The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK TWELVE 227 within man himself is Paradise. Hence the Church also, in the saints who live temperately and justly and devoutly, is rightly called Paradise,!'° vigorous as it is with an abundance of graces and with pure delights. Even in the midst of tribulations she glories in her very suffering, greatly rejoicing because, according to the multitude of the sorrows in her heart, the comforts of God give joy to her soul.!8°
How much more truly, then, can Abraham's bosom after this life also be called Paradise, where there is no temptation and where there is such wonderful rest after all the sufferings of this life. There, also, there is a light that belongs to that state, different from light elsewhere and quite excellent in its nature. It was this light that the rich man saw from his torments in the darkness of hell; and though he saw it from such a great distance, because there was a vast gulf between them, nevertheless he saw it clearly enough to recognize there the poor man he had once despised.
66. If all this is so, hell is said or believed!8! to be under the earth because of the way it is represented appropriately in the spirit by means of the likenesses of corporeal things. Now the souls of the dead who are deserving of hell have sinned through love of the flesh. They are affected, therefore, by the likenesses of bodies and are subjected to the same experience as the dead flesh itself buried under the earth.!®? Finally, hell is called the lower world, or inferi in Latin, because it is beneath the earth. In the corporeal world all the heavier bodies occupy a lower place if the natural tendency of their weight is not interfered with;!83 and so in the spiritual order the gloomier realm is in a lower position. Hence the Greek word for hell is said to get its meaning from the fact that the place contains no delight.'84
And yet our Savior Himself, when He died for us, did not disdain to visit this part of the world. He could not have been ignorant of the fact that some were to be delivered from there in accordance with the mysteries of God's justice, and there He went to deliver them. Hence, when Christ said to the robber, This day you shall be with Me in Paradise,'®° He promised to the man's soul not hell, where sins are punished, but the repose of Abraham's bosom; for Christ is everywhere, since He Himself