Heaven and Purgatory
What is heaven like? Why purgatory?
Main teaching: De fide
The big question
Heaven is often pictured as clouds and harps, which sounds pleasant but a little dull for eternity. What does the Church actually say heaven is? And why do Catholics believe in purgatory, when many other Christians do not?
What the Church teaches
The souls of the blessed see God face to face, without any created thing coming between, and their happiness is eternal (Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus, DH 1000–1001; CCC 1023–1029). They see God more or less perfectly according to their merits (Council of Florence; DH 1305).
Those who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are purified after death so as to reach the holiness needed to enter heaven (Florence, DH 1304; Trent, Session XXV, DH 1820; CCC 1030–1031).
The souls in purgatory are helped by the prayers of the faithful, above all by the Mass, and by almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance (Florence, DH 1304; Trent, Session XXV, DH 1820; CCC 1032).
How sure is this? De fide. See CCC 1023–1032.
Where it comes from
Heaven. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Heaven surpasses anything we can picture: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). There God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).
Purgatory. Heaven is perfectly holy: “nothing unclean shall enter it” (Revelation 21:27). Judas Maccabeus had prayers and a sacrifice offered for fallen soldiers, “that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Maccabees 12:45), which only makes sense if the dead can be helped. St Paul speaks of someone whose work is burned up, who “will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15).
The early Church. St Augustine’s mother, Monica, asked on her deathbed only that her sons remember her at the altar, wherever they were (Confessions 9.11). Inscriptions in the Roman catacombs ask prayers for the dead. Augustine also wrote the most famous line about what heaven is for: “you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions 1.1).
How theologians explain it
What heaven is. Heaven is not a place in the sky, but the state of perfect communion with God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, together with Mary, the angels and all the saints (CCC 1024). Its heart is the beatific vision: seeing God as he is. No creature could see God by its own powers, so God raises the mind by what theologians call the “light of glory” (Summa, Supplement q. 92, a. 1). Everything we truly desire, truth, beauty, love, friendship, is found there in its source.
Degrees of glory. All the blessed are perfectly happy, but not all equally. A traditional image compares them to vessels of different sizes, each filled to the brim. Each is wholly satisfied; some can hold more, according to the charity with which they lived.
What purgatory is. Purgatory is not a second chance, and not a small hell. It is for those who are already saved. Someone can die in God’s friendship yet still be attached to sin, or still owe the “temporal punishment” that remains after sin is forgiven (CCC 1472). Purgatory is God’s love completing what was left unfinished. Pope Benedict XVI described it as the encounter with Christ himself, whose gaze burns away everything false in us and heals us (Spe Salvi 47).
What “fire” means. Scripture and tradition speak of purgatorial fire. The Church has not defined whether this is physical fire, and many theologians understand it as the pain of longing for God and of being purified.
Helping the dead. Because the Church is one body across death (the communion of saints), the living can help the dead by prayer, especially by having Masses offered, and the saints in heaven pray for us (CCC 958, 1032).
| Heaven | Purgatory | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Those who die in grace, fully purified | Those who die in grace, not yet fully purified |
| What it is | Seeing God face to face | Purification for heaven |
| How long | For ever | Until purified (all purgatory ends at the last judgement) |
| The living can | Ask their prayers | Pray for them |
Philosophy bridge
The philosophy course’s Ethics branch argues, with Aristotle and Aquinas, that every human being seeks a final end, happiness, and that no created good can fully satisfy that desire. Heaven is the answer: the infinite good, God himself, known and loved. Augustine’s “restless heart” is the same argument in a single sentence.
What the Church does not claim
- Not that heaven is boring. It is the fulfilment of every true desire, in the infinite God.
- Not that purgatory is a second chance. It is only for those already saved.
- Not that purgatory was invented in the Middle Ages. Prayers for the dead go back to 2 Maccabees and the earliest Christians.
- Not that we know how long purgatory lasts. “Time” after death is not like earthly time.
Check your understanding
- What is the beatific vision?
Show answer
Seeing God face to face, as he is, which is the heart of the happiness of heaven. God raises the mind to see him by the light of glory.
- Who goes to purgatory, and why?
Show answer
Those who die in God’s grace and friendship but are not yet fully purified. They are purified so as to reach the holiness needed to enter heaven.
- Give two scriptural or early Christian sources for praying for the dead.
Show answer
Any two of: 2 Maccabees 12:45 (prayers and sacrifice for the dead); 1 Corinthians 3:15 (“saved, but only as through fire”); Monica’s request to be remembered at the altar; prayers for the dead in the catacombs.
- Is purgatory a second chance for those who rejected God? Explain.
Show answer
No. It is only for those who die in God’s grace, who are already saved. It completes their purification; it does not change their fundamental choice.
- What does Augustine mean by “our heart is restless until it rests in you”?
Show answer
That human beings are made for God, and no created thing can fully satisfy the human heart. Only God, seen and loved in heaven, can give it rest.