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Objection 1: It would seem that the active life remains after this
life. For the acts of the moral virtues belong to the active life, as
stated above (Article 1). But the moral virtues endure after this
life according to Augustine (De Trin. xiv, 9). Therefore the
active life remains after this life.
Objection 2: Further, teaching others belongs to the active life,
as stated above (Article 3). But in the life to come when "we
shall be like the angels," teaching will be possible: even as
apparently it is in the angels of whom one "enlightens, cleanses, and
perfects" [Coel. Hier. iii, viii] another, which refers to the
"receiving of knowledge," according to Dionysius (Coel. Hier.
vii). Therefore it would seem that the active life remains after this
life.
Objection 3: Further, the more lasting a thing is in itself, the
more is it able to endure after this life. But the active life is
seemingly more lasting in itself: for Gregory says (Hom. v in
Ezech.) that "we can remain fixed in the active life, whereas we
are nowise able to maintain an attentive mind in the contemplative
life." Therefore the active life is much more able than the
contemplative to endure after this life.
On the contrary, Gregory says (Hom. xiv in Ezech.): "The
active life ends with this world, but the contemplative life begins
here, to be perfected in our heavenly home."
I answer that, As stated above (Article 1), the active life has
its end in external actions: and if these be referred to the quiet of
contemplation, for that very reason they belong to the contemplative
life. But in the future life of the blessed the occupation of external
actions will cease, and if there be any external actions at all, these
will be referred to contemplation as their end. For, as Augustine
says at the end of De Civitate Dei xxii, 30, "there we shall
rest and we shall see, we shall see and love, we shall love and
praise." And he had said before (De Civ. Dei xxii, 30) that
"there God will be seen without end, loved without wearying, praised
without tiring: such will be the occupation of all, the common love,
the universal activity."
Reply to Objection 1: As stated above (Question 136, Article
1, ad 1), the moral virtues will remain not as to those actions
which are about the means, but as to the actions which are about the
end. Such acts are those that conduce to the quiet of contemplation,
which in the words quoted above Augustine denotes by "rest," and
this rest excludes not only outward disturbances but also the inward
disturbance of the passions.
Reply to Objection 2: The contemplative life, as stated above
(Question 180, Article 4), consists chiefly in the
contemplation of God, and as to this, one angel does not teach
another, since according to Mt. 18:10, "the little ones'
angels," who belong to the lower order, "always see the face of the
Father"; and so, in the life to come, no man will teach another of
God, but "we shall" all "see Him as He is" (1 Jn. 3:2).
This is in keeping with the saying of Jeremias 31:34: "They
shall teach no more every man his neighbor . . . saying: Know the
Lord: for all shall know me, from the least of them even to the
greatest."
But as regards things pertaining to the "dispensation of the mysteries
of God," one angel teaches another by cleansing, enlightening, and
perfecting him: and thus they have something of the active life so long
as the world lasts, from the fact that they are occupied in
administering to the creatures below them. This is signified by the
fact that Jacob saw angels "ascending" the ladder---which refers
to contemplation---and "descending" ---which refers to action.
Nevertheless, as Gregory remarks (Moral. ii, 3), "they do not
wander abroad from the Divine vision, so as to be deprived of the joys
of inward contemplation." Hence in them the active life does not
differ from the contemplative life as it does in us for whom the works
of the active life are a hindrance to contemplation.
Nor is the likeness to the angels promised to us as regards the
administering to lower creatures, for this is competent to us not by
reason of our natural order, as it is to the angels, but by reason of
our seeing God.
Reply to Objection 3: That the durability of the active life in the
present state surpasses the durability of the contemplative life arises
not from any property of either life considered in itself, but from our
own deficiency, since we are withheld from the heights of contemplation
by the weight of the body. Hence Gregory adds (Moral. ii, 3)
that "the mind through its very weakness being repelled from that
immense height recoils on itself."
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