The Pain of Purgatory: How Much Worse is it than Earthly Suffering? - Part 2

How bad is Purgatory actually? 

Saint Thomas when treating of Purgatory has sobering things to say. He believes that the least suffering in Purgatory is greater than the greatest suffering on earth. What does that mean practically? Well, if Thomas is correct, then the pains of Saint Lawrence and Saint Sebastian during their martyrdoms would be more pleasant than even the least painful place in Purgatory. 

He says this: 

…In purgatory there are two punishments: one of loss, namely, inasmuch as souls are held back from the divine vision; the other, of sense, according as they are punished by corporeal fire. 

And in both, the least punishment of purgatory exceeds the greatest punishment of this life. 

For the more something is desired, the more troubling is its absence. 

And because the affection by which the highest good is desired in holy souls after this life is the most intense, since the affection is not held back by the weight of the body, and since the enjoyment of the highest good would have arrived by then had nothing impeded it; 

for these reasons they suffer extremely from this delay.

There are two main sufferings in Purgatory and if Thomas is correct, both of them are worse than any earthly suffering. The punishments are:

1. The Punishment of Loss

This Punishment is caused by the intense desire that the soul has for God. Psalm 42:1-2 puts it this way: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I enter and see the face of God?” This is the most painful part of Purgatory, namely that you thirst to see the Face of God and yet you are not yet permitted. 

2. Punishment by Corporeal Fire

The souls in Purgatory are punished by real physical fire. The way in which an immaterial soul is punished by corporeal fire would require its own article, but suffice it for now to know that the souls in Purgatory will be saved, as Saint Paul says, through fire.

Reference: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~Sent.IV.D21.Q1.A1.Q3.2

Here is a prayer for the souls in Purgatory by St. Gertrude.

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.