This article appeared in abridged form in the Christian Universalist, February 2012, under another edited title.

The Maronites and Purgatory

By Stan Seidner Although a part of the Roman Catholic Church, the Maronites historical literature regarding purgatory offers a somewhat contradictory perspective. Purgatory, a Roman Catholic term, is not found in the Syriac Aramaic liturgy of the Maronite church. In itself, the Catechism of the Catholic Church had declared one needed cleansing before entering heaven.1 This theology underlying the catechism vacillated through the ages seeing purgatory either as a place, replete with cleansing flames, or as a condition of darkness for the soul. This theology appeared at odds with pronouncements about the afterlife by Syriac fathers. After the Maronites had affirmed their definitive consolidation of union with the Catholic Church in the 16th century, they faced the dilemma of reconciling their theology with that of Rome. Up through the present time, the Maronites have treaded softly over the issue of purgatory. Although the majority of current literature skips over the notion of purgatory, occasional references to it appear in a few Maronite publications, perhaps as a sign of obedience to Rome.2 We will see that this was not always the case. The Maronites themselves had derived their name from a priest and hermit, who many theologians of the time considered both ascetic and saintly.3 Maron had retreated to an area outside of the city of Antioch where he lived his life in poverty fasting and prayer. His example and miraculous healings resulted in a following of disciples. Over the years, Maron's adherents congealed into a sect and developed its own distinct Syriac Aramaic liturgy.4 Maronite traditions on salvation originated from Judaic and early Christian populations who had fled to Antioch.5 Maronite traditions on salvation descended from a distinct apostolic lineage from the
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This article appeared in abridged form in the Christian Universalist, February 2012, under another edited title.

church of Antioch.6 Established by Peter the Apostle, this early church became associated with the followers of Jesus Christ termed "Christians.7 The new center had incorporated Judaic traditions of offering atonement for the sins of the dead and God's mercy upon the departed. This spirituality stressed humanity as the children of God and heirs of Eternal Life. The emerging literature from Antioch declared the mystery and mercy of God. It rejected any boundaries placed upon Him by human kind and their restrictive use of language. God's revelation of himself in this world occurred through his self-emptying, which allowed the indescribable to become understandable. Humanitys inability to understand grace never restricted God's capability to allot it. By His divine breath, humanity became destined to safely arrive at the terminal harbor of salvation. So, we find within the Syrian liturgy, You have united, O Lord, your divinity with our humanity and our humanity with your divinity; your life with our mortality and our mortality with your life. You have assumed what is ours, and you have given us what is yours, for the life and salvation of our souls.8 This mystical imagery of the co-mixture part of the Communion ceremony projects a flow between God and humanity that remains unbroken. If this is so, then our journey home back to God becomes part of this unbreakable flow that suggests a guarantee of restoration for all. Since Christ has paid the ultimate price for our salvation, we need not be hindered by any painful transition as envisaged with the Catholic concept of purgatory. A Syriac hymn (qolo) declared that, God is with us; He is the God of salvation; he redeems all his children.9 Undoubtedly, those Jews who came to Antioch, brought with them similar imagery of salvation, such as the passage found in Isaiah 7: 14. They also foreshadowed current Roman

This article appeared in abridged form in the Christian Universalist, February 2012, under another edited title.

Catholic pronouncements on purgatory as one of internal struggle between the good instinct (yetzer hatov), and the evil instinct (yetzer hara).10 Those who adopted the new religion of Christianity attempted to infuse it with their theological reference points of the time.11 Antiochs Christian theologians had incorporated the Judaic traditions of offering atonement for the sins of the dead and God's mercy upon the departed.12 Syriac hymns, such as the howfro dnooro (for the faithful departed,) echoed such traditions.13 For some sects of Judaism, resurrection had a definite appeal and possibility. Both Jews and Christians of Antioch drew upon Hebrew and Aramaic Scripture in support of resurrection and reconciliation with God.14 Syriac perspectives of the dead included notions taken from Judaism from a time that preceded the fall of the Second Temple. The Jews referred to the house of the dead as the residing area of the deceased awaiting resurrection. The emerging Christian Scriptures made repeated references to the Hebraic Sheol and gehennom.15 Both terms have been widely utilized in Maronite literature. Syriac Aramaic writings similarly used the term house of the dead (beyt meyta).16 The Peshitta uses this phrase in such passages as, Alaha abohi haw d'aqyameh min beyt meyta.17 During this transition of Judaic influence upon Syriac theological thought, no interim level between death and salvation blocked the path to God's mercy.18 Scripture considered the process toward reconciliation, at times, to include darkness along the path of salvation.19 Along this path, human kind contemplated the true nature of its sins. In this version of separation, humanity assigned to this level became aware of God but was entirely detached from Him. The "separation anxiety" that resulted from this awareness of distance from God essentially made the voyage of salvation easier for its travelers.20 This separation from God became more of a journey rather than a place of cleansing fire. We find in the Qurbono (Offering), that the Promion of the Hoosoyo (Prayer of Forgiveness) infers a promise of
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This article appeared in abridged form in the Christian Universalist, February 2012, under another edited title.

illumination for those who are lost on their journey: He enlightened those who sit in darkness, and with the brightness of his splendor, he gives joy to all creatures.21 No final theosis or the deification of humanity could be said of this journey, since, even for the dead, the only perfection exists in and with God. Any thoughts of universal reconciliation with God seemed anathema to Rome. Origen and Clement of Alexandria had envisaged that the soul of the departed would be made to learn all the things it had rejected while residing in human form. This happened through the efforts of Angels, who acted as mentors and provided unlearned lessons. The process continued until the soul acquired sufficient knowledge and had been purified enough to ascend closer to God.22 Origen clearly believed that all rational souls were able to be saved, including Satan and his minions.23 He also argued: For the destruction of the last enemy must be understood in this way, not that its substance which was made by God shall perish, but that the hostile purpose and will which proceeded, not from God but from itself, will come to an end. It will be destroyed, therefore, not in the sense of ceasing to exist, but of being no longer an enemy and no longer death. For to the Almighty nothing is impossible, nor is anything beyond the reach of cure by its maker.24 Another and earlier Clement of Alexandria spoke of heaven in terms of a journey in which the soul ascended by means of an internal ladder and progressively transformed itself. The sanctified moved from plane to plane and from one joy to another.25 This precursor of Origen and heir to Philo supported the doctrine of the infinite development of man toward God.26 No intermediate state such as purgatory existed between heaven and hell. Early Syriac Aramaic fathers wrote of the restoration of all human kind, from the first Adam onwards. Death becomes a passage from life on earth to life in glory.27 St. Ephrem the Syrian had written in his fifth hymn, "Likewise, death, too, is for the world a symbol of birth, and yet people weep because they are born out of this world... into the garden of
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This article appeared in abridged form in the Christian Universalist, February 2012, under another edited title.

splendors.28 In a later hymn, Ephrem inferred an ultimate reconciliation with God: "Weary not, my brethren, nor suppose that your struggle will last long, or that your resurrection is far off, for our death is already behind us, and our resurrection before us."29 The journey to paradise took shape as the nonstop voyage from death to resurrection. Syriac writers such as Ephrem and St. Isaac the Syrian believed in the surety of ultimate reconciliation from the promise of God who had sacrificed his Son. The visions of the Syriac fathers coincided more with that of Origen and Clement.30 St. Isaac the Syrian declared: Sin, Gehenna, and Death do not exist at all with God, for they are effects, not substances. Sin is the fruit of free will. There was a time when sin did not exist, and there will be a time when it will not exist. Gehenna is the fruit of sin. At some point in time it had a beginning, but its end is not known. Death, however, is a dispensation of the wisdom of the Creator. It will rule only a short time over nature; then it will be totally abolished. Satans name derives from voluntarily turning aside [the Syriac etymological meaning of Satan] from the truth; it is not an indication that he exists as such naturally.31 In conclusion, a rejection of purgatory, as well as an acceptance of universal reconciliation, could be found in the antecedent literature of the Maronite church. There is no argument from either Eastern or Western theologians that a solitary human could know the mind or will of God. The Church Fathers knew this in their humility to discern the destiny of His creation. Perhaps for this reason, the Maronite church has maintained its relative silence pertaining to the relegation of souls to human made categories such as purgatory. Indeed, if death is a transition and part of an eternal continuity, as stated eloquently by Syriac mystics, it also lends credence to an afterlife for all humanity.

Notes:
1

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition (New York:, N.Y.: Random House, 1997), 1031, 1472, 1475, 1498.
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This article appeared in abridged form in the Christian Universalist, February 2012, under another edited title.

For example, The Most Holy Trinity Monastery, "The Act of Dying Well," Newsletter of The Maronites Monks of the Adoration, March, 2 002,2-3; Anthony Salim, Captivated by Your Teachings: A Resource Book For Adult Maronite Catholics (Tucson, AZ.: E. T. Nedder publishing, 2002), 174-175.
3

Paul Naaman, The Maronites: The Origins of an Antiochene Church (Collegeville, MN.: Liturgical press, 2011), 53-58; Joseph F. Kaddo, The Maronite Catholic Church (Glen Allen, VA.: St. Maron Publications, 2002), 10-12; Wadih Peter Tayah, The Maronites (Miami, FL.: Bet Maroon Publishers, 1987), 18-23.
4

Naaman, 54-64, 131-132; William Macomber, The Maronite and Chaldean Versions of the Anaphora of the Apostles, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 37 (1971), 55-84; William Macomber, A Theory on the Origins of the Syrian, Maronite and Chaldean Rites, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 39 (1973), 235-342; Harald Suermann, Maronite Historiography and Ideology, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 54, 3-4 (2002), 129-148.
5

Seely J. Beggiani, The Divine liturgy of the Maronite Church: History and Commentary (New York, N.Y.: St. Maron publications, 1998),4-8; Guita G. Hourani and Antoine B. Habchi, The Maronite Eremitical Tradition: A Contemporary Revival, Heythorp Journal 45 (2004): 452-455.
6

Seely J. Beggiani, Early Syriac Theology. With special reference to the Maronite Tradition (Lanham: University Press of America, 1983), chs. 1-2.
7

Acts 11:26; also, acts 12; Raymond E. Brown, and John P. Meier, Antioch and Rome (Ramsey, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1983), 12-13.
8

Qurbono (The Book of Offerings): The Service of the Holy Mysteries According to the Antiochene Syriac Maronite Church-Season of Glorious Pentecost (Brooklyn, N.Y.: St. Maron Publications, 1994), 227.
9

Qurbono: Season of Glorious Resurrection (1994), 9.

10

For example, Deut. 6:4; 28:9; Joshua 22:5; Ps. 144: 10; Isa. 12: 1-3; 43: 11; Jeremiah 44:23; Ezekiel 5:6-7; Daniel 9:10; Micah 4:2; Mishnah Abot 1: 1; 1: 2; 1:14; Sukkah 4:9; 5:1; also, Paul Garnet, Salvation and Atonement in the Qumran Scrolls (Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1977), 41-106; also, pronouncements by Pope John Paul II on purgatory in L' Osservatore Romano (Weekly Edition in English), Aug. 7, 1999.
11

Robert R. Hann, Judaism and Jewish Christianity in Antioch: Charisma and Conflict in the First Century, Journal of Religious History, 14, 4 (1987), 341360. Paul W. Barnett, Jewish Mission in the Era of the New Testament and the Apostle Paul, in Peter Bolt, and Mark Thompson, eds., The Gospel to the Nations: Perspective on Pauls Mission (Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity, 2000), 263 283; Robinson contends that the Christian community in Antioch saw itself as quite separate and distinct from Judaism. Thomas A. Robinson, .Ignatius of Antioch and
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the Parting of the Ways: Early Jewish-Christian Relations. (Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009) 29-89.
12

See, for example, 2 Mc. 12:42-46; also, Tit. 3: 5.

13

Mansour N. Labaky, Cedars of Lebanon: Hymns of the Maronite Catholic Church. Antiochene Eastern Catholic Rite (Cincinnati, OH.: World Library Publications, 1970), 46.
14

"I apportion death and give life" (Deut. 33:6). The Lord dispatches and resurrects; He brings down to Sheol and raises up." 1 Sam. 2:6;).; "To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, and those who reside in darkness from the prison house." Isa. 42:7; As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the abyss without water."Zech. 9: 11.
15

For example, Matt. 5:29, 30; 23:33; 25: 34; Mk. 9:43-48; Lk. 12: 5; 16: 23; Jn. 2:2, Eph. 4: 8-9; Acts. 2: 27; Jms. 3: 6; Rev. 20: 11-15.
16

Acts 17:2 Meshiha was to suffer and to rise from the house of the dead.

17

but by Y'shua the Messiah and Elohim, the Father, who raised him from the house of the dead.
18

See Isa. 42: 16; Jn. 8:12.

19

Sara J. Denning-Bolle, Gregory of Nyssa: The Soul in Mystical Flight, Greek Orthodox Theological Review 34, 2 (1989), 97-116; Albert Kees Geljon, Divine infinity in Gregory of Nyssa and Philo of Alexandria, Vigiliae christianae 59, 2 (2005), 152-177.
20

St John Chrysostom, Eastern Bishop of about wrote of our offerings for the dead, to bring them 'consolation'. St John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 41:5; Homilies on Philippians 3:9-10; also, Cyril of Alexandria, Catechetical Lectures 23:5:9.
21

Qurbono: Season of Glorious Pentecost (1994), 40 41.

22

Itter took issue with Clements apocatastasis, as total salvation: "Clement uses the term apokatastasis and its cognates generally to refer to the gnostic elect rather than to an eschatological restoration of the universe, or to a restoration of the faithful as a whole. Andrew C. Itter Esoteric teaching in the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 200.
23

Origin, Contra Celsum 4. 99; see also Constantinos A. Patrides, The Salvation of Satan, Journal of the History of Ideas, 28, 1 (October-December 1967), 467-478.
24

Origin, Peri Archon 3.6.5; also, 1.8.3; Crouzel, Origen: On First Principles (Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1973: xxxix-xl; Gerard Watson, Souls and bodies in Origen's Peri Archon, Irish Theological Quarterly 55, 3 173-192; Lisa R. Holliday, Will Satan Be Saved? Reconsidering
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Origens Theory of Volition in Peri Archon, Vigiliae Christianae 63, 1 (2009), 1-23 Centuries late, he was condemned by a number of church councils.
25

Bogdan G. Bucher, "The Other Clement of Alexandria: Cosmic Hierarchy and Interiorized Apocalypticism," Vigiliae Christianae 60 (2006), 251-268.
26

Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa,, Paradosis: Esoteric Traditions in Early Christianity, in Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism (Leiden/New York/Cologne: Brill, 1996), 42-43. Also, Stroumsas article Clement, Origen, and Jewish Esoteric Traditions, in Hidden Wisdom, 109-131.
27

The cross is a lighthouse scattering the darkness that death brings, for the face of the Savior lights the way and leads us on to his place of joy.Mazmooro [For the Faithful Departed], Ginnazat (The Book of Funeral Rites) (Staten Island, N.Y.: St. Maron Publications, 1989), 22.
28

St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise. Translated by Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vadimirs Seminary, 1990), V, 14.
29

Ibid., VII. 2.

30

For example, Ephrem writes in his Hymn on Light: His glory shines upon the world and enlightens the very depths of the abyss. Death is annihilated, night has vanished, and the gates of Sheol are broken.; see also Sebastion P. Brock, trans. The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. Cistercian studies series 101. (Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA: Cistercian, 1987), 40 54, 67-77.
31

St. Isaac the Syrian, The Ascetical Homilies . Trans. by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, revised 2nd Edition(Brookline, MA: Transfiguration Monastery, 2011) , Hom. 27; however, he later appears to backtrack with, I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna, are scourged by the scourge of love., Hom. 28; also, St. Isaac the Syrian, The Wisdom of St. Isaac the Syrian. Translated by Sebastian Brock (Oxford, England; SLG Press, 2007), Hom. 26 B.