Today, We Remember

(Thought-Random)

        In Catholic churches and cemeteries today,  in the Philippines particularly,  special services honor departed ones - evidence of Catholic devotion and Catholic instinct in remembering them.

        While in the Filipino context, this celebration is a happy one as somehow it brings about some kind of reunion, my thoughts dwell more on the fact that the souls of those who have gone before are aided according to Catholic Dogma.  Some religious sects write out the existence of Purgatory, a place where souls with venial sins still unatoned for are confined after death and must be cleansed first before entering Heaven.  Dante, himself, in his immortal and philosophical Divina Comedia 'geographically' (if I may use the term) sets Purgatorio as the place the soul must climb upward to Paradiso.

        Anyway, Catholics prove the existence of Purgatory from several Scriptural passages.  One I'd like to quote as the Lord saying in the New Testament; he who shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.... the strength of this passage apparently lies in the fact that some sins are washed away in the life to come... in hell there is no forgiveness, in heaven all must have been forgiven,  then there must be a middle position, - a place where certain sins are forgiven.  It cannot be hell, it cannot be heaven, and the Catholic Church calls this place Purgatory..a thought I strongly cling to as I  would love to have all my beloved departed have a chance at that place.

        That on the side,  I do relish remembrances of things past, specially of happy moments with departed loved ones.  Things past are not all happy, of course, but one has to be selective.  And I choose the happy ones.  It certainly is like listening to a smile on the phone.

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