PURGATORY

 

 

Think of man's body as purgatory where the spirit is cleansed through his experiences in the material world.  When the carnal man suffers his spirit suffers and, accordingly, he is purified by paying off his karmic debts.  When man is happy, his spirit is happy and enjoys the experiences, too.  When man loves his neighbors, his spirit is able to relate and fuse with the universal consciousness as Love, which is Christ.  It is the fusing agent that binds man's spirit with his creator for it to be able to partake of his creator's infinite attributes.

 

Along man's path in life, he undergoes obstacles which when overcome will earn for him credits that will lift him up the ladder of spiritual evolution.  In the spirit world, nothing is for free.  Something is exchanged for something, be it effort or will power or prayer.  In other words, to be able to move, energy has to be spent.  Prayer is drawing energy from the infinite source, God.  Prayer is wishing that energy be given to oneself or to somebody else, whether living or a dead person, or to other spirits.  When man prays, as he has the gift of drawing energy from the source, he lifts himself up or helps lift up somebody else in the infinite ladder of spiritual evolution.

 

Prayer is exhibiting the power of words or breath.  It is like opening the gate with the command "Open Sesame."  Think of a commander in the army ordering his men "Fire!" and the soldiers shoot at the enemies.  The word "Fire" breathed out is an exhibition of will power.  If the commander has no faith that his men will obey him, most likely his men will not pull the trigger when ordered to fire.  In like manner, for prayer to be effective, one has to have faith, faith in its power. For the power of prayers is but the expression of one's will power which is an attribute of God handed down to man.

 

Think of the material things as the factory for turning out beautiful products.  Dark clay and pigments are brought to the factory.  Through their interaction comes out beautiful ceramic products like statues of saints, replicas of animals, or images of the things God created.  Man's body is the factory.  In comes the black unrefined spirit.  Through the interaction of matter and spirit out comes the purified spirit which St. Peter may certify acceptable in heaven and therefore ready for the next level of purification. If not acceptable, it is considered a reject and sent back to the factory for retouching. This is reincarnation.  It may happen that the product turns out to be totally unacceptable so as to be a complete reject.  This is like devolving to the lowest level of spiritual development.  This product is thrown out as garbage to hell.  Through prayers, these could still be salvaged, and recycled.

 

Along man's life, series of tests is given.  Little victories are won.  Little setbacks are encountered.  Each and every deed a man makes is faithfully recorded.  For every victory one wins a credit, for every defeat one gets a debit.  In death, these points are summed up and if the balance is positive, he is promoted.  But if it is negative, one is demoted and sent back, and while waiting for his time to go back, prayers could make up for his negative balance and turn it positive.

 

Man is given all the chances.  He can ask help from anyone he wants, be it a living person or spirit.  He can even ask the help of the examiner: God.  But he has to send that SOS signal.  He has to because he was given free will.  To help him without his asking for it will be undue interference.  This asking for help is prayer.

 

The debit side can be erased.  How?  Again, through prayer.  When Jesus was crucified, Dimas asked for mercy and begged Jesus: "Remember me when you are in paradise."  And Jesus forthwith granted his wish.

 

St. John the Baptist erased the debit side of man by washing the converted with water through baptism.  In the Catholic religion, this debit side is erased when the priest declares, "I absolve thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."  In other religions, it is erased simply by asking forgiveness directly from God.

 

But when the record of the debit side is erased, as some men have stumbled upon the technique to do this, the payment or atonement for it is not necessarily erased.  It might just be diminished.  Think of karma as God's code of ethics where one reaps reward for good deeds and incurs punishment for evil deeds.

 

Usually one owes karmic debts when he oppresses somebody else.  Water usually is used to clean the body.  And blessed water, where extra energy is imparted by the spirits, can wash the soul and remove the black stains or debits for one's misdeeds.

 

What is the effect of Love?  Love for one's fellow man is erasing one's desire to hurt and to compete by showing one is superior to the other.  When one hurts his neighbor or makes him suffer, he incurs karmic debts.  So applying the principle of duality, when he helps his neighbors he reaps karmic credits.  When one loves his neighbor, he does not harbor ill-feelings against him.  He manifests this Love by helping his neighbor when that neighbor is badly in need of assistance. For example, when he tries to borrow money, which you have, and you agree for him to be able to send his child to the hospital.

 

This Love for one's neighbor in effect is a way of detaching oneself from the love of self and being able to rise up and be nearer to God.  The love of self is the dual of the Love of neighbor.  The more you love yourself, the less you love your neighbor.  In loving oneself, one necessarily has to satisfy the cravings of one's material body.  The more one loves his self, the more one is attracted to things material and, correspondingly, again applying the principle of duality, repelled by things spiritual.