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SO FAR we have spoken, first, of soul depths in the
present life, then of death, lastly of judgment. We
must consider the future life, first in general, then
in particular, as found in hell or in purgatory or in
heaven.
To have a just idea of the future life in general we
must first see what theology teaches on the knowledge
possessed by the soul separated from its body, the soul
which no longer has the use of its senses, not even of
imagination. Next, we study the state of the will,
illumined by this new knowledge beyond the tomb.
We have said above [174] that the soul begins to be
fixed either in good or evil by the last voluntary act,
meritorious or demeritorious, which it makes at the
very moment when it separates from the body. We have
said further, that it completes this fixation by the
act of the will which it produces at that precise
instant where the state of separation begins. Then,
since everyone judges according to his inclination, the
humble soul continues to judge and will conformably to
humility during its state of separation, whereas the
proud man who has died in final impenitence continues
to judge and to will according to his pride.
This fixity, either in good or in evil, is mysterious.
But this mysteriousness is not without an analogue in
facts which we meet with in the present life. The
disposition wherewith we enter upon a permanent state
often lasts throughout the entire duration of that
state. The infant born into good surroundings has
promise of lasting good health, whereas the child born
into poor surroundings may anticipate feeble health.
Again, he who with Christian motives enters marriage
has good hopes of perseverance, whereas he who enters
with an evil intention will not be blessed by God in
this state, unless he is converted. He who enters
religion for a good purpose ordinarily perseveres,
whereas he who enters for an evil motive does not
persevere, and has no profit from the religious life.
These examples, in a way, illustrate the fixity of the
soul after death, a fixation which is affirmed by
revelation. [175]
The topic we now turn to, namely, the knowledge in the
separated soul, will confirm this doctrine. It is
immutability in knowledge that is the source of the
immutability which is characteristic of the state of
separation.
The central principle is this: Human intelligence,
though it is the lowest of all intelligences, is
nevertheless a genuine intelligence, an immaterial and
spiritual power. [176]
Preternatural Knowledge
The separated soul, since it no longer has its body, no
longer has sense operations, internal or external,
because all these are operations of an animated organ.
The separated soul retains the sensitive faculties, but
only radically, since they do not exist actually
anywhere except in the human composite. The human
imagination, like the animal imagination, does not
exist actually after the corruption of its material
organ. The same holds good for the habitudes of the
sense faculties. Remembrances of the sensitive memory
do not exist actually in the separated soul. The
separated soul can no longer see in the sense order, no
longer imagine in the sense order.
But the separated soul does retain actually its higher
faculties, its purely spiritual faculties, namely,
intellect and will and the habits which are found in
these faculties. But here we must draw a distinction.
Reprobated souls can retain certain acquired sciences,
but do not have virtues, either acquired or infused.
They have lost infused faith and infused hope. But the
souls in purgatory preserve their knowledge and their
virtues, acquired or infused: faith, hope, charity,
prudence, religion, patience, justice, humility. This
truth is very important.
Similarly the separated soul preserves the habits which
have remained in these faculties. Nevertheless the
exercise of these acts is in part impeded, because
these faculties have no longer the aid of the
imagination or sense memory, an aid which is most
helpful. What, for instance, would be a preacher who
would no longer have the use of imagination in the
service of his intelligence?
Theologians, generally, teach that the mode of being of
the separated soul is preternatural, because the soul
is made to animate its body. Hence it has also a
preternatural mode of action, which it receives from
God at the moment of separation, a mode consisting in
infused ideas, similar to those of the angels, ideas
which can serve it without the aid of the imagination.
[177] Thus, to illustrate, a theologian who has become
blind, and is no longer able to read, becomes a man of
prayer and receives higher inspirations. It may be that
formerly he worked too much and prayed too little. Now
he consecrates himself to interior prayer and thereby
becomes a better theologian.
But from this notion of infused ideas received by the
separated soul there arises another difficulty, quite
different from the preceding. Whereas the use of
abstract and acquired ideas is difficult without the
imagination, the use of infused ideas is difficult
because they are too high for the natural intelligence,
which is the lowest of intelligences and has as its
proportioned object the lowest intelligible object,
namely, sense objects. These infused ideas are too
elevated, just as metaphysical conceptions are too high
for an unprepared spirit, or as a giant's armor is too
heavy for a young fighter. David preferred his sling to
the armor of Goliath.
These deficiencies are balanced by perfections. First,
the soul sees itself intuitively, as does the angel.
[178] Consequently it clearly sees its spirituality,
its immortality, its liberty. Further it sees in
itself, as in a mirror, with perfect certitude, God,
its Author and Creator. It answers the great
philosophical problems with perfect clarity. St. Thomas
says: "The soul in a certain real sense is thus more
free to understand." Thus separated souls naturally
know one another, although less perfectly than do the
angels.
Can the separated soul know, not only universal truths,
but also concrete facts? Yes, where it has special ties
of family, friendship, and grace. Local distance is no
impediment in this kind of knowledge, since it does not
arise from sense but from infused ideas. [179] Thus a
good Christian mother may recall in purgatory the
children whom she has left on earth.
Do these souls know what is happening on earth? St.
Thomas replies: "In the natural order they do not know,
because they are separated from the society of those
who are still on the road to eternity. Nevertheless, if
we restrict the question to the souls of the blessed,
it is more probable to say that they, like the angels,
do know what happens on earth, particularly what
happens to those who are dear to them. This is a part
of their accidental beatitude." [180] Those in
purgatory too can have love of us, even though they do
not know our actual state, just as we pray for them,
although we do not know their actual state, their
nearness, for example, to deliverance.
Eviternity and Time
What measures the duration of separated souls? [181] We
must distinguish three kinds of duration: time,
eternity, and an intermediate kind of duration, which
is called eviternity.
On earth our duration is measured by continuous time,
which is itself the measure of continuous movement,
especially of the apparent movement of the sun. It is
thus that we distinguish hours, days, years, and
centuries. When the soul is separated from the body and
is not yet beatified, it has a double kind of duration:
eviternity and discontinuous time. Eviternity measures
what is immutable in angels and separated souls. It is
the measure of their substance, of their natural
knowledge of self and God. Eviternity excludes
succession. It is a perpetual present. Yet it differs
from eternity, because it has had a beginning, and
because it is united to discontinuous time which
presupposes past and future.
Discontinuous time, then, is opposed to continuous or
solar time. It is found in angels and separated souls,
as the measure of successive thoughts and affections.
One thought lasts for one spiritual instant. The
following thought has its own spiritual instant. To
illustrate: here on earth a person in ecstasy can
remain two solar hours, or many hours, in one sole
thought which represents to it one sole spiritual
instant. Similarly, history characterizes different
centuries, for example, the thirteenth or the
seventeenth, by the ideas which predominate in each of
these centuries. Thus we speak of the century of St.
Louis, of the century of Louis XIV. Hence a spiritual
instant, in the lives of angels and separated souls,
can last many days, even many years, measured by our
solar time, just as a person in ecstasy can remain
thirty successive hours absorbed in one single thought.
In beatified souls there is added to this double
duration (eviternity and discontinuous time) also that
of participated eternity, which measures their beatific
vision of the divine essence and the love which results
from this vision. This is one unique instant, an
immovable eternity, entirely without succession. Yet
this participated eternity differs from that of
essential eternity which is proper to God, just as
effect differs from cause. Participated eternity had a
beginning. Further, the essential eternity of God
measures everything that is in God, His essence, and
all His operations, whereas participated eternity
measures only the beatific vision and the love which
follows. Eternity is like the invisible point at the
summit of a cone, whereas continuous time is pictured
by the base of this cone. Eviternity and discontinuous
time are between these two, the one like a circular
conic section, and the other like a polygon inscribed
in this circular section.
Continuous time flows without cessation. Its present
flows continually from past to future. Our present life
involves a succession of hours, in work, prayer, sleep.
Eternity, on the contrary, is a continual present,
without past or future, a unique instant of life which
is possessed entirely and simultaneously. Eviternity
approaches eternity. It permits us to conceive better
the immutability of the life of the separated soul, not
beatified, or not yet beatified: the immutability of
knowledge which it has of itself, the immutability of
the will fixed on its last end, good or evil.
Let us recall here the words of St. Augustine: "Unite
thyself to the eternity of God, and thou thyself wilt
be eternal. Unite thyself to the eternity of God. Watch
with Him the events which come to pass below you."
[182] Let us watch the successive moments of our
terrestrial life, not only along the horizontal line of
time which runs between the past and the future, but
also on the vertical line which binds them at each
instant to immovable eternity. Thus our acts will be
more and more meritorious, more and more filled with
love of God, and thus will pass from time into
eternity, where they remain forever written in the book
of life.
These different kinds of time, on earth, in purgatory,
and in heaven, permit us to distinguish also in the
present life two kinds of time: one corporeal, one
spiritual. Corporeal time, solar time, measures the
duration of our organism. Thus measured, one is eighty
years of age, an old man; but, measured by spiritual
time, his soul may remain very young. Thus, as we
distinguish three ages of corporeal life, infancy,
adult age, and old age, so in the life of the soul, we
distinguish three ages, namely, the purgative life of
beginners, the illuminative life of those who are
progressing, the unitive way of those who are perfect.
This spiritual kind of time may explain salvation in
unexpected quarters. Some great act, never retracted,
has borne fruit.
I knew a young Jew, the son of an Austrian banker, in
Vienna. He had decided on a lawsuit against the
greatest adversary of his family, a lawsuit that would
have enriched him. He suddenly recalled this word of
the Pater Noster, which he had sometimes heard:
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us." He said to himself: "How would it
be if, instead of carrying on this lawsuit, I would
pardon him?" He followed the inspiration, forgave
completely, renounced the lawsuit. At that same moment
he received the full gift of faith. This one word of
the Our Father became his pathway up the mountain of
life. He became a priest, a Dominican, and died at the
age of fifty years. Though nothing particularly
important appeared in the remainder of his life, his
soul remained at the height where it had been elevated
at the moment of his conversion. Step by step he
mounted to the eternal youth which is the life of
heaven. The moral runs thus: One great act of self-
sacrifice may decide not only our whole spiritual life
on earth but also our eternity. We judge a chain of
mountains by its highest peak.
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