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The guiding principle in this entire question is still
that the human intellect is the lowest of the intellects
although it is purely spiritual.
It is certain that the sensitive operations of the
internal and external senses do not remain in the separated
soul; indeed the sensitive faculties are only radically in
the soul. As they are in the soul they are not in act
since they are in act only in the human composite.
Similarly the habits of the sensitive faculties (for
example, the habitual recollections of the sensitive
memory) remain in the separated soul only radically.
On the other hand, the separated soul retains its higher
faculties, which are purely spiritual, namely, the
intellect and the will, as well as the habits of these
faculties, both those that are acquired, as the sciences
and virtues, and those that are infused, such as faith,
hope, charity, prudence, religion, justice, penance,
etc. Similarly the separated soul retains the acts of
these superior faculties and their habits. The exercise
of these faculties is, however, impeded to some extent
because after separation the soul is without the
cooperation of the imagination and the sensitive memory,
which is helpful in the knowledge that is obtained from the
species abstracted from sensible things.
Theologians commonly hold that the separated soul receives
from God certain infused species in the instant of
separation to overcome this impediment. These species are
similar, although of a lower kind, to the angels'
species, and are used by the soul without the assistance
of the imagination. This procedure has an analogy in the
case of an aging theologian. Because of his failing sight
he can no longer peruse theological periodicals or new
books on theology but he now becomes a man of prayer and
enjoys more abundant inspirations from the Holy Ghost to
enable him to arrive at a more profound understanding of
theology. The separated soul, therefore, understands
according to the mode of other spiritual substances that
are separated from matter.[1332]
That the state of the separated soul is preternatural is
evident from the fact that these infused ideas, although
inferior to those of the angels, are too sublime for the
capacity of the human intellect, which is the weakest of
all intellects. The state of the separated soul is
somewhat like that of a student uninitiated in the science
of metaphysics who finds the lectures far above his
comprehension; the newcomer in metaphysics prefers
conventional argument based on common sense.
A twofold difficulty attends cognition by the separated
soul: when it seeks to make use of acquired ideas it lacks
the helpful cooperation of the imagination, and when it
seeks to use infused ideas it finds them too sublime for
its capabilities. But for this twofold difficulty some
compensation is derived from the fact that the separated
soul sees itself intuitively.[1333] Hence it
clearly sees its own spirituality, immortality, and
liberty, and in the reflection of its own essence it knows
God the author of nature with perfect certitude. Thus
the greatest philosophical problems are solved in a higher
light. St. Thomas says, "to some degree the separated
soul is freer in its intellection."[1334]
The separated souls also naturally know each other
perfectly although less perfectly than the angels, "and
the separated soul knows the angels through divinely
imprinted likenesses which, however, fail to be perfect
representations because the nature of the human soul is
inferior to the angel."[1335]
St. Thomas shows that separated souls know individual
things through infused species;[1336] but they do
not know all of them as do the angels, only "those to
which they are in some way determined either by previous
knowledge, by some affection, by some natural relation,
or by divine ordination, because everything that is
received is received according to the mode of the
recipient." Local distance does not impede the soul's
knowledge of individuals, because this knowledge is
derived from infused ideas and does not depend on the
senses or on local distance.
Do the separated souls know what is happening here on
earth? St. Thomas replies: "According to their
natural knowledge the souls of the dead do not know what is
happening here on earth. The reason is that the separated
soul knows individual things inasmuch as it is determined
to them by some vestige of previous knowledge or affection
or by divine ordination. But the souls of the dead, by
divine ordination and by the mode of their being, are
segregated from intercourse with the living and joined in
intercourse with spiritual substances, which are separated
from the body. Hence they are ignorant of the things that
happen among us."[1337]
It is probable, however, that the souls of the blessed
know all that is happening here on earth. They are equal
to the angels, and, as St. Augustine says, the angels
are not ignorant of what is happening among us. "But
because the souls of the saints are most perfectly in
accord with divine justice, they are not saddened nor do
they interest themselves in the affairs of the living
except when the disposition of divine justice requires
it."[1338]
St. Thomas also points out that "the souls of the dead
(in purgatory) can be solicitous about the living, even
though they are ignorant about the condition of the
living, just as we are solicitous about the dead,
offering our suffrages for them, although we are ignorant
about their (particular) state. The souls of the dead
cannot know through themselves what the living are doing,
but they may have this knowledge either through the souls
of those who join them from here below, or through the
angels, or through the revelation of the spirit of
God."[1339]
The duration of the separated soul that is not yet in the
bliss of heaven is twofold, namely, aeviternity and
discrete time.[1340] Aeviternity is the measure of
their immobile substance and their immobile knowledge of
themselves and of God, as well as of their immobile
love, which results from this knowledge. Thus
aeviternity does not imply the change of succession; it is
simultaneously whole, but it is still not eternity,
because it has beginning, at least in fact, and because
it is compatible with before and after, that is, it has
discrete time annexed to it.
In the separated souls and in the angels discrete time is
the measure of successive thoughts and affections; each
thought perdures for one spiritual instant, and the
following thought is measured by another spiritual
instant. Thus discrete time is the measure of the
succession of the thoughts and affections of these souls
and of the angels just as continuous time is the measure of
continuous motion, for example, of the apparent movement
of the sun. It should be noted that one spiritual
instant, which is the measure of one thought, can last
for several hours or days of solar time, as, for
example, even here on earth a person in ecstasy may be
absorbed for several hours in one and the same
contemplation. The duration of that contemplation is one
spiritual instant for that person.
The souls of the blessed in heaven have another duration,
namely, participated eternity, which is the one
stationary now of eternity by which the beatific vision and
beatific love are measured, since these two acts last for
eternity without interruption. We have then four kinds of
duration; these may be represented symbolically by a
pyramid or perhaps better by a cone whose apex represents
eternity. The base represents continuous or solar time;
half way up a conic section parallel to the base represents
aeviternity, and on this section a polygon is drawn to
represent the discrete time of the successive thoughts of
those beings that are in aeviternity.
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