BOSWELL: What do you think, Sir, of Purgatory, as believed by the Roman Catholics?
JOHNSON: Why, Sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of the opinion that the generality of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits; and therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. You see, Sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this.
Boswell’s Life of Johnson
Thought For The Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Purgatory offers hope for us poor sinners, and I speak of myself. One of the reasons I became a Catholic…
“I believe that the figment of purgatorial fire is as much an affront to the redemption of Christ freely granted to us as it has been a lucrative business to its authors. For if it be necessary by punishments and tortures to expiate the guilt of our crimes, Christ will have died in vain and grace will have lost its meaning.”–Ulrich Zwingli
Zwingli died in battle, in a failed attempt to coerce the Catholic Swiss cantons, and his corpse was burned on a dung heap. Luther rejoiced in his death viewing him as a heretic. If anyone needed Purgatory to be a reality, I suspect it was Zwingli.