Annotation CCII, Whether all the saints must be purged by the fire of the conflagration (Psalm 118:20)

Annotatio CCII

”My soul hath coveted to desire thy judgments.” — Psalm 118:20

Hilary, in the commentaries on the Psalms, appending an interpretation to this little verse, seems to intimate that all men — however holy, and Mary herself too, the Mother of God — must be expiated from [their] sins by the pain and punishment of fire in the conflagration of the last judgment.¹ For these things are written by him: “The Prophet remembers that it is arduous to desire the judgment; for since no living [man] is clean in [God’s] sight, how can the judgment be desirable, in which that unwearied fire must be undergone by us — in which those grave punishments, to be expiated from the sins of the soul, must be undergone? A sword passed through the soul of blessed Mary, that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed:² if, therefore, that Virgin of God, [full of] capacity, is to come into the severity of the judgment, who will dare to desire to be judged by God?” See above, Annotations 170 and 171.