Glorified Body and Beatific Vision
Glorified Body and Beatific Vision
The vision of God in His essence The created intellect will see God in His essence and not in any mere likeness. In the latter kind of vision, the object understood may be at a distance from the present intellect (as a stone is present to the eye by its likeness, but is absent in substance). But, as was seen above, '*! God's very essence is in some mysterious way united to the created intellect, so that God may be seen just as He is.
Thus, when we arrive at our last end, what was formerly believed about God will be seen, and what was hoped for as absent will be closely embraced as present. This is called comprehension, according to the expression used by the Apostle in Philippians 3:12: "I follow after, if | may by any means apprehend."'® This is not to be understood in the sense that comprehension implies all-inclusive knowledge, but in the sense that it denotes the presence and a certain clasping of what is said to be comprehended.
187C£ chap. 105.
188 Vulgate: "si quomodo comprehendam."
Aquinas's Shorter Summa
Supreme perfection and happiness in the vision of God Moreover, delight is engendered by apprehension of a suitable good: sight rejoices in beautiful colors and taste in sweet savors.
But this delight of the senses can be prevented if the organ is indisposed: light that delights healthy eyes annoys sore eyes. However, since the intellect does not understand by employing a bodily organ, as we saw above," no sorrow mars the delight that consists in the contemplation of truth. Of course, sadness can indirectly attend the mind's contemplation, when the object of truth is apprehended as harmful. Thus knowledge of truth may delight the intellect even while the object known may sadden the will, not precisely because the object is known but because its action is pernicious. God, however, by the fact that He exists, is truth. So the intellect that sees God must rejoice in the vision of Him.
Besides, God is goodness itself, which is the cause of love. So God's goodness must be loved by all who apprehend it. Although a thing that is good may not awaken love or even be hated, this is because it is apprehended as harmful rather than good. Thus, in the vision of God, who is goodness and truth itself, there must be love or joyous fruition, no less than comprehension. This accords with Isaiah 66:14: "You shall see and your heart shall rejoice."
Conftrmation in good in the Beatific Vision This enables us to understand that the soul which sees God — and the same is true of any other spiritual creature — has its will firmly
189C£ chap. 79.
Glorified Body and Beatific Vision fixed in Him, so that it can never turn to what is opposed to Him.
For, since the object of the will is the good, the will cannot incline to anything whatever unless it exhibits some aspect of good. Any particular good may be wanting in some perfection, which the knower is then free to seek in another quarter. Therefore the will of him who beholds some particular good need not rest content with its possession but may search farther afield beyond its orbit.
But God, who is universal good and very goodness itself, is not lacking in any good that may be sought elsewhere, as was shown above.'" And so those who enjoy the vision of God's essence cannot turn their will from Him, but must rather desire all things in subordination to Him.
Something similar occurs in the process of understanding. Our mind, when in doubt, turns this way and that until it reaches a first principle; then the intellect must come toa halt. Since the end has the same function in the field of desire that a principle has in the matter of understanding, the will can veer in opposite directions until it comes to the knowledge or fruition of the last end, in which it must rest. The nature of perfect happiness would be contradicted if man, after achieving it, could turn to what is opposed to it. For then fear of losing happiness would not be wholly excluded and so desire would not be completely satisfied. Hence Revelation 3:12 says of the blessed person that "he shall go out no more."
Complete subjection of the body to the soul The body is for the soul, as matter is for form and a tool for the craftsman. Thus, at the resurrection when eternal life is attained,
1CF chap. 21.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa God will join to the soul a body such as befits the beatitude of the soul; for whatever exists for the sake of an end, must be duly disposed according to the demands of the end. A soul that has attained the highest intellectual activity cannot properly have a body that would in any way impede or burden it. But the human body, by reason of its corruptibility, does obstruct and slow down the soul, so that the soul can neither devote itself to uninterrupted contemplation nor reach the heights of contemplation.
This is why men are able to grasp divine truths more readily when they rise above the bodily senses. And so prophetic revelations are made to men when asleep or when they are lost in mental ecstasy, as we read in Numbers 12:6: "If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision or I will speak to him in a dream." Therefore the bodies of risen saints will not be corruptible and will not burden down the soul, as they do now. On the contrary, they will be incorruptible and will be wholly obedient to the soul, so as not to resist it in any way whatever.
Qualities of the glorified body This doctrine gives us an insight into the condition of the bodies of the blessed. The soul is both the form and the motive force of the body. In its function as form, the soul is the principle of the body, not only as regards the body's substantial being but also as regards its proper accidents, which arise in the subject from the union of form with matter. The more dominant the form is, the less can any outside cause interfere with the impression made by the form on matter. We see this verified in the case of fire, whose form, generally accounted the noblest of all elementary forms, confers on fire the power of not being easily diverted from its natural disposition by the influence emanating from any cause.
Glorified Body and Beatific Vision Since the blessed soul, owing to its union with the first principle of all things, will be raised to the pinnacle of nobility and power, it will communicate substantial existence in the most perfect degree to the body that has been joined to it by divine action. And thus, holding the body completely under its sway, the soul will render the body subtile and spiritual. The soul will also bestow on the body a most noble quality, namely, the radiant beauty of clarity. Further, because of the influence emanating from the soul, the body's stability will not be subject to alteration by any cause, which means that the body will be impassible. Lastly, since the body will be wholly submissive to the soul (as a tool is to him who plies it), it will be endowed with agility. Hence the properties of the bodies belonging to the blessed will be these four: subtility, clarity, impassibility, and agility.
This is the sense of the Apostle's words in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44: In death the body "is sown in corruption; it shall rise in incorruption." This refers to impassibility. "It is sown in dishonor; it shall rise in glory." This refers to clarity. "It is sown in weakness; it shall rise in power." Hence, it will have agility. "It is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual body." In other words, it will be endowed with subtility.
Renovation of man and of material nature It is manifest that all things existing for some definite end are disposed in an order required by the end. Therefore, if that to which other things are related as means can vary from perfect to imperfect, the means subordinated to it must be subject to parallel variation, so as to serve the end in either state. Food and clothing, for instance, are prepared otherwise for a child than for a grown man.
We have already called attention to the fact that material creation
Aquinas's Shorter Summa is subordinated to rational nature as to its end.'"' Consequently, when man is admitted to his final perfection after the resurrection, material creation must take on a new condition. This is why we are told that the world is to undergo renovation when man rises, as is taught in Revelation 21:1: "I saw a new Heaven and a new
Earth," and in Isaiah 65:17: "For behold, I create new heavens and a new Earth."
Renovation restricted to certain classes of creatures However, we should remember that the different kinds of material creatures are subordinated to man in different ways. Plants and animals serve man by aiding him in his weakness, in the sense that they supply him with food, clothing, transportation, and like conveniences, whereby human feebleness is strengthened. But in the final state that comes after the resurrection, all such defects will be eliminated from man. Men will no longer need food to eat, since they will be incorruptible, as we have pointed out.'"" Nor will men need garments to cover their nakedness, because they will be clothed with the radiance of glory. Nor will they require animals to carry them, as they will be endowed with agility. Nor will they need medicines to keep them in health, since they will be impassible. In that state of final consummation, therefore, as we should expect, there will be no material creatures of this kind, namely, plants and animals and other like mixed bodies.
But the four elements — fire, air, water, and earth — are for man not only as regards the utility of bodily life, but also as regards the composition of his body. The human body is made up of these
MLCE chap. 148.
12CE£ chap. 168.
Glorified Body and Beatific Vision elements. And so the elements have an essential ordination to the human body. Hence, when man is glorified in body and soul, the elements have to remain also, although they will be changed to a better condition of existence.
As for the heavenly bodies, their substance is not used to support man's corruptible life and does not enter into the substance of the human frame. However, they serve man in the sense that by their beauty and enormous size they show forth the excellence of their Creator. For this reason man is often exhorted in Sacred Scripture to contemplate the heavenly bodies, so as to be moved by them to sentiments of reverence toward God. This is exemplified in Isaiah 40:26: "Lift up your eyes on high and see who hath created these things." And although, in the state of consummated perfection, man is not brought to the knowledge of God by a consideration of sensible creatures (since he sees God as He is in Himself), still it is pleasing and enjoyable for one who knows the cause to observe how the likeness of the cause shines forth in the effect. Thus a consideration of the divine goodness as mirrored in bodies — and particularly in the heavenly bodies, which appear to have a preeminence over other bodies — gives joy to the saints.
Moreover, the heavenly bodies have some sort of essential relationship with the human body under the aspect of efficient causality, just as the elements have under the aspect of material causality: man. generates man, and the sun, too, has some part in this operation. This, then, is another reason why the heavenly bodies should remain in existence.
The doctrine here advocated follows not only from the relationship which various bodies have with man, but also from an examination of the natures of the material creatures we have been discussing. No object wanting in an intrinsic principle of incorruptibility ought to remain in the state that is characterized by incorruption. The heavenly bodies are incorruptible in whole and
Aquinas's Shorter Summa in part. The elements are incorruptible as wholes, but not as parts.
Man is incorruptible in part — namely, in his rational soul — but not as a whole because the composite is dissolved by death. Animals and plants and all mixed bodies are incorruptible neither in whole nor in part. In the final state of incorruption, therefore, men, the elements, and the heavenly bodies will fittingly remain, but not other animals or plants or mixed bodies.
We can argue reasonably to the same conclusion from the nature of the universe. Since man isa part of the material universe, the material universe should remain when man is brought to his final consummation; a part would seem to lack its proper perfection if it were to exist without the whole. On the other hand, the material universe cannot remain in existence without its essential parts. But the essential parts of the universe are the heavenly bodies and the elements, for the entire world machine is made up of them. Other bodies do not, apparently, pertain to the integrity of the material universe, but contribute rather to its adornment and beauty. They befit its changeable state in the sense that, with a heavenly body acting as efficient cause and with the elements as material causes, animals and plants and minerals are brought into being. But in the state of final consummation another kind of adornment will be given to the elements, in keeping with their condition of incorruption. In that state, accordingly, there will remain men, elements, and heavenly bodies, but not animals or plants or minerals.
17] Cessation of motion in the heavenly bodies Since the heavenly bodies are in constant motion, so far as we can judge, it may seem that if their substance remains, they will keep on moving also in the state of consummation. And, indeed, if
Glorified Body and Beatific Vision motion were possessed by heavenly bodies for the same reason as that for which it is possessed by elements, such an assertion would be logical. Motion is found in heavy or light elements to promote the perfection they are to attain: by their natural motion they tend to the place that suits them, where they are in a better condition.
Hence in the ultimate state of consummation each element and each part thereof will be in its own proper place.
But this cannot be maintained of the motion of heavenly bodies, for a heavenly body does not come to rest in any place it may occupy; as it travels naturally to any particular place, it no less naturally departs thence. Therefore heavenly bodies suffer no loss if they are deprived of motion because motion is not found in them for their own perfection. Also, it would be ridiculous to contend that a heavenly body is moved in circles by its nature as an active principle, in the way that a light body is impelled upward by its nature. For, as is evident, nature tends invariably in the direction of unity; and therefore that which by its very concept opposes unity cannot be the ultimate goal of nature. But motion is opposed to unity, in the sense that what moves varies in its mode of being by the very fact that it is in motion. Therefore nature does not produce motion just for the sake of motion, but in causing motion has in view the terminus to be reached by motion.
For instance, a body that is naturally light seeks an elevated place in its ascent; and so of other bodies. Consequently, since the circular motion of a heavenly body does not tend to a definite position, we cannot say that the active principle of a heavenly body's circular motion is nature, in the sense that nature is the principle of the motion of heavy and light bodies. Accordingly, there is no reason why heavenly bodies should not come to rest, without any change in their nature, even though fire, if its nature is to remain constant, cannot cease from its restlessness as long as it exists outside its proper sphere. Nevertheless we say that the
Aquinas's Shorter Summa motion of a heavenly body is natural; but it is natural not by reason of an active principle of motion in it, but by reason of the mobile body itself that has an aptitude for such motion. We conclude, therefore, that motion is communicated to a heavenly body by some intellect.
However, since an intellect does not impart movement except in view of some end, we must discover the end of the motion of heavenly bodies. The motion itself cannot be this end. For motion is the way leading to perfection and so does not verify the concept of end but rather pertains to that which is tending toward an end.
Likewise we cannot maintain that a succession of locations is the term of the movement of a heavenly body, as though a heavenly body moved for the purpose of actually occupying every position for which it has a potency; this would entail endless wandering, and what is endless contradicts the notion of end.
We ought to think of the end of the heaven's motion somewhat as follows. Any body set in motion by an intellect is evidently an instrument of the latter. But the end of an instrument's motion is a form conceived by the principal agent, a form that is reduced to act by the motion of the instrument. The form conceived by the divine intellect, to be realized by the motion of the heavens, is the perfection of things as achieved by way of generation and corruption. But the ultimate end of generation and corruption is the noblest of all forms, the human soul; and the soul's ultimate end is eternal life, as we said above.'" Accordingly, the ultimate end of the movement of the heavens is the multiplication of men, who are to be brought into being for eternal life.
Such a multitude cannot be infinite; the intention to be realized by any intellect comes to rest in something definite. So, once
193C£ chaps. 150, 163.
Glorified Body and Beatific Vision the number of men who are to be brought into being for eternal life is filled out and they are actually established in the possession of eternal life, the movement of the heavens will cease, just as the motion of any instrument ceases after a project has been carried through to completion. And when the movement of the heavens ceases, all movement in lower bodies will cease by way of consequence, excepting only the movement that will be in men as flowing from their souls. And thus the entire material universe will have a different arrangement and form, in accordance with the truth proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 7:31: "The fashion of this world passeth away."
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Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory LEZ Man's reward or misery according to his works This leads to our next point. If there is a definite way of reaching a fixed end, they who travel along a road leading in the opposite direction or who turn aside from the right road, will never reach the goal. A sick man is not cured by using the wrong medicines, forbidden by the doctor, except, perhaps, quite by accident.
There is such a definite way of arriving at happiness (namely, the practice of virtue). Nothing will reach its end unless it performs well the operations proper to it. A plant will not bear fruit if the procedure natural to it is not followed. A runner will not win a trophy or a soldier a citation, unless each of them carries out his proper functions. To say that a man discharges his proper office is equivalent to saying that he acts virtuously; for the virtue of any being is that which makes its possessor good and also makes his work good, as is stated in the second book of Aristotle's Ethics.'*
Accordingly, since the ultimate end of man is eternal life, of which 194 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I, 6 (1106 a 15).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa we spoke previously,'" not all attain it, but only those who act as virtue requires.
Besides, as we said above, not natural things alone, but also human affairs are contained under Divine Providence, and this not only in general but in particular.'"° But He who has care of individual men has disposal of the rewards to be assigned for virtue and of the punishments to be inflicted for sin. For, as we stated
'7 Sunishment has a medicinal value with regard to sin and above, restores right order when it is violated by sin; and the reward of virtue is happiness, to be granted to man by God's goodness.
Therefore God will not grant happiness to those who act against virtue, but will assign as punishment the opposite of happiness
(namely, extreme wretchedness).
Reward and misery postponed to the next world In this matter we should note that contrary causes beget contrary effects. Thus action that proceeds from malice is contrary to action that proceeds from virtue. Accordingly, wretchedness, in which evil action issues, is the opposite of happiness, which virtuous action merits. Furthermore, contraries pertain to the same genus.
Therefore, since final happiness, which is reached by virtuous action, is a good that belongs not to this life but to the next life (as rey is clear from an earlier discussion ~~), final wretchedness, also, to which vice leads, must be an evil belonging to the next world.
195C£ chap. 150.
16C£ chaps. 123, 133, 143. ier chap. 121.
18CF chap. 150.
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory Besides, all goods and ills of this life are found to serve some purpose. External goods, and also bodily goods, are organically connected with virtue, which is the way leading directly to beatitude, for those who use such goods well. But for those who use these goods ill, they are instruments of vice, which ends up in misery. Similarly the ills opposed to such goods (such as sickness, poverty, and the like) are an occasion of progress in virtue for some but aggravate the viciousness of others, according as men react differently to such conditions. But what is ordained to something else cannot be the final end, because it is not the ultimate in reward or punishment. Therefore neither ultimate happiness nor ultimate misery consists in the goods or ills of this life.
Wretchedness flowing from the punishment of loss Since the wretchedness to which vice leads is opposed to the happiness to which virtue leads, whatever pertains to wretchedness must be understood as being the opposite of all we have said about happiness. We pointed out above that man's ultimate happiness, as regards his intellect, consists in the unobstructed vision of God.!"' And as regards man's affective life, happiness consists in the immovable repose of his will in the first Good. Therefore man's extreme unhappiness will consist in the fact that his intellect is completely shut off from the divine light, and that his affections are stubbornly turned against God's goodness. And this is the chief suffering of the damned. It is known as the punishment of loss.
However, as should be clear from what we said on a previous occasion," evil cannot wholly exclude good, since every evil has
199C£ chaps. 104, 106.
200CF£. chap. 117.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa its basis in some good. Consequently, although suffering is opposed to happiness, which will be free from all evil, it must be rooted in a good of nature. The good of an intellectual nature consists in the contemplation of truth by the intellect and in the inclination to good on the part of the will.
But all truth and all goodness are derived from the first and supreme good, which is God. Therefore the intellect of a man situated in the extreme misery of Hell must have some knowledge of God and some love of God, but only so far as He is the principle of natural perfections. This is natural love. But the soul in Hell cannot know and love God as He is in Himself, nor so far as He is the principle of virtue or of grace and the other goods through which intellectual nature is brought to perfection by Him; for this is the perfection of virtue and glory.
Nevertheless men buried in the misery of Hell are not deprived of free choice, even though their will is immovably attached to evil. In the same way the blessed retain the power of free choice, although their will is fixed on the Good. Freedom of choice, properly speaking, has to do with election. But election is concerned with the means leading to an end. The last end is naturally desired by every being. Hence all men, by the very fact that they are intellectual, naturally desire happiness as their last end, and they do so with such immovable fixity of purpose that no one can wish to be unhappy. But this is not incompatible with free will, which extends only to means leading to the end. The fact that one man places his happiness in this particular good while another places it in that good, is not characteristic of either of these men so far as he is a man, since in such estimates and desires men exhibit great differences. This variety is explained by each man's condition. By this I mean each man's acquired passions and habits; and so if a man's condition were to undergo change, some other good would appeal to him as most desirable.
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory This appears most clearly in men who are led by passion to crave some good as the best. When the passion, whether of anger or lust, dies down, they no longer have the same estimate of that good as they had before.
Habits are more permanent, and so men persevere more obstinately in seeking goods to which habit impels them. Yet, so long as habit is capable of change, man's desire and his judgment as to what constitutes the last end are subject to change. This possibility is open to men only during the present life, in which their state is changeable. After this life the soul is not subject to alteration. No change can affect it except indirectly, in consequence of some change undergone by the body.
However, when the body is resumed, the soul will not be governed by changes occurring in the body.""' Rather, the contrary will take place. During our present life the soul is infused into a body that has been generated of seed, and therefore, as we should expect, is affected by changes experienced in the body. But in the next world the body will be united to a preexisting soul, and so will be completely governed by the latter's conditions. Accordingly, the soul will remain perpetually in whatever last end it is found to have set for itself at the time of death, desiring that state as the most suitable, whether it is good or evil. This is the meaning of Ecclesiastes 11:3: "If the tree fall to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be." After this life, therefore, those who are found good at the instant of death will have their wills forever fixed in good. But those who are found evil at that moment will be forever obstinate in evil.
201 The editions appear to give a defective reading here. In translating this sentence, I understand anima to be the antecedent of ipsa, and read mutationem for mutatio.—T rans.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa
Forgiveness of sin in the next world This enables us to perceive that mortal sins are not forgiven in the next world but venial sins are forgiven there. Mortal sins are committed by turning away from our last end, in which man is irrevocably settled after death, as we have just said. Venial sins, however, do not regard our last end, but rather the road leading to that end.
If the will of evil men is obstinately fettered to evil after death, they forever continue to desire what they previously desired, in the conviction that this is the best. Therefore they are not sorry they have sinned; for no one is sorry he has achieved what he judges to be the best.
But we should understand that those who are condemned to final misery cannot have after death what they craved as the best.
Libertines in Hell will have no opportunity to gratify their passions; the wrathful and the envious will have no victims to offend or obstruct; and so of all the vices in turn.
But the condemned will be aware that men who have lived a virtuous life in conformity with the precepts of virtue obtain what they desired as best. Therefore the wicked regret the sins they have committed, not because sin displeases them, for even in Hell they would rather commit those same sins, if they had the chance, than possess God; but because they cannot have what they have chosen, and can have only what they have detested.
Hence their will must remain forever obstinate in evil, and at the same time they will grieve most agonizingly for the sins they have committed and the glory they have lost. This anguish is called remorse of conscience and in Scripture is it is referred to metaphorically as a worm, as we read in Isaiah 66:24: "Their worm shall not die."
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory
Properties of the bodies of the damned As we said above in speaking of the saints, the beatitude of the soul will in some manner flow over to the body.'™ In the same way the suffering of lost souls will flow over to their bodies.
Yet we must observe that suffering does not exclude the good of nature from the body, any more than it does from the soul.
Therefore the bodies of the damned will be complete in their kind, although they will not have those qualities that go with the glory of the blessed.
That is, they will not be subtile and impassible; instead, they will remain in their grossness and capacity for suffering, and, indeed, these defects will be heightened in them. Nor will they be agile, but will be so sluggish as scarcely to be maneuverable by the soul. Lastly, they will not be radiant but will be ugly in their swarthiness, so that the blackness of the soul may be mirrored in the body, as is intimated in Isaiah 13:8: "Their countenances shall be as faces burnt."
We:
Suffering compatible with incorrupubility in the bodies of the damned Although the bodies of the damned will be capable of suffering, they will not be subject to corruption. This is a fact we have to admit, even though it may seem to disagree with present experience, according to which heightened suffering tends to deteriorate substance. In spite of this, there are two reasons why suffering that lasts forever will not corrupt the bodies undergoing it.
202C£ chap. 168.
Aquinas's Shorter Summa First, when the movement of the heavens ceases, as we said
203 all transformation of nature must come to a stop. Nothabove, ing will be capable of alteration in its nature; only the soul will be able to admit some alteration.
In speaking of an alteration of nature, I mean, for instance, a change from hot to cold in a thing or any other such variation in the line of natural qualities. And by alteration of the soul | mean the modification that takes place when a thing receives a quality, not according to the quality's natural mode of being, but according to its own spiritual mode of being. For example, the pupil of the eye receives the form of a color — not that it may be colored itself, but that it may perceive color.
In this way the bodies of the damned will suffer from fire or from some other material agent, not that they may be transformed into the likeness or quality of fire, but that they may experience the effects characteristic of its qualities.
Furthermore, this experience will be painful, because the effects produced by the action of fire are opposed to the harmony in which the pleasure of sense consists. Yet the action of Hellfire will not cause corruption, because spiritual reception of forms does not modify bodily nature, except, it may be, indirectly.
The second reason is drawn from a consideration of the soul, in whose perpetual duration the body will be forced, by divine power, to share. The condemned person's soul, so far as it is the form and nature of such a body, will confer perpetual existence on the latter.
But because of its imperfection, the soul will not be able to bestow on the body immunity from suffering. Consequently the bodies of the damned will suffer forever, but will not undergo dissolution.
203C£ chap. 171.
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory
Punishment of the damned prior to the resurrection This discussion makes it clear that both happiness and wretchedmess are experienced chiefly in the soul. They affect the body secondarily and by a certain derivation. Hence the happiness or misery of the soul will not depend on the well-being or suffering of the body; rather, the reverse is true. Souls remain in existence after death and prior to the resumption of the body, some adorned with the merit of beatitude, others disfigured by deserved wretchedness.
Therefore we can see that even before the resurrection the souls of some men enjoy the happiness of Heaven, as the Apostle indicates in 2 Corinthians 5:1: "For we know, if our earthly house of this habitation is dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in Heaven." A little below, in verse
8, he adds: "But we are confident and have a good will to be absent rather from the body and to be present with the Lord." But the souls of some will live in torment, as is intimated in Luke 16:22:
"The rich man also died, and he was buried in Hell."
Spiritual and corporal punishment of the damned We should realize that the happiness enjoyed by the souls of the saints will consist exclusively in spiritual goods. On the other hand, the punishment inflicted on the souls of the damned, even before the resurrection, will not consist solely in spiritual evils, as some have thought; 4 lost souls will also undergo corporal punishment.
2%Thus Origen, Peri archon, II, 10 (PG, XI, 236); Theophylact, In evangelium Marci, cap. IX, vers. 42-49 (PG, CXXIII, 593); Avicenna,
Metaph., IX, 7 (L06VB).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa The reason for this difference is as follows. When the souls of the saints were united to their bodies here in this world, they observed right order, not subjecting themselves to material things but serving God alone. And so their whole happiness consists in the enjoyment of Him, not in any material goods. But the souls of the wicked, in violation of the order of nature, set their affections on material things, scorning divine and spiritual goods. In consequence, they are punished not only by being deprived of spiritual goods, but by being subjected to the tyranny of material things.
Accordingly, if Sacred Scripture is found to promise a reward of material goods to the souls of the saints, such passages are to be interpreted in a mystical sense; for spiritual things are often described in Scripture in terms of their likeness to material things.
But texts that portend the corporal punishments of the souls of the damned, specifying that they will be tormented by the fires of Hell, are to be understood literally.
The soul and corporeal fire The assertion that a soul separated from its body can be tortured by corporeal fire should not seem nonsensical when we reflect that it is not contrary to the nature of a spiritual substance to be confined to a body. This happens in the ordinary course of nature, as we see in the union of the soul with the body. The same effect is sometimes produced by the arts of black magic, by which a spirit is imprisoned in images or amulets or other such objects.
The power of God can undoubtedly bring it about that spiritual substances, which are raised above the material world by their nature, may nevertheless be tied down to certain bodies, such as Hellfire; not in the sense that they animate the body in question, but in the sense that they are in some way fettered to it. And this
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory very fact, brought home to the consciousness of a spiritual substance, namely, that it is thus subjected to the dominion of a lowly creature, is grievous to it.
Inasmuch as this awareness is distressing to the spiritual substance, the contention that the soul "burns by the very fact that it perceives itself to be in fire,"'" is substantiated. Thus understood, the fire is plainly spiritual, for what directly causes the distress is the fire apprehended as imprisoning. But inasmuch as the fire in which the spirit is incarcerated is corporeal fire, the further statement made by Gregory is borne out, namely, that "the soul is in agony not only because it perceives, but also because it experiences, the fire."
Furthermore, since this fire has the power of imprisoning the spiritual substance, not of its own nature, but by the might of God, the view is fittingly expressed by some that the fire acts on the soul as an instrument of God's vindictive justice.""' This does not mean that the fire acts on the spiritual substance as it acts on bodies, by heating, parching, and consuming; its action is restrictive, as we said.
And since that which directly afflicts the spiritual substance is the awareness that the fire incarcerates it for its punishment, we can reasonably suppose that the suffering does not cease even if, by God's dispensation, the spiritual substance should happen for a time to be released from the fire. In the same way a criminal who has been sentenced to perpetual irons feels no diminution of his unremitting pain even though the chains should be struck off for an. hour.
205S+ Gregory the Great, Dialogi, IV, 29 (PL, LXXVII, 368).
206 Thid.
207Cf£ St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, XXI, 10 (PL, XLI, 725); Julian of Toledo, Prognosticon, II, 17 (PL, XCVI, 482).
Aquinas's Shorter Summa
Punishments of Purgatory for unexpiated mortal sins Although some souls may be admitted to eternal beatitude as soon as they are released from their bodies, others may be held back from this happiness for a time. For it sometimes happens that during their lives people have not done full penance for the sins they have committed, but for which they have been sorry in the end. Since the order of divine justice demands that punishment be undergone for sins, we must hold that souls pay after this life the penalty they have not paid while on Earth.
This does not mean that they are banished to the ultimate misery of the damned. For by their repentance they have been brought back to the state of charity, whereby they cleave to God as their last end, so that thereby they have merited eternal life.
Hence we conclude that there are certain purgatorial punishments after this life, by which the debt of penalty not previously paid is discharged.
Punishment in Purgatory for venial sins It also happens that some men depart this life free from mortal sin but nevertheless stained with venial sin. The commission of such sins does not, indeed, turn them from their last end; but by committing them they have erred with regard to the means leading to the end, out of undue attachment to those means. In the case of some perfect men sins of this kind are expiated by the fervor of their love.
But in others these sins must be atoned for by punishment of some sort; no one is admitted to the possession of eternal life unless he is free from all sin and imperfection. Therefore we must acknowledge the existence of purgatorial punishment after this life.
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory Such punishments derive their cleansing power from the condition of those who suffer them. For the souls in Purgatory are adorned with charity, by which their wills are conformed to the divine will; it is owing to this charity that the punishments they suffer avail them for cleansing.
This is why punishment has no cleansing force in those who lack charity, such as the damned. The defilement of their sin remains forever, and so their punishment endures forever.
Eternal punishment for momentary sin is compatible with divine justice The suffering of eternal punishment is in no way opposed to divine justice. Even in the laws men make, punishment need not correspond to the offense in point of time. For the crime of adultery or murder, either of which may be committed in a brief span of time, human law may prescribe lifelong exile or even death, by both of which the criminal is banned forever from the society of the state.
Exile, it is true, does not last forever, but this is purely accidental, owing to the fact that man's life is not everlasting; but the intention of the judge, we may assume, is to sentence the criminal to perpetual punishment, so far as he can. In the same way it is not unjust for God to inflict eternal punishment for a sin committed in a moment of time.
We should also take into consideration the fact that eternal punishment is inflicted on a sinner who does not repent of his sin, and so he continues in his sin up to his death. And since he is in sin for eternity, he is reasonably punished by God for all eternity.
Furthermore, any sin committed against God has a certain infinity when regarded from the side of God, against whom it is committed. For, clearly, the greater the person who is offended, the more grievous is the offense. He who strikes a soldier is held more
Aquinas's Shorter Summa gravely accountable than if he struck a peasant; and his offense is much more serious if he strikes a prince or a king. Accordingly, since God is infinitely great, an offense committed against Him is in a certain respect infinite; and so a punishment that is in a certain respect infinite is duly attached to it. Such a punishment cannot be infinite in intensity, for nothing created can be infinite in this way. Consequently a punishment that is infinite in duration is rightly inflicted for mortal sin.
Moreover, while a person is still capable of correction, temporal punishment is imposed for his emendation or cleansing. But if a sinner is incorrigible, so that his will is obstinately fixed in sin, as we said above is the case with the damned," his punishment ought never to come to an end.
The eternal lot of other spiritual substances is similar to that of souls In his intellectual nature man resembles the angels, who are capable of sin, as also man is. We spoke of this above.'" Hence all that has been set forth about the punishment or glory of souls should be understood also of the glory of good angels and the punishment of bad angels. Men and angels exhibit only one point of difference in this regard: the wills of human souls receive confirmation in good or obstinacy in evil when they are separated from their bodies, as was said above;"!° whereas angels were immediately made blessed or eternally wretched as soon as, with full deliberation of will, they fixed upon God or some created good as their end. The variability found in human souls can be accounted
208 CF. chap. 174.
20 CE. chap. 113.
10CF. chaps. 166, 174.
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory for not only by the liberty of their wills but also by the modifications their bodies undergo; but in the angels such variability comes from the freedom of will alone. And so angels achieve immutability at the very first choice they make; but human souls are not rendered immutable until they leave their bodies.
To express the reward of the good, we say in the Creed: "I believe .
. in life everlasting." This life is to be understood as eternal not because of its duration alone, but much more because it is the fruition of eternity. Since in this connection there are proposed for our belief many other truths that concern the punishments of the damned and the final state of the world, the Creed of the Fathers''' sums up the whole doctrine in this proposition: "I look for .. . the life of the world to come." This phrase ("the world to come") takes in all these points.
211 The Nicene Creed.
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The Humanity of Chvrist The Second Treatise on Faith
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