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We Already May Be in Purgatory

The Peterson Postulate

“What if this life is just a test so we can become better people?”

—The White Lotus HBO TV series

What if God has sent us all to Purgatory?
It’s our second chance in His Reformatory.
Here, we toil and strive while He is watching us.
Normal life in fact is a test ingenious.

We all face temptations that we must reject,
Only then becoming one of His elect.
Being good and faithful that’s how He’ll surely tell,
Whether we’re meant for Heaven or for flames in Hell.

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LTC Roy E. Peterson, US Army Military Intelligence and Russian Foreign Area Officer (Retired) has published more than 6,200 poems in 88 of his 112 books. He has been an Army Attaché in Moscow, Commander of INF Portal Monitoring in Votkinsk, first US Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia and Regional Manager in the Russian Far East for IBM. He holds a BA, Hardin-Simmons University (Political Science); MA, University of Arizona (Political Science); MA, University of Southern California (Int. Relations) and MBA University of Phoenix. He taught at the University of Arizona, Western New Mexico University, University of Maryland, Travel University and the University of Phoenix.

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4 Responses

  1. Russel Winick

    Yes Roy, every day is a test. I appreciate the reminder of that. Thanks for the read.

    Reply
  2. David Paul Behrens

    Religion Question

    Christians and Muslims all agree,
    There will be a judgement day.
    If I could ever question God,
    Here is one thing I may just say:

    “In case we do not pass your test,
    In the course of the human race;
    If we could fail and burn in hell,
    Why create us in the first place?”

    Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    When I was an undergraduate, a Jesuit Theology professor told the class that some modern Catholic theologians had made the suggestion that Purgatory need not be a place of hellish torments, but rather a chance to “re-experience” the situations and occasions of your past sins, and live through them again and make better decisions as to how you should act. He said that this was just a speculation, and not a doctrinal challenge to the ordinary Catholic teaching on this subject.

    As early as the Patristic period, there was some debate as to whether Hell was a place or a condition. Instead of thinking of the afterlife in terms of physical locations (far up in the sky for Heaven, or deep below the surface of the earth for Hell), one might very plausibly assume that these “places” were states of the soul. A condition of utter separation from God, with no chance of happiness, could just as well be an inescapable “hellish” state, while the condition of being perpetually in the presence of God and enjoying the Beatific Vision did not necessarily demand a specific “location.”

    Dante’s Commedia tries to finesse the point, by making hell an actual place (a deep funnel of descending “circles” going down into the bowels of the earth), and also a condition, because the souls suffering in these circles receive “condign punishment” that matches and befits the nature of their terrible sins. The funnel says that hell is a place, while the variations in punishments say that the torments inflicted there are calibrated to the “conditions” of the souls.

    Reply

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