Heaven is a Police State

[Shadow Wolf]

Trying to get what you mean, perhaps you are saying it matters how bad the thing is? That's my view. Murder is far worse than something like tax evasion, which itself is worse than small littering. This view also is aligned with how Christ spoke of wrongdoing, that some is more weighty than others. We are only saying the normal view of most all people on this though.

I don't add and subtract and needlessly compare and contrast. One crime is one crime, of course there is a difference betweem murder and theft, but a hundred thefts are a hundred separate and individual acts of theft, not one murder or anything equivalent to. Even a million acts of theft is still a million individual charges of theft. Such a person might be a kleptomaniac or petty theif, but they have still done nothing close to abduction or rape.

 

[halbhh]

I don't add and subtract and needlessly compare and contrast. One crime is one crime, of course there is a difference betweem murder and theft, but a hundred thefts are a hundred separate and individual acts of theft, not one murder or anything equivalent to. Even a million acts of theft is still a million individual charges of theft. Such a person might be a kleptomaniac or petty theif, but they have still done nothing close to abduction or rape.

Reasonable. Of course some thefts at times can be far more damaging than others, but in a more typical thefts I'd agree that most thefts are not nearly as bad as the worse crimes you point to.

 

[Thief]

What will be the basis for these thoughts and feelings if not the collection of data and modeling that occurs in a brain subjected to the specific conditions of your current experience? And how will this thinking and feeling experience be related to this dynamic collection of stuff that makes you up currently?

I believe we end up alongside others that think and feel the same way

How else to be happy?
How else to be fair?

 

[Muffled]

no wrath of God?

I believe not in Heaven. Plenty on earth.

 

[Muffled]

Because of we are on different wisdom level, we will have different understanding of how heaven is.

I believe I have the wisdom of God.

 

[Muffled]

Yes, your God condemns people on earth based on thought crime so I can assume heaven would be like a totalitarian dictatorship.

I believe for it to be a dictator ship one must be capable of doing wrong but that is not the case.

 

[Thief]

I believe I have the wisdom of God.

post as title of an op

good luck

 

[amorphous_constellation]

In Catholic doctrine, heaven is a state of supreme beatitude ("bliss") in which souls are 'liberated' from even the very memory of sin, inordinate cravings and attachments, suffering, ignorance and restless unfulfilment.

But then, satan/lucifer/the devil was traditionally a heavenly being that rebelled. Direct me to where you address this if you had, if you would. That it cannot be 'destroyed,' even in the book of revelation, seems to implicate that it is imperishable per the passages in Corinthians. That it could rebel indicates that it didn't attain the state of 'supreme beatitude,' despite probably being crafted into a spirit being, per Hebrews 1:7. As well, I think that the radical alteration of consciousness that you describe seems in conflict with the experience of 'earthly trials.' For if the canvas of experience and inclination is merely swept blank, or magnetized to some divine good, then what was the purpose of proving worth through physical travail? For the good and bad alike would not be able to deny the sway of such a doctrine, if it is true

 

[Vouthon]

But then, satan/lucifer/the devil was traditionally was a heavenly being that rebelled. Direct me to where you address this if you had, if you would. That it cannot be 'destroyed,' even in the book of revelation, seems to implicate that it is imperishable per the passages in Corinthians. That it could rebel indicates that it didn't attain the state of 'supreme beatitude,' despite being crafted into a spirit being. As well, I think that the radical alteration of consciousness that you describe seems in conflict with the experience of 'earthly trials.' For if the canvas of experience and inclination is merely swept blank, or magnetized to some divine good, then what was the purpose of proving worth through physical travail? For the good and bad alike would not be able to deny the sway of such a doctrine, if it is true

Insightful questions and commentary.

Yes, Satan and the other 'fallen divine beings' are understood as having been angels that did not yet enjoy this state of 'supreme beatitude' from the moment of their creation (as heavenly beings not yet partaking of the unmediated sight and enjoyment of the divine essence) when they were in a state of "wayfaring" (akin, in some sense, to humankind on earth before the 'fall' of our ancestors).

Some of these spiritual beings, apparently, freely surrendered their vocation towards beatitude because they wished to elevate themselves to being 'gods' beside God (despite being created and He the uncreated divine essence and ground of their existence) and dominate lesser beings:


Library : The Sons of God and the Sons of Perdition

Just like man, the Angels had to undergo a period of probation during which they were free to choose between good and evil. They were not yet confirmed in grace and they did not enjoy the Beatific Vision during this time. This was a period of existence like that of our first parents before their fall, insofar as they were wayfarers, living in faith and hope of those supernal truths and promises that God had revealed to them. During this time the Angels had the great opportunity to merit heaven and eternal life with God, but in the meantime they were exposed to the danger of committing sin and thereby losing God and heaven...The Fathers and the theologians are unanimous in admitting a period of probation for the Angels...

It is matter of faith that during their period of probation some of the Angels sinned and were condemned to hell. The fact that they did sin proves that there was a time in their existence when sin was possible. Since they could not sin in statu termini (the state of final consummation which excludes the possibility of further merit or demerit) they must have sinned in statu viae (the state of wayfaring or probation). This state is necessarily a state of faith and not of vision, of merit not of reward. Hence the existence of such a state of probation for the Angels is a firm theological conclusion.

How long did this probation last? Divine Revelation offers no answer to this question. The various opinions expressed on the subject by some theologians are pure speculations. They speak of one single instant, or the time required for the first act of love elicited by the Angels;9 or of two or three instants, or morulae,10 the first instant marking the act of creation and sanctification, the second referring to their perseverance or fall, the third to their reception into the glory of heaven or their damnation. Since we do not even know how long the period of probation of our first parents was, we should not presume to define the duration of the test imposed by the Lord on His Angels.
​

This 'moment(s) of probation' appears to be outside of human / temporal perceptions of space or time, such that it may even have been an 'instaneous' phenomenon i.e. the spiritual intelligences were created in a time before 'our' time and immediately chose to pursue 'supreme beatitude' or their own beatitude.

In my understanding, once you experience 'supreme beatitude' there is no going back to the world of 'becoming' and inordinate attachment to objects of sense-perception, for either angelic or human intelligence.

Most people do not experience a foreaste of their beatitude in this life (other than mystics experiencing the highest vision) and so will undergo, according to our doctrine, a state of 'purgation' in the next life before entering into the state of heaven.

For if the canvas of experience and inclination is merely swept blank, or magnetized to some divine good, then what was the purpose of proving worth through physical travail? For the good and bad alike would not be able to deny the sway of such a doctrine, if it is true

I will get to this in a bit (a more complicated question!)

 

[halbhh]

For if the canvas of experience and inclination is merely swept blank, or magnetized to some divine good, then what was the purpose of proving worth through physical travail?

On this part, I don't see how we could expect some kind of magnetization/re-write. Rather, perfection of the soul in the sense of removing blemishes from it or perhaps by transformation (such as by the impact of the indescribable effect of Him we will be with; the effect of His near presence), of the soul as it is, it remaining essentially itself, is what I'd expect -- these souls being souls that God had/or has now seen to be perfectible or to react well, to be well suited for that presence (and this in part because of some period of mortal experience it seems, for most, I speculate, in that suffering helps us to learn to love more fully).

 

[Vouthon]

As well, I think that the radical alteration of consciousness that you describe seems in conflict with the experience of 'earthly trials.' For if the canvas of experience and inclination is merely swept blank, or magnetized to some divine good, then what was the purpose of proving worth through physical travail? For the good and bad alike would not be able to deny the sway of such a doctrine, if it is true

OK, this is rather more complicated. But you asked, so cannot complain about the length of the response

Consider this answer on a Catholic website by a theologian:

We will have no need for our memory after our death, because we will see everything as the Lord sees things: eternally. We will see all previous historical events and all future historical events because of, as the Catechism states [this perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity — this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed.] — from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1024, on Heaven.​

Through our participation by grace in the divine nature, we will receive a mediated knowledge of all things needful for us to comprehend - a font of immediate apprehension of knowledge, the limits of which are 'unlimited' (because God is infinite and our enjoyment of Him, and knowledge in and through Him, therefore all without end). This includes knowledge of our lives on earth and of those we love, but as God sees these things. St. Paul said that: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Remember Meister Eckhart’s famous saying, speaking from the vantage point of a foretaste of supreme beatitude in this life:

"…The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love. To guage the soul we must guage it with God, for the Ground of God and the Ground of the Soul are one and the same. The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood there and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge…"

- Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 – c. 1327), Catholic Mystic & priest​

It is certainly a radical alteration of consciousness brought about by the image of the soul coming into direct and unmediated communion with its Exemplar (the Being that both created and patterned it after His own eternity, to share in life).

As a result of this state of 'assimilation to the divine essence' - which the Catholic tradition describes as the superessence of all (created) essences - the creature 'forgets' itself: by that I mean literal absorption to the extent of no longer being attached to even the concept of 'oneself' as a 'self' independent of God, the essence that the glorified soul shares with every other blessed soul in heaven.

The being of the individual soul is not annihilated (there is still an 'ideogenous_mover' and a 'Vouthon' in the state of supreme beatitude, in one sense of perception - a dvaita or dualism to use the language of the Vedantists) but we are so transmuted and uplifted that on a higher level of consciousness we no longer perceive anything but 'God' - not ourselves, not other people as 'others', not God as an 'object' and 'we' as a 'subject' in contradindiction to Him (an advaita, undifferentiated unity). This later perception is experiential and perceptual rather than ontological.

This process begins in purgatory (if a soul has not attained to supreme beatitude in this life through the most profound of all mystical experiences, it is possible):

“…They [the souls in purgatory] retain no memory of either good or evil respecting themselves or others which would increase their pain. They are so contented with the divine dispositions in their regard; and with doing all that is pleasing to God in that way which he chooses, that they cannot think of themselves, though they may strive to do so…”

- Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), Catholic mystic (Treatise on Purgatory)


“…The supreme perfection of man in this life is to be so united to God that all his soul with all its faculties and powers are so gathered into the Lord God that he becomes one spirit with him, and remembers nothing except God, is aware of and recognises nothing but God, but with all his desires unified by the joy of love, he rests contentedly in the enjoyment of his Maker alone…”

- St Albert the Great (1193 - 1280), Doctor of the Church & German Dominican
​

"...There follows a third kind of experience, namely, that we feel ourselves to be one with God, for by means of our transformation in God we feel ourselves to be swallowed up in the groundless abyss of our eternal blessedness, in which we can never discover any difference between ourselves and God...

This brightness is so great that the loving contemplative, in his ground wherein he rests, sees and feels nothing but an incomprehensible Light; and through that Simple Nudity which enfolds all things, he finds himself and feels himself to be that same Light by which he sees and nothing else. This resplendence is nothing other than an act of gazing and seeing which has no ground: What we are is what we see, and what we see is what we are, for our mind, our life, and our very being are raised up in a state of oneness and united with the truth that is God himself.

We feel no difference between ourselves and God, for we have been breathed forth in his love above and beyond ourselves and all orders of being...and in this loving and being loved we always feel a difference and a duality: this is the nature of eternal love. And there we find distinction and otherness between God and ourselves, and find God as an Incomprehensible One exterior to us. There in the mystical experience all is full and overflowing, for the spirit feels itself to be one truth and one richness and one unity with God. Yet here there is an essential tending forward, and therein is an essential distinction between the being of the soul and the Being of God; and this is the highest and finest distinction which we are able to feel...

In this transcendent state the spirit feels in itself the eternal fire of love; and in this fire of love it finds neither beginning nor end, and it feels itself one with this fire of love. The spirit for ever continues to burn in itself, for its love is eternal; and it feels itself ever more and more to be burnt up in love, for it is drawn and transformed into the Unity of God, where the spirit burns in love. If it observes itself, it finds a distinction and an otherness between itself and God; but where it is burnt up it is undifferentiated and without distinction, and therefore it feels nothing but unity; for the flame of the Love of God consumes and devours all that it can enfold in its Self..."

- Blessed Jan Van Ruysbroeck (1294-1381), Flemish Catholic mystic​

St. Paul claimed to have ascended in spirit to the apprehension of the Beatific Vision in this life through God's grace: "fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows...[I was] caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). And as a result of this transformation, Paul had 'died' to himself: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

Jesus described this state of being (undifferentiated perception of unity without attachment to self) in the Gospel of John: "John 14:20, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”, by chapter 17, in the context of the high priestly prayer, Jesus prays: "that they [all human beings] may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us...And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one".

(continued....)

 

[Vouthon]

Can you even begin to imagine that state of conscioiusness? Its an utterly superior form of knowing and being aware, without subject/object perception. The person is not annihilated, he or she is just so ennobled and uplifted as to be far, far above his/her current state such as to be unrecognisable.

So, its not as if the person would not be “aware” of his life on earth, its simply that he/she would be in perfect happiness and freedom from the individual human self, to the extent that he/she would have no need to cling to those memories, when all its desire is sated in and all of its attention is taken up by God, in whom is its whole beatitude and in whom it perceives all things (without ever reaching the 'limit').

Our loved ones beyond the grave can and do intercede for us (the Catholic belief in the 'intercession of saints'). They are aware of us according to the church. After all, love never ends: love is the very nature of God, the mutual self-emptying of the Three Persons. But everything else is transient without any permanence including our thoughts, feelings and emotions that fluctuate in life. They are not self, not “who we are” at our core, which we find only in God and not in ourselves.

Yet nothing is uniquely “ours” once we die in a state of grace. Everything is shared - with God, with the Communion of Saints. We retain our distinct being yet lose wholly the possesiveness of the individual self. We cling to nothing as our “own”, even I would guess “our” memories. Everything is for God and in God just as in God everything is shared between the Three Persons and nothing is “self”-possessed . That is why Catherine says that in the state of purgatory “everything to do with self passes away”.

Its just a wholly superior form of existence. It cannot really be 'expressed' verbally in any language categories known to mortal humans. This 'supreme beatitude' can only be experienced.

And until one experiences it, we remain "wayfarers" - both on this earth and in the state of purgation after death - until we are sufficiently purified of all inordinate attachments to the sense-perceptual world that we are ready to be 'god with God' / 'deified'.

Christ - in the Catholic conception - is the one and only 'person' that has always enjoyed unmediated apprehension of the divine essence, because He was begotten (in symbolic language) before time itself as the Wisdom/Word of God ('God from God') and thus existed from eternity in perfect oneness of being with His Father, through whom the Father created the universe and revealed himself to humankind.

But out of love for us - so the doctrine goes - he freely 'emptied' himself of this perfect enjoyment (not to lose it but to adopt human nature and enter into the world of 'fallen' sense-perception, joining the divine essence to a human essence) to take on human form and redeem us by showing supreme selflessness in his sacrifice on the cross of calvary, which thus enables human beings to "ascend" back with Him to heaven (supreme beatitude) just as He "descended" from it for our sakes (using analogical language, of course, for a mystery that is actually not 'spatial'). This is the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God.

St. Paul explained this in his letter to the Philippians:

"....Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,6
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of
death—
even death on a cross...."

(Philippians 2:3-9)

​

This ancient Christological hymn embedded within Paul's epistle to the church in Philippi, describes how the preexistent, eternally divine Christ freely relinquished his position of equality with God (enjoyment of the supreme beatitude), "emptying" himself by taking on the bodily form of a human peasant, the son of a carpenter and submitting himself to a slave's death on the cross, to bring the rest of humanity 'back' with him to the supreme beatitude.

I've tried to explain this as best as I can but it really is "inexpressible". We will know if/when it happens (either in this life or the world to come after death).

 

[MonkeyFire]

Heaven doesnt require cop violence. We just let inner peace do its thing.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

OK, this is rather more complicated. But you asked, so cannot complain about the length of the response

I don't mind that, as long as you have enough spaces in-between text blocks, and that you seem to do. So good, thanks. I'll read it later and possibly respond

On this part, I don't see how we could expect some kind of magnetization/re-write. Rather, perfection of the soul in the sense of removing blemishes from it or perhaps by transformation (such as by the impact of the indescribable effect of Him we will be with; the effect of His near presence), of the soul as it is, it remaining essentially itself, is what I'd expect -- these souls being souls that God had/or has now seen to be perfectible or to react well, to be well suited for that presence.

Well one part that is potentially misleading for me, to this end, are the statements in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, and others in that area. For how does the 'risen body' or 'soul' (shown here to synonymous, I would think) carry things with it that are perishable? The blemishes of sin seem to be of a fleshly perishable nature, and so souls that undergo a purgatory state seem to carry the perishable with the imperishable. It is as if these souls still have flecks of flesh on them that haven't fallen away. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the state of 'supreme beatitude,' where souls are in closest proximity to god, is the only place that is free of what is de facto perishable/fleshly? How can a soul have a stain

 

[Bird123]

God is in charge
the angels carry swords

and you will show up at the gate.....

expecting freedom?

You think too much like mankind. Ruling and controlling.

Everyone will make it to Heaven. On the other hand, one has to learn through many many lessons how to create a Heavenly state for oneself.

You are right. Until those lessons are learned one will not be able to create a Heavenly state.

People will live many many physical lifetimes learning and growing before Understanding is possible. To think it can all be learned in one mere lifetime is unrealistic.

Worry not, in time, you will get there, regardless of any beliefs you may or may not have.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[Thief]

Satan and the other 'fallen divine beings' are understood as having been angels that did not yet enjoy this state of 'supreme beatitude' from the moment of their creation

was it not God's Favored that led the rebellion?
Keeper of the Light

at the right hand of God
and yet fell from grace

I say.....if that can happen
There is no such thing as a secured position in the kingdom of God

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Consider this answer on a Catholic website by a theologian:


We will have no need for our memory after our death, because we will see everything as the Lord sees things: eternally. We will see all previous historical events and all future historical events

In that case, it seems that perception would become ahistorical. In such a context, there are no future events. And past events become part of an immobile landscape of sorts, having lost their movement backward. The universe becomes a museum. All that has happened or 'will' happen is frozen, and not even in a state of determinism which requires movement, but in a completely concluded state

The being of the individual soul is not annihilated

Very perplexing, this. What exactly is left that one can call one's own? If it is not annihilated, is it not brought as close to erasure as possible? The human form finds us so naturally very full of independence and responsibility, but soul-life seems to consist of border-less permeation. Perhaps at best, the you-ness becomes a fixed bike spoke point locked to a center, whereas now your cognition or telos is allowed to randomly graze free. In other words, this is as independent as you'll ever get.

On another note, if a married man and women become 'one flesh,' do they then produce one soul?

Can you even begin to imagine that state of conscioiusness? Its an utterly superior form of knowing and being aware, without subject/object perception. The person is not annihilated, he or she is just so ennobled and uplifted as to be far, far above his/her current state such as to be unrecognisable.

As people born into western culture, we are saddled with a constant lionization of materialism and the ego. So if we want to be fully honest with ourselves, this mode of living surely does not equip us at all for imagining anything of the sort. I for one, would have honestly chosen a different life among people who live in a far more 'eden' like state, in remotes mountains or jungles, where perhaps the proximity to the reality of the earth mother would never prompt the need for your question

which thus enables human beings to "ascend" back with Him to heaven (supreme beatitude) just as He "descended" from it for our sakes (using analogical language, of course, for a mystery that is actually not 'spatial').

Hm.. Are you sure that the existence of the Holy Spirit, or 3rd person, does not imply a spatial nature to things? I had listened to a podcast on the 3rd person from the bishop robert barron not long ago. The argument or explanation seemed to indicate that it was a connective or transporting force, which would seem to indicate a span of space to extend through

 

[Vouthon]

In that case, it seems that perception would become ahistorical. In such a context, there are no future events. And past events become part of an immobile landscape of sorts, having lost their movement backward. The universe becomes a museum. All that has happened or 'will' happen is frozen, and not even in a state of determinism which requires movement, but in a completely concluded state

I would say that 'museum' is not the right analogy, as it still implies a "before and after": objects displayed behind museum glass refer to the past. One is looking here outside the context of 'before and after' altogether:

"…Eternity is life that is beyond time but includes within itself all time but without a before or after. And whoever is taken into the Eternal Nothing possesses all in all and has no ‘before or after’.

Indeed a person taken within today would not have been there for a shorter period from the point of view of eternity than someone who had been taken within a thousand years ago…

Now these people who are taken within, because of their boundless immanent oneness with God, see themselves as always and eternally existing…"

- Blessed Henry Suso (c. 1296-1366), German Catholic mystic & Dominican priest (The Little Book of Truth). p320​

The knowledge enjoyed by the beatified through the vision of God is an "eternal now".

This state of existence is traditionally called “aeviternity” by theologians. It denotes a mode of existence experienced only by angels and by the saints in heaven, which is a form of “participated eternity,” to the extent that we share through Grace in the Divine Eternity or “timelessness”. This state lies between the eternity (timelessness) of God and the temporal experience of material beings - to us, for all intents and purposes, it is experienced as “no-time”.

Fr Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877 - 1964)
Life Everlasting
Heaven

…

That which the blessed see in God they do not see successively but simultaneously. The beatific vision, measured by participated eternity, does not tolerate succession. Things which the blessed see successively they see extra Verbum, by a knowledge inferior to the beatific vision and hence called the vision of evening whereas the beatific vision itself is like an eternal morning**.

Heavenly joy has a newness which cannot pass away. The first instant of the beatific vision lasts forever, like eternal morning, eternal spring, eternal youth. It resembles the eternal beatitude of God. God’s life is one unique instant of immutable eternity. He cannot grow old. He is not past or future, but eternally present. He contains eminently all successive events, as the summit of a pyramid contains all points at its base, as the view of a man placed on a mountain embraces the entire valley. Simultaneous totality: that is the definition of eternity.

As illustration, we may point to Mozart, who heard instantaneously and completely the melody he set out to compose. Similarly, great minds embrace their entire science with one sole glance.

The beatific vision of the saints is measured by the unique instant of immovable eternity. The joy of that instant will never pass away. Its newness, its freshness, will be eternally present. As the vision will be always new, so likewise the joy which flows from the vision.

The expression “eternal life,” everlasting life, means much more than future life. Future is only a part of time, which passes, which bears within itself a succession of moments. But eternal life is not measured by time, neither by solar time nor by spiritual time. Eternal life is measured by the unique instant of immovable eternity, an instant which cannot pass, which is like an eternal sunrise.

Theologians say that the eternal life of the blessed is measured by participated eternity. This participated eternity differs, without doubt, from that essential eternity which is proper to God. It differs, because it had a commencement at the moment of entry into heaven. But it will not end, and has not within itself any succession. It is truly the unique instant of immovable eternity. This instant is not dead, but sovereignly alive, because it fuses perfect intelligence and perfect love…

The blessed souls live above the reach of our hours and days and years. They live in one unique instant which does not pass...

Eternal joy, beatific love, is ineffable. If here on earth we are enchanted by the reflection of divine perfection in creatures, by the enchantments of the visible world, by the harmony of colors and sounds, by the immensity of the ocean, by the splendor of the starry heavens, and still more by the spiritual splendors revealed in the lives of the saints, what joy shall we feel when we see God, this creative center of life and of love, this infinite plenitude, eternally self-existent, from whom proceeds the life of creation!​

 

[halbhh]

...
Well one part that is potentially misleading for me, to this end, are the statements in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, and others in that area. For how does the 'risen body' or 'soul' (shown here to synonymous, I would think) carry things with it that are perishable? The blemishes of sin seem to be of a fleshly perishable nature, and so souls that undergo a purgatory state seem to carry the perishable with the imperishable. It is as if these souls still have flecks of flesh on them that haven't fallen away. Therefore, it seems that perhaps the state of 'supreme beatitude,' where souls are in closest proximity to god, is the only place that is free of what is de facto perishable/fleshly? How can a soul have a stain

Well, these things are mysterious in part at at least! (a 'mystery' can mean something above our understanding, or hard to find)
I usually think of "soul" as being the result or thing that comes from the combination or...embodiment, of the non-physical (at least in the ordinary way) spirit, the individual's spirit, into a body. Or maybe the soul is then what the spirit becomes after that embodiment?.... I don't know all things about this. (perhaps Vouthon could help from the rich theology he can draw on) But, being in a body, and tending to do both good actions and wrong actions, the soul becomes in need of cleansing, and there are many forms of cleansing, but for the most complete cleansing, or...restoration (?....), we can turn to the One Who is the great cleanser we know of, the Christ. It's sorta like we are to begin with, ahead of time, already ready for the transcendent, but...we always fail here, always walk away, and get lost, and then we need that guide Who can restore us.