Northern Virginia Catholic Bible Study House rules/notes… 1. Meetup is www.meetup.com/catholicbiblestudy Zoom Meeting Logon info is the same every week: Zoom ID: 861 1782 2081 Password: 406952 2. Questions encouraged. If you have questions about anything, you can ask in the chat, email the Meetup group, or me directly at ron@hallagan.net. 3. The unedited recaps from our meetings will be posted on Meetup immediately after our meeting. The final edited recap will be posted on our Catholic Catacombs Light website www.catholiccatacombs.wixsite.com/website/recaps a week later. You will be notified via Meetup of both. 4. See The Chosen. Knowing Jesus Christ means being able to better relate to God. Check it out: The Chosen at https://thechosen.link/1Y1R7. 5. Respectfulness. We will be discussing differences between religions and even between Christian denominations, but we agree to use respectful words and tones in doing so. Specifically, Protestants are our friends and brothers in Christ, and I personally owe part of my return to the faith to them. 6. No politics. It would be easy for us to self-destruct; however, that’s not our goal. Our goal is to learn the Bible, explain the Catholic faith, and help members develop a closer relationship with the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. 7. Catholic Prayer, Fellowship, and Spirituality Meetup led by fellow member Jason Goldberg: https://www.meetup.com/online-catholic-prayer-fellowship-and-spirituality/ 8. Prison fellowship – opportunities to volunteer one Saturday per month for 2 hours (12-2 or 2-4) serving Catholic prisoners at the Fairfax County Jail. Ask Ron (ron@hallagan.net) or Gina (gmasterson99@gmail.com) for details. Why? "I was in prison and you visited me." – Matt 25:36 RSVP Request: Please RSVP whether you are attending or just reading the notes afterwards. The more RSVPs, the more Meetup will give us recognition, which will draw others to us, which is our way of evangelizing! Bible Study Format: 5 min prayer, 15 min Catholic topic, 40 min main topic from the weeks listed below Week 1: Aug 2 – Gospel Week: Stop judging? (Mt7:1-5); Left behind? (Mt: 24:37-41); The Meaning of 70 (Luke 10:1-12,16-20) Week 2: Aug 9 – Bible Week (Gen àRev): Joseph, Prime Minister of Egypt (Gen 43-50) Week 3: July 19 – Survey Topic of Choice: Purgatory III Final à Heaven I
Ö 1) Jesus’ Great Parables 2) Hell, Purgatory, Heaven 3) Christian Comparisons 4) Great Women in the Bible 5) Why is there suffering? 6) World Religions 7) Book of Revelation 8) Major Councils/Crusades/Inquisitions
Week 4: July 26 – Open Mic: What is Grace? What is Justice?
Upcoming Catholic Holy Days
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mon, August 15
Opening Prayer
O Lord
We meet tonight because you gave us two gifts to know you: faith and reason.
By studying your Word here together, we put these two gifts together
In order to enrich our knowledge of you and our relationship with You.
Please guide us tonight to a better understanding of the life of Joseph and his place in salvation history.
Also, Lord, please bless everyone here and all our members.
Bless our lives, bless our health, bless our work, bless our families and our friends.
We also ask for your comfort and assistance be sent to all those who are suffering in our world today
Especially those who are undeserving and seeking to help others around them.
As you taught us to pray...
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
In ancient times, hell was thought to be inside the earth, the realms of heaven in space,
and purgatory somewhere in between reaching from earth to heaven.
Purgatory Recap
In Purgatory I and II, we discussed the Scriptural and historical basis for Purgatory. Although these are posted on our Catholic Catacombs site, I will compile all three Purgatory classes under one heading and notify you when it’s posted.
Why Purgatory?
Two reasons: The nature of Heaven and the nature of humans.
1. Heaven – the abode of the Trinity – is perfect. There is no violence, no hatred, no sadness, no tears, no pain – no sin. Sin cannot enter heaven. Sin entering heaven would defy law of non-contradiction (two things can’t be different at the same time; i.e., a square can’t also be a circle; a lie cannot also be true; perfection cannot also have sin, or it would no longer be perfection.
2. Humans are fallen and sinful. In Baptism, we gain Sanctifying Grace through the HS which wipes out all past sin and re-establishes our relationship with God. However, we still have free-will, and we still sin, so Jesus gives us the gift of forgiveness (forgiveness “for the asking”) so that we can retain our clean souls and enter Heaven. However, there are often two problems:
a) We fail to seek forgiveness for many of our sins – either we forget, or we don’t think we were wrong but were, and
b) When we do seek forgiveness, sometimes we have what’s called an “imperfect contrition.” Think of a “partial” or “half-hearted” apology. We either didn’t feel sufficient regret, or still held onto resentments over it, or we didn’t repair the damage we caused when we had the chance, or perhaps we went right back and continued doing the same thing, which means we lacked sincerity.
With any of these conditions – forgotten/unrepented sins and imperfect contritions – the soul is incapable of entering heaven.
Now what?!
Rather than miss out on heaven, God in his love through our Baptism, allows us to complete our unfinished forgiveness in purgatory (= to purify or purge). The only caveat to his is mortal sin, where we have separated from God. This requires confession to a priest to return.
In purgatory, we come face-to-face with all those unrepented sins, one at a time, and then they are wiped out. Then we enter heaven.
The CCC says 100% of those entering purgatory will enter heaven:
“All who die in God’s grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” – CCC 1030
Sin
The Catholic Church teaches that neither sin nor evil are things in and of themselves. Rather, evil and sin are a failure to love, a lack of good. A lie is an absence of truth. Sin can best be expressed as misdirected love.
Q: What is misdirected love?
Instead of directed towards good, misdirected love is directed towards oneself at the expense of good, or at the expense of the wellbeing of others. Examples: excessive self-love (vanity/arrogance) or love of money over God (greed).
Q: How many forms of misdirected love are there?
Thousands, because humans are just that creative! However, Christianity can draw seven main categories of sin from Scripture. We call them The Seven Deadly Sins because all the other sins can be traced back to one of these originals.
This is relevant to our next topic since Dante uses the same formula in describing Purgatory. Dante had a vision and was taken to Purgatory. He describes his experience in Purgatory as a mountain with seven levels, which correspond to the seven deadly sins.
Q: Is sinning possible in Purgatory?
No. Purgatory is one step before Heaven. It is for the healing or removal of sin. It is a teaching camp for the proper use of love. Also, there are angels in Purgatory, but no devils. Even if a devil was so try and enter, an angel would prevent him.
Dante enters Purgatory
If you recall, Dante gives his visions substance by making Inferno (hell), Purgatorio, and Paradiso (heaven) quasi-physical places. When we went to Hell, you may recall that it was depicted as beneath the earth, wide at the top and spiraling downwards through 10 circles towards Lucifer who was waiting, chained at the bottom.
In Hell, the punishments are “poetic justice” – someone getting exactly the life they lived; their own medicine given back to them.
For instance, the top level of hell was a dismal place called the Vestibule of the Nobodies (or Vestibule of the Futile). In the dim red sky, Dante saw these naked people running frantically in the distance – kind of like herds of people. As this one group came nearer, he could see they were sweating and panting and waving off gnats and bees who traveled with them. Dante asked his guide, Virgil, who the heck these people were? Virgil answered that they were the people who never decided one way or the other about God. They just lived their lives for themselves and never worried about others – for they were none of their business. They weren’t particularly bad people, but they never took a stand on anything, nor stood for anything.
Vestibule of the Nobodies/the Futile
Q: Anyone recall why it is called the Vestibule of the Futile?
We usually think of futile as meaning hopeless, but the actual definition is “incapable of producing any result; ineffective; useless.” For a human being, that means “stands for nothing.”
Dante then notices that each group is chasing someone with a white flag. Virgil explains that they are being led by a futile angel. Apparently, when Lucifer rebelled and a third of the angels went with him, there were some angels who couldn’t make up their minds. Since they didn’t choose God, they fell from heaven; but since they didn’t choose rebellion, Satan didn’t want them either. So they ended up in this place, which is technically just on the fringes of Hell.
Dante asks what the white flag is. Virgil says it stands for nothing. These people will be chasing nothing for the rest of time, just as they did on earth. Poetic justice.
The Mountain of Purgatory
When Dante gets to Purgatory, we see that it is the inverse of Hell, with each level rising higher and higher, towards Heaven.
Explanatory depiction Depiction perhaps more to scale
Recall that we spoke of “poetic justice” in Hell. In Purgatory, we will also see a type of poetic, corrective justice, the difference being that in Hell it is an infinite sentence, whereas Purgatory is an infirmary. After you are well, you get to leave.
We were told there are 7 levels of Purgatory corresponding to the Deadly Sins; however, when Dante arrives, he notices there is another prior level. Similar to the “Vestibule of the Futile” at the entrance to Hell, Dante finds a waiting area called “Ante-Purgatory” at the entrance to Purgatory.
Q: Who is in the waiting room?
It appears there are different groups of people in different waiting rooms. I’ll mention two. One is for the “excommunicated” who somehow managed to be saved, and the other is for “late repentants” – i.e., deathbed conversions.
Dante asks about the last-minute conversions and is told they had no earthly time to put their “new-found faith” to the test, so they missed all the lessons of trial and error that usually accompany a believer’s journey, and which requires reconciliation along the way – not the least of which includes the spiritual advancements made along this journey. These end-of-life conversions must not only wait to get into Purgatory, but they will undoubtedly experience a longer stay in Purgatory as they often have a whole lifetime of selfishness to reconcile.
Souls waiting outside Purgatory
Q: Dante asks how long one must wait to enter Purgatory?
Dante is told that those who had last-minute conversions must wait one year for every year they were alive on earth.
The excommunicated must wait 100 years.
Dante passes nearby a man in this Anteroom, and asks permission to speak to him. Virgil agrees and Dante asks the man what happened to him.
Unlike when Dante asked people questions in Hell, this man replies kindly – which turns out to be one of the major contrasts in Purgatory. In Hell, they almost bit his head off and were full of either anger or suspicion as to who Dante was and why he wanted to know. In a way, they are like Adam & Even hiding their sins. It’s also why Jesus said we should not put our light under a bushel basket but set it on a lampstand where it gives light to our good deeds and simultaneously gives glory to the Father (Mt 5:15-16). In Purgatory, they have received grace and are on the way. The people Dante encounters are open about what they’ve done and quite happy to share – and ask for prayers!
The man said his name was Giovanni, son of Guido Rossi. Suddenly, Dante realizes who he is. He knew his father, Guido. His father was a generally nice man, liked by most, and a successful businessman, but he was dishonest. After screwing customers for most of his life, he retired and then surprised everyone by becoming a friar! However, this move was not sincere as Guido just wanted to make sure he had all his bases covered. Where did Dante meet him? – in Hell! He didn’t make it.
Dante is stunned to be meeting Guido’s son here, waiting outside of Purgatory. Of course, Giovanni doesn’t know that Dante knows this.
Giovanni explains that he was trained by the father who was very successful, but he did not appreciate his father’s unscrupulous ways. However, instead of doing anything about it, he fell in line and did the same thing as his father. Giovanni was unhappy with himself and resented his father for putting him in this position, although he knew it was on himself, too. He hated his father’s hypocrisy for becoming a friar because he knew better. One day, suddenly, Giovanni was shot through the neck with an arrow. As the arrow was going through him, he screamed “Maria” (Mary).
Giovanni said it must have been his soul that witnessed what happened next. Apparently, there was a devil assigned to collect Giovanni and take him to Hell. However, a split second before this happened, an angel swooped in out of nowhere and snatched Giovanni up. The last Giovanni heard was a screeching scream from the devil, “How dare you deny me what is rightfully mine!”
Giovanni says he is so grateful to be here that he falls to his knees and cries. He says he didn’t care how long it would take because he was saved. That’s all that mattered.
Giovanni is saved at the last second for calling upon Mary. See devil in background.
Once again, the 7 levels of the Mountain of Purgatory match the 7 Deadly Sins:
Pride Envy Anger Sloth Greed Gluttony Lust
Seven into three: These 7 are further divided into 3 types of sin – 3 types of distorted love. Let’s see if we can make sense out of this.
The first grouping includes the first three sins: Pride, Envy, and Anger. The second is Sloth. The third is Greed, Gluttony, and Lust.
Q: In the first grouping, how are pride, envy, and anger similar in their distortion of love?
Pride, envy, and anger are similar in that they represent a distorted love of one’s own mind.
One who wishes, commits, or allows harm to come to another so that they can be exalted themselves is guilty of pride.
One who wishes ill upon another because of some good (i.e., a possession, recognition, personal improvement) that they desire for themselves is guilty of envy.
One who wishes or commits an injury upon another because of a perceived slight or offense is guilty of the sin of anger/wrath.
Q: Why is the second grouping, Sloth, a distorted love?
Sloth refers to those who are too lazy to pursue the truth of love. They are lukewarm about responsibility, or about right or wrong. The people in this group should count their blessings as they had just enough sense of goodness to avoid joining those in Hell’s Vestibule of the Futile.
Q: How are the last three levels – Greed, Gluttony, Lust – similar distortions of love?
They are similar in their excessive love of secondary goods, putting the gratification that they bring above the self-giving nature of love: money & possessions (greed), food and drink (gluttony), or another person (lust).
Each in their proper manner or proportion is not wrong, but wanting them endlessly and excessively for their own material/physical gratification is a roadblock to a relationship with God.
Regardless of their level or grouping, the common denominator of all SIN is love distorted. Effectively, this makes Purgatory a training place for our souls to love properly. Some have called it a boot camp for the loveless, but I question “loveless” because clearly those in Purgatory had enough love to get there!
Entrance to Purgatory
The entrance to Hell had a sign over it that said, “Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.”
The sign over the entrance to Purgatory says…
"
"I AM THE WAY”
Q: At the entrance, Dante and Virgil are greeted calmly by an angel who asks, “What do you seek?”
Of course, one must answer that they seek forgiveness, or they cannot enter.
The Angel swipes Dante’s forehead and seven marks appear on his forehead for the 7 levels of his journey.
Dante is told that everyone must be “girded in humility” to proceed in the journey. Perhaps this is why everyone must enter the first level – the level of Pride – to ensure they are so girded. Another Angel accompanies Virgil and Dante.
Once inside, Dante is again surprised by the difference compared to where he just came from (Hell). Purgatory is not a shadow of hell, or some reduced version of hell’s punishments. Although there will be trials and difficulties, everyone in Purgatory knows they are destined for heaven and therefore blessed. They are aware they must reconcile their unresolved sins and unlearn any associated behavior.
The Mirror
Dante comes to halt. He is told he must experience three steps involving a normal mirror, a cracked mirror, and a red-purple mirror.
1) He must first face the normal mirror.
This mirror shows us what we are, the prideful things we have done, how they affected us, and how they affected others. We really have no idea of all the affects we’ve had. We need to see them first hand.
2) He must experience the cracked mirror.
Our hearts break with sorrow when we see the effects of our actions through the eyes of those affected. We were wrong many times, and we just moved on, damage or no damage. Even when we were right, we did not do it with charity and therefore hindered someone else’s progress towards God – sometimes such that they might not make it to Purgatory. Will we pray for them?
We must learn what Jesus teaches: that indeed we are called to stand up for what is good and right, but our strategy, our approach, our weapon of choice, has to be charity, or else we have joined Satan. Satan wants us to get angry for righteous reasons! Yes, be like him! Then he wins. You’re angry and misery loves company. Plus you just lost more from the Kingdom.
3) We must see red-purple fill the mirror.
Our full-blooded desire, our full-blooded response to seeing what God wants us to see brings us to our knees. This is both repentance and penance in Purgatory.
Dante is aware of his own pride (he knows he’s one of the great poets of Italy), so his heart sinks at this experience.
The Lord’s Prayer
Dante then sees a group of people praying the Our Father. When he hears them say, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,” he turns to Virgil and says, “What are they praying that for? I thought there was no temptation or sin here!”
The Angel responds, “They are praying for people on earth. We are all part of the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, even here.”
Reputation
One of the people Dante passes seems to recognize Dante. Dante asks permission to speak to him. The angel smiles and says, “Of course, this is for your edification.”
“Do I know you, sir?” Dante asks.
“Do I know you?” the man exclaims, “You are Dante, the greatest poet in a thousand years.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Dante.
“Be careful of your reputation. I am Bonaventura Berlinghieri.”
“Master Bonaventura! And you call me great? You are the greatest painter ever in all of Tuscany!”
“As I said, do not treasure your reputation too much, it is partly why I am here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Worldly reputation,” said Bonaventura, “is but a breath. Imagine a child who dies while he is still one or two years old. A thousand years will pass and people will care about you as much as that child. It’s nothing, a breath! And compared to eternity, Dante, a thousand years is but a twitch of the brow. Taking pride in the things of the world is to take pride in nothing!”
“What would you have done differently, Master Bonaventura?”
“Only the love you give and the good you do follow you, Dante. Remember that.”
Antidote
Dante learns that in each level of Purgatory, there is an antidote to the Deadly Sin, and an “Image of the Ideal.”
Q: What is the antidote to Pride?
Humility
Q: What is the Image of the Ideal?
They continue forward and Dante begins to see an image of Mary coming into view. It is a picture of the Annunciation, when Mary is told she will become the mother of Jesus, the son of God. God is about to reduce himself to become a man, and he picks Mary, an absolute nobody on earth, to become his mother. “Why am I seeing this?” asks Dante.
The Angel answers, “To not grant Mary what God granted her is to deny the humility of Christ becoming man. God chose humility to come in humility. Mary is the ‘image of the ideal’ in this realm of pride.”
The Angel wipes his wing across Dante’s forehead and one of the seven marks disappears. Dante is ready to progress to the next level.
Closing Prayer
Thanks be to thee
My Lord Jesus Christ for all the benefits thou hast given me for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother may I know thee more clearly love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly
day by day.
Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
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