CHAPTER 12 b 1/2 There is a Purgatory?   We hadn't really thought about what it was we were stepping into, but when we landed, we weren't too happy. It looked like we had entered a prison complex. There was a man waiting for us. There was something comforting about him. Something loving, and knowing. "Welcome," he whispered softly like a bird cooing. "Oh, brother," Bo muttered as our robed host motioned for us to follow him into the complex. The man spoke as we walked along. "You will remain in Purgatory for seven days and you must stay in your room at all times." "Oh, great," Bo grumbled. "Life plus seven days in this dump. Hey," he called, yanking on the flowing robes. "This purgatory thing. It's just some Catholic rhetoric. It's not even in the Bible, not that that means anything to me." The man ignored him. "Come, my sons." "What are you supposed to be my father, or something," Bo snickered. Honestly, sometimes that Bo is a real devil's advocate! "I AM the Holy Spirit..." our robed host said quietly. "You? You're just a person," Bo laughed. "Jack here has it pretty well proven that there probably isn't a God, but if there were a God he'd be a deity. He'd be an Everythingness. Not matter or energy, but an Ultimate Consciousness..." Our host said nothing as we walked along. It felt like we had been walking forever. My mind was a blank. I just felt a gentle peace. But Bo's thoughts were in overdrive. "So, let's get this straight," he mumbled. "We're in Purgatory..." He looked over at me. "Well, come on Jack, figure it out, would you!" I walked along, without a word. Without a thought. Bo clicked his tongue, extremely annoyed. "Well, Jack here ain't talking. But I ain't spending seven days here. My time is precious; I only exist in his brief, bizarre dream, you know. So. We spend seven days, big guy. What, then we go to Heaven, or to Hell, right?" "Not in this scenario," I whispered. Somehow I knew. "Jack is right," the Holy Spirit sighed peacefully. "You will pass through Three Levels. This is the First. On the Second Level you will meet the Son, and on the Last Level you will meet the Father. All the while you will become purer, and purer as you examine your life and figure out how you should have done things. By the time you reach the Third Level, you will be the person you should have been." "So, what then, we get rewarded with eternal Heaven?" Bo sneered. "After the Seven Days, life will end in bliss." "What's the point of the seven days, then?" "People always regret things they've done in their lives. This gives them a chance to find peace by learning to live the way they've always longed to. My poor son, Jack, here, only passed with a D, you know." Part of me knew this was all a dream, but it felt so real, so finite. And yet I wasn't afraid. "What about Jill?" I whispered with teary eyes. I needed to know. "I can't tell you that," the Holy Spirit sighed. "Please," I begged. "Oh, tell the dummy, would you!" Bo groaned. "Well, she gets a B+." I felt happy. I sighed. I gave in. We met Jesus as we passed to the Second Level. And God, the Father on the Third. They seemed like mere men. Wise teachers, perhaps, but God? "We have manifested ourselves in a way that you can understand," they explained. I moved sheepishly along. Bo, however, was laughing the entire time. "Come on, Jack, tell them this is impossible. Let's get out of here!" But it seemed so real to me. "Jack, you were such an angry young man," Bo pleaded. "You longed to love God all your life, but you couldn't believe in him, because you knew that if you did, you'd hate him for the way the world was. The way HE made it. Don't play this crazy game. Don't give in to them. Snap out of it!" We sat together in our room on the Third Level. I felt pure. I felt forgiven. My life was complete. Bo was pacing the room, staring in horror at the clock. "Three minutes to go. Then it'll all be over. Life will end in 'eternal bliss', whatever the Hell that means!" Bo growled. He ran over and started shaking me. "Please Jack, get us out of here. Your whole life has been a Purgatory. You've been waiting and waiting for something that never came. Stand up and fight this. It's wrong. It's not fair. Don't be led like a sheep to the slaughter. If this scenario is right, then God is wrong. Life is too cruel. You can't give in to that kind of God!" My mind was drifting in the clouds. "What should I do then, Bo? Be cruel like life as a protest to the God that created it. No thanks, pal. That's what I call giving up." I sighed. "Should I be good, to try and prove that I'm good?" Bo's fists were clenched. His face was beet red. "What good can a man do in his lifetime? Does it really make any difference? Countless good people have tried -- the world is still the same...But you live and try because you're alive, and because you CAN make a difference in your own life and in the lives of those around you, not to prove something to a God who doesn't exist." I wasn't even listening. I was totally swept up in a wave of purging warmth. "Even if I tried to be a good person, I could never be totally good. How can mortal good compare to the immortal that created goodness. I could never say, 'see I'm better than God,' or worthy or...No, I have lived as best I could. I have made many mistakes, but now I am forgiven." Bo shook me. "No, Jack. It's wrong. Say it's wrong." The clock rang and it all melted away. Table of Contents | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter