" (_De Civitate Dei_, Book xxi. chap. 24.)
On the other hand, we read in several places in Holy Scripture that God
will render to every one (that is, will reward or punish) according as
each deserves. See, for example, in Matthew xvi. 27. But as we cannot
think that God will punish everlastingly a person who dies burdened
with the guilt of venial sin only, it may be an "_idle word_," it
is reasonable to infer that the punishment rendered to that person in
the next world will be only temporary.
The Catholic belief in Purgatory does not clash with the following
declarations of Holy Scripture, which every Catholic firmly believes,
namely, that it is Jesus who cleanseth us from all sin, that Jesus bore
"the iniquity of us all," that "by His bruises we are healed," (Isaias
iii., 5); for it is through the blood of Jesus and His copious
Redemption that those pains of Purgatory have power to cleanse the
souls therein detained.
Again, the Catholic belief in Purgatory is not in opposition to those
texts of Scripture in which it is said that a man when he is justified
is "translated from death to life;" that he is no longer judged: that
there is no condemnation in him. For these passages do not refer to
souls taken to Heaven when natural death occurs, but to persons in this
world, who from the death of sin pass to the life of grace.
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