On the Contemplative Life 5

1. This is the contemplative life, the blessed life, to which those who attain by the consummation of good works will be like the blessed angels, and will together reign with God without end. What they have here believed, there they will see; contemplating with pure hearts the very substance of their Creator, they will rejoice with eternal exultation; possessed by a divine and mutual love, they will cleave happily to their God forever and to one another in turn; and having received their bodies again in incorruption and immortality, they will receive citizenship in the heavenly homeland; and being made its citizens forever, they will carry off the promised rewards.

There so great a joy will overflow upon them, so great a grace of heavenly gladness, that they will both give thanks to their Rewarder for his choicest gifts, and yet endure no weariness from the very enjoyment of the abundant goods. There the minds of each will lie open to each, just as bodily faces are exposed to bodily eyes; for so great and so perfect will be the purity of human hearts there, that they will have cause to give thanks to God their Cleanser, and no cause to blush for being shamed by any defilements of sins; for there will be there neither any sins nor any sinners, and those who are there will no longer be able to sin. Nor will anything of secret things lie hidden any longer from the perfectly blessed, who—what is by far the most surpassing—are themselves about to see God with pure hearts:

since the human creature will then be so perfected that it can no longer be changed for better or for worse. 2. And of that human substance, exalted to the likeness of its Creator, all the good things which it had naturally received and corrupted through sin will be restored for the better; that is, understanding without error, memory without forgetting, thought without wandering, love without pretense, perception without offense, soundness without weakness, health without sorrow, life without death, ease without hindrance, fullness without distaste, and complete health without disease: for whatever here the bites of beasts have taken away from human bodies to their harm;

or unforeseen accidents have carried off, or the various kinds of ill health have cropped away, or human cruelty has cut off, or if fire or any other thing has brought some weakness, or old age itself, burdensome even to the healthy, has denied—these and damages like these to bodies the resurrection there will repair, and incorruptible health will possess those bodies, restored in all their members. 3. Therefore whoever will be there, even though they differ from one another by differing merits, will nonetheless all be blessed in one perfection: for the rewards of each will be sufficient unto each, and being already enticed by their own rewards, they will no longer be able to grasp for more.

For just as bodily satiety holds all the satisfied equally satisfied, although each has taken food not equally but according to his own capacity: so all the saints, even though they are distinguished by some diversity of their ranks, will be perfected in one blessedness, because they are also to be blessed in one perfection. Moreover, in that region of so great blessedness no one will arrogate to himself anything of greater merit, because there will be no arrogance there; nor will the lesser envy the greater, because envy cannot exist there. And therefore, even though there will be there a difference of dwellings, yet there will be among them the highest equality of one perfection, for whom there will be one happiness of the heavenly kingdom.