debt outstanding even after the eternal penalty for a sin has been remitted.
For example, humanity is still subject to the temporal punishments of labor,
pain, sickness and death even though we have now been redeemed and
baptized. Also, King David still had to endure the temporal punishment of
the death of his infant son even after he had been forgiven for murdering
Uriah (2 Sam. 12:13ff.). Likewise, Moses was still excluded from the
Promised Land after God forgave him for striking the rock at the Waters of
Contradiction (Num. 20:12).
It may also be asked why God leaves temporal penalties in place after
removing eternal penalties for sins. It is a question, first, of discharging a
debt of honor, making a gesture of reparation even after the real reparation
has already been completed. Penance also has a rehabilitative effect. It
helps us to learn from our sins and restore the loss or damage caused by
them. Finally, penance satisfies our innate need to mourn for tragedies and
sin, especially mortal sin, which is the greatest tragedy that can befall a
person.
The reality is that the purgatorial cleansing we endure for sin is in a special
way a consequence of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Christ’s sufferings paid the
price for our sanctification from beginning to end. Purgatory is our final
sanctification. If Christ had not suffered, there would be no purgatory and
therefore no final sanctification at all. Rather, there would be only a
permanent exclusion from heaven!
The Fathers
Tertullian, The Soul 58, 8 (inter 208-212 AD)
“In short, if we understand that prison of which the Gospel speaks to be
Hades, and if we interpret the last farthing to be the light offense which is
to be expiated there before the resurrection, no one will doubt that the soul
undergoes some punishments in Hades, without prejudice to the fullness of
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