306. How souls in Heaven can be present on earth
306. HOW SOULS IN HEAVEN CAN BE PRESENT ON EARTH
If souls are in Heaven, not on earth, can they come to earth from Heaven, or can they bilocate and be present both in Heaven and on earth at the same time (whatever “the same time” could mean when we refer to both Heaven and earth)? If not, where is “the communion of saints” and the unity of the Church Militant on earth, the Church Suffering in Purgatory, and the Church Triumphant in Heaven?
Whether the souls who are in heaven or hell are able to go from thence?
Jerome, writing against Vigilantius, addresses him thus: Thou sayest that the souls of the apostles and martyrs . . . are unable to visit their graves when they will? Wouldst thou lay down the law for God? Wouldst thou put the apostles in chains . . . and forbid them to be with their Lord, them of whom it is written: They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth? And if the Lamb is everywhere, therefore we must believe that those also who are with Him are everywhere. . . .
When he (Jerome) says that they are everywhere he does not mean that they are in several places or everywhere at once, but that they can be wherever they will.
Further, Jerome argues as follows: Since the devil and the demons wander throughout the whole world and are everywhere present with wondrous speed, why should the martyrs, after shedding their blood, be imprisoned and unable to go forth?. . .
Further, the same conclusion may be gathered from Gregory, where he relates many cases of the dead having appeared to the living. . .
According to the disposition of divine providence, separated souls sometimes come forth from their abode and appear to men, as Augustine . . . relates of the martyr Felix. . . . It is also credible that this may occur sometimes to the damned, and that for man’s instruction and intimidation they be permitted to appear to the living . . . as evidenced by many instances. . . . This is, however, the difference between the saints and the damned, that the saints can appear when they will to the living, but not the damned . . . unless they be sometimes permitted. . . .
Although the souls of the damned are sometimes actually present where they appear, we are not to believe that this is always so, for sometimes these apparitions occur to persons, whether asleep or awake, by the activity of good or wicked angels in order to instruct or deceive the living. Thus sometimes even the living appear to others and tell them many things in their sleep, and yet it is clear that they are not present, as Augustine proves from many instances. . . (S69,3).
St. Thomas gives three reasons for believing that souls from Heaven can be present on earth.
The first, from St. Jerome, is the absurdity of the alternative. To say they cannot, is to forbid them to be with Christ, for Christ is here (“Behold, I am with you always, even to the close of the age”—Mt 28:20). The second, also from St. Jerome, is an a fortiori argument: if even demons can visit earth, why should saints and martyrs not be allowed to do this? The third, from St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine, is experiential and empirical: there are many credible cases of it having happened. God seems to permit even damned souls from Hell to visit earth to warn us. However, St. Thomas qualifies this by saying that this presence may be only in appearance, vision, or dream, not in reality. And the damned would appear only because God wills it, not because they will it. Souls from Heaven, in contrast, go wherever they will, for in Heaven there is perfect harmony of wills and therefore perfect happiness and therefore no frustration of the will of the blessed.
If you doubt all this, remember Hamlet’s wisdom that “there are more things in Heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.” God’s acts and permissions are always more, not less, than our imaginations or expectations.