Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 110–122

Nor is it to be denied that the souls of the dead are relieved by the piety of their living friends, when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for them or alms are given in the Church. But these things profit those who, while they lived, merited that these things might afterwards profit them. For there is a certain way of living neither so good that it does not need these things after death, nor so bad that these things do not profit it after death; but there is one so good that it does not need them, and again one so bad that, when it has passed from this life, it cannot be helped even by these. Therefore every merit by which anyone can be relieved or burdened after this life is acquired here. And let no one hope to merit with God after he has died what he has neglected here. So these things which the Church frequently does to commend the dead are not contrary to that apostolic saying, “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he has done through the body, whether good or bad”; because each one also acquired for himself, while he lived in the body, this merit, that these things could profit him. For they do not profit all. And why do they not profit all, except because of the difference of life which each one led in the body? When, then, sacrifices, whether of the altar or of any alms, are offered for all the baptized dead, for the very good they are thanksgivings; for the not very bad they are propitiations; for the very bad, even if they are no help to the dead, they are some sort of consolation to the living. And for those whom they profit, they profit either so that there may be full remission, or at least so that the condemnation itself may become more tolerable.

After the resurrection, when the universal judgment has been made and completed, the two cities will have their ends, one of Christ, the other of the devil; one of the good, the other of the evil; both, however, of angels and of men. The former will have no will, the latter no possibility, of sinning, nor any condition of dying; the former living truly and happily in eternal life, the latter enduring unhappily in eternal death without the power of dying, since both will be without end. But in happiness some will remain more excellent than others, and in misery some more tolerable than others.

In vain, then, do some, indeed very many, pity with human feeling the eternal punishment and unceasing perpetual torments of the damned, and so do not believe that it will be so; not indeed opposing the divine Scriptures, but softening every hard saying according to their own feeling, and bending to a milder sense those things in them which they think were said more to terrify than truly. For “God will not forget,” they say, “to have mercy, or shut up his compassions in his anger.” This indeed is read in a holy psalm; but it is understood without any scruple of those who are called vessels of mercy, because they too are freed from misery not by their own merits but by God's mercy. Or if they think this applies to all, it does not therefore follow that they must suppose that the condemnation can end of those of whom it was said, “And these will go away into eternal punishment”; lest in this way it be thought that the happiness too of those will at some time have an end of whom it was said by contrast, “but the righteous into eternal life.” But let them think, if this pleases them, that the punishments of the damned are mitigated to some extent at certain intervals of time. For even so it can be understood that the wrath of God remains on them, that is, the condemnation itself (for this is called the wrath of God, not a disturbance of the divine mind), in such a way that in his wrath, that is, while his wrath remains, he still does not shut up his compassions; not by putting an end to the eternal punishment, but by applying or interposing relief in the torments. For the psalm does not say, “to end his wrath” or “after his wrath,” but “in his wrath.” And even if that alone were there which is the least that can be thought of there, to perish from the kingdom of God, to be exiled from the city of God, to be estranged from the life of God, to lack so great an abundance of God's sweetness, which he has hidden for those who fear him and perfected for those who hope in him, it is so great a punishment that no torments we know could be compared to it, since it is eternal, while those, however many ages they last, are not.

That perpetual death of the damned, then, that is, estrangement from the life of God, will remain without end, and it will be common to all, whatever men may suppose, according to their human feelings, about the variety of punishments and about the relief or interruption of pains; just as the eternal life of all the saints will remain in common, with whatever difference of honors they shine together in harmony.

From this confession of faith, which is briefly contained in the Creed, and which, thought of carnally, is milk for infants, but considered and treated spiritually is food for the strong, is born the good hope of the faithful, accompanied by holy love. But of all the things that are to be faithfully believed, only those pertain to hope which are contained in the Lord's Prayer. For “cursed is everyone,” as the divine oracles testify, “who places his hope in man”; and therefore he too who places hope in himself is bound by the chain of this curse. Therefore we ought to ask from no one but the Lord God whatever we hope either to do well or to obtain for good works.

Accordingly, in the evangelist Matthew the Lord's Prayer seems to contain seven petitions: in three of them eternal things are asked, in the other four temporal things, which are nevertheless necessary for attaining the eternal. For what we say, “Hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth” (which some have not unreasonably understood as “in spirit and in body”), are things to be kept wholly without end; begun here, they increase in us as much as we advance, but perfected, which is to be hoped for in the other life, they will be possessed forever. But what we say, “Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil,” who does not see pertains to the needs of the present life? In that eternal life, then, where we hope always to be, the hallowing of God's name, and his kingdom, and his will in our spirit and body will remain perfectly and immortally. But the bread is called daily because it is necessary here, as much as is to be given to soul and flesh, whether it is understood spiritually or carnally or in both ways. Here too is the forgiveness we ask, where the committing of sins is; here are the temptations that either entice or drive us to sin; here, finally, is the evil from which we desire to be freed; but there none of these exists.

The evangelist Luke, however, included in the Lord's Prayer not seven but five petitions; nor did he in any way disagree with Matthew, but by his very brevity he reminded us how these seven are to be understood. For God's name is hallowed in the spirit, but God's kingdom will come in the resurrection of the flesh. Luke, then, showing that the third petition is in a certain way a repetition of the two above, makes this better understood by omitting it. Then he adds three others: about daily bread, about the forgiveness of sins, about avoiding temptation. But what Matthew put last, “But deliver us from evil,” Luke did not put, so that we might understand that it belongs to what was said above about temptation. For this is why Matthew says “But deliver,” not “And deliver,” showing it to be one petition (not this, but this), so that each may know that he is delivered from evil in that he is not led into temptation.

Now love, which the apostle called greater than these two, that is, faith and hope, the greater it is in anyone, the better is he in whom it is. For when it is asked whether someone is a good man, it is not asked what he believes or hopes, but what he loves. For he who loves rightly without doubt believes and hopes rightly; but he who does not love believes in vain, even if what he believes is true; he hopes in vain, even if what he hopes for is taught to belong to true happiness; unless he also believes and hopes this, that it can be given him at his request to love. For although he cannot hope without love, it can yet happen that he does not love that without which he cannot reach what he hopes for: as if he hopes for eternal life (and who does not love that?) and does not love righteousness, without which no one reaches it. But this is the faith of Christ which the apostle commends, which works through love; and what it does not yet have in love, it asks so that it may receive, seeks so that it may find, knocks so that it may be opened to it. For faith obtains what the law commands. For without God's gift, that is, without the Holy Spirit, through whom love is poured out in our hearts, the law will be able to command, not to help; and moreover to make a transgressor, who cannot excuse himself on the ground of ignorance. For carnal desire reigns where the love of God is not.

But when one lives according to the flesh in the deepest darkness of ignorance, with no reason resisting, this is the first state of man. Then, when knowledge of sin has come through the law, if the divine Spirit does not yet help, a man wishing to live according to the law is overcome, and sins knowingly, and, made subject to sin, he serves it (“For by whom a man is overcome, to him he is also enslaved”); the knowledge of the commandment bringing it about that sin works in man every desire, with the weight of transgression added, and so what is written is fulfilled, “The law came in, that the offense might abound.” This is the second state of man. But if God has looked upon him, so that he believes that God himself helps him to fulfill what he commands, and he begins to be led by the Spirit of God, he desires against the flesh with the stronger strength of love; so that, although there is still in man what fights against man, his weakness not yet wholly healed, yet the just man lives by faith, and lives justly in so far as he does not yield to evil desire, the delight of righteousness conquering. This is the third state of a man of good hope; and if anyone advances in it with pious perseverance, there remains the final peace, which will be fulfilled after this life in the rest of the spirit, and then also in the resurrection of the flesh. Of these four differences, the first is before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace, the fourth in full and perfect peace. So also the people of God has been ordered through intervals of time, as it pleased God, who orders all things in measure and number and weight. For it was first before the Law; second under the Law, which was given through Moses; then under grace, which was revealed through the first coming of the Mediator. This grace indeed was not lacking before to those to whom it had to be imparted, though veiled and hidden according to the dispensation of the time. For none of the righteous of old could find salvation apart from the faith of Christ; nor, unless he had been known to them too, could he have been prophesied to us through their ministry, sometimes more openly, sometimes more obscurely.

But in whichever of these four ages, as it were, the grace of regeneration finds any individual man, there all his past sins are forgiven him, and that guilt contracted by being born is dissolved by being reborn. And so much does it avail that “the Spirit breathes where he wills” that some have not known that second slavery under the Law, but begin to have divine help together with the commandment.

Before a man can be capable of receiving the commandment, he must live according to the flesh; but if he has already been imbued with the sacrament of regeneration, it will not harm him if he departs from this life then. For Christ died and rose for this, that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead; nor will the kingdom of death hold him for whom he died who was free among the dead.

All the divine precepts, then, are referred to love, of which the apostle says: “But the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and unfeigned faith.” The end of every commandment, then, is love; that is, every commandment is referred to love. But what is done either from fear of punishment or from some carnal intention, so that it is not referred to that love which the Holy Spirit pours out in our hearts, is not yet done as it ought to be done, though it seems to be done. For this love is of God and of neighbor; and certainly “on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Add the Gospel, add the apostles; for from nowhere else comes this voice, “The end of the commandment is love,” and “God is love.” Whatever, then, God commands, one of which is, “You shall not commit adultery,” and whatever is not commanded but advised by spiritual counsel, one of which is, “It is good for a man not to touch a woman”: these are rightly done when they are referred to loving God, and the neighbor for God's sake, both in this age and in the age to come; now God through faith, then through sight, and the neighbor himself now through faith. For we mortals do not know the hearts of mortals; but then “the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then each will have praise from God”; because what is praised and loved in a neighbor by a neighbor is that which God himself will bring to light so that it may not be hidden. Desire diminishes as love grows, until love here comes to such greatness that it cannot be greater: “For greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” But there who can explain how great love will be, where there will be no desire for it to overcome by restraining? For there will be supreme health when there is no struggle with death.

But let there at last be an end of this volume; you yourself will see whether you ought to call it an enchiridion or to keep it as one. I, however, since I did not think your zeal in Christ should be despised, believing and hoping good things of you with the help of our Redeemer, and loving you very much among his members, have written for you, as I was able, a book on faith, hope, and love; would that it were as useful as it is long.