Purification on Our Path to God

Conquering mortal sin and leaving behind venial sin are both good and necessary. But we need more, and that’s where purification, both passive and active, come in.

Imitation of Christ

We have only a short time in this life to prepare for union with God. While we’re here on earth, Jesus told His disciples, including us, to imitate Him—to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. Luke 9:23.

We do well to note that twenty years prior to that teaching of His, some 2,000 Jews were crucified for rebellion. His disciples clearly understood what denying oneself and taking up the cross meant in a literal sense.

Denying Ourselves

But does it still mean anything to us, in our time? It probably should. In denying ourselves and taking up the cross, we can experience the process of mortification, which is the “…practice of Christian ascetism to overcome sin and master one’s sinful tendencies through penance and austerity to strengthen the will in the practice of virtue and grow in the likeness of Christ…” (Modern Catholic Dictionary). It helps free us from us, to give ourselves more fully to God.

Of course, we’re called to accept the crosses that God gives us in our lives, and He also tells us to deny ourselves. We can deny ourselves through ascetical practices. We can benefit from disciplining our body, which often is all too ready to chase after pleasure, leading to conflict with our pursuit of sanctity if left unchecked.

Purification and Our Ultimate Goal

To be open to God’s graces and His spiritual transformation in and of us, we must both practice active purification, part of the process of mortification–of freeing ourselves from us to be free for God–and accept His passive purification. Fr. Thomas Acklin, OSB and Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB summarize purification:

“Purification can be understood best in terms of our ultimate goal. Because our ultimate goal is pure, loving union with God, we need to be purified of tendencies (thoughts, feelings, actions) that interfere with that union.” (Spiritual Direction, p. 193)

Active and Passive Forms

Active purification includes our intentional efforts, with God’s grace, to break bad habits and build good ones. It can involve our undertaking ascetical practices that include, for example, fasting, and abstinence even from good things. In doing so, we strengthen our will, and with God’s grace, become more detached from what’s getting in between us and God. Although less effective than passive purification, because we’re choosing what to do in active purification, it is necessary to prepare us for passive purification.

Passive purification, on the other hand, consists of the ways in which God works to purify our souls from sins and stains of sins. The routine, everyday events we face can be opportunities to respond to God’s passive purification of us. Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek, in discussing God’s will for us points out that:

“…The plain and simple truth is that [God’s] will is what he actually wills to send us each day, in the way of circumstances, places, people, and problems. The trick is to learn to see that—not just in theory, or not just occasionally in a flash of insight granted by God’s grace, but every day…” (He Leadeth Me)

Accepting His will in routine circumstances helps to purify us. Beyond those everyday occurrences though, in our interior life at some point, God also may allow us to begin experiencing a deeper purification of our senses with respect to prayer. St. John of the Cross writes extensively of this, and Fr. Wayne Sattler covers it in a very accessible way in his book, And You Will Find Rest.

Do I Really Need It?

If you’re doing a regular examen, with routine sacramental confession not less than monthly, you might observe some patterns of sin with which you need God’s help, together with your active work at purification. If your confessional routine has become rather humdrum, consider Fr. McElhone’s Rooting Out Hidden Faults. It’s pretty much guaranteed to help you find a few areas ripe for purification.

And what about those daily circumstances that God gives you? If you’re not embracing these daily crosses with joy and gratitude, that probably would indicate that you still have, with God’s grace, some work to do there as well. For example, perhaps you have to interact with a “prickly” person around whom you feel like you always have to tread on eggshells. Do you view them as an annoyance or as someone to pray for and to reflect God’s joy to? Do you give thanks to God for the opportunity to practice the virtues that are required in those interactions?

Some Other Considerations

Maybe you’re able now to avoid not only all mortal sin, but also venial sin. Praise God! Are there still some sinful habits and imperfections that could use some work, some purification, perhaps? How about attachments to creatures and created things, or to others’ opinions?

When you prayerfully reflect on the Litany of Humility, can you pray each line from the heart, without any spiritual heartburn or hesitation? If not, more purification may be in order. Do you allow nonspiritual priorities to get in the way of spiritual ones? In other words, what’s your focus in life? Is it on the 24-hour news stream, on your hobbies, your faith, or…?

Most of us will benefit from some active purification in this life, to open us up to God’s passive purification. In all of this, however, we need to be on guard against spiritual pride and misdirected intentions. Am I carrying out this active purification for “bragging rights” at my small group Bible study, or am I doing it out of love for God and a desire for union with Him? Have I gone overboard in some otherwise good ascetical practice? Sometimes less is better.

Pay Now, or Pay Later?

Eliminating bad habits and replacing them with good habits can be difficult and take a long time. It requires discipline. The better we can discipline ourselves, allowing our higher faculties to rule our lower ones, the better position we’re in to make the difficult changes necessary for union with God. Practicing active purification with God’s grace helps build the ascetic discipline we need to prepare us for union with God. If you choose to pursue this, it’s good to seek the advice of a spiritual director or your regular confessor about proposed ascetic practices before you start.

And keep in mind the old television commercial (for those of you old enough to remember), where the mechanic looks in the camera at you and says, “pay me now or pay me later.” Assuming we die in a state of grace, whatever purification we’ve left undone here, we will face after our death. Do you want to cooperate with God’s grace here and now, or in purgatory? It’s your call.

He who has little regard for bodily mortification, under the pretext that interior mortifications are much more perfect, demonstrates very clearly that he is not mortified either interiorly or exteriorly (St. Vincent de Paul).