PURGATORY IS IT IN THE BIBLE?

Purgatory is it in the bible?
That is the question many people ask. After death comes judgement.Heb.9:27.The sentence that cannot be changed-the judgement.The reward must be heaven, purgatory or hell according to one’s deed. Yes many Christians do not believe that purgatory does exist. They believe that after death one goes to heaven or hell, but we Catholic believe that there is purgatory.
According to the Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary, it means the condition after death in which the soul is purified in preparation for heaven, a place of temporary suffering. The word “Purgatory” comes from the word “purgation” meaning to purge, removal of something bad or undesirable.
Invariably, purgatory means a place where souls of the dead are purified or assisted by the prayers of the living before they are fit to enter heaven. Souls in purgatory belong to the Church suffering, then the living or the faithful on earth are the Church militants while those in heaven are known as the Church triumphant. That is why we have the communion of saints for we are one body in Jesus Christ.
The suffering in purgatory is less or more intense proportioned to the penalty which souls must expiate, still it is a place of great hope where the love of God is so intensive and that the face of not being able to see the Almighty God face to face becomes the greatest pain.
In the first letter of St.John 5:17, we are told. “All wrong doing is sin, but there is a sin which does not lead to death”. It then means that there are sins that are not mortal; hence they do not lead to death. But there are sins that can destroy more than others, that is why we have two categories of sin mortal or grave sin and venial sin.
Then what souls go to Purgatory?
Those souls go to purgatory that departs this life is venial sins or that have not wholly paid the debt of temporal punishment due to those sins of which guilt has not been forgiven. (Catechism of Christian doctrine, question 107 page 18)
How do we prove that there is purgatory?
We prove that there is purgatory from the constant teaching of the church and from the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture which declares that God will render to every man according to his work, that nothing defiled shall enter heaven and that the same will be saved, yet so as by fire Mathew 16:23,1 Cor 3:15.
In 1 Jn. 5:16 it says, if your brother commits a sin that does not lead to death you should pray to God who will give him life. As we said before, there are sins that are mortal and can destroy more than others. For an example, a child who told lies to his father to escape being punished for his misbehavior committed a sin, also a man that stole another person’s car or out of jealousy destroyed a good name of his friend committed a sin. Looking at the above examples the later leads to death more than the former and since they have committed sins they would not enter heaven neither would the child who told lies enter hell. There is a place he has to suffer for those lies if not in this world it will be in purgatory after his death for nothing unclean will enter heaven Rev.21:27.The other fellow that has committed mortal sin has confesses his sin and do the penance given to him by the priest. The sins committed have to be atoned for either in this world or in the world to come.
Since the Holy Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit has, following the Sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Holy Fathers taught in sacred council, that there is Purgatory and that the souls there retained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful and chiefly by the acceptable sacrifice of the Alter, the Holy Council recommended the Bishops that they strive diligently to the end that sound doctrine of purgatory transmitted by the fathers and the Sacred Councils be believed and maintained by the faithful of Christ and everywhere be taught and preached (Decree Concerning Purgatory: The Council of Trent: Session XXV December 4,1563).
If anyone says that satisfaction for sins, as to that temporal punishment is in no way made to God through the merits of Jesus Christ by the punishment inflected by Him and patiently born by fast the priests or even those voluntary undertaken as by fast, prayers, almsgiving or other works of piety and that the best penance is merely a new life, let him be anathema Canon 13.
According to Rev.Dr.S.T.Umoh in one of his speeches, Purgatory is a temporary place like a hospital where the sick stays for sometime and becomes well. So for him it is a place the stained souls stay for certain period of time and are purified before entering heaven. The souls in purgatory have hope of seeing God but it is a matter of time and this hope softens their suffering.
The month of November is set aside for the suffering souls in purgatory. Since they can neither pray nor help themselves, they depend on our prayers. The pain’s they encounter vary according to the type of sins the individual has committed and these sins must be atoned for. As they are being prayed for by the faithful and when a soul experiences some relief in the torments that devour it, it gives thanks to God and does not fail to remember those that rescued it.
It is advisable to be praying for their souls for without you and I, they will remain in their painful state. Imagine our family members, relations, teachers, friends, classmates and those that have been effaced from human memory stretching out their hands asking for our help to prayers; are we to turn away from their pleading? If we really love them in their life time, nothing holds us to love and pray for them now that they are dead. It is therefore a holy and wholesome taught to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sin (2 Mac.12:46).
May the souls of the departed members of our families and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace Amen.