HEAVEN-HELL-PURGATORY

CHURCH MILITANT-

CHURCH SUFFERING-

CHURCH TRIUMPHANT

These are words out of the past. They expressed the unity of all people under God's saving grace. Even when physical death separates us from one another, we remain connected to those who have gone before us. We (the Church militant) believe that our efforts and prayers benefit them (the Church suffering) and that the saints (the Church triumphant), interceding with God, will certainly assist us here. These words also express that salvation is a process, a continuum. We are not saved in an instant, but continually conform ourselves to Christ throughout our lives. And this may even extend beyond physical death itself; our purification (purgatory) may well take more than a human lifetime.

As always happens, however, when we lost the vocabulary to express ideas, even the ideas can become lost, or at least blurred. Today this may be our situation. Too often we live in the moment, with little awareness of any spiritual destiny. We live on earth as if it were the only reality there is. We often doubt that there is a hell. We ask, "How could God do that?" when it is not a matter of God at all. We assume that all are taken to heaven immediately. We like everything clear-cut, fast, and certain. Yet salvation is more often than not messy, slow, and uncertain. We believe salvation to be a process.

And here heaven, hell, purgatory, and the three dimensions of the communion of saints (militant, suffering, triumphant) keep us alert to the process. Maybe new words would help. But the ideas are helpful. Salvation is our goal, our destiny. But it will take our lifetime to realize it.

© Harcourt Religion Publishers/BROWN-ROA