In 1972 Hiroo Onodaa, a lieutenant in the Japanese army, finally surrendered to allied forces on the island of Lubang. The Japanese stationed Onodaa on the Philippine island to conduct guerilla warfare operations against arriving American forces. Unfortunately for Onodaa, news never came of Japan's defeat; consequently, he spent an additional three decades evading others in an attempt to fulfill his mission. Oddly, today I find myself wondering if I am Onodaa.
In the 14th century John Wycliffe and other founders of the Protestant Church split from the Catholic Church in protest over issues involving papal indulgences. Of course this split led to a schism that still exists today within the Universal Church. The battle lines were drawn regarding: works based salvation, the necessity of a priest for forgiveness, and the existence of purgatory.
To the first I discovered I was wrong, to the second that there is perhaps biblical support, and to the third that my understanding of purgatory was twisted. I'd like to write on each of these later, but for now I am left to wonder: Is the war over?
I love your intro. I had no idea about Hiroo Onodaa! What an interesting story! And I love how you dovetail that into your predicament about 'the schism'. You're Hiroo Onodaa! Perhaps.
ReplyDeleteAs for Purgatory, we've talked about this. We could definitely go into it in more detail. My imagination is so attracted to the world in C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, even though he admitted that it was a purely imaginative fantasy, and that fantasy was the best mode by which to tell the story. Thus, to extract a theology based on the fantasy should proceed with caution. And I shall. If you've read the story, you'll know that Hell's inhabitants are escorted by a flying bus, like a hot air balloon, up to a gigantic ridge, which stretches out for miles to a majestic mountain range, beyond which is Heaven. Heaven's inhabitants visit the 'ghosts' in an effort to cure some ingrained heartache or psychological malady or some vice and lead them to Christ, and thus to Heaven. To those who accept, I might say they were never in Hell to begin with: they were in Purgatory, and what we called 'Hell' for descriptive convenience was really, from their perspective, a place of 'purging', catharsis. But to those who reject, it is Hell.
There is caution here, because it rests on some philosophical theories about the nature of decision-making, how decisions shape character, how character can be so fixed that to 'reverse the current' is almost a psychological impossibility, even though free will remains. That's why the 'purging process' is so painful, the regress, the reversing of spiritual entropy that's been slowly unraveling your true Self all your life! The first step in the unraveling is faith, which lets the drawbridge down from our selfish citadel, and Christ comes charging in as an invader. This is the beginning of spiritual transformation. But then it seems two types of people are possible specimens of Purgatory's fire: those who are saved before and those who are saved after death. I'm willing to explore this more, though.
I'm willing to think about this more. What's more important is carrying our daily cross and loving our neighbor and working out our own salvation with fear and trembling in the here and now. Too many people exposed to this doctrine might use it to live a life of debauchery now because of the assurance they'll decide on Heaven in the afterlife. I find it almost an impossibility for a prospective disciple to think this way, someone prepared for the death of the self, for the sake of a cosmic love relationship encompassing the entire meaning of his individual existence. To have a means-end mentality here is almost revolting and psychologically at odds with someone who will one day 'surrender'.
What if purgatory isn't meant to "save" anyone's soul; rather, it is a means of sanctification? Didn't we discuss this possibility also?
ReplyDeleteI said above: "it seems two types of people are possible specimens of Purgatory's fire: those who are saved before and those who are saved after death."
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say Purgatory saves anyone's soul, but it might a possible place in which a soul is saved. To souls already saved, it is merely a place for sanctification. If there is any justification at all, it isn't by virtue of the place, but of Christ. In the heretical version of Purgatory, sinners justified themselves. In Lewis' Purgatory, Christ justifies sinners in Purgatory (those who are willing to be transformed), and from there, they proceed onto sanctification.
So, in Lewis' fantasy, there are damned ghosts, those who either skip the bus ride or ignore the saints after they get to the 'Valley of the Shadow of Life'. There are ghosts who were once lost, but then found: these ghosts might be the ones which, because of their being found, could look back and realize that they were never in Hell (per se) at all! For Hell is eternal damnation. Thus, what seemed to their private consciousnesses as Hell were actually the fires of God's love, and 'long and hard is the way that out of darkness leads up to light'. Finally, there are the saints who step up to Heaven's front porch for the bath right away.