Of The Wonderful Wisdom Of God In
The Creation Of Purgatory And Hell.
As the purified soul finds its repose only in God, for whom it
was created, so the soul defiled by sin has no other place but
hell assigned it for its destination.
The soul, at the moment of its separation from the body,
naturally gravitates toward its true centre. If in a state of
deadly sin, it goes to its appointed place, carried there by the
very nature of sin. If it did not find this place provided for it
by divine justice, it would remain in a worse hell; for it would
no longer be under the ordinance of God, still participating in
his mercy, and where the pain is less than the soul merits.
Not finding, then, any place better suited to it, or less fearful
than hell, by divine appointment it gees thither as to its own
place.
It is the same with purgatory. The soul, separated from the body,
not finding in itself all its primitive purity, and seeing that
this impediment to its union with God can only be removed by
means of purgatory, voluntarily throws itself therein. If the
place prepared for the removal of this impediment did not exist,
there would instantaneously be generated in the soul a torture
far worse than purgatory, for it would comprehend that this
impediment would hinder it from union with God, its aim and its
end.
This end is so ardently longed for, that the torments of
purgatory seem as nothing, although, as we have said, they are
like those of hell in some respects. But, I repeat, they seem as
nothing compared with the soul's true end.
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