|
Objection 1: It would seem that there is hope in the damned. For
the devil is damned and prince of the damned, according to Mt.
25:41: "Depart . . . you cursed, into everlasting fire,
which was prepared for the devil and his angels." But the devil has
hope, according to Job 40:28, "Behold his hope shall fail
him." Therefore it seems that the damned have hope.
Objection 2: Further, just as faith is either living or dead, so
is hope. But lifeless faith can be in the devils and the damned,
according to James 2:19: "The devils . . . believe and
tremble." Therefore it seems that lifeless hope also can be in the
damned.
Objection 3: Further, after death there accrues to man no merit or
demerit that he had not before, according to Eccles. 11:3, "If
the tree fall to the south, or to the north, in what place soever it
shall fall, there shall it be." Now many who are damned, in this
life hoped and never despaired. Therefore they will hope in the future
life also.
On the contrary, Hope causes joy, according to Rm. 12:12,
"Rejoicing in hope." Now the damned have no joy, but sorrow and
grief, according to Is. 65:14, "My servants shall praise for
joyfulness of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall
howl for grief of spirit." Therefore no hope is in the damned.
I answer that, Just as it is a condition of happiness that the will
should find rest therein, so is it a condition of punishment, that
what is inflicted in punishment, should go against the will. Now that
which is not known can neither be restful nor repugnant to the will:
wherefore Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xi, 17) that the angels
could not be perfectly happy in their first state before their
confirmation, or unhappy before their fall, since they had no
foreknowledge of what would happen to them. For perfect and true
happiness requires that one should be certain of being happy for ever,
else the will would not rest.
In like manner, since the everlastingness of damnation is a necessary
condition of the punishment of the damned, it would not be truly penal
unless it went against the will; and this would be impossible if they
were ignorant of the everlastingness of their damnation. Hence it
belongs to the unhappy state of the damned, that they should know that
they cannot by any means escape from damnation and obtain happiness.
Wherefore it is written (Job 15:22): "He believeth not that
he may return from darkness to light." It is, therefore, evident
that they cannot apprehend happiness as a possible good, as neither can
the blessed apprehend it as a future good. Consequently there is no
hope either in the blessed or in the damned. On the other hand, hope
can be in wayfarers, whether of this life or in purgatory, because in
either case they apprehend happiness as a future possible thing.
Reply to Objection 1: As Gregory says (Moral. xxxiii, 20)
this is said of the devil as regards his members, whose hope will fail
utterly: or, if it be understood of the devil himself, it may refer
to the hope whereby he expects to vanquish the saints, in which sense
we read just before (Job 40:18): "He trusteth that the
Jordan may run into his mouth": this is not, however, the hope of
which we are speaking.
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says (Enchiridion viii),
"faith is about things, bad or good, past, present, or future,
one's own or another's; whereas hope is only about good things,
future and concerning oneself." Hence it is possible for lifeless
faith to be in the damned, but not hope, since the Divine goods are
not for them future possible things, but far removed from them.
Reply to Objection 3: Lack of hope in the damned does not change
their demerit, as neither does the voiding of hope in the blessed
increase their merit: but both these things are due to the change in
their respective states.
|
|