St Peters RC Church Hamilton

Bethlehem Peace Light

Pray for Peace

He has made us as part of His wonderful creation, we are to be the stewards of it. Our ever increasing brutality and arrogance spoils not only our own environment but that of other species and parts of His creation. Creation is not an accident it is by design and for purpose. There is brutality and death throughout creation, but there is also incredible beauty, joy and innocence. If we can watch this and not smile then we are surely lost - to ourselves and our God.

BETWEEN the second and fourth centuries Christianity became more concerned with thoughts about the state in which the soul found itself between the moment of death and the Last Judgement. From this there gradually matured the belief that some who had died not in ‘a state of grace’ were saved through grace and by means of some kind of further trial or testing. A foreshadowing of this process was seen in Sacred Scripture. Some would say a new doctrine was born; others would say that it was simply a logical and theological development of our belief that earthly life and eternal life are the same journey to God, divided only by the moment of death — our passing from one mode of existence to the other. This belief matured gradually in popular devotion and practice as well as in theology. A full-blown theology of purgatory can be said to have been achieved in the late twelfth century when we see the noun purgatorium coming into use. The medieval theology of purgatory reused and reworked motifs which had gained currency in earlier times, themes such as: darkness, fire, torture, the bridge as ordeal as well as passageway, mountains, rivers and the like. Many of these images are found in The Old Testament and in other world religions and cultures. Although the twelfth century saw the theology of purgatory more or less as we do today, the definitive doctrine was not worked out until the sixteenth century at the Council of Trent. It is a Christian doctrine which is almost exclusively Catholic and was totally rejected by the ecclesial communities of what became known as the ‘Reformation’. Several scriptural references support this doctrine. The most notable is II Maccabees 12:41-46; which describes a battle in which a number of Jewish soldiers were killed after having committed a sin and Judas Maccabeus orders a collection to be taken that sacrifices and prayers be offered on behalf of the dead. These texts were to be, and remain, very important for the formation of any doctrine regarding prayer for the dead. Naturally when Luther removed several books from the Canon of Scripture including Maccabees I and II any Scriptural basis was removed for the ecclesial communities of the ‘reformation’. Perhaps one of the most important historical accidents that helped the doctrine of purgatory to become fixed in people’s minds was the poetic genius of Dante and his work The Divine Comedy. Dante Alighieri began The Divine Comedy in 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely acknowledged to be the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. The first two parts, the Inferno and the Purgatorio were completed in 1319. In the Inferno (Hell) Dante and his guide encounter the torments of separation from the self, others and God. It is a place without hope. Famously Dante inscribes the chilling instruction over the gates of Hell, ‘Abandon all hope, you who enter here’ . The essence of Hell is complete absence and particularly the complete absence of hope. In Dante’s vision of Hell there is most certainly the classic ‘fire and brimstone’. However, when Dante and his guide Virgil enter the centre of Hell (the ninth circle – Betrayal) and encounter Satan it is not fire and brimstone which surrounds Satan, but rather ice. Satan is encased in ice. Dante sees Satan, who hardly even notices that Dante and his guide have entered, eternally consuming Brutus, Cassius and Judas. For Dante these are the three great betrayers of innocence, the three great traitors. Satan is surrounded by others encased in ice, those who have betrayed others, themselves and God. The heart of Hell is ice, a frozen heart of treachery and Satan so self-possessed he is unconcerned with the presence of Dante and his guide. It is a powerful demonstration of what sin does; we are frozen, restrained, unable to reach out to others. The popular image of purgatory was of a subterranean place of torment and pain. However, Dante’s purgatory is on earth, though inaccessible to man and directly opposite Jerusalem. It is a steep mountain with seven concentric circles (canto) rising to the summit. Each circle corresponds to one of the seven deadly sins and is the place where that particular sin is to be purged from the soul. This purging of sin is by means of work and suffering in correlation to the particular sin. On entering Mount Purgatory the first circle the sinner encounters is that of pride. The proud carry great stones on their backs, constantly bowed and bent. As once they stood tall in their pride now they are bowed and brought low and proclaimed the value of humility. (Canto 10) “Whatever makes them suffer their heavy torment bends them to the ground; at first I was unsure of what they were. But look intently there, and let your eyes unravel what’s beneath those stones: you can already see what penalty strikes each.” Each sin is expiated by the proclamation of the particular virtue. The terrace of pride is followed by those of envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony and finally lust. At the summit of the mountain, Dante with Virgil as his guide, enters the earthly paradise; on the threshold of this paradise Virgil relinquishes his office, saying: 'Expect no more of me in word or deed. Hence your will is upright, free and whole, and you would be in error not to heed whatever your own impulse prompts you to. Lord of yourself I crown and mitre you...' But the freedom of paradise has only been won by the steep climb and at times Virgil had to pull and drag Dante up literally on all fours through each of the circles. In each circle there was temptation to give up and remain there instead of moving on. But this was the Mountain of Purgation and moving on, growing, change, development and most importantly hope is the essence of what goes on there. Dante says: 'Now shall I sing that second kingdom given. The soul of man wherein to purge its guilt, and to grow worthy to ascend to heaven...' Purgation on the mountain is accomplished in three ways: by material punishment which sacrifices the passions and instils virtue; by meditation on the sin to be purged and its correlative virtue; and through prayer which purifies the soul, strengthens it by the grace of God and expresses the soul’s hope of heaven. But it is love which is the principle that governs the assignment of souls to the various circles of purgatory. Virgil explains the working of this principle to Dante, saying that all sin is the absence of love for God, an absence of the love of the good. Love may ‘turn to evil’, or ‘show less zeal than it ought for what is good’, or it may ‘turn on its Creator’ and this is the true nature of sin. On the Mountain of Purgation the true love of God is totally restored; the soul works and climbs to regain love, to find its way back to God after having been delayed by sin. So, as Dante insists, hope reigns supreme on Mount Purgatory. The souls in purgatory, which are endowed with immaterial bodies, are delivered, redeemed and already saved. Hope is frequently expressed through prayer. The Purgatorto is punctuated throughout with prayers and hymns and it was this image of souls in prayer that the late mediaeval artists chose to distinguish purgatory from Hell. In Hell, where there is no hope, what is the use of prayer? In purgatory by contrast, the certainty of salvation is to be embodied in prayer, which not only expresses the certain end but actually brings it closer. Dante’s great work, like St John Henry’s reflects its own historical context. In Purgatorio there is a sense of ‘working off the debt’ due to sin. There is ‘muscular Christianity’ as though Heaven could be gained by the souls own means. The Church definitively teaches that no person can merit eternal life by their own power. That is the heresy of Pelagianism and was condemned by the Church. The Church teaches that our initial grace of salvation (repentance and baptism) is unmerited, undeserved and unearned but our final salvation (entrance into Heaven) is worked out, made real and active in our daily choices, our works and our actions, as St James points out in his letter. Faith and Good works are the two sides of the one coin. We do not simply watch Christ do all the work of redemption, but through Baptism we become members of His body. As members of His body we are, by faith, the sacraments, good works and prayer to work out and make real that salvation given as grace by Christ. Dante’s work is not Pelagian since Purgatory is a means of purification after having already, although imperfectly, made the choice to follow Christ and to act in faith. At first glance the whole poem by St John Henry, Cardinal Newman, The Dream of Gerontius, is about the death of an old Catholic gentleman. The poem tells of the passage of the soul into the presence of God. Throughout the work there is a sense not of ‘muscular Christianity’ but rather ‘active passivity’ by responding and submitting to the grace of God, however imperfectly. The great work is not about death but life! The work was widely acclaimed by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. It had been reprinted numerous times during his own lifetime. St John Henry’s poem was the basis of Elgar's oratorio. Although Elgar’s libretto for Part One of the oratorio required a fairly limited reduction of the original, Part Two endured a much great redaction. St John Henry’s original text is more than twice the length of Elgar's libretto. Elgar had to omit whole sections while retaining the narrative thrust which gives the work such vitality. Dante attempted to convey life after death by using the sensual imagery of our world of mountains and rivers. Dante certainly drew heavily on Greek and Roman mythology as well as inserting contemporary political figures. Newman put this imagery aside as unsuitable and tried to convey the other world in a supra-sensible manner, a world populated by spirits, angels, souls, the Blessed Virgin and the supreme Judge Himself. Instead of sensual imagery he used variations in metre, liturgical language and the thoughts and feelings that these evoke: Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul. Go from this world. Go in the name of God The omnipotent Father who created thee... Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, De profundis oro te, Miserere, Judex meus, Parce mihi, Domine. Firmly I believe and truly God is Three, and God is One; And I next acknowledge duly Manhood taken by the Son. Newman also introduced what he called ‘the poetry of dogma’, of which an example would be, ‘O wisest love, that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail should strive afresh against the foe, should strive and should prevail’. This is poetry expressing the beautiful, central facts of our faith. He also used most effectively the idea of movement — not the slow climb up the Mountain of Purgation but the speedy flight of the ethereal spirit to the feet of the eternal Judge, who is all mercy and all love. The Dream of Gerontius lacks the earthly imagery of Dante but it possesses something of equal power. It is dynamic in language, meter, spirituality and theology. It is of tremendous theological importance to the development of the doctrine of Purgatory. As Gerontius dies he is afraid and begins to panic: That I am going, that I am no more, 'Tis this strange innermost abandonment, (Lover of souls! great God! I look to Thee,) This emptying out of each constituent And natural force, by which I come to be. Pray for me, O my friends; a visitant Is knocking his dire summons at my door, The like of whom, to scare me and to daunt, Has never, never come to me before; So pray for me, my friends, who have not strength to pray. He calls on God to send an angel to him. He can hear the voice of the priest reciting the prayers for the dying at the point of death; yet at the same moment he is rushing away at great speed, in an instant of time, carried by the Guardian Angel: I had a dream; yes, someone softly said ‘He’s gone’ and then a sigh went around the room. And then I surely heard a priestly voice cry ‘Subvenite’, and they knelt in prayer. I seem to hear him still, yet thin and low; ever widening interval… The soul of Gerontius, which is not distinct from him, moves towards the throne of God at great speed but not of its own doing; he is carried and held in a loving grasp of his angel and by God himself, who draws the soul to Him. The Angel praises God for His wonder displayed in creation, but most of all displayed in the crown of His creation — mankind, who though flawed, is loved by God. In just a few words St John Henry sums up so powerfully and beautifully the state of humanity in the words of the angel: Strange composite of heaven and earth! Majesty dwarfed to baseness! Fragrant flower running to poisonous seed! And seeming worth cloaking corruption! Weakness mastering power! The Angel marvels at the fact that humanity is so beautiful in the sight of God and that angelic spirits are set over humanity to watch and guard them for God. Gerontius is excited but anxious and the Angel explains to him that he is ‘hurrying to the just and holy Judge’ , all this in the very instant of death. Gerontius asks why, since he had feared this moment all his life, now that it is upon him he is no longer afraid but rather can look forward with a ‘serenest joy’ . The Angel explains that it is precisely because he feared the judgement of God that he has ‘forestalled the agony’ and for him ‘the bitterness of death is passed’ . But this is more than a forestalling of agony; Gerontius feels at peace and is happy. Again the Angel explains: ‘That calm and joy uprising in thy soul is first-fruits to thee of thy recompense, and heaven begun’ As the soul of Gerontius, accompanied by the Angel flies to God, he passes through various courts of spirits where demons mock the work of God in raising man to such dignity, and through other courts where the angel choirs praise the work of God in the Incarnation. This great work was set to music by Elgar and the work of genius of both men use meter and tempo to underscore the growing moment of meeting between creature and Creator, between lover and beloved, between God and man. As he comes into the presence of God and flies to the foot of His throne the soul of the old man flies from the angelic grasp eager to meet His God and judge. The Angel cries out: 'Praise to his name! The eager spirit has darted from my hold. And, with the intemperate energy of love, flies to the feet of dear Emmanuel. But, ere it reach them, the keen sanctity, which with its effluence, like a glory clothes and circles round the Crucified, has seized, and scorched and shrivelled it, and now it lies passive and still before the awful throne. O happy, suffering soul! For it is safe —consumed, yet quickened by the glance of God' . ‘ Intemperate energy of love… ’ the urgent desire of the soul for union and communion with His Creator and ultimate destiny drives him to the Throne of Grace. The soul is ‘Consumed, yet quickened by the glance of God’ says the angel. As Dante had imagined the eternal consuming of the treacherous by Satan, St John Henry imagines a very different consuming. This is not annihilation or destruction but rather the complete possessing in love of the beloved by the lover. He is ‘quickened’ not destroyed. The soul is enlivened as never before in earthly life; it is most fully itself which brings peace. Having looked into the face of the Redeemer and seen there the love which drove God to save His creature now the soul ‘lies passive and still’ . It is this moment of active passivity, this moment of absolute peace in the presence of ‘dear Emmanuel’ which brings also the moment of absolute clarity, self-knowledge and deepest desire to be worthy of such love. Gerontius cries out in urgent plea to be taken away, wanting willingly to be purged of sin; to pay the debt required for sin and to do so joyfully in the sure knowledge of heaven which, for a brief instant, he has tasted. He wants to go because he now realises that he is not ready for the fullness of the presence of God and so seeks to prepare for that experience of eternal intimacy with God: Take me away, and in the lowest deep There let me be, And there in hope the lone night-watches keep, Told out for me. There, motionless and happy in my pain Lone, not forlorn, - There will I sing my sad perpetual strain, Until the morn, There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast, Which ne'er can cease To throb, and pine, and languish, till possest Of its Sole Peace. There will I sing my absent Lord and Love: - Take me away, That sooner I may rise, and go above, And see Him in the truth of everlasting day. Take me away, and in the lowest deep There let me be. The work ends with the angel of purgation taking the soul of Gerontius from the throne of God to the Lake of Purgatory and releasing him into its depths. There: 'Angels to whom the willing task is given, shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee as thou liest; and Masses on the earth and prayers in heaven shall aid thee at the throne of the Most Highest'. This lake of Purgatory, which is not fire and flame but rather baptismal water, is the soul’s welcome destination and he is content to wait there and spend the ‘night of sorrow’ lamenting his sins until he once again sees God for whom he longs. There is something here of the Prodigal, weeping, regretting and above all coming to his senses and hoping for restoration. That moment of clarity, regret and meditation on his mistakes drives him to make the decision, ‘I will return to my father and say…’ The soul of the old man, freely chooses to contemplate his past failures, to see more clearly the foolishness of sin and hope for final restoration. The Angel concludes by singing: Farewell, but not for ever, brother dear! Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow. Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here, and I will come and wake thee in the morrow. For St John Henry, Cardinal Newman, purgatory is the free choice of the soul, it is the soul’s recognition that it is not yet ready to enter into the eternal presence of its creator and also the desire to prepare and ready itself of eternal love. For St John Henry purgatory is the state of the Prodigal before his restoration when once more the signet and robe will be placed upon him. These two differing views of Purgatory have had an important impact upon the development of doctrine, each gives differing but valid insight. However, what remains is that this doctrine came not solely from theologians meditating upon Sacred Scripture but from the People of God, it is a genuine expression of the voice of the people. It remains one of the most consoling doctrines of our faith that life is eternal and love is immortal; ‘ for nothing can come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus, our Lord ’. (MPN)