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Objection 1: It would seem that no souls are conveyed to heaven or
hell immediately after death. For a gloss on Ps. 36:10, "Yet
a little while and the wicked shall not be," says that "the saints
are delivered at the end of life; yet after this life they will not yet
be where the saints will be when it is said to them: Come ye blessed
of My Father." Now those saints will be in heaven. Therefore
after this life the saints do not go immediately up to heaven.
Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (Enchiridion cix) that
"the time which lies between man's death and the final resurrection
holds the souls in secret receptacles according as each one is worthy of
rest or of suffering." Now these secret abodes cannot denote heaven
and hell, since also after the final resurrection the souls will be
there together with their bodies: so that he would have no reason to
distinguish between the time before and the time after the
resurrection. Therefore they will be neither in hell nor in heaven
until the day of judgment.
Objection 3: Further, the glory of the soul is greater than that of
bodies. Now the glory of the body is awarded to all at the same time,
so that each one may have the greater joy in the common rejoicing of
all, as appears from a gloss on Heb. 11:40, "God providing
some better thing for us---that the common joy may make each one
rejoice the more." Much more, therefore, ought the glory of souls
to be deferred until the end, so as to be awarded to all at the same
time.
Objection 4: Further, punishment and reward, being pronounced by
the sentence of the judge, should not precede the judgment. Now hell
fire and the joys of heaven will be awarded to all by the sentence of
Christ judging them, namely at the last judgment, according to Mt.
25. Therefore no one will go up to heaven or down to hell before the
day of judgment.
On the contrary, It is written (2 Cor. 5:1): "If our
earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have . . . a
house not made with hands, but reserved in heaven." Therefore,
after the body's dissolution, the soul has an abode, which had been
reserved for it in heaven.
Further, the Apostle says (Phil. 1:23): "I desire to be
dissolved and to be with Christ." From these words Gregory argues
as follows (Dial. iv, 25): "If there is no doubt that Christ
is in heaven, it cannot be denied that Paul's soul is in heaven
likewise." Now it cannot be gainsaid that Christ is in heaven,
since this is an article of faith. Therefore neither is it to be
denied that the souls of the saints are borne to heaven. That also
some souls go down to hell immediately after death is evident from Lk.
16:22, "And the rich man died, and he was buried in hell."
I answer that, Even as in bodies there is gravity or levity whereby
they are borne to their own place which is the end of their movement,
so in souls there is merit or demerit whereby they reach their reward or
punishment, which are the ends of their deeds. Wherefore just as a
body is conveyed at once to its place, by its gravity or levity,
unless there be an obstacle, so too the soul, the bonds of the flesh
being broken, whereby it was detained in the state of the way,
receives at once its reward or punishment, unless there be an
obstacle. Thus sometimes venial sin, though needing first of all to
be cleansed, is an obstacle to the receiving of the reward; the result
being that the reward is delayed. And since a place is assigned to
souls in keeping with their reward or punishment, as soon as the soul
is set free from the body it is either plunged into hell or soars to
heaven, unless it be held back by some debt, for which its flight must
needs be delayed until the soul is first of all cleansed. This truth
is attested by the manifest authority of the canonical Scriptures and
the doctrine of the holy Fathers; wherefore the contrary must be
judged heretical as stated in Dial. iv, 25, and in De Eccl.
Dogm. xlvi.
Reply to Objection 1: The gloss explains itself: for it expounds
the words, "They will not yet be where the saints will be," etc.,
by saying immediately afterwards: "That is to say, they will not
have the double stole which the saints will have at the resurrection."
Reply to Objection 2: Among the secret abodes of which Augustine
speaks, we must also reckon hell and heaven, where some souls are
detained before the resurrection. The reason why a distinction is
drawn between the time before and the time after the resurrection is
because before the resurrection they are there without the body whereas
afterwards they are with the body, and because in certain places there
are souls now which will not be there after the resurrection.
Reply to Objection 3: There is a kind of continuity among men as
regards the body, because in respect thereof is verified the saying of
Acts 17:24,26, "God . . . hath made of one all
mankind": whereas He has fashioned souls independently of one
another. Consequently it is not so fitting that all men should be
glorified together in the soul as that they should be glorified together
in the body. Moreover the glory of the body is not so essential as the
glory of the soul; wherefore it would be more derogatory to the saints
if the glory of the soul were delayed, than that the glory of the body
be deferred: nor could this detriment to their glory be compensated on
account of the joy of each one being increased by the common joy.
Reply to Objection 4: Gregory proposes and solves this very
difficulty (Dial. iv, 25): "If then," he says, "the souls
of the just are in heaven now, what will they receive in reward for
their justice on the judgment day?" And he answers: "Surely it
will be a gain to them at the judgment, that whereas now they enjoy
only the happiness of the soul, afterwards they will enjoy also that of
the body, so as to rejoice also in the flesh wherein they bore sorrow
and torments for the Lord." The same is to be said in reference to
the damned.
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