|
Objection 1: It would seem that the limbo of hell is the same as the
hell of the damned. For Christ is said to have "bitten" [Osee
13:14] hell, but not to have swallowed it, because He took some
from thence but not all. Now He would not be said to have "bitten"
hell if those whom He set free were not part of the multitude shut up
in hell. Therefore since those whom He set free were shut up in
hell, the same were shut up in limbo and in hell. Therefore limbo is
either the same as hell, or is a part of hell.
Objection 2: Further, in the Creed Christ is said to have
descended into hell. But he did not descend save to the limbo of the
Fathers. Therefore the limbo of the Fathers is the same as hell.
Objection 3: Further, it is written (Job 17:16): "All
that I have shall go down into the deepest hell." Now since Job was
a holy and just man, he went down to limbo. Therefore limbo is the
same as the deepest hell.
On the contrary, In hell there is no redemption [Office of the
Dead, Resp. vii]. But the saints were redeemed from limbo.
Therefore limbo is not the same as hell.
Further, Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xii): "I do not see how
we can believe that the rest which Lazarus received was in hell."
Now the soul of Lazarus went down into limbo. Therefore limbo is not
the same as hell.
I answer that, The abodes of souls after death may be distinguished
in two ways; either as to their situation, or as to the quality of the
places, inasmuch as souls are punished or rewarded in certain places.
Accordingly if we consider the limbo of the Fathers and hell in
respect of the aforesaid quality of the places, there is no doubt that
they are distinct, both because in hell there is sensible punishment,
which was not in the limbo of the Fathers, and because in hell there
is eternal punishment, whereas the saints were detained but temporally
in the limbo of the Fathers. On the other hand, if we consider them
as to the situation of the place, it is probable that hell and limbo
are the same place, or that they are continuous as it were yet so that
some higher part of hell be called the limbo of the Fathers. For
those who are in hell receive diverse punishments according to the
diversity of their guilt, so that those who are condemned are consigned
to darker and deeper parts of hell according as they have been guilty of
graver sins, and consequently the holy Fathers in whom there was the
least amount of sin were consigned to a higher and less darksome part
than all those who were condemned to punishment.
Reply to Objection 1: When Christ, by His descent, delivered
the Fathers from limbo, He is said to have "bitten" hell and to
have descended into hell, in so far as hell and limbo are the same as
to situation.
This suffices for the Reply to the Second Objection.
Reply to Objection 3: Job descended, not to the hell of the
damned, but to the limbo of the Fathers. The latter is called the
deepest place not in reference to the places of punishment, but in
comparison with other places, as including all penal places under one
head. Again we may reply with Augustine (Gen. ad lit. xii): who
says of Jacob: "When Jacob said to his sons, 'You will bring
down my grey hairs with sorrow to hell,' he seems to have feared
most, lest he should be troubled with so great a sorrow as to obtain,
not the rest of good men, but the hell of sinners." The saying of
Job may be expounded in the same way, as being the utterance of one in
fear, rather than an assertion.
|
|