Purification in the Prophecy. the Purgatory: Argimiro Ruano’S Theology of Purification

By Hernán Afanador-Kafuri

The work of Dr. Argimiro Ruano on Escathology truly impacted me. And when I read his Cuadernos de Teologa Pastoral / Notebooks about Pastoral Theology, I decided to base my doctoral thesis on them, especially on the topic of Biblical Escathology, which has caught the attention and attracted the interest of readers not only of Christian readers, but of everyone who seek knowledge about the hereafter, about what takes place after death.
In accordance with Robero Fernndez Valladares, Professor at the University of Puerto Rico, this work is essential to learn the theological and biblical foundation regarding Purgatory as well as Martin Luthers thoughts about this doctrine. Dr. Fernndez also states: The analysis of faith and of purification by faith is one of the best parts of the book, above all the explanation of these two principles: believing to have been justified is not to be justified and faith does not justify, but the grace that comes from faith []. This is a fundamental book for every believer as well as for pastoral leaders in our communities (El Visitante de Puerto Rico / Puerto Ricos Visitor, Oct. 19, 1991, p. 19).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palibrio
• Release date: Jan 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781463376598

Book preview

FIRST PART

JUSTIFICATION AND PURIFICATION²

1. Personal, prophetic purification

2. Prophetic Foundation for the Theology of Purification

3. Purification by ‘fire’

4. Remain within the Prophecy

5. Pseudo-theology of liberation without purification

6. Beings made out of flesh are justified and purified

7. Feeling of impurity in the process of purification

8. Feeling of self-inadequacy in the process of purification

9. Do works belong to the just?

10. From being called to be justified

11. From being justified to be glorified

1

Personal, prophetic purification

The biblical sequence justification-purification, is notable in Teología de la Purificación. El Purgatorio en la Profecía/Theology of Purification. Purgatory in Prophecy both in extension and contents, in there is no glorification without justification (Ro 8:29). There is no justification without purification. Purification is an indispensable preamble to glorification.

Everything concatenated biblically and eschatologically. Ruano quotes Karl Barth, Christianity that is not totally Eschatology, has nothing at all to do with Christ, to whom, being pure, one can have access only through purification (1 Jn 3:3). Only those with a clean heart will see God (Mt 5:8).

Purification goes together with Prophecy. There are no ‘just’ people without a commitment to it. The prophetic population is composed of both just and heathen people. Two attitudes facing moral cleanliness and its consequences. Different ‘now’ and different ‘later’.

Sadness now, happiness later. Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest (Ps 126:6). I am telling you the truth: you will cry and weep, but the world will be glad; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into gladness (Jn 16:20). And the other way around: …you will cry with a broken heart (Is 65:14).

On one side, the just. …with a place of his own among God’s people (Ws 5:5). "Forever it marches crowned in triumph, victorious in unsullied deeds of valor (Ws 4:2). You welcome those who find joy in doing what is right, those who remember how you want them to live […]. There is perpetuity in those and we will be saved (Is 64:5).

On the other side, the one who is on the wrong track. We were the ones who wandered off the right road. We never lived in the light of righteousness; we never caught the first glimmer of its light (Ws 5:6). Sheltered in moral darkness (‘works of darkness’ in St. Paul), all of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through. Because of our sins we are like leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind. No one turns to you in prayer; no one goes to you for help. You have hidden yourself from us and have abandoned us because of our sins (Is 54:6-7). Mental opacity and confusion as a result. A person will reap exactly what he plants (Ga 6:7). Different sowing, different harvest.

Different is the accumulation of light and the final joy of the just, like the stars for all eternity (Dn 12:13). My servants will sing with a joyful heart (Ibid]). A day is coming when the people will sing this song in the land of Judah: […]: ‘Open the city gates and let the faithful nation enter the nation whose people do what is right. You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever; he will always protect us (Is 26:1-4).

Who came to complete the Prophets (Mt 5:17), classifies human coexistence, as themselves, in two ranks: the one of the many called to be just and the one of the few who decided to be just, persevering (Mt 20: 16; 22, 14).

Prophecy refers to the intimacy of one another by the analogy with the central areas of Biology (heart, kidneys, sexuality, lomos /entrails ³), under the unavoidable ‘look’ of Yahweh. O Yahweh Sebaot, you are a just judge; you test the kidneys and the hearts! (Jr 11:20).

Yahweh will not leave the heathen without punishment, it does not matter what occult role hormones will play on his attitude: Who is a witness of their kidneys, truthful observant of their hearts. (Ws 4: 6)⁴. The presence of the just in the community is of an opposite sign. They [the just] are like trees planted in the House of the Lord, that flourish in the Temple of our God. (Ps 92: 13-14).

Of the two kinds of prophetic reference to purification, the national (collective), and the personal, the former can perfectly be in detriment of the latter (He 9:9). The liturgical ritualism of the ovine and bovine quartering by Levites and priests, the clouds of incense and the collective chants, may remain as a mere entertainment show or accompaniment. Liturgy compatible with the audience’s less clean private parts. All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy (Is 64:6).

The attendance at the ritual show with attention to the spectacular event, takes place under the look of the presidential attendee, Yahweh, as attentive as invisible to the interior cleanliness of everyone. You will suffer the same punishment as the people! I will punish you and make you pay for the evil you do (Ho 4:9).

I have had more than enough of the sheep you burn as sacrifices and of the fat of your fine animals. I am tired of the blood of bulls and sheep and goats. … I am disgusted with the smell of the incense you burn. … I cannot stand your New Moon Festivals, your Sabbaths, and your religious gatherings; they are all corrupted by your sins. I hate your New Moon Festivals and holy days; they are a burden that I am tired of bearing. When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will not listen… (Is 11:13-15).

The observance of the group liturgical calendar, does not guarantee what one might expect of it at a personal level. The group observance of a ritual calendar is not the national God’s purpose for it. The purpose is one by one, each attendee.

It is a ‘just’ God producing many ‘just people’. Just judge, you test the kidneys and the hearts (Jr 11:20). You test hearts and entrails, o just God! (Ps 7:10). I, the Lord, search the minds and test the hearts of men, I treat each one according to the way he lives, according to what he does (Jr 17:10).

Yahweh observes individually. "You yourself, O Lord, reward everyone according to his deeds" (Ps 62: 12). And the works belong to each one. The prophetic just, one by one, is characterized by his works. It is in them where he projects (just like the unjust) the secret of the soul.

The Judeo-Christian author of Apocalipsis/Revelation joins that prophetic tradition of ‘justice’. To the children of those who sympathize with idolatry, "I will kill, and then all the churches will know that I am the one who knows everyone’s thought s and wishes [kidneys and hearts]. I will repay each one of you according to what he has done" (Rev 2:23).

In the liturgical assembly, it is from each individual, one by one, that Yahweh, and later his Son, will expect purification in fact. Sincerity and truth are what you require; fill my mind with your wisdom. Remove my sin, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow" (Ps 51:6-7). You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your stains are deep red, you will be as white as wool (Is 1:19).

Jesus, not only endorses personalized purification, He does without the Temple spectacular liturgy assisted by a liturgical class, external social cleanliness (‘bleached sepulchers’), riffraff inside.

In the New Covenant as in the Old, the just coexists with the unconcerned about moral sanctity or the one for whom it is not a priority. Jesus refers to that constantly in His parables. In the one about the Sower, He facilitates things pedagogically inviting to see the field (Mt 13:18-23) where the farmer (‘the Father’) has to count with undesirable vegetation, and the end of a harvest with much more chaff than wheat.

The coexistence of the wheat with the chaff and the darnel is pedagogy in Jesus. His Word is like seeds that fall in different soils, thus producing different results. The ones that fall on a hard heart, on rocky ground, are totally wasted. The ones that fall along the path, immature followers, are taken away by the Devil (Lk 8, 12). The ones that fall among thorn bushes are the ones who hear the message, but the worries about this life, the love for riches, and other kind of desires crowd in and choke the message, and they don’t bear fruit (Mk 4:19). Bushes with one or another promise of flowers, yet no getting to bear fruit.

The Father is a gardener (Jn 15:1), and does not hang the fruits from the tree (passive). He waits that the fruit (a person) will produce them through its sap. And, taking into consideration environmental contamination, the Father (the gardener) prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit (Jn15:2). Because the task of (personal) purification takes place hindered by coexistence.

Christian Apocalypse follows Daniel’s. "Many people will be purified, whitened and purged; the wicked will go on being wicked and will not understand; only those who are wise will understand". (Dn 12:10). Those busy with purification coexist with those who are not preoccupied about it (1Co 5:9-13). Jesus does not hide that among those around Him there are some who will die in their sins (Jn 8:24), morally dirty.

Christian coexistence towards eternity takes place in that mingling of one another: "Whoever is evil must go on doing evil" (Rev 22:11)⁵. There is no immediate justification. It goes through a progressive purification process, and the more impurity, more regressive.

The New Covenant, based on Jesus’ blood donation (‘for the forgiveness of sins’) is, in its entirety, anti-sin. From the Annunciation of His birth. You will have a son and you will name him Jesus (‘Yahweh saves’), because he will save his people from their sins. (Mt 1:22). Appears in a cleansing operation. "He has his winnowing shovel with him, to thresh out all the grain and gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out". (Lk 3:17).

The ‘Lamb of God’, who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn 1, 29), ‘transferred the priesthood’, it ends with the spectacular liturgy of impersonal purification. For when the priesthood is changed, there also has to be change in the Law (He 7:12). For the Law of Moses could not make anything perfect. (He 7:19).

A new, universalized priesthood belongs to all and every one of the elect, not exclusive for a liturgical class. All who have been baptized in His Name is a priest of the Lamb of God, and with Him, with the same conscience for the altar of sacrifices.

Holy priesthood. Sanctity in fact, not ritual or ministerial of social celebration. Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. (1P 2:5).

Royal priesthood: Since the new priesthood, there are no inferior classes. Every saint is king. "But you are the chosen race, the King’s priests, the holy nation, God’s own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light. At one time you were not God’s people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God’s mercy, but now you have received his mercy" (1P 2:9).

Sinner, declassified, one more religious contributor to the pompous priesthood of the Temple, Peter, the worker, the fisherman, the one dressed like a worker, declare Him a historical figure. It is the conviction of the early Christian communities (Rev 1:6; 5:10). They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they will rule with him for a thousand years (20:6). The spectacular purification which Jesus definitely put aside, giving prestige to the individual, intimate one of the Prophets.

From the Christian ideal of salvation through personal purification, does not occur instantly and once and for all on it. It is procedural, progressive, persevering. Jesus says it over and over (Mt 10:22; 24:13).

Let us go forward, … We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works (He 6:1), without returning to a moral death, and towards a dawn in Christ. Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you (Eph:14). Progressive ilumination (2 Co 3:18).

We have to leave behind a personal childish religious way of thinking (1 Co 14:20), or the social attitude (Mt 11:10) seeking the authentic simplicity of children in front of the Father (Mt 18:3). We have to start changing basic diets for stronger ones (He 5:13), a true nutritional milk (1 P 2:2).

The process of personal purification goes from the beginning and the subsequent struggle for perseverance, to the Summit of the Beatitudes: Solemn reunion; joyful gathering of God’s first-born sons, whose names are written in heaven; the city of the living God: the heavenly Jerusalem, with its thousands of angels and the spirits of good people made perfect (He 12:22-23).

As that Christian ideal gets some culture (both the Eastern and the Western), it produces a richer literature about proposals, methods and accomplishments regarding purification.

The Gospel establishes a difference between precepts (Commandments) and advices: the latter to live the Commandments to the maximum: If you want to be perfect… (Mt 19:21), add this to the observance of the Commandments: (1) sell all you have, and give the money to the poor, and (2) follow Me (as St. Francis). Although at Baptism every Christian makes a commitment to renounce satanic filth, is not compelled to be as St. Francis; there is, however, the Christian ideal in its most beautiful expression.

Methodizing the process of purification, it is notable an anonymous Greek method (from IV-V century AC?) called Pseudo-Dionysius. Taken for a disciple of St. Paul during the Middle Age and the Renaissance, (Acts 17:34) managed to have his works quoted at a biblical level by the great doctors, including St. Thomas Aquinas.

For centuries, his teachings produced disciples such as St. John of the Cross (+1591), doctor of purification par excellence, among the doctors of the Church.

The Christian bibliographic production (thousands of years old) on purification⁶, faithful to the New Testament, points out three stages in the process of purification: beginners, ‘hardworking’ (advanced), and perfect.

The predominant task for each stage is: to purge, to enlighten, and to unify⁷. One does not exclude another. They may concur; but they differ in the emphasis given to the task most pertinent to each one. Purification, enlightenment and unification are present in all of them, but more in progression than in an inverse order.

The purging stage (from the Latin ‘purgare’, to cleanse) is essential; the first trials to deny oneself (Mt 16:24), affirming God’s will more and more over ours.

The selfish desires that, in accordance with apostolic literature, must be denied, St. John of the Cross, Hispanicizing, calls them apetitos (instincts). What St. Augustine would include within the global term libido⁸. With its back to God, those desires tire us out, torment us, weaken us and dirty the soul⁹ created by Him for Him.

That first purging stage, threshold of the purification process, requires wanting to get into the next stage and, in accordance with apostolic literature penitence, direction from expert teachers and, according to community life, reception of the Sacraments with a clean conscience. Let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience… (He 10:22).

If there is progress, the next stage begins to emerge from it, the enlightening, with more light predominant in the mind; and as the enlightening progresses, a state of union begins to emerge; to keep permanently united our own will with God’s will thinking, speaking, staying quiet and behaving. Habitual sensibility to maintain the ‘heart’ clean in the constant presence of God.

It is the ‘state’ of justice in holiness, inside and in all the fragility of the human heart.

2

Prophetic Foundation for the Theology of Purification

Ruano writes Theology of Purification with an eschatological sense. From the state of corporal corruptibility to the ‘after’ state of incorruptibility because, at the moment, we do not know the incorruptibility in our own being. (1 Co 15:53). What we will be has not been revealed yet (1 Jn 2:3) in an eternity towards which the current of time is directed, sweeping everything¹⁰.

Ruano’s Theology of Purification, handles the ‘already’,