Whether the Active Life Remains After This Life?
Objection 1: It would seem that the active life remains after this
life. For the acts of the moral virtues belong to the active life, as
stated above (A. 1). But the moral virtues endure after this life
according to Augustine (De Trin. xiv, 9). Therefore the active life
remains after this life.
Obj. 2: Further, teaching others belongs to the active life, as
stated above (A. 3). But in the life to come when "we shall be like
the angels," teaching will be possible: even as apparently it is in
the angels of whom one "enlightens, cleanses, and perfects" [*Coel.
Hier. iii, viii] another, which refers to the "receiving of
knowledge," according to Dionysius (Coel. Hier. vii). Therefore it
would seem that the active life remains after this life.
Obj. 3: Further, the more lasting a thing is in itself, the more is
it able to endure after this life. But the active life is seemingly
more lasting in itself: for Gregory says (Hom. v in Ezech.) that "we
can remain fixed in the active life, whereas we are nowise able to
maintain an attentive mind in the contemplative life." Therefore the
active life is much more able than the contemplative to endure after
this life.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says (Hom. xiv in Ezech.): "The active
life ends with this world, but the contemplative life begins here, to
be perfected in our heavenly home."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1), the active life has its end
in external actions: and if these be referred to the quiet of
contemplation, for that very reason they belong to the contemplative
life. But in the future life of the blessed the occupation of
external actions will cease, and if there be any external actions at
all, these will be referred to contemplation as their end. For, as
Augustine says at the end of _De Civitate Dei_ xxii, 30, "there we
shall rest and we shall see, we shall see and love, we shall love and
praise." And he had said before (De Civ. Dei xxii, 30) that "there
God will be seen without end, loved without wearying, praised without
tiring: such will be the occupation of all, the common love, the
universal activity."
Reply Obj. 1: As stated above (Q. 136, A. 1, ad 1), the moral virtues
will remain not as to those actions which are about the means, but as
to the actions which are about the end. Such acts are those that
conduce to the quiet of contemplation, which in the words quoted
above Augustine denotes by "rest," and this rest excludes not only
outward disturbances but also the inward disturbance of the passions.
Reply Obj. 2: The contemplative life, as stated above (Q. 180, A. 4),
consists chiefly in the contemplation of God, and as to this, one
angel does not teach another, since according to Matt. 18:10, "the
little ones' angels," who belong to the lower order, "always see the
face of the Father"; and so, in the life to come, no man will teach
another of God, but "we shall" all "see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).
This is in keeping with the saying of Jeremiah 31:34: "They shall
teach no more every man his neighbor . . . saying: Know the Lord: for
all shall know me, from the least of them even to the greatest."
But as regards things pertaining to the "dispensation of the
mysteries of God," one angel teaches another by cleansing,
enlightening, and perfecting him: and thus they have something of
the active life so long as the world lasts, from the fact that they
are occupied in administering to the creatures below them. This is
signified by the fact that Jacob saw angels "ascending" the
ladder--which refers to contemplation--and "descending"--which refers
to action. Nevertheless, as Gregory remarks (Moral. ii, 3), "they do
not wander abroad from the Divine vision, so as to be deprived of the
joys of inward contemplation." Hence in them the active life does not
differ from the contemplative life as it does in us for whom the
works of the active life are a hindrance to contemplation.
Nor is the likeness to the angels promised to us as regards the
administering to lower creatures, for this is competent to us not by
reason of our natural order, as it is to the angels, but by reason of
our seeing God.
Reply Obj. 3: That the durability of the active life in the
present state surpasses the durability of the contemplative life
arises not from any property of either life considered in itself, but
from our own deficiency, since we are withheld from the heights of
contemplation by the weight of the body. Hence Gregory adds (Moral.
ii, 3) that "the mind through its very weakness being repelled from
that immense height recoils on itself."
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