Tuesday we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints' - a holy day of obligation giving us the opportunity to glorify God through all His holy saints who constantly intercede for us; a day to celebrate the Church Triumphant.
Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of All Souls' - a day to intercede for the Church Suffering, the holy souls in Purgatory.
To what are the terms Church Triumphant, Church Suffering and Church Militant referring and what is significant about these holy days and the doctrine of Purgatory?
The Church is the Body of Christ - Christ is the head and we are the members of the body. The Church is made up of both those who are living on earth and those who have passed on and are awaiting the resurrection. The 'Church Triumphant' are those members of the Body of Christ, the Church, who have entered into the glory of God in heaven and who pray to God for us that we may also enter into the joy of eternal happiness with Him:
"And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God." - Rev. 8: 3-4
The saints have triumphed over sin and Satan through the holy 'blood of the Lamb' and therefore are referred to as the 'Church Triumphant':
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. - Rev. 12: 11
Then we have the 'Church Suffering', who are the holy souls in Purgatory. Purgatory is often a misunderstood doctrine - and, yes, Purgatory is a doctrine of the Holy Church - always has been, always will be. Doctrines and dogmas of the Church are unchanging because Truth does not change. Purgatory is not something the Church just 'made up' - it is a part of the sacred deposit of the Faith given by Christ to the Apostles and handed on to us by them as well as having Scriptural basis. The Catechism #1030 says this about Purgatory:
All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
Purgatory does not mean that Christ's sacrifice for us was not sufficient. Purgatory is actually a great grace of God and reinforces the fact that Christ's redemptive act is effective. When we sin we incur a dual punishment: eternal and temporal. Eternal punishment is hell; temporal punishment is repairing the damage our sin has caused. Again, this does not mean that we are working our way toward heaven apart from Christ or that Christ's sacrifice was not sufficient. Let's look at the words of St. Paul:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church... - 1 Colossians 1: 24
Does Paul mean that Christ's sacrifice was not good enough? No, of course not. The sacrifice of Jesus was perfect and complete. But God loves us so much that He wants us to be in a relationship with Him, uniting our imperfect sufferings to the perfect suffering of Jesus, thereby, echoing St. Paul's words, "I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions..." In Revelation 21, St. John describes the "the holy city, new Jerusalem", heaven. At the end of the chapter he says, "But nothing unclean shall enter it...". Purgatory is a part of the redeeming blood of Jesus having its effect in cleansing us that we may be clean to enter heaven.
In the whole land, says the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'. - Zech. 13: 8-9
Purgatory is a cleansing fire from which all our impurities and disordered attachments are purified as gold in the fire that we may be clean through the blood of the Lamb to enter into the joy of heaven. Contrary to many misconceptions, Purgatory is not a permanent state. Those who are being cleansed in Purgatory are assured of heaven but are simply being purified before entering. We speak of this in terms of space of time, because that's how we experience life, so we say things like 'in' Purgatory and 'how long' someone is in Purgatory, but God is not limited by space and time, so how that actually all looks we don't know because it has not been revealed.
We have the opportunity to pray for the holy souls in Purgatory and offer our sufferings on earth to God in union with the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf, just as St. Paul mentions in 1 Colossians. So All Souls' Day is a day particularly set aside for that very purpose, though we are called to pray for the holy souls often. An example of praying for those who have died is provided in 2 Maccabees 12 in which the leader of the army brought his dead soldiers to be buried and he and all with him prayed for those who had died:
In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin. - 2 Maccabees 12: 43-45
One saint who was particularly devoted to the holy souls in Purgatory was St. Gertrude. She composed the following prayer for the holy souls:
Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today, for the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those within my home and within my family.
Read more about Purgatory from Catholics United for the Faith
here. I highly recommend reading it.
The 'Church Militant' are those of us still here on earth fighting the good fight so as to win the prize:
For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. - 2 Tim. 4: 6-7
Each day, because of concupiscence (the tendency to sin) and the temptations of Satan, we engage in a battle to choose Christ over sin. This is why we are called the 'Church Militant' because we are engaged in a battle. Thanks be to God that Jesus has won the ultimate victory over sin and death - we must, however, choose to partake in that victory by His grace.
This charge I commit to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophetic utterances which pointed to you, that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. - 1 Tim. 1: 18
So the Solemnity of All Saints and the Feast of All Souls are important because they remind us that we are all one body in Christ and have an initimate connection to one another and can assist each other in being holy children of God and guide one another on the path to the new Jerusalem, the holy city: heaven.
May the saints intercede for us to our God, may we pray for each other and encourage one another in living holy lives pleasing to the Lord and may we pray for the holy souls in Purgatory who no doubt pray for us as well: May perpetual light shine upon them and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
