is no longer susceptible to increase.

We are in the presence of great mysteries that go beyond our intelligence, in front of which we must bow: the mysteries of justice and divine mercy, of our freedom that can resist grace and of our eventual guilty refusal to accept suffering down here with love, in union with the Cross of Jesus the Redeemer.

PURGATORY AND HOLINESS

It is necessary, however, to observe that not going through Purgatory is not synonymous with eminent holiness. It is possible that a soul, called to a higher holiness, must pass through Purgatory if, at the moment of death, it was not found sufficiently purified; while another, called to a less sublime holiness, will be able to end perfectly pure and purified life.

Asking for the grace not to go through Purgatory does not mean, therefore, sinning presumptuousness, it is not demanding from God a higher degree of holiness than what He, in his wisdom, decreed for us, but it is simply asking him not to allow us to place obstacles to the perfect realization of his will on us, despite our weaknesses and sins; and beg him to be spared those "unnecessary" sufferings to make us grow in love, and to obtain a higher degree of bliss in the possession of God.

In the "Creed" of the People of God pronounced by His Holiness Paul VI at the end of the Year of Faith, on June 30, 1968, we read: "We believe in eternal life. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ, whether they have yet to be purified in Purgatory, or that from the moment they leave their bodies they are welcomed by Jesus in Paradise, as He did for the Good Thief, they constitute the People of God in the afterlife of death, which will be definitively defeated on the day of the Resurrection, when these souls are reunited with their own Bodies ". (L'Oss. Romano)

CONFIDENCE IN MERCY LOVE

I consider it useful and opportune to transcribe some texts of the Saint which concern the purification of the soul during earthly life.

"She is not confident enough," says Santa Teresa to a fearful sister (Sister Filomena), "she is too afraid of the good God." “Do not fear Purgatory because of the pain you are suffering from, but wish not to go there to please God, who reluctantly imposes this expiation. Since she tries to please him in everything, if she has the unshakable confidence that the Lord, even at every moment, in her Love and that she leaves no trace of sin in her, be sure that she will not go to Purgatory.

I understand that not all souls can look alike, there must be different groups to honor each perfection of the Lord in a particular way. He gave me his infinite mercy, through it I contemplate and adore the other divine perfections. Then they all seem to me radiant with love, justice itself (and perhaps even more than any other) seems to me clothed in love. What a joy to think that the good God is righteous, that is, that he takes into account our weaknesses, that he knows perfectly well the fragility of our nature. So what to be afraid of? Ah, the infinitely righteous God who deigned to forgive the faults of the prodigal son with such goodness, mustn't he also be righteous towards me who am always with him? (Lk 15,31) ".

ENCOURAGING SOULS ...

Sister Marja of the Holy Trinity, who died in 1944, one day asked the Master:

"If I commit slight infidelities, would I go directly to Heaven anyway?". "Yes, but this is not the reason why he must try to practice virtue", replied Teresa: "The good God is so good that he would find a way not to let her pass through Purgatory, but it is He who would escape from it in love! ... ".

On another occasion she told Sister Maria herself that it was necessary, with her prayers and sacrifices, to obtain souls a love of God so great as to make them go to Heaven without going through Purgatory.

Another novice tells: “I was extremely afraid of God's judgments; and despite everything she could tell me, nothing was worth dispelling me. One day I made this objection: 'They continually repeat to us that God also finds stains in his angels; how do you want me not to tremble? " She replied: “There is only one way to force the Lord not to judge us at all; and this means is to present yourself to Him with empty hands "

How to do?

“It is very simple; don't save anything, and give what you buy from hand to hand. For me, if I lived even up to eighty years, I will always be poor; I can't save; I spend everything I have now to redeem souls "

“If I waited for the moment of death to present my small coins and have them valued for their fair value, the good Lord would not fail to find out about the league, which I should go to free in Purgatory. Is it not said that some great saints, who came to the tribunal of God with hands full of merit, had to go to that place of expiation, because all justice is stained in the eyes of the Lord? "

But, the novice continued, “If God does not judge our good deeds, he will judge the bad ones; so?"

"What do you say?" replied Saint Teresa:

“Our Lord is Justice itself; if he does not judge our good deeds, he will not judge even the bad ones. For the victims of love, it seems to me that no judgment will take place, but rather that the good God will hurry to reward his own love with eternal delights which he will see burning in their hearts ". Again, the novice: "To enjoy this privilege, do you believe that it is enough to make the offer deed made up by you?".

Santa Teresa concluded: “Oh no! Words are not enough ... In order to truly be victims of love, it is necessary to abandon oneself entirely, because we are only consumed by love in proportion to what we abandon ourselves to it ".

"THE PURGATORY IS NOT FOR YOU ..."

The Saint still said: “Listen where your trust must go. It must make her believe that Purgatory is not for her, but only for the souls who have disavowed Merciful Love, who doubted her power even with those who strive to respond to this love, Jesus is' blind 'and' not calculates, or rather does not count, though only on the fire of charity that "covers all guilt" and above all on the fruits of his perpetual sacrifice. Yes, despite her little infidelities, she can hope to go straight to Heaven, since God desires him even more than she and will certainly give her what he will have hoped for by his mercy. He will reward confidence and abandonment; her justice that knows how fragile she is, has divinely unraveled herself to succeed.

Just take care, relying on this security, that He will not be at the expense of love! "

This testimony of the sister of the Saint deserves to be mentioned. Celina writes in "Tips and memories":

“Don't go to Purgatory. My dear little sister instilled in me every moment this humbly confident desire with which she lived. It was an atmosphere that breathed like air.

I was still proband when, on the night of Born in 1894, I found in my shoe a poem that Teresa had composed for me in the name of the Madonna. I read you:

Jesus will make you the crown,

If you only seek his love,

If your heart surrenders to Him,

He will honor you with his kingdom.

After the darkness of life,

You will see his sweet gaze;

Up there your soul kidnapped

Will fly without delay!

In her Act of Offering to the Merciful Love of the good God, speaking of her own love, she ends thus: '... That this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before it, will finally make me die, and that my soul will rush without delay in the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love! ...

It was therefore always under the impression of this idea, the realization of which it did not doubt at all, according to the word of our holy Father John of the Cross, which he made his own: 'The more God wants to give, the more he makes us want'

She founded her hope regarding Purgatory on abandonment and Love, without forgetting her dear humility, a characteristic virtue of childhood. The child loves his parents and has no pretensions, except to abandon himself totally to them, because he feels weak and helpless.

It said: 'Maybe a father scolds his child when he accuses himself, or imposes a punishment on him? Not really, but if it holds him to the heart. To reinforce this concept, he reminded me of a story we had read in our childhood:

'A king in a hunting party chased a white rabbit, which his dogs were about to reach, when the animal, feeling lost, returned quickly and jumped into the arms of the hunter. He, moved by such confidence, did not want to part with the white rabbit anymore, and did not allow anyone to touch him, reserving the right to feed him. So the good God will do with us, 'if, chased by the justice shown by dogs, we will seek escape in the arms of our Judge ...'.

Although she thought here of the little souls who follow the path of spiritual childhood, she did not even take away the great sinners from this daring hope.

Many times Sister Teresa had pointed out to me that the righteousness of the good God is content with very little when love is the motive for it, and that he then tempered the temporal punishment due to sin to excess, since it is nothing but sweetness.

'I had the experience,' he confided to me, 'that after an even small infidelity, the soul must suffer some discomfort for some time. Then I say to myself: "My child, it is the redemption of your absence", and I patiently bear that the small debt is paid.

But to this was limited, in his hope, the satisfaction claimed by justice for those who are humble and abandon themselves to My Heart with love '.

She did not see the door of Purgatory open for them, believing rather that Heavenly Father, responding to their trust with a grace of light at the moment of death, gives birth to these souls, at the sight of their misery, a feeling of perfect contrition, designed to cancel any debt ".

To her sister, Sister Maria del Sacro Cuore, who asked her: "When you offer yourself to merciful Love, can you hope to go straight to heaven?". He replied: "Yes, but fraternal charity must be practiced together".

PERFECT LOVE

Always, but especially in the last years of her earthly life, when approaching death, Saint Teresa of Lisieux taught that no one should go to Purgatory, not so much for reasons of personal interest (which, in itself, is not reprehensible) , but aiming only for the love of God and of souls.

For this reason he was able to say: “I don't know if I will go to Purgatory, I don't worry about it at all; but if I go there, I will never regret having worked only to save souls. How happy I was knowing that Saint Teresa of Avila thought so! ".

The following month states it again: “I would not have picked up a pin to avoid Purgatory.

Everything I did, I did it to please the good God, to save his souls ”.

A nun who attended the Saint in her last illness wrote in a letter to the family: “When you go to see her, she is well changed, very thin; but it always maintains the same calmness and playfulness. She sees with joy the death that approaches her and is not in the least afraid. This will appeal to you very much, my dear Dad, and it is clear; we lose the greatest of treasures, but we must not regret it for her; loving God as she loves him, she will be welcomed up there! It will go straight to heaven. When we talked to her about Purgatory, for us, she would say to us: 'Oh, how sorry you are! Do a great wrong to God by believing you have to go to Purgatory. When you love, there can be no Purgatory. '

The confidences of Saint Teresa of Lisieux that can and must encourage the greatest sinners to never doubt the purifying power of merciful Love will never be meditated enough: “One could believe that, precisely because I have not sinned, I have so much trust great in the Lord. Say well, my Mother, that if I had committed all the possible crimes, I would always have the same confidence, I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a burning brazier. She will then tell the story of the converted sinner who died of love, 'souls will understand immediately, because it is a very effective example of what I would like to say, but these things cannot be expressed ".

Here is the episode that Mother Agnes had to tell:

“It is said in the life of the Desert Fathers that one of them converted a public sinner, whose unrest scandalized an entire region. This sinner, touched by grace, followed the Saint in the desert to make a rigorous penance, when, on the first night of travel, even before reaching the place of his retirement, her mortal bonds were broken by the impetus of her repentance full of love, and the loner saw, at the very moment, her soul carried by the Angels into the bosom of God "

A few days later he returned to the same thought: "... Mortal sin would not take away my trust ... Above all, do not forget to tell the story of the sinner! This is what will prove that I'm not wrong "

SANTA TERESA DI LISEUX AND THE SACRAMENTS

We know Teresa's ardent love for the Eucharist. Sister Genoveffa has left written:

“Holy Mass and the Eucharistic Table were his delight. He did not undertake anything important without asking to have the Holy Sacrifice offered to that intention. When our aunt gave her money for her holidays and anniversaries at Carmel she always asked for permission to celebrate Masses and sometimes she said to me in a low voice: 'It is for my son Pranzini, (a condemned to death, of which he had obtained the conversion in extremis in August 1887), I must help him now! ... '. Before his solemn profession, he made use of his portfolio as a girl, which consisted of a hundred francs, to celebrate Masses for the benefit of our venerable Father, who was then very ill. She believed that nothing was worth as much as the Blood of Jesus to attract him many graces. He would have wished to communicate every day, but the customs then in force did not allow it, and this was one of his greatest sufferings at Carmel. She prayed to Saint Joseph for a change of that custom, and the decree of Leo XII which granted more freedom on this point, seemed to her a response to her ardent entreaties. Teresa predicted that after her death, we would not miss our 'daily bread', which was fully realized ".

He wrote in his offering act: “I feel immense desires in my heart and I ask you with so much confidence to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I would like, but Lord, are you not the almighty? Remain in me as in the tabernacle, never get away from your little host ... "

During her last illness, addressing her sister Mother Agnes of Jesus: “Thank you for asking that I be given a particle of the Holy Host. I lasted so long to swallow even that. But how happy I was to have God in my heart! I cried as on the day of the first Communion "

And again, on August 12: "How great is the new grace that I received this morning, when the priest started the Confiteor before giving me Holy Communion!

I saw there good Jesus all ready to give himself to me, and I heard that much needed confession:

'I confess to Almighty God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to all the Saints, who have sinned a lot'. Oh yes, I said to myself, they do well to ask God, all his Saints, for a gift for me right now. How this humiliation is necessary! I felt, like the tax collector, a great sinner. God seemed so merciful to me! It was so moving to turn to the whole heavenly court and obtain God's forgiveness ... I was there to cry, and when the Holy Host landed on my lips, I felt deeply moved to the bottom ... ".

He had also expressed a great desire to receive the anointing of the sick.

On July 8 he said: “I really want to receive Extreme Unction. All the worse, if they make fun of me afterwards “. The sister notes here: "This is for the case that she had recovered health, since she knew that some nuns did not consider her in danger of death".

They administered holy oil on July 30; then he asked Mother Agnese: "Do you want to prepare me to receive Extreme Unction? Pray, pray a lot to the good God, so that I receive it as well as possible. Our Father Superior said to me: 'You will be like a newly baptized baby'. Then he only spoke to me about love. Oh, how moved I was. " "After Extreme Unction," notes Mother Agnes again. "He showed me his hands with respect".

But he never forgot the primacy of faith, trust and love; the primacy of the spirit

without which the letter is dead. She will say:

"The main plenary indulgence is that which everyone can buy without the usual conditions:

the indulgence of charity which covers the multitude of sins

“If you find me dead in the morning, don't worry: it would mean that Dad, the good Lord, would have come to get me, that's all. Without a doubt, it is a great grace to receive the sacraments, but when the good Lord does not allow it, it is also a grace ”

Yes, God makes "everything cooperate for the good of those they love" (Rom 828).

And when Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus writes paradoxically: "Here is what Jesus demands from us, he does not need our works at all, but only our love", he does not forget neither the demands of the duty of his own state, nor obligations of fraternal dedication, but you want to emphasize that charity, theological virtue, is both the root of merit and the summit of our perfection.