Every mortal sin has an intensity of evil that cannot be measured, inasmuch as it is a deliberate and wilful offence against a God of infinite holiness, Our Lord, by the satisfaction of infinite value He offered for sin, saved us from the eternal punishment which is incurred by each mortal sin. But the Divine justice requires, on our part, that we should suffer in some way a penalty, that at least reflects in its intensity something of the intensity of the evil of mortal sin. Either in this life or in Purgatory, man must expiate each single sin committed.

Venial sin has also in it an intensity of evil that we do not understand. It is a greater evil than all the physical evil, all the misery, all the pain in the whole world. We too often overlook venial sin in our acts of contrition, we forget its baseness, meanness, treachery. Our hands are not clean when we appear before God, and we do not trouble ourselves to cleanse them. Hence, we have to be cleansed in the searching fires of Purgatory, that God's justice may be vindicated.

How few there are who, when they come to die, have learned to hate sin as those must who are to appear before God in Heaven. They still cling to the things of earth, and prefer them in some way to that which they know God desires of them, "O Death!" says the Wise Man, "how terrible thou art to the man who has peace in his possessions." For such an one there is also a terrible Purgatory, for this sort of peace is sure to involve many venial sins that have passed almost unnoticed. Pray for a wholesome fear of the just judgments of God.