The Purpose of Purgatory

Most people aren't "evolved enough" to go straight to Heaven when they die. You have to be "holy" to enter Heaven. (Holiness is just spiritual evolution. Holiness is just growing in love and compassion.) 

While we’re on Earth, we’re stuck in these biological bodies, and biological bodies make it difficult to be holy. People, for the most part, run around as if they were sophisticated animals. Animals are selfish creatures. Humans are selfish creatures too, but with the grace of God (with the power and energy available from God), humans are able to “rise above” their selfishness and “rise above” being sophisticated animals and become “spiritual humans” (that is, “fully human”).

Because humans tend to be very focused on the biological aspects of their lives (instead of being focused on the spiritual aspects of their lives), most people just aren’t evolved enough to enter Heaven. Most people are clueless about how sinful they are because they’re spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, and just plain spiritually clueless.

That’s why Christ established His Church – the Catholic Church – to help educate the clueless human race about the reality of God, to help people become more receptive to the reality of God and the reality of “the spirit world” (it’s impossible to love and become holy without the Holy Spirit).

When you die (and if you’re not going to go to Hell), and you come face to face with the incredible power, energy and love of God, you just want to go to Heaven as fast as possible because God and the environment in Heaven are totally and unbelievably irresistible (unless you’re one of those people who are going to Hell).

Anyway, Purgatory is the environment you have to “pass through” on your way to Heaven because you have to lose any desires or attachments or attractions you have to being selfish and sinful. That process involves suffering, but it’s a suffering based on love. You love God and you love the people and the angels and even the animals in Heaven so much that you’re willing to suffer through the process of evolution in Purgatory to get to Heaven.

You can skip Purgatory if you like and go straight to Heaven, but to do that you have to finish your process of evolution while you’re still on Earth. You’ll know when you finish your process of evolution on Earth (and be able to avoid Purgatory) when it becomes crystal clear to you that you will endure ANYTHING for the love of God. That’s asking a lot, so don’t be discouraged if you can’t get to that point before you die.

The important thing is to COOPERATE with the Holy Spirit, who is continually trying to communicate with you and give you the inspiration you need to a) perceive the reality of God and b) become more like God.

Learning to discern the communication of the Holy Spirit can take time. Some of the things you can do to become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He’s trying to communicate with you are things like a) going to DAILY Mass as much as possible, b) receiving the Eucharist in a state of reverence and recognizing that the Eucharist is truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of God in His entirety, c) going to Eucharist adoration, even if it’s only for (at least) 15 minutes and one time per week, d) praying the Rosary DAILY, e) going to confession if it’s been more than a year since your last confession, f) praying DAILY for at least five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening and g) slowing down.

Yes, you have to slow down. Whatever you’re doing (and whenever you’re doing it), try to do it a little more slowly so you can a) think about what you’re doing and b) focus on putting the spirit of God into whatever you’re doing (regardless of how mundane or how important the activity is). The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to communicate with you. Your guardian angel is constantly trying to communicate with you. And you won’t be able to perceive and sense the messages from the Holy Spirit and the messages from your guardian angel if you’re too preoccupied with “finishing a task.”

You’ll know when you’re close to avoiding Purgatory when you feel like you’re already experiencing Heaven on Earth (even in the midst of difficult times). Getting to that point requires being sensitive to messages from the Holy Spirit (so you can more fully follow the direction of the Holy Spirit). You can’t cooperate with the Holy Spirit unless you can “sense” the Holy Spirit. It’s not necessarily a “sense” that comes through the five senses – it can also be a “sense” that bypasses the five senses entirely and penetrates directly into the core of your being.

Sometimes it involves accurately interpreting the information coming through your five senses. It's so easy to misinterpret the information coming through your senses, which is why it’s important to trust in God even when things don’t seem to be going the way you want them to. Often God teaches us how to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit by allowing difficulties to happen in our lives, so that we more fully understand that there is so much more to reality than the “sense perceptible” world.