barren fear, a fear which tortures and discourages, a gloomy fear without confidence. No; He wishes that our fear should be tempered with great trust in His mercy; He desires that we should fear evil in order to prevent and avoid it; He desires that the thought of those avenging flames should stimulate us to fervour in His service, and cause us to expiate our faults in this world rather than in the other. " Better is it to purge away our sins, and cut off our vices now" says the author of the "Imitation," "than to keep the?n for purgation hereafter" [1] Moreover, if, notwithstanding our endeavours to live well, and to satisfy for our sins in this world, we have well-grounded fears that we shall have to undergo a Purgatory, we must look forward to that contingency with unbounded confidence in God, who never fails to console those whom He purifies by sufferings.
Now, to give our fear this practical character, this counterpoise of confidence, after having contemplated Purgatory in all the rigour of its pains, we must consider it under another aspect and from a different point of view — that of the Mercy of God, which shines forth therein no less than His Justice.
If God reserves terrible chastisements in the other life for the least faults, He does not inflict them without, at the same time, tempering them with clemency; and nothing shows better the admirable harmony of the Divine perfection than Purgatory, because the most severe Justice is there exercised, together with the most ineffable Mercy. If our Lord chastises those souls that are dear to Him, it is in His love, according to the words, Such as I love I rebuke and chastise. [2] With one hand He strikes, with the other He heals. He offers mercy and redemption in abundance: Qiwniam apud Dominum wisericordia, ct copiosa apud eum redemptio. [3]
This infinite Mercy of our Heavenly Father must be the firm foundation of our confidence; and, after the
