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So far we have spoken, first, of soul depths in the
present life, then of death, lastly of judgment. We
must consider the future life, first in general, then
in particular, as found in hell or in purgatory or in
heaven.
To have a just idea of the future life in general we
must first see what theology teaches on the knowledge
possessed by the soul separated from its body, the
soul which no longer has the use of its senses, not
even of imagination. Next, we study the state of the
will, illumined by this new knowledge beyond the
tomb.
We have said above [174] that the soul begins to be
fixed either in good or evil by the last voluntary
act, meritorious or demeritorious, which it makes at
the very moment when it separates from the body. We
have said further, that it completes this fixation by
the act of the will which it produces at that precise
instant where the state of separation begins. Then,
since everyone judges according to his inclination,
the humble soul continues to judge and will
conformably to humility during its state of
separation, whereas the proud man who has died in
final impenitence continues to judge and to will
according to his pride.
This fixity, either in good or in evil, is
mysterious. But this mysteriousness is not without an
analogue in facts which we meet with in the present
life. The disposition wherewith we enter upon a
permanent state often lasts throughout the entire
duration of that state. The infant born into good
surroundings has promise of lasting good health,
whereas the child born into poor surroundings may
anticipate feeble health. Again, he who with
Christian motives enters marriage has good hopes of
perseverance, whereas he who enters with an evil
intention will not be blessed by God in this state,
unless he is converted. He who enters religion for a
good purpose ordinarily perseveres, whereas he who
enters for an evil motive does not persevere, and has
no profit from the religious life. These examples, in
a way, illustrate the fixity of the soul after death,
a fixation which is affirmed by revelation. [175]
The topic we now turn to, namely, the knowledge in
the separated soul, will confirm this doctrine. It is
immutability in knowledge that is the source of the
immutability which is characteristic of the state of
separation.
The central principle is this: Human intelligence,
though it is the lowest of all intelligences, is
nevertheless a genuine intelligence, an immaterial
and spiritual power. [176]
Preternatural Knowledge
The separated soul, since it no longer has its body,
no longer has sense operations, internal or external,
because all these are operations of an animated
organ. The separated soul retains the sensitive
faculties, but only radically, since they do not
exist actually anywhere except in the human
composite. The human imagination, like the animal
imagination, does not exist actually after the
corruption of its material organ. The same holds good
for the habitudes of the sense faculties.
Remembrances of the sensitive memory do not exist
actually in the separated soul. The separated soul
can no longer see in the sense order, no longer
imagine in the sense order.
But the separated soul does retain actually its
higher faculties, its purely spiritual faculties,
namely, intellect and will and the habits which are
found in these faculties. But here we must draw a
distinction. Reprobated souls can retain certain
acquired sciences, but do not have virtues, either
acquired or infused. They have lost infused faith and
infused hope. But the souls in purgatory preserve
their knowledge and their virtues, acquired or
infused: faith, hope, charity, prudence, religion,
patience, justice, humility. This truth is very
important.
Similarly the separated soul preserves the habits
which have remained in these faculties. Nevertheless
the exercise of these acts is in part impeded,
because these faculties have no longer the aid of the
imagination or sense memory, an aid which is most
helpful. What, for instance, would be a preacher who
would no longer have the use of imagination in the
service of his intelligence?
Theologians, generally, teach that the mode of being
of the separated soul is preternatural, because the
soul is made to animate its body. Hence it has also a
preternatural mode of action, which it receives from
God at the moment of separation, a mode consisting in
infused ideas, similar to those of the angels, ideas
which can serve it without the aid of the
imagination. [177] Thus, to illustrate, a theologian
who has become blind, and is no longer able to read,
becomes a man of prayer and receives higher
inspirations. It may be that formerly he worked too
much and prayed too little. Now he consecrates
himself to interior prayer and thereby becomes a
better theologian.
But from this notion of infused ideas received by the
separated soul there arises another difficulty, quite
different from the preceding. Whereas the use of
abstract and acquired ideas is difficult without the
imagination, the use of infused ideas is difficult
because they are too high for the natural
intelligence, which is the lowest of intelligences
and has as its proportioned object the lowest
intelligible object, namely, sense objects. These
infused ideas are too elevated, just as metaphysical
conceptions are too high for an unprepared spirit, or
as a giant's armor is too heavy for a young fighter.
David preferred his sling to the armor of Goliath.
These deficiencies are balanced by perfections.
First, the soul sees itself intuitively, as does the
angel. [178] Consequently it clearly sees its
spirituality, its immortality, its liberty. Further
it sees in itself, as in a mirror, with perfect
certitude, God, its Author and Creator. It answers
the great philosophical problems with perfect
clarity. St. Thomas says: "The soul in a certain real
sense is thus more free to understand." Thus
separated souls naturally know one another, although
less perfectly than do the angels.
Can the separated soul know, not only universal
truths, but also concrete facts? Yes, where it has
special ties of family, friendship, and grace. Local
distance is no impediment in this kind of knowledge,
since it does not arise from sense but from infused
ideas. [179] Thus a good Christian mother may recall
in purgatory the children whom she has left on earth.
Do these souls know what is happening on earth? St.
Thomas replies: "In the natural order they do not
know, because they are separated from the society of
those who are still on the road to eternity.
Nevertheless, if we restrict the question to the
souls of the blessed, it is more probable to say that
they, like the angels, do know what happens on earth,
particularly what happens to those who are dear to
them. This is a part of their accidental beatitude."
[180] Those in purgatory too can have love of us,
even though they do not know our actual state, just
as we pray for them, although we do not know their
actual state, their nearness, for example, to
deliverance.
Eviternity and Time
What measures the duration of separated souls? [181]
We must distinguish three kinds of duration: time,
eternity, and an intermediate kind of duration, which
is called eviternity.
On earth our duration is measured by continuous time,
which is itself the measure of continuous movement,
especially of the apparent movement of the sun. It is
thus that we distinguish hours, days, years, and
centuries. When the soul is separated from the body
and is not yet beatified, it has a double kind of
duration: eviternity and discontinuous time.
Eviternity measures what is immutable in angels and
separated souls. It is the measure of their
substance, of their natural knowledge of self and
God. Eviternity excludes succession. It is a
perpetual present. Yet it differs from eternity,
because it has had a beginning, and because it is
united to discontinuous time which presupposes past
and future.
Discontinuous time, then, is opposed to continuous or
solar time. It is found in angels and separated
souls, as the measure of successive thoughts and
affections. One thought lasts for one spiritual
instant. The following thought has its own spiritual
instant. To illustrate: here on earth a person in
ecstasy can remain two solar hours, or many hours, in
one sole thought which represents to it one sole
spiritual instant. Similarly, history characterizes
different centuries, for example, the thirteenth or
the seventeenth, by the ideas which predominate in
each of these centuries. Thus we speak of the century
of St. Louis, of the century of Louis XIV. Hence a
spiritual instant, in the lives of angels and
separated souls, can last many days, even many years,
measured by our solar time, just as a person in
ecstasy can remain thirty successive hours absorbed
in one single thought.
In beatified souls there is added to this double
duration (eviternity and discontinuous time) also
that of participated eternity, which measures their
beatific vision of the divine essence and the love
which results from this vision. This is one unique
instant, an immovable eternity, entirely without
succession. Yet this participated eternity differs
from that of essential eternity which is proper to
God, just as effect differs from cause. Participated
eternity had a beginning. Further, the essential
eternity of God measures everything that is in God,
His essence, and all His operations, whereas
participated eternity measures only the beatific
vision and the love which follows. Eternity is like
the invisible point at the summit of a cone, whereas
continuous time is pictured by the base of this cone.
Eviternity and discontinuous time are between these
two, the one like a circular conic section, and the
other like a polygon inscribed in this circular
section.
Continuous time flows without cessation. Its present
flows continually from past to future. Our present
life involves a succession of hours, in work, prayer,
sleep. Eternity, on the contrary, is a continual
present, without past or future, a unique instant of
life which is possessed entirely and simultaneously.
Eviternity approaches eternity. It permits us to
conceive better the immutability of the life of the
separated soul, not beatified, or not yet beatified:
the immutability of knowledge which it has of itself,
the immutability of the will fixed on its last end,
good or evil.
Let us recall here the words of St. Augustine: "Unite
thyself to the eternity of God, and thou thyself wilt
be eternal. Unite thyself to the eternity of God.
Watch with Him the events which come to pass below
you." [182] Let us watch the successive moments of
our terrestrial life, not only along the horizontal
line of time which runs between the past and the
future, but also on the vertical line which binds
them at each instant to immovable eternity. Thus our
acts will be more and more meritorious, more and more
filled with love of God, and thus will pass from time
into eternity, where they remain forever written in
the book of life.
These different kinds of time, on earth, in
purgatory, and in heaven, permit us to distinguish
also in the present life two kinds of time: one
corporeal, one spiritual. Corporeal time, solar time,
measures the duration of our organism. Thus measured,
one is eighty years of age, an old man; but, measured
by spiritual time, his soul may remain very young.
Thus, as we distinguish three ages of corporeal life,
infancy, adult age, and old age, so in the life of
the soul, we distinguish three ages, namely, the
purgative life of beginners, the illuminative life of
those who are progressing, the unitive way of those
who are perfect.
This spiritual kind of time may explain salvation in
unexpected quarters. Some great act, never retracted,
has borne fruit.
I knew a young Jew, the son of an Austrian banker, in
Vienna. He had decided on a lawsuit against the
greatest adversary of his family, a lawsuit that
would have enriched him. He suddenly recalled this
word of the Pater Noster, which he had sometimes
heard: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us." He said to himself: "How
would it be if, instead of carrying on this lawsuit,
I would pardon him?" He followed the inspiration,
forgave completely, renounced the lawsuit. At that
same moment he received the full gift of faith. This
one word of the Our Father became his pathway up the
mountain of life. He became a priest, a Dominican,
and died at the age of fifty years. Though nothing
particularly important appeared in the remainder of
his life, his soul remained at the height where it
had been elevated at the moment of his conversion.
Step by step he mounted to the eternal youth which is
the life of heaven. The moral runs thus: One great
act of self-sacrifice may decide not only our whole
spiritual life on earth but also our eternity. We
judge a chain of mountains by its highest peak.
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