Purgatory and Hell -Eminently Reasonable Doctrines

As a Contrarian Catholic, I take much comfort from the fact that my "contrariness" is not all-pervasive and does not apply to each an every doctrine taught by the Church. I take great comfort from the sheer reasonableness of most of Catholic teaching, unlike the unreasonableness of some Protestant churches.

Take Purgatory and Hell for example. Some fundamentalist Christians take a very hard line about sin, seeing no distinction between serious and not-so-serious kinds. A starving man, for instance, stealing a loaf of bread deserves to go to hell just as much as a man robbing a bank of a million dollars! No middle ground, no juvenile detention, just plain hell for all eternity! Whoa!

And take the three well-conceived "conditions" which define mortal sin in Catholic teaching: 1. Serious matter, in and of itself. 2. Due deliberation. 3. Full Consent of the Will. Think about that for a minute. Most of us would agree on what would constitute a serious matter. Killing, for example...quite serious. But killing, committed in certain circumstances might not constitute a mortal sin. Even the state, recognizes factors which mitigate the degree of culpability, such as age, self-defense, insanity, etc.

Now, for due deliberation: The Church requires that this serious sin has to have been committed, not in the heat of the moment, passion, etc., but rather after the act has been deliberatively thought about. And for Full consent of the Will: The Church requires the violator knows full well that what he is doing is a very serious thing, has given it a great deal of thought and then, very determinedly decides to do it! Without all three of these conditions, mortal sin...sin which kills the soul...has not been committed. And, upon death, the soul is not dispatched to hell.

But, as it is with lesser sins, penalties must still be paid. Again, even the state requires this; if a man confesses that he stole money, he is required, at the very least to pay it back and, most likely spend some time in the pokey. And that's where Purgatory comes in...a kind of pokey, in which we spend some time in reparation. An altogether reasonable notion. Maybe I haven't stolen anybody's money, but I have harbored terribly unloving thoughts about that person, even though the Church has taught me to love him. When I die, I will have to pay a just penalty for failure in my Christian obligation of love. After all penalties have been paid, then my soul will be released to heaven and beatific vision.

Now I find this doctrine quite well reasoned and really, quite beautiful.