What about Purgatory?

My innocent self used to think that there is a physical life after death, in other words; we enter into another world somewhere up in the sky, a paradise and a perfect place. This world is not given to the dead right away but a dead has to pass through a phase of punishment and torture because of the transgression in the world, then only one can attain that perfect place. This idea remained in my head for a long time and it scared me not to do any mischief. I never questioned this idea because it was engraved in me so much; I refused to entertain any other ideas about after life. Of course, time came for me to study the Church teachings on eschatology. I was awestruck by one aspect of the eschatology, i.e. purgatory. Let me try to expound a few enigmas of the purgatory and its significance in this present world.

What is purgatory? Who goes into it? What do we do there? I will try to illustrate a few aspects of this non-friendly word purgatory. Very often, persons decline to speak or petrified to speak about purgatory. There is a lovely song by Jim Reeves, which says, “I have a loving mother just over in glory land and I don’t expect to stop until I shake her hand”. I am sure Jim Reeves has found a way to console himself saying that he would not stop until he shakes her hand in glory, which simply means that he is in a journey towards God and he presumes that his mother is already in glory, so he is hoping to see her one day.

All the living tissues have to fade away so as to make way for the new tissues be born. Most medical experts or anatomists would tell us that the human body is made up of flesh and blood and has to pass away. Hence, death is certain for every person born on this earth. What is after death has been our unsolved mystery, which irks us in our day today life, particularly when we are struck with a death of our beloved.

Christians believe that we die in God’s grace and friendship. We are assured of our eternal salvation. We are imperfect living beings who undergo constant purification. It is believed that we need to undergo purification even after our death so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment. This doctrine was formulated at the Councils of Florence and Trent. Purgatory comes from a Latin word ‘purgatorius’, which means purifying, from the verb ‘purgare.’ We have concentrate on this optimistic word purification, and not to be pessimistically dwelling on the idea of punishment in the hell.

Purification: Every human person has to grow; grow holistically. Human persons are living and mobile beings, hence persons have to grow spiritually, physically, socially and so on. If a person does not grow holistically, then we cannot call that person a human person. Human person has to have all the ingredients to make a person human. Purification is a form of growing up, or an important ingredient to growing up. We are purified everyday of our lives, but most often we take for granted this process. For example, a child goes through a vigorous purification by the parents; parents make sure that child grows up into a wonderful human person, hence they take every measures to make that child a human person. Therefore there is an element to purification. The child is purified from its habits of like. It is painful for the child to go through this purification.

In our spiritual life, we are purified day after day, in other words we purify our relationship with God, hence we consolidate our relationship with God. During our life, we try to come closer to God a bit by bit. At times, this process of coming closer to God can be painful, but it will simply allow us to grow in freedom with God. As human persons, we are in this process of reaching God. This process makes us joyful, because of the process of purification that we undergo here on earth. Our faith is tested in the fire, same way our lives are purified by good and bad experiences in our lives. We are purified so that we can attain holiness in this life. Same thing can be applied to after life, where our beloved dead are in process of attaining holiness. This can be very vague since no one has told about it, except Christ himself tells us that he will not turn us away but will accept us as we are.

We are in a process of purification. All need purification in our lives because we are living beings and fragile beings. We tend to go astray from our God and follow a worldly path. We need to be purified from our own little habits that make us non-loving person. We need to be purified from vices that hinder our relationship with God and our neighbour. We have to spot these vices and try to purify asking God to intervene in our lives. It’s easier said than done; hence it might take some time to be purified. Today let us ask ourselves what are the areas of my life that I need to be purified? Let us not wait until we die to be purified in the purgatory rather let us try to purify ourselves here and now.

Who will clean up criminals from our streets?

Dear Editor, 

A few years ago, I was robbed and stabbed on the sea wall in the evening hours. I lost everything except my cell phone. I was trying to pacify the bandits and in the process of doing this I was stabbed in the back. Fortunately, I am still alive. This was not the case with James Peter; a nurse from India was stabbed to death for a cell phone. A very generous and promising nurse met his demise in the hands of the cowards, who are out on our streets freely looking for another prey.

Hello you cowards and losers in life, don’t you have feelings? What if someone stabbed you right in the chest to rob your cell phone? How long can you be happy using that cell phone, whilst the blood of James Peter is crying out aloud? The curse of the family and friends of Peter will see your demise sooner.

I have been wondering about my security in Georgetown. As everyone, I try to come home before 7pm. This means I am not really free on our roads. Anyone can be in Peter’s place and get killed for a piece gadget. Who shall we blame, government, police force, ourselves? Who is supposed to clean up our streets and make it crime free and robber-free society? It seems like; we are heading towards an evil society, where evil is triumphing and where justice has a very slim place. Perpetrators are right in the middle of us; we won’t even know they are drinking a beer with us until they have stabbed us. I think we have take upon this responsibility to clean our society and make it crime free. The police force alone cannot do this task, since the infrastructure is very limited. Am I not free to walk in my own street at night? Why am I not free? There is serious flaw in this society. We have to start from own home, bring up children with right ingredients of life, so that when they grow up they can be responsible and good citizens on this nation.
I would like to extend my heart-felt sympathies to Vannie and all the Indian nurses working here in Guyana. We commend your service for the healthcare system of our country.

JM Dias

Georgetown, Guyana.

Are we heading to a cage of death?

First of all, my heart goes out with sympathy to the family and friends of James Peter, who was stabbed to death on the sea wall on the Diwali motorcade night. The Vatican message for Diwali called everyone to foster together “a culture of inclusion for a just and peaceful society.” Let me begin with two perturbing questions; is there truly a just and peaceful society in this existing age? How can we have a culture of inclusion, when some heartless people involve in crime?

The death of my friend James Peter has left me thinking, are we heading towards a cage of death, waiting to be devoured by the evil people? Of course, I have been confronted with the question, why does James Peter have to be on the sea wall late night? But are we not in a free and fair country, where one can go to hangout with friends on a holiday? I think we should be free but unfortunately we are not; for the fear is ruling our nation; fear of bandits who are looking for their prey.

Don’t those bandits have a heart with feelings? If they had a heart with feelings, they would not have stabbed the nurse just for a cellular phone. If they can take one strong and fantastic human person’s life for a gadget, where are we going? We are probably heading towards cage of death that will see our demise one day if we don’t act upon it now.

Who has to act upon it now? Of course, the police force has to be on their toes in cleaning our streets and making them bandit-free so that every common person can walk those streets without fear. The police force needs to have proper infrastructure to track these perpetrators and bring to justice, not let them go out walking freely. In fact they walk freely then a common person.

Our families are the first schools for our children. Our children have to be taught some good values and morals in our families. When I visit a family, I make sure I meet the young people and children of the family, in order to know where they stand in their moral lives.

Having said that, I wish and pray that justice will be done sooner for the bereaving family and friends of James Peter sooner. Let us head towards life and not towards a cage of death.

We held a memorial service at the Ursuline Convent on Sunday were James Peter worshipped. It was heart throbbing to see so many people at the service; this showed how much Peter was loved by the people. Many expressed that he was very calm and caring person. The nurses and patients who came across to Peter had a very positive experience of love and care. As the Gospel reading proposed that Mary, the sister of Lazarus felt the absence of Jesus whilst Lazarus was dying, James Peter has left a vacuum in the lives of his loved ones. God seems to have been absent at this terrible tragedy but as Jesus comforted Mary and Martha, ‘I am the resurrection’, we pray that God comforts and consoles the family of Peter.

Rainbow

Rainbow in Georgetown

Rainbow in the sky

Soothing food for the eye

Makes my soul wonder

God’s creation to ponder

Thy hand maketh creation

My heart jolts with elation

Soul quenching beauty

Shows forth thy noble duty

Thy care for me so divine

Draws on soul a line

Covers my being with love

A love conquering all above

Impatient my soul at morn

Longs to be again born

Human soul longing tenderness 

A being full of emptiness

Humanity’s fallen nakedness

God’s care for humanness

My heart settle in prayer

God is love so clear

Reality of God

A painting: God of equality and justice

Have you been conjecturing as me, why there is so much religiously enthused violence in the world? It might seem that religion is the cause of evil in the world, in other words some person might adhere to the aforementioned view. If we go back in time, it is clear that human persons have tried to organise themselves in tribes and communities. They needed to organise such a way that they remain faithful to their tribe, hence an amount of fear had to be instilled in persons. This fear aspect had to come from somewhere or someone higher than himself or herself. It is in this process of finding someone that early people found a way to instil fear among his or her members. All this was done to protect themselves from other tribes and communities. There was a noble cause for doing this. Over the years, the idea that God of punishment takes precedence among the people. A supreme being will make sure that this universe in peace and tranquillity. If anyone goes against this Supreme Being will be punished and condemned. There is a negativity sets into the human life. This negativity is encouraged and nourished to just to merely make God into an object to achieve goals set by some chosen ones. Hence, religion takes an important role in the lives of the people both positively and negatively; positively, people are encouraged to live in harmony and negatively, people are encouraged to protect one’s own clan (religion) by means of destruction of the others. This will be my brief background to my mind thought.

I was impressed by two thrilling news that hit the headlines in the last few days, namely, Nobel peace prize is conferred to child activist Malala Yousafzai and Archbishop of Lahore Joseph Coutts speaking at the Synod on Family on the atrocities done to the women in the name of blasphemy. On the one hand, women are suppressed in the male chauvinistic society. They are being sentenced to death and imprisonment because of blasphemy. For example Asia Bibi was sentenced to death in Pakistan after being accused falsely of blasphemy against Islam. Archbishop at the Synod on Family said that there are many more families like Bibi, which are broken. There are families, which are broken as a result of injustice and intolerance.

On the other hand, Nobel Peace laureate expresses on her winning the prize, that women have to speak up whilst men try to clip their wings. They have to fly high with supporting each other. She expresses that we all belong to one family, a human family. There must not be any discrimination based on religion, colour, language and gender. She says this on winning a shared Nobel Peace prize with children activist Kailash Satyarti from India, who is a Hindu. Hence, whilst working for good cause, one has keep aside his religious and political adherences.

Religiously motivated violence or evil is on the rise in the world as a result animosity is at the door step of most people. Do we not believe that there is One God and we are his people? If we really believe this we would not undertake violence to promote one’s religion. I am reminded of Plato’s allegory of the Cave and I would like to apply it to support my argument that someone has to take initiative to know the reality of God and what would God want us in this world. Like the prisoner in the cave initially is confused and would reject the world because he has just come out of the cave; in other words he would not recognise the people carrying the figures, because he saw only the figures whilst in the cave. Instead he will continue to see the reality of the shadows even whilst in the reality itself. As Plato imagines a step further, the prisoner would slowly, but surely begin to peace together the world around him and realize that shadows in the cave are not in fact reality. Hence, there will be enlightenment and feel the need to return to the cave and enlighten other prisoners to see the reality.

We are prisoners who are imprisoned in the idea that God is exclusive for one religion or one tribe or one community, like people in the cave. In fact reality is, God is transcendental and One. Somehow, human persons have to come out of the cave to see the reality of God and get enlighten by the encounter and God experience; an experience of equality and harmony. Once we have that experience of the reality of God, we have to enter the cave to rescue others to get that reality of the experience of God. We have to break the cave of ignorance and shallow experience of God in order to enlighten the perpetrators to change their attitude towards the reality of God in the world, a reality based on God experience and not based on the whims of the powerful. Every one of us has to dedicate one’s time and energy towards building a real world, a world that is for everyone, a world that God intends for his children.