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Most people would agree that Britain is a divided nation at the moment as the Brexit saga continues to split public opinion. Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg this week grabbed the headlines by saying after the latest votes that the Brexit deal is in purgatory. Purgatory’s one of those words adopted from religion into common parlance and has come to mean torment. Some people might argue that it’s not Brexit itself suffering that torment but the nation as the issue drags on. Yet the theology behind purgatory suggests the place is actually about something else, and it isn’t a lesser version of hell. Catholic theology certainly says it’s an in-between place for those not so much saints as sinners but not deserving of eternal damnation. It’s not discussed that much today. In contemporary spirituality, the emphasis is more on a God of mercy and forgiveness rather than judgement. At the time of Dante, the Italian 14th century author of the Divine Comedy, there was far more concern about judgement, and heaven, hell and purgatory. Dante was heavily influenced by the Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas and imagined in his Comedy travelling through these realms of the dead. Dante’s focus throughout the Divine Comedy is love – God as the embodiment of love and humanity’s aspirations to love or its lack of it. Those in purgatory, according to this theology, have abused love, and have been vengeful, or envious, full of pride or greed, or they have used other people. But even in medieval thought, purgatory isn’t so much about torment but about purging or cleansing. It’s a temporary place and there is one route out – to something better; to paradise. Contemporary Catholic thinking emphasizes even more this preparation for heavenly joy. It was something that also mattered to John Henry Newman, canonized two weeks ago. In his poem The Dream of Gerontius that was set to music by Elgar, Newman imagines Gerontius taken to see God, and realizing that he is utter goodness and love. Gerontius then recognizes how flawed he is, and Newman writes of this being his “veriest, sharpest purgatory”. So cleansing, healing purgatory is about revelation, an understanding of truth. In contrast, Newman and Elgar imagined damnation or hell as being perpetually caught up in anger and frustration. I suspect many people feel that our country has been caught up in such anger and frustration for a very long time. So if the Brexit deal is in purgatory it might mean that the end is at last in sight. Though whether this will lead to an understanding of truth is another matter entirely.