339. The blessed’s attitude toward the damned
339. THE BLESSED’S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE DAMNED
The one hair-raising quotation from St. Thomas that all the anti-Catholic anthologies always reprint is the one where he says that the blessed in Heaven will get some of their joy from beholding with satisfaction the tortures of the damned in Hell. Is there any possible excuse for this horrible lack of charity? How could a canonized saint and a Doctor of the Church possibly teach that? What did he really say, and what did he really mean?
Whether the blessed pity the unhappiness of the damned?
Objection 1. It would seem that the blessed pity the unhappiness of the damned. For pity proceeds from charity; and charity will be most perfect in the blessed. . . .
On the contrary, Whoever pities another shares somewhat in his unhappiness. But the blessed cannot share in any unhappiness. Therefore they do not pity the afflictions of the damned.
I answer that, Mercy or compassion may be in a person in two ways: first by way of passion, secondly by way of choice. In the blessed there will be no passion in the lower powers except as a result of . . . choice. Hence compassion or mercy will not be in them except by . . . choice. . . .
So long as sinners are in this world, they are in such a state that . . . they can be taken away from a state of unhappiness and sin to a state of happiness. Consequently it is possible to have compassion on them both by the choice of the will (in which sense God, the angels and the blessed are said to pity them by desiring their salvation) and by passion, in which way they are pitied by the good men who are in the state of wayfarers. But in the future state it will be impossible for them to be taken away from their unhappiness, and consequently it will not be possible to pity their sufferings (in the passive sense of pity).
Reply to Objection 1: Charity is the principle of pity when it is possible for us out of charity to wish the cessation of a person’s unhappiness. But the saints cannot desire this for the damned, since it would be contrary to divine justice (and also impossible, once time and choice end) (S94,2).
St. Thomas’ first two paragraphs (Objection 1 and the “On the contrary”) give us the essential dilemma: we cannot deny either perfect love or perfect happiness in the blessed in Heaven. But on earth, these two goods sometimes contradict each other: the more you love, the more you can suffer because love makes you vulnerable to the sufferings of those you love. Love multiplies your sufferings by the two factors of the extent and the depth of your love: the more people you love and the more you love them, the more you can suffer. (But of course love also multiplies your joys by the same two factors.)
To solve this dilemma something has to change in Heaven. And that is St. Thomas’ answer. Love becomes wholly active, not passive. When someone we love does something self—destructive, we say, “How could you do that to yourself?” but we also mean, and feel, “How could you do that to me?” In Heaven, our charity will still say the first thing but not the second. We will still have active charity to the damned, but not passive vulnerability. We won’t want them to suffer, but we won’t suffer with them.
A second change is also necessary. In this life, when we see a criminal justly punished, we feel both sorrow at his suffering and joy that justice is done. We have a mixed reaction. Better that he be punished, and justice be done; but better still if only he had not committed the crime at all. If only he had chosen differently, we moan. Well, in Heaven we will be able to rejoice in God’s justice everywhere, even in Hell, without feeling this sad moaning, this “if only”, because time and choice will be finished.
We cannot imagine what this will feel like, and we should not try, but we can know by reason that it must be so.
This explains how you can be happy in Heaven even if some people you love are in Hell. It’s not that God lies to you and tells you they are not in Hell; and it’s not that you stop loving them. It’s that your love, like God’s love, is no longer able to be held hostage, as it is now: “I hate your love for me, so I’m going to make you suffer by hurting myself”—we can say that to each other now, but not then. If you don’t understand this, just trust that God will solve the problem for you in Heaven, as He solves it for Himself.