353. What they experience in Limbo
353. WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE IN LIMBO
If there is a Limbo, what do those who are there experience?
Whether these same souls (in Limbo) suffer spiritual affliction on account of the state in which they are?
Right reason does not allow one to be disturbed on account of what one was unable to avoid. . . . Now in these children there is right reason deflected by no actual sin. Therefore they will not be disturbed. . . .
The pain of punishment corresponds to the pleasure of sin; wherefore, since original sin is void of pleasure, its punishment is free of all pain. . . .
On this question there are three opinions. . . .
If one is guided by right reason, one does not grieve through being deprived of what is beyond one’s power to obtain, but only through lack of that which in some way one is capable of obtaining. Thus no wise man grieves for being unable to fly like a bird, or that he is not a king or an emperor, since these things are not due to him; whereas he would grieve if he lacked that to which he had some kind of claim . . . Hence they will in no wise grieve for being deprived of the divine vision; nay, rather will they rejoice for that they will have a large share of God’s goodness and their own natural perfections. . . (Appendix 1,2).
The innocent souls in Limbo have no kind of pain even though they are not in Heaven, because they are not so foolish and irrational as to wish to have what is not possible for them to have. They are content, as a wise man is content not to be a bird or an emperor.
The premise for this opinion of a painless Limbo is God’s justice, which would not consign the innocent to sufferings they did not deserve. And if even justice would not tolerate undeserved pain, how much less would love and mercy! God may be more than justice, but never less. Those who die without having committed sins do not deserve any punishment, and they are not given any.
The premise is certain (that God is just), but it is not certain that the conclusion (Limbo) necessarily follows from it. Even though nearly all Catholics in St. Thomas’ day believed in Limbo, he is careful to call this a matter of opinion (“on this question there are three opinions”) rather than certainty.