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Objection 1: It would seem that the worm by which the damned are
tormented is corporeal. Because flesh cannot be tormented by a
spiritual worm. Now the flesh of the damned will be tormented by a
worm: "He will give fire and worms into their flesh" (Judith
16:21), and: "The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly is
fire and worms" (Ecclus. 7:19). Therefore that worm will be
corporeal.
Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxi,
9): . . . "Both, namely fire and worm, will be the punishment
of the body." Therefore, etc.
On the contrary, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xx, 22):
"The unquenchable fire and the restless worm in the punishment of the
damned are explained in various ways by different persons. Some refer
both to the body, some, both to the soul: others refer the fire, in
the literal sense, to the body, the worm to the soul metaphorically:
and this seems the more probable."
I answer that, After the day of judgment, no animal or mixed body
will remain in the renewed world except only the body of man, because
the former are not directed to incorruption [Question 91, Article
5], nor after that time will there be generation or corruption.
Consequently the worm ascribed to the damned must be understood to be
not of a corporeal but of a spiritual nature: and this is the remorse
of conscience, which is called a worm because it originates from the
corruption of sin, and torments the soul, as a corporeal worm born of
corruption torments by gnawing.
Reply to Objection 1: The very souls of the damned are called their
flesh for as much as they were subject to the flesh. Or we may reply
that the flesh will be tormented by the spiritual worm, according as
the afflictions of the soul overflow into the body, both here and
hereafter.
Reply to Objection 2: Augustine speaks by way of comparison. For
he does not wish to assert absolutely that this worm is material, but
that it is better to say that both are to be understood materially,
than that both should be understood only in a spiritual sense: for then
the damned would suffer no bodily pain. This is clear to anyone that
examines the context of his words in this passage.
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