Treatise on Purgatory
St Catherine of Genoa
CHAPTER XIII
If the souls in purgatory could purge themselves of their stains by contrition, they would in a single instant discharge all their debt, so ardent and so impetuous an act would they make, seeing in so clear a light the effects of the impediment which hinders them from attaining to their end, which is God, the object of their love. And be assured that the souls have to pay what they owe even to the uttermost farthing : this is God’s decree, to satisfy the demands of justice. As to the souls themselves, they have no choice of their own in the matter ; they see nothing but God’s will ; nor do they wish otherwise, because they have been so determined.
They would not care for alms contributed by the living to shorten their period of pain, were not those precisely balanced by the will of God ; they leave all in His hands, Who exacts satisfaction as it pleases His infinite goodness. And could they regard those alms apart from the Divine Will, it would be an act of selfishness which would prevent their seeing the Divine Will, and would be to them a very hell. They remain immovably fixed on what ever God wills for them, and neither pleasure nor pain can ever again cause them to turn to self.
