How God Purifies The Soul In Purgatory--
The Soul Acquires Therein
Such Perfect Purity That Were It
To Remain There After Its Purification
It Would Suffer No More.
I behold, also, the ardent rays of divine love toward the souls
of men penetrating and potent enough to destroy, not only the
body, but the soul even, if that were possible.
These rays produce two effects: they purify, and they annihilate.
Look at gold: the more you melt it the purer it becomes, and you
could go on refining it till every impurity is destroyed. Such is
the effect of fire upon material things. Though the soul cannot
annihilate itself in God, it can in its own self; and the more it
is purified, the more completely is it annihilated in itself,
till at last it rests quite pure in God.
It is said that gold, when it is purified to a certain degree, no
longer diminishes, whatever degree of heat it may be exposed to,
because nothing but the dross can be consumed. The divine fire
acts in like manner upon the soul. God holds it in the fire till
every imperfection is consumed. He thus reduces all souls to a
state of purity, each one according to its own degree of
perfection.
And when the soul is thus purified it rests altogether in God,
without retaining anything in itself. It has its being then in
God. And when he has brought the soul to himself, thus purified,
it becomes impassible, for there is nothing left in it to be
consumed. And should it still remain in the fire after being thus
purified, it would suffer no longer. That fire would be to it a
flame of divine love itself eternal life, in which the soul could
experience no more contradictions.