355. Purgatory’s freedom
355. PURGATORY’S FREEDOM
Will Purgatory’s pains be inflicted on us or will we freely choose them? If they are inflicted from without, how can they purify our free souls within? If we choose them, won’t that make us masochists?
Whether this punishment is voluntary?
No one asks to be freed from a punishment that he suffers willingly. Now those who are in Purgatory ask to be set free. Therefore they will not undergo that punishment voluntarily.
(However,) a thing is said to be voluntary in two ways. First, by an absolute act of the will; and thus no punishment is voluntary, because the very notion of punishment is that it be contrary to the will. Secondly, a thing is said to be voluntary by a conditional act of the will. Thus cautery (surgical cutting) is voluntary for the sake of regaining health.
Hence a punishment may be voluntary in two ways. First, because by being punished we obtain some good; and thus the will undertakes a punishment, as instanced in satisfaction, or when a man accepts a punishment gladly and would not have it not to be, as in the case of martyrdom. Secondly, when, even if we gain no good by the punishment, we cannot obtain a good without being punished, as in the case of natural death; and then the will does not undertake the punishment, and would be delivered from it, but it submits to it. And in this respect the punishment is said to be voluntary. In this latter sense the punishment of Purgatory is said to be voluntary (Appendix I,2,2).
We will not be masochists, even in Purgatory. No one wants pain as such. Of course we will regret that we will have to suffer so much pain in Purgatory. In that sense, the pains will be unfree. As St. Thomas says, “The very notion of punishment is that it be contrary to the will.” For if I will it, if I desire it, then it is desirable to me, and then getting it is not a punishment but a reward!
Yet it will be free in another sense. We will agree with God’s diagnosis and prescription for Purgatory’s operations, as we agree with a wise earthly doctor who tells us we need a painful operation to save our life.
The good we will obtain by Purgatory, namely Heaven, will be so great that we will be motivated to greatly desire these pains, since we will see that they are necessary to enable us to enter and enjoy Heaven. They will be like the labor pains of a woman whose whole will is set on the birth of her child. Thus even though death is our “last enemy” and the destruction of all our earthly goods, we can embrace death as the necessary door to Heaven. Artificial immortality by genetic engineering would be the most horrible thing that could possibly happen to the human race on earth. It would lock the door to Heaven.
An old oratorio (“Open Our Eyes”) sings: “Thou hast made death glorious and triumphant, for through its portals we enter into the presence of the living God.”