The School of Souls

Let us look briefly now at what we ought to think about the promises. Certainly there is nothing alive that can be completely inactive and unmoving; every living thing delights in motion of every kind, and in constant activity and the exercise of will. That much, I think, is plain in all living things. How much more, then, must a rational creature — human nature, that is — be in constant movement and activity. [a]

If a man forgets himself and does not know what suits him, all his effort goes into serving the uses of the body, and in everything he does he is taken up with his own pleasures and bodily cravings. But if he is the sort of man who studies how to care and provide for the common good, then he exerts himself — whether by taking counsel for the state or by obeying the magistrates — for whatever seems likely to promote the public advantage. And if a man is of such a nature that he understands there is something better than the things that seem to be bodily, and so spends his labor on wisdom and knowledge, then he will certainly turn all his attention to pursuits of that kind, so that by inquiring into the truth he may find out the causes and the reason of things.

So in this life one man thinks the highest good is to enjoy bodily pleasures, another to work for the good of the community, a third to give himself to study and learning. Let us ask, then, whether in that life which is the true one — the life said to be hidden with Christ in God, the eternal life — there will be some such order and condition of existence for us.

Now certain people refuse the labor of thinking. They take a surface view of the letter of the law, and give way to some extent to their own desires and cravings; and being disciples of the letter alone, they hold that the promises of the future are to be fulfilled in bodily pleasure and luxury. So what they especially want is to have again, after the resurrection, bodies of flesh that will never lose the power of eating and drinking and doing everything else that flesh and blood do — not following what the apostle Paul says about the resurrection of a spiritual body. And so they say that after the resurrection there will be marriages and the fathering of children. [c]

They imagine to themselves that the earthly city of Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, its foundations laid in precious stones, its walls built of jasper and its battlements of crystal; that it is to have a wall made of many precious stones — jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, onyx, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, amethyst. They think, too, that the people of other countries are to be handed over to them as the servants of their pleasures, to be employed as tillers of their fields or builders of their walls, and that by these the ruined and fallen city is to be raised up again. They think they are to receive the wealth of the nations to live on, and to have control of their riches; that even the camels of Midian and Kedar will come and bring them gold and incense and precious stones.

All this they think to establish on the authority of the prophets, out of the promises written about Jerusalem, and out of those passages that say that those who serve the Lord will eat and drink while sinners go hungry and thirsty, and that the righteous will be glad while sorrow takes hold of the wicked. From the New Testament as well they quote the saying of the Savior in which he makes his disciples a promise about the joy of wine: “From now on I will not drink of this cup until I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” They add the saying in which the Savior calls those blessed who now hunger and thirst, promising them that they will be filled. And they bring forward many other passages of Scripture without seeing that the meaning is to be taken figuratively.

Then, matching the shape of things in this life, and following the grades of dignity or rank in this world, or the size of men’s powers, they suppose that they are going to be kings and princes like the earthly monarchs who exist now — chiefly, it appears, on account of that expression in the Gospel, “Have authority over five cities.” To put it shortly: in every matter of this kind they want the promises fulfilled in the way things go in this present life; they want what now is to exist again. These are the views of people who believe in Christ but understand the divine Scriptures in a kind of Jewish sense, drawing from them nothing worthy of the divine promises.

Those, however, who take what Scripture pictures in the way the apostles understood it hold this hope: that the saints will indeed eat, but that what they eat will be the bread of life — bread that feeds the soul with the food of truth and wisdom, and lights up the mind, and gives it to drink from the cup of divine wisdom. As holy Scripture says: “Wisdom has prepared her table; she has killed her beasts, she has mixed her wine in her cup, and she calls out with a loud voice: Come to me, eat the bread I have prepared for you, and drink the wine I have mixed.” [g]

By this food of wisdom the understanding is nourished back to the whole and perfect condition in which man was made at the beginning, and is restored to the image and likeness of God. So even a man who leaves this life less fully taught, but who has done work that passes the test, is able to receive instruction in that Jerusalem, the city of the saints. There he will be educated and shaped and made a living stone, a stone chosen and precious, because he has gone through the struggles of life and the trials of godliness with firmness and constancy. There he will come to a truer and clearer knowledge of what was already foretold here: that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” And these are the ones we are to understand as the princes and rulers — men who both govern those of lower rank and instruct them and teach them and train them in the things of God.

But if this does not seem enough to fill the minds of those who hope for such things with a fitting desire, let us go back a little. Setting aside the mind’s own natural and inborn longing for the thing itself, let us make an inquiry, so that at last we may be able to describe, so to speak, the very forms of the bread of life, and the quality of that wine, and the particular nature of the ruling powers — all of it taken in the spiritual sense. [i]

Now in the crafts that are usually carried out by hand, the reason a thing is done, or why it is of a particular quality, or made for a particular purpose, is something the mind turns over, while the work itself is laid open to sight by the hands. In the same way, in those works of God which he created, the reason and the understanding of the things we see him do stays undisclosed. And as, when our eye looks at what an artist has made and the mind catches sight of something of unusual skill, it burns at once to know what sort of thing this is, and how it was made, and what it was made for — so, far more, and beyond all comparison, does the mind burn with an inexpressible desire to know the reason of the things we see God do.

This desire, this longing, we believe was without question planted in us by God. As the eye naturally looks for light and for something to see, and as our body naturally wants food and drink, so our mind is held by a fitting and natural desire to know the truth of God and the causes of things. And we have received this desire from God not so that it should never be satisfied, or never be capable of satisfaction. Otherwise the love of truth would seem to have been planted in our minds by God for nothing, if it were never to have a chance of being filled.

That is why, even in this life, people who give themselves with great labor to devotion and worship gain much benefit from it, though they lay hold of only a few small fragments out of the vast and countless treasures of divine knowledge. The very fact that their mind and soul is engaged in these pursuits, and that in the eagerness of their desire they outrun themselves, does them good; and because their minds are set on the study and the love of searching out truth, they are made fitter to receive the teaching that is to come. It is as when a man is going to paint a picture: first he traces out the outlines of the coming work with a light pencil and sets down marks for the features that are to be added afterward, and that first sketch is found to prepare the way for laying on the true colors of the painting. In something like that way an outline and sketch may be traced on the tablets of our heart by the pencil of our Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps that is why it is said, “To everyone who has, it will be given, and more will be added.” Which shows that to those who possess in this life a kind of outline of truth and knowledge, the beauty of a perfect picture will be added in the life to come.

Some such desire, I take it, was what the man meant who said, “I am torn between the two: I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” He knew that when he had returned to Christ he would then know more clearly the reasons for all the things that are done on earth — about man, or the soul of man, or the mind, or about any other subject: what, for instance, the Spirit is that is at work, and what the vital spirit is, and what the grace of the Holy Spirit is that is given to believers. [k]

Then, too, he will understand what Israel is, and what is meant by the diversity of nations; what the twelve tribes of Israel mean, and what the individual people of each tribe. Then he will understand the reason for the priests and the Levites, and for the different priestly orders, whose pattern was in Moses; and what the jubilees truly mean, and the weeks of years before God. He will see the reasons for the feast days and the holy days, and for all the sacrifices and cleansings. He will see the reason for the cleansing from leprosy, and what the different kinds of leprosy are, and the reason for the cleansing of those who have an emission of seed.

He will come to know, moreover, what the good powers are, how great they are and of what quality; and what the powers of the opposite kind are, and what the affection of the first is toward men, and what the quarrelsome rivalry of the second. He will see the nature of the soul, and the variety of animals — those that live in the water, and birds, and wild beasts — and why each kind is divided into so many species, and what intention of the Creator, or what purpose of his wisdom, is hidden in each single thing. He will learn as well why certain properties are found in certain roots or herbs, and why, on the other hand, bad effects are turned away by other herbs and roots. He will learn the nature of the fallen angels, and why they have power to flatter, in some matters, those who do not despise them with the whole power of faith, and why they exist to deceive and lead men astray.

He will learn, too, the judgment of divine providence on every single thing: that of the events which happen to men, none happen by accident or by chance, but according to a plan so carefully weighed and so vast that it does not overlook even the number of the hairs on the head — not only of the saints, but perhaps of all human beings — and that this providential government reaches even to caring for the sale of two sparrows for a denarius, whether the sparrows are understood figuratively or literally. Now this providential government is still a matter of inquiry; then it will be fully shown.

From all this we are to suppose that meanwhile no little time may pass before the reasons of just those things that are on the earth are pointed out, after their departure from life, to those who are worthy and deserve it — so that by the knowledge of all these things, and by the grace of full knowledge, they may enjoy a joy beyond words. Then, if the air that lies between heaven and earth is not without inhabitants, and rational ones at that, as the apostle says: “In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.” And again he says: “We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

We are therefore to suppose that the saints will remain there until they recognize the twofold account of the things that are done in the air. And when I say “twofold,” I mean this. When we were on earth we saw animals, or trees, and we saw the differences among them, and the very great differences among men as well; but though we saw these things, we did not understand the reason for them. All that the visible differences suggested to us was that we should examine and ask on what principle these things were either created or arranged so differently. And a zeal, a desire for that kind of knowledge, is conceived by us on earth; the full understanding and grasp of it will be granted after death, if indeed the result follows as we expect. So when we have fully grasped its nature, we shall understand in a twofold way what we saw on earth. That is the sort of view we must take of this dwelling in the air. [p]

I think, then, that all the saints who depart this life will remain in some place situated on the earth, which holy Scripture calls paradise — a place of instruction, and, so to speak, a lecture hall and school for souls. There they are to be taught about all the things they had seen on earth, and to receive as well some information about what is to follow afterward, just as even in this life they had obtained some indications of things to come, though they saw them “as in a mirror, obscurely”; and all of these are revealed more clearly and distinctly to the saints in their proper time and place.

If anyone is pure in heart and holy in mind and better practiced in perception, he will make swifter progress and climb quickly to a place in the air and reach the kingdom of heaven, passing through those resting places — stations, so to speak — in the various regions which the Greeks have termed spheres, that is, globes, but which holy Scripture has called heavens. In each of them he will first see clearly what is done there, and second, will discover the reason why it is done so. And so he will pass in order through every stage, following him who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who said, “I want those also to be where I am.” And it is of this diversity of places that he speaks when he says, “In my Father’s house are many resting places.” He himself is everywhere, and passes swiftly through all things. We are no longer to understand him as existing within those narrow limits in which he was once confined for our sakes — that is, not in the bounded body he occupied on earth when he lived among men, by which he might be thought of as shut up in some one place.