Chapter 14
(17) Someone might
say: if the dead have no care for the living, how did that rich man who was
being tormented in hell ask father Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers
who were not yet dead and to deal with them lest they come to the same place of
torments? When that rich man said this, did he know anything of what his
brothers were doing, or what they were suffering at that time? Thus, being evil
he suffered more because he had a care for the living, for he did not know what
they were doing, just as we have a care for the dead, although we do not know
what they are doing. For, if we had no care for the dead, we would not be in
the habit of praying for them. In short, Abraham did not send Lazarus, but
replied that the five brothers had Moses and the Prophets with them and that
they should hear them so as not to come to such torments.
Someone raises
another objection: How did father himself not know what was going on here when
he knew that Moses and the Prophets were here, that is to say, their books
which men might read and obey, thus avoiding the torments of hell; when, finally,
he knew that the rich man had lived in luxury, while Lazarus in toils and pains
had spent his days in poverty? He says this to him: ‘Son, remember that thou in
thy lifetime hast received good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things.’
Then he knew the things which had been done among the living, not among the
dead. Truly he did not know of them when they were happening among the living,
but he could have learned of them from Lazarus after the rich man and Lazarus
were dead. I say this, for the Prophet Isaias cannot be false in saying: ‘Abraham
hath not known us’ (Isa. 63.16).
Chapter 15
(18) Then it must be
admitted that the dead do not know what is going on here, but, when something
is happening here, the dead actually hear about it later from those who at
their death go from here to them. Truly, they do not report everything. They
are allowed to remember and to report only the things which are proper for
those dead to hear. Also, from angels who are aware of the things which go on
here the dead are able to hear whatever. He who governs all determines is
proper for each one to hear. For, unless there were angels who can be present
in the abodes of the living and the dead, the Lord Jesus would not have said: ‘And
it came to pass that the poor man died and was borne away by the angels into
Abraham’s bosom.’ Thus, the angels who carried from this place to that the one
whom God wished are able at one time to be with the living, at another time to
be with the dead. For, the souls of the dead are able to know some things which
go on here which they ought to know. Further, those who ought to know such
things know not only the present or the past, but also by divine revelation the
things which are to come—just as the prophets, but not everybody, while they
were living her received revelation. However, not even the Prophets knew
everything, but only such things as the providence of God decided ought to be
revealed to them.
Also, some can be
sent to the living from the dead, just as in the opposite direction divine Scripture
testifies that Paul was snatched from the living into Paradise. Samuel the
Prophet, although dead, predicted future events to King Saul, who was alive,
although some thing that it was not Samuel himself who was able to be called
forth by some magic, but that some spirit so allied with evil works had feigned
a likeness to him—yet the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which Jesus the son of Sirach
is said to have written, but because of some similarity of style is thought to
be the work of Solomon, contains in praise of the fathers the fact that Samuel
prophesied even though dead. If there is objection to this book on the ground
that it is not in the canon of ancient Hebrew Scripture, what are we going to
say of Moses, who in Deuteronomy is certainly recorded as dead and again in the
Gospel of St. Matthew is reported to have appeared to the living alone with
Elias who did not die. (“The Care to be Taken for the Dead,” translated
by John A. Lacy, in Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects [The
Fathers of the Church 27; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America
Press, 1955, 1985], 375-77)
