The Early Church Is the Catholic Church

 

You are kindly invited to explore and discover
the sacred mysteries of the Catholic faith.

“See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Christ Jesus does the Father, and the
presbytery as ye would the apostles. Do ye also reverence the deacons, as those that carry
out the appointment of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without
the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the
bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let
the multitude also be; by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the
bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there
is the Catholic Church.”
St. Ignatius of Antioch,
Epistle to the Smyrneans, 8:2
(c. A.D. 110)

“But [it has, on the other hand, been shown], that the preaching of the Church is
everywhere consistent, and continues in an even course, and receives testimony from the
prophets, the apostles, and all the disciples…For in the Church,” it is said, “God hath set
apostles, prophets, teachers,’ and all the other means through which the Spirit works; of
which all those are not partakers who do not join themselves to the Church, but defraud
themselves of life through their perverse opinions and infamous behaviour. For where the
Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church,
and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth.”
St. Irenaeus of Lyons,
Against Heresies, 3:24
(A.D. 180)

“The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterous; she is uncorrupted and pure. She knows one
home; she guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one couch. She keeps us for God.
She appoints the sons whom she has born for the kingdom. Whoever is separated from the
Church and is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises of the Church; nor
can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger;
he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the
Church for his mother. If anyone could escape who was outside the ark of Noah, then he
also may escape who shall be outside of the Church. The Lord warns, saying, ‘He who is
not with me is against me, and he who gathereth not
with me scattereth.’
St. Cyprian of Carthage,
On Unity, 6
(A.D. 251)

“But in learning the Faith and in professing it, acquire and keep that only, which is now
delivered to thee by the Church, and which has been built up strongly out of all the
Scriptures….Take heed then, brethren, and hold fast the traditions which ye now receive,
and write them and the table of your heart.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem,
Catechetical Lectures, 5:12
(A.D. 350)

“But beyond these [Scriptural] sayings, let us look at the very tradition,
teaching and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning,
which the Lord gave, the Apostles preached, and the Fathers kept.”
St. Athanasius of Alexandria,
Four Letters to Serapion of Thmuis, 1:28
(A.D. 360)

“Inasmuch, I repeat, as this is the case, we believe also in the Holy Church, [intending
thereby] assuredly the Catholic. For both heretics and schismatics style their
congregations’ churches. But heretics, in holding false opinions regarding God, do injury to
the faith itself; while schismatics, on the other hand, in wicked separations break off from
brotherly charity, although they may believe just what we believe. Wherefore neither do the
heretics belong to the Church catholic, which loves God; nor do the schismatics form a part
of the same.”
St. Augustine of Hippo,
On Faith and Creed, 10:21
(A.D. 393)

“Philip the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See said: There is no doubt, and in fact
it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the
Apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of
the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of the human race,
and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to to-day
and forever both lives and judges in his
successors.”
Council of Ephesus, Session III (A.D. 431)

“Wherefore the most holy and blessed Leo, archbishop of the great and elder Rome,
through us, and through this present most holy synod together with the thrice blessed and
all-glorious Peter the Apostle, who is the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and
the foundation of the orthodox faith, hath stripped him of the episcopate, and hath
alienated from him all hieratic worthiness. Therefore let this most holy and great synod
sentence the before mentioned Dioscorus to the canonical penalties.”
Council of Chalcedon, Session III
(A.D. 451)

But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You
are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon
son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in
heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Matthew 16, 15-18

Pax vobiscum

All Have Sinned

 Original Sin

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3, 23

In Catholic teaching, original sin is a sin contracted rather than committed. To say that all people are “guilty of original sin” is inaccurate. This idea implies that everyone is born guilty in a morally responsible sense and is blameworthy for having contracted this stain of sin. But the only sins we are morally responsible for are our personal sins. The guilt of original sin should be understood legally, meaning that in our fallen state, we are all liable to punishment for our sins, which we are naturally inclined to commit. And because we usually do sin and freely choose to sin against God, we are morally liable to Him. Adam’s personal sin is not imputed to us as if we are morally responsible for his actions. Original sin does stain our souls when we are conceived and born, but through no fault of our own. 

However, since we all are inclined to sin because of our innate selfishness, we can say that we are implicated in Adam's sin. None of us are born more innocent than the other. We are equally born under the condemnation or curse of the law, for each of us will undoubtedly violate it at some point in our lives (even at least once if it were possible) on account of our inbred selfishness, weaknesses, and disordered desires which constitute the state of original sin.

When we commit personal sins, we are held morally culpable for them. Adam’s personal sin demonstrates what it means for each human being to offend God by their free will. Through temptation, we lose our trust in God’s will for our true well-being and happiness; we aspire to be like God but apart from God and against God’s will. And so, we abuse our free will by disobeying God, preferring what we feel or judge is better and more personally beneficial to ourselves, thereby acting on our errant inclinations.  Thus, original sin is a state of guilt, as all human beings are “deprived of the original holiness and justice.” According to Catholic teachings, “it does not have the character of a personal fault” in any of us descended from Adam. [Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 405]. 

With the view that all humanity is implicated in the sin of Adam by being biological descendants of his, the Council of Trent declares that the “guilt of original sin” contains the “whole of that which belongs to the essence of sin,” viz., the deprivation of justice and sanctity. Baptism does not merely legally “remit” or “cancel” this contraction of sin but entirely “takes it away.” Concerning our personal sins, we read in Isaiah 1, 18: ‘Though my sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though red like crimson, they shall be like wool.’ And Isaiah 43, 25: ‘I am He who blots out your transgressions and forgets your sins.’ In other words, God is so powerful that He brings about a genuine change in us through his efficacious grace and the redeeming merits of Jesus Christ.

God blots out (exalipho/ἐξαλείφω) our sins by the healing power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Col 2:14). Sin is eliminated, albeit its remnants, and not merely covered up ( See Rom 4:3 elogisthe). God does not simply declare us to be righteous but makes us personally righteous no less than Jesus is righteous in his humanity, though not absolutely because of his divinity, by His sanctifying and justifying grace ( 2 Cor 3:18; 5:17). This same principle applies to the stain of original sin. The sacrament of baptism completely blots this stain out from our souls by God’s sanctifying and justifying grace. However, the penalties of original sin – suffering and death – remain part of our natural condition, along with our faults and weaknesses. Although the moral ill-effects of original sin remain, viz., the concupiscence of the eyes and of the flesh and the pride of life, the grace of baptism sanctifies the soul, rendering it justified before God. We forfeit the sanctification of our souls by the commission of mortal sins. 

God reveals what He has decreed to accomplish in us through the prophet: ‘I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sin like mist’ (Isa 44:22). We mustn’t deny that God has the power to “create a clean heart” and “put a pure and right spirit” within any of us. With the forgiveness of sin and the removal of guilt comes cleansing and washing, which we initially receive when we are baptized (Ps 51: 7-10; cf. Ezek 36: 26-27; Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 6:11; Eph 4:22-24). The remission of sin is coupled with inner cleansing and healing. Our justification and regeneration form two sides of a single coin.

If we aren’t simply declared righteous, though still dead to sin, it’s because the soul is sanctified and thereby justified. According to the Council of Trent, sanctification is the formal cause of justification. Paul uses the two terms interchangeably. Prenatal and infants have no past personal sins that need to be remitted, so morally, they aren’t culpable for any actual sins of their own. But they are deprived of the original justice and holiness that are forfeited by our human condition. Given the chance to develop morally, they will most likely sin by having been conceived and born as a child of Adam. Anyway, there is a distinction between original sin and actual sin. Essentially, the former is a primeval state of moral corruption, which, by nature, we are imbued with but by no fault of our own. 

Thus, we are not personally guilty of original sin. The sin of Adam is no more imputed to our account than the righteousness of Christ is when the stain of sin is blotted out in our souls. Actual sin is a deliberate rejection of God by which we personally incur moral guilt upon ourselves by abusing our free will. The stain of original sin renders us guilty by association. The Psalmist laments our fallen condition and implicitly appeals to God to consider our common wounded state in His mercy. Still, he takes full credit or moral responsibility for his transgressions in his act of contrition: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51:4-5).

Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all,
so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.
For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,
so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5, 18-19

As a result of original sin, our desires can become insubordinate to the dictates of reason since there is a tendency in our human nature to sin. This condition of ours is what the Catholic Church calls concupiscence in the strict negative sense of the word. Because of original sin, our sensitive appetites are often spontaneously directed to what our imagination portrays as pleasant and away from whatever it deems as painful or unpleasant against God’s will for our wellbeing. Our natural condition includes pride and the unruly inclinations of the will, such as envy, greed, and lust: sins of the flesh. There are two primary forms of concupiscence in Catholic theology: of the eyes and of the flesh. 

Concupiscence and the guilt of original sin, however, are distinct. Original sin doesn’t mean original guilt since original sin is a sin contracted and not a sin committed. Baptism cures us of original sin but not concupiscence, which is a lasting effect of original sin. Despite the lasting effects of original sin, which also include physical suffering and death, despite our being baptized since we are inclined to commit sin and shall sin, we still receive the initial grace of justification and forgiveness when we are baptized by no just merit of our own (Eph 2:8-10). On account of what Christ has merited for us by his blood, spiritual death is no longer an absolute certainty for all eternity. This is because we have been initially justified and sanctified by our baptism notwithstanding our inbred sinful inclinations and tendency to sin because of Adam, or the Adam in us who have ever been conceived in the womb, and born, except the Blessed Virgin Mary by the intervening grace of her Immaculate Conception.

We might ask how it is that original sin is a sin, though not something we have personally committed and are morally responsible for. Original sin may mean, in a Catholic sense, the consequence of the first sin ever committed by Adam and the hereditary stain or trait we have all received from our primordial parent. St. Augustine writes: “The deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of original sin” (De nupt. et concup., II, xxvi, 43). When we personally commit a mortal sin, the result is spiritual death. And since we are born with a tendency to sin and do, in fact, sin without exception because of the effects of original sin, as descendants of Adam, we enter this world spiritually dead. His sin isn’t imputed to us, but he has “transmitted sin to us with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the death of the soul” (CCC. n.403). 

For this reason, infant baptism is imperative in the Catholic faith and mainstream Protestantism. Again, original sin is a sin contracted but not committed. We are not the “cause” of original sin but are affected by it in our standing with God. By our nature, we fall short of His glory since we all have sinned through our indeliberate contraction of original sin. Meanwhile, we mustn’t hold God morally responsible for creating this state of affairs. God has given us sufficient grace and strength to direct our will toward what is good and resist evil temptations. When we sin against God, our selfishness or inordinate love of self is to blame. St. Paul assures us: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it”(1 Cor 10:13). St. James concurs: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death”(Jas 1:14-15).

God asked Adam, “Who told you you were naked?” (Gen 3:11). His conscience told him the answer. Adam and Eve knew of the existence of good and evil and that they were not to experience and judge for themselves what was good and evil for them. Yet they did. They should have simply put their faith in God’s judgment and obeyed His command rather than making themselves out to be like God. The couple suddenly felt ashamed of themselves, knowing that they had done wrong. Their conscience condemned them, for they acted against God by their free will. "If our heart (conscience) does not condemn us, we have confidence before God" (1 Jn 3:21).

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Ps 119:11). David knew the difference between right and wrong and understood that he should abide by God’s word. But not unlike our primordial father, Adam, he succumbed to temptation and fell from God’s grace by committing two mortal sins: adultery and murder (2 Sam 11:1-26). He was just as much personally responsible for his sins as Adam and Eve were for theirs, all because of a selfish desire and putting himself before God. God could undoubtedly be faulted if He left us all alone in our natural state without instructing us what we should or should not do and then punished us for doing what we shouldn’t. But God has written His law in every human heart and has given us a conscience to warn us when we contemplate a sinful act and condemn us when we violate His law. David lamented over what he had done and implored God’s forgiveness with a humble and contrite heart that rendered his sin offering pleasing and acceptable to God (See Psalm 51).

The following excerpt is taken from the Council of Trent, Session V, 5:

“If anyone denies, that, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the reatum of original sin is remitted; or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away; but says that it is only razed, or not imputed; let him be anathema.”

Dr. Taylor Marshall tells us that many English translations of this anathema inaccurately read “the guilt of original sin is remitted”, which obviously may confuse people. The original Latin of the Council reads “reatum originalis peccati remiti.” This is important for us to note since the term reatus does not mean “guilt” in the strict sense. In Roman law, reatus means liable to or indicted or a penal sentence. Alternatively, the Latin word culpa means an actual act of wrongdoing. Reatus refers to the state that accrues because of a culpa. The following two terms have been adopted by the Catholic Church: Reatus culpa is guilt associated with the sentence (that is, culpability). Reatus poena is the penalty of the sentence (the word penalty comes from poena). Receiving only the penalty of sin (reatus poena) by definition of the Church is the loss of sanctifying or justifying grace and the preternatural gifts, suffering, and death because of original sin. 

If a person commits armed robbery, the reatus culpa would be his intentional, personal act of robbing someone. He could be declared guilty of committing a felony. The reatus poena would be the penalty or sentence passed by the judge associated with the gravity of the crime. In this case, he might end up serving ten or more years in prison. Regarding Adam and Eve, they incurred both the personal guilt (reatus culpa) of original sin and the penalty (reatus poena). All their descendants from the time they are conceived in the womb are not guilty of eating the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve consumed, but they do receive the penalty (reatus poena) of this sin. Human beings are not penalized for the personal sins of Adam and Eve. But once they attain reason and are morally responsible for their actions, they universally do, in fact, commit sins and incur personal guilt (reatus culpa) by being descendants of Adam with his hereditary traits.

Some Catholic theologians use the word culpa when referring to original sin. However, the word is usually qualified as culpa contracta, which does not mean personal guilt but guilt by association. All babies who are born are naturally capable of committing their first sin and countless other personal sins once they have attained the age of reason and moral responsibility. It is this state of nature that we have inherited from Adam and Eve that alienates us from God and incurs divine justice. This is the middle ground between total innocence and total depravity. Infants and young children under the age of moral reason do suffer the penalties of original sin, including premature death. Yet, they aren’t mature enough to deliberately sin and be held liable. 

However paradoxical it may sound, there is a subtle distinction between being personally guilty of committing a grave sin with full knowledge and consent and being guilty by implication. Yet original sin is a state of guilt insofar as the soul is deprived of the original justice and holiness forfeited by Adam. Thus, it cannot ever see God unless this stain (not act) of sin is remitted and removed by the cleansing and regenerating water of baptism by the power of the Holy Spirit in and through the saving merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who ransomed us from sin and death by the outpouring of his most precious blood.

Early Sacred Tradition

“He stood in need of baptism, or of the descent of the Spirit like a dove; even as He submitted to
be born and to be crucified, not because He needed such things, but because of the human race,
which from Adam had fallen under the power of death and the guile of the serpent, and each one
of which had committed personal transgression. For God, wishing both angels and  men, who
were endowed with freewill, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each
to do, made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free
from death and from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit.”
St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 88:4
(A.D. 155)

“Everyone in the world falls prostrate under sin. And it is the Lord who sets up those who are cast
down and who sustains all who are falling. In Adam all die, and thus the world prostrate and
requires to be set up again, so that in Christ all may be made to live.”
Origen, Homilies on Jeremias, 8:1
(post A.D. 244)

“Through him our forefather Adam was cast out for disobedience, and exchanged a Paradise
bringing forth wondrous fruits of its own accord for the ground which bringeth forth thorns. What
then? Someone will say. We have been beguiled and are lost. Is there then no salvation left? We
have fallen: Is it not possible to rise again? We have been blinded: May we not recover our sight
We have become crippled: Can we never walk upright? In a word, we are dead: May we not rise
again? He that woke Lazarus who was four days dead and already stank, shall He not, O man,
much more easily raise thee who art alive? He who shed His precious blood for us, shall Himself
deliver us from sin.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 2:4-5
(A.D. 350)

“Adam sinned and earned all sorrows; likewise the world after His example, all guilt.
And instead of considering how it should be restored, considered how its fall should be
pleasant for it. Glory to Him Who came and restored it!”
St. Ephraem, Hymns on the Epiphany, 10:1
(A.D. 350)

“And further, above this, we have in common reason, the Law, the Prophets, the very Sufferings of
Christ, by which we were all without exception created anew, who partake of the same Adam,
and were led astray by the serpent and slain by sin, and are saved by the heavenly Adam and
brought back by the tree of shame to the tree of life from whence we had fallen.”
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Against the Arians, 33:9
(A.D. 380)

“How then did death come in and prevail? “Through the sin of one.” But what means, “for that all
have sinned?” This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of the tree did from him,
all of them, become mortal…From whence it is clear, that it was not this sin, the transgression,
that is, of the Law, but that of Adam’s disobedience, which marred all things. Now what is the
proof of this? The fact that even before the Law all died: for ‘death reigned’ he says, ‘from Adam
to Moses, even over them that had not sinned.’ How did it reign? ‘After the similitude of Adam’s
transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come.’ Now this is why Adam is a type of
Christ …[W]hen the Jew says to thee, How came it, that by the well-doing of this one Person,
Christ, the world was saved? thou mightest be able to say to him, How by the disobedience of this
one person, Adam, came it to be condemned?”
St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Romans, 10
(A.D. 391)

“Evil was mixed with our nature from the beginning…through those who by their disobedience
introduced the disease. Just as in the natural propagation of the species each animal engenders its
like, so man is born from man, a being subject to passions from a being subject to passions, a
sinner from a sinner. Thus sin takes its rise in us as we are born; it grows with us and keeps us
company till life’s term.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Beatitudes, 6
(ante A.D. 394)

“This grace, however, of Christ, without which neither infants nor adults can be saved, is not
rendered for any merits, but is given gratis, on account of which it is also called grace. ‘Being
justified,’ says the apostle, ‘freely through His blood.’ Whence they, who are not liberated through
grace, either because they are not yet able to hear, or because they are unwilling to obey; or
again because they did not receive, at the time when they were unable on account of youth to
hear, that bath of regeneration, which they might have received and through which they might
have been saved, are indeed justly condemned; because they are not without sin, either that
which they have derived from their birth, or that which they have added from their own
misconduct. ‘For all have sinned’–whether in Adam or in themselves–“and come short of the glory
of God.’”
St. Augustine, On Nature and Grace, 4
(A.D. 415)

“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart,
and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder,
adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
Matthew 15, 18-20

Pax vobiscum

Baptized for the Dead

 Purgatory

When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected
to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
Otherwise, what will people accomplish by having themselves baptized for the
dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they having themselves
baptized for them?
1 Corinthians 15, 28-29

When Paul writes that the Church is baptizing “for” or on behalf of the dead, he uses the Greek preposition hyper (ὑπὲρ), which may be translated to mean “for the sake of” or “for the benefit of” the dead in Christ who await the redemption of their bodies on the last day. Paul isn’t admonishing the Christian community at Corinth for this traditional practice, so he must have also believed that the celebration of the sacrament – perhaps the general prayers and penitential works involved – assisted the faithfully departed souls. If these souls were already in Heaven, they wouldn’t need to be benefited by their prayers, and if they were in Hell, they couldn’t benefit from them. So, where might these departed souls who can benefit from the celebration of baptism among the living be? The Catholic answer is an intermediate state between Heaven and Hell, namely Purgatory.

And after the exhibition, Tryphaena again receives her. For her daughter
Falconilla had died, and said to her in a dream: Mother, thou shalt have this
stranger Thecla in my place, in order that she may pray concerning me,
and that I may be transferred to the place of the just.
Acts of Paul and Thecla
(A.D. 160)

They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are
hidden. Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble
Judas warned the soldiers to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what
had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He then took up a collection among all his
soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an
expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the
resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been
useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that
awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.
Second Book of Maccabees 12, 41-45

Both the Corinthians and Judas perform a ritual by taking the resurrection of the faithfully departed into account. The author of the OT text says that it would have been “useless and foolish” of Judas Maccabeus to perform the sacrificial sin offering on behalf of the godly dead if there were no hope in the resurrection. Following the same train of thought, Paul asks: “If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they having themselves baptized for them?” The apostle probably had this Maccabees passage in mind when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians. He is affirming that baptism on behalf of the dead would be superfluous only if there were no resurrection on the last day, notwithstanding Christ’s eternal atonement for sin. Temporal atonement is left for the faithful to make. Moreover, we should note that in Maccabees 12, God is called a judge. The context of the above passage is God’s judgment and the remission of sin: the full blotting out of sinful deeds and freedom from all temporal debt of sin and its residual effects by appeasing the Divine justice. 

“Without delay, on that very night, this was shown to me in a vision. I saw
Dinocrates going out from a gloomy place, where also there were several others,
and he was parched and very thirsty, with a filthy countenance and pallid colour, and
the wound on his face which he had when he died. This Dinocrates had been my
brother after the flesh, seven years of age? Who died miserably with disease…But I
trusted that my prayer would bring help to his suffering; and I prayed for him every
day until we passed over into the prison of the camp, for we were to fight in the
camp-show. Then was the birth-day of Gets Caesar, and I made my prayer for my
brother day and night, groaning and weeping that he might be granted to me. Then,
on the day on which we remained in fetters, this was shown to me. I saw that that
place which I had formerly observed to be in gloom was now bright; and Dinocrates,
with a clean body well clad, was finding refreshment. And where there had been a
wound, I saw a scar; and that pool which I had before seen, I saw now with its margin
lowered even to the boy’s navel. And one drew water from the pool incessantly, and
upon its brink was a goblet filled with water; and Dinocrates drew near and began to
drink from it, and the goblet did not fail. And when he was satisfied, he went away
from the water to play joyously, after the manner of children, and I awoke. Then I
understood that he was translated from the place of punishment.”
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitias, 2:3-4
(A.D. 202)

“Make friends quickly with your accuser while you are going with him
to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the
guard, and you be put in prison; truly I say to you, you will never get
out till you have paid the last penny.”
Matthew 5, 25-26

Our Lord is teaching us about the particular judgment of sinners at the moment of death and the temporal consequence and penalty of sin: prison or a place of detainment until full restitution is made. This debtor’s prison is a metaphor for purgatory. By “accuser,” Jesus means Satan. The Greek word for the accuser, or more literally “opponent,” is antidikos (ἀντίδικος), which is also used by Peter in his First Letter 5:8-9: ‘Your adversary (ἀντίδικος) the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith.’ Satan prowls around to ruin our souls with the added touch of accusing us of sin before God (Zech 3:1; Job 1:6-12). 

To restore the equity of justice between God and us, because of the times we have failed to resist the devil, we must personally atone for our sins and make temporal satisfaction to God by accepting and enduring temporal punishment for the cleansing of our tarnished souls. At our particular death, we do go to court with our accuser, and so what Jesus means by saying we should make friends with him before we face our judge is that we should settle all scores we have with the devil by resisting him and renouncing all his empty promises in this life so that he can make no accusation against us as we stand before God.

Our time in the debtor’s prison depends on all unsettled scores, sins that have been forgiven through our repentance and by acts of contrition but, nonetheless, still require temporal satisfaction to be made on our part by further acts of penance to remove the residual stain of sin on our souls. Indeed, the debt of sin can be remitted only by having to do penance for it. Doing acts of penance, whose pain and loss counterbalances the sinful pleasures one is heartily sorry for, completes the temporal redemptive process. Christ did not suffer and die so that we should no longer owe God what is His rightful due for having offended His sovereign dignity (Mt 5:17; Job 42:6; Lam 2:14; Ezek 18:21; Jer 31:19; Rom 2:4; Rev 2:5, etc.). If this were so, then there would be no need for us even to repent besides doing penance. Our Lord and Saviour ultimately made eternal expiation for sin on behalf of all humanity. However, we cannot reap the fruit of his merits unless we make temporal expiation for our personal sins in union with his temporal and, thereby, eternal satisfaction. 

This is from Jesus himself: “No, I say to you: but unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3); “Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance” (Mt 3:8). True repentance for the forgiveness of sin calls for fruit worthy of our act of contrition. For instance, our outward acts (alms-giving/fasting) must conform to our inner disposition or spiritual reality (charity/temperance) to offset our vices and sins (greed/gluttony), which have been forgiven by the act of repentance pending full temporal restitution. We are temporally consigned to purgatory if we have any outstanding debts to pay when we die.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love;
according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight,
so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment.
Psalm 51, 1-4

Temporally, we are still indebted to God for our offenses against Him and must make restitution for the remittance of our debts. Satisfaction is to repair the offense offered to God and make Him favorable to us again. An act of reparation can be satisfactory to God only if there is something painful and sacrificial about it. This is what commutative justice means, which serves to render to everyone what rightly belongs to them. When we sin against God, we deny Him what He is supremely entitled to, viz., our love and obedience. So, saying sorry isn’t enough to restore a balance of equity in our relationship with God. This requires that we show our love for God, which we have denied Him, by making it up to God, so to speak. By accepting our sufferings or making personal sacrifices and offering them to God our “spiritual worship” as a means of reparation for our offenses against Him, equity is restored, as the pain or loss counters the vain pleasure of selfish gain, which is the object of our sins. 

Pain and suffering have no spiritual and redemptive value if divorced from repentance. Repentance is incomplete if the temporal debt of sin remains in the balance. God forgave David for his mortal sins of murder and adultery after he sincerely repented with a contrite heart and broken spirit, which rendered his prescribed sin offering worthy. But to completely offset his transgressions and restore equity of justice, God took the life of the child David conceived in his act of adultery with Bathsheba for having murdered her husband Uriah: an innocent life for innocent life or an eye for an eye. And God also permitted the rape of David’s wives for his act of adultery (2 Sam 12:9-10, 14, 18-19). Only then could David’s broken relationship with God be wholly amended, provided he accepted his pain and loss as a cleansing temporal punishment for his sins and expurgation of them to restore the equity of justice in his relationship with God. This peace and reconciliation with God were achieved given the foreseen merits of Christ in his sacred humanity and union with them.

Purgatory, therefore, isn’t a medieval invention of the Catholic Church. The ancient Jews, Paul, and Jesus acknowledged its existence. Archeological findings and extant documents of the early Church Fathers and Christian writers provide testimony to the ancient Catholic belief in this transitional state after death for the faithful departed. Thus, we need to offer up sacrifices and prayers for the dead for the sake of releasing them from prison as soon as possible by helping them pay the last penny since they can no longer merit redeeming grace for themselves. Meanwhile, the poor souls in purgatory offer their sufferings and prayers for our spiritual benefit. They can thereby merit the actual graces we need to help maintain the equity of justice between God and us in our lives, that we might be judged worthy to go straight to heaven upon death in and through the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Early Sacred Tradition

“Accordingly the believer, through great discipline, divesting himself of the passions, passes to the
mansion which is better than the former one, viz., to the greatest torment, taking with him the
characteristic of repentance from the sins he has committed after baptism. He is tortured then still
more–not yet or not quite attaining what he sees others to have acquired. Besides, he is also
ashamed of his transgressions. The greatest torments, indeed, are assigned to the believer. For
God’s righteousness is good, and His goodness is righteous. And though the punishments cease
in the course of the completion of the expiation and of each one, yet those have very great and 
grief who are found worthy of the other fold, on account of not being along with those that have
been glorified through righteousness.”
St. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 6:14
(Post A.D. 202)

“That allegory of the Lord which is extremely clear and simple in its meaning, and ought to be from
the first understood in its plain and natural sense…Then, again, should you be disposed to apply
the term ‘adversary’ to the devil, you are advised by the (Lord’s) injunction, while you are in the way
with him, ‘to make even with him such a compact as may be deemed compatible with the requirements
of your true faith. Now the compact you have made respecting him is to renounce him, and his pomp,
and his angels. Such is your agreement in this matter. Now the friendly understanding you will have
to carry out must arise from your observance of the compact: you must never think of getting back
any of the things which you have abjured, and have restored to him, lest he should summon you as a
fraudulent man, and a transgressor of your agreement, before God the Judge (for in this light do
we read of him, in another passage, as ‘the accuser of the brethren,’ or saints, where reference is
made to the actual practice of legal prosecution); and lest this Judge deliver you over to the angel
who is to execute the sentence, and he commit you to the prison of hell, out of which there will be no
dismissal until the smallest even of your delinquencies be paid off in the period before the
resurrection. What can be a more fitting sense than this? What a truer interpretation?”
Tertullian,
A Treatise on the Soul, 35
(A.D. 210)

“For if on the foundation of Christ you have built not only gold and silver and precious stones (1
Cor.,3); but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated
from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile
the kingdom of God; or on account of these hindrances would you remain without and receive no
reward for your gold and silver and precious stones; neither is this just. It remains then that you be
committed to the fire which will burn the light materials; for our God to those who can comprehend
heavenly things is called a cleansing fire. But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the
creature has himself built, wood, and hay and stubble. It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood
of our transgressions and then returns to us the reward of our great works.”
Origen, Homilies on Jeremias, PG 13:445, 448
( A.D. 244)

“For to adulterers even a time of repentance is granted by us, and peace is given. Yet virginity is not
therefore deficient in the Church, nor does the glorious design of continence languish through the
sins of others. The Church, crowned with so many virgins, flourishes; and chastity and modesty
preserve the tenor of their glory. Nor is the vigour of continence broken down because repentance and pardon are facilitated to the adulterer. It is one thing to stand for pardon, another thing to
attain to glory: it is one thing, when cast into prison, not to go out thence until one has paid the
uttermost farthing; another thing at once to receive the wages of faith and courage. It is one thing,
tortured by long suffering for sins, to be cleansed and long purged by fire; another to have purged
all sins by suffering. It is one thing, in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God at the day of
judgment; another to be at once crowned by the Lord.”
St. Cyprian of Carthage,
To Antonianus, Epistle 51 (55):20
(A.D. 253)

“Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets,
Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers an intercessions God would receive our petition. Then on
behalf also of the Holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all
who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great benefit to the
souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful sacrifice is set forth. And I
wish to persuade you by an illustration. For I know that many say, what is a soul profited, which
departs from this world either with sins, or without sins, if it is commemorated in the prayer? For if a
king were to banish certain who had given him offense, and then those who belong to them should
weave a crown and offer it to him on behalf of those under punishment, would he not grant a
remission of their penalties? In the same way we, when we offer to Him our supplications for those
who have fallen asleep, though they be sinners, weave no crown, but offer up Christ sacrificed for
our sins, propitiating our merciful God for them as well as for ourselves.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem,
Catechetical Lectures, 23:9,10
(c. A.D. 350)

“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants
will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment
will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and
from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Luke 12, 47-48

Pax vobiscum