Saturday, October 2, 2021

Augustine on how the Righteous Dead are Cognizant of Events on Earth

 

 

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)