Chapter 90 — How incorporeal substances can suffer from a material fire

A doubt may arise as to how the devil (who is incorporeal) and the souls of the damned, before the resurrection, can suffer from the material fire which will torment the souls of the damned in hell, according to our Lord’s words. For he said: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41).

We must not think that incorporeal substances can be affected by a material fire, so that their nature be corrupted or altered, or in any way changed by the fire in the same way as our corruptible bodies are affected by fire. For incorporeal substances have not a material nature, so as to be able to be changed by material substances. Nor are they receptive of the forms of sensible objects, except by understanding them; such a reception is not penal, but perfecting and delightful.

Nor can it be said that they suffer from the material fire by reason of a certain antagonism, as bodies will after the resurrection, since incorporeal substances have no organs of sense, and have no use for sensitive powers.

Accordingly, incorporeal substances suffer from the material fire by being coupled with it in some way. For a spirit can be coupled with a body either as its form—thus the soul is coupled with the body to give it life—or without being its form—thus necromancers, by the power of the demons, couple spirits with apparitions and the like. All the more, therefore, can the divine power bind the souls of the damned to a material fire. Thus it is painful to them to know themselves to be united to the lowest things as a punishment.

Moreover, it is reasonable that the souls of the damned be punished with material pain. Every sin of the rational creature results from disobedience to God. Now the punishment should correspond with the fault, so that the will may receive a punishment in contrast with that for love of which it sinned. Therefore, it is reasonable that the rational nature should be punished for its sin, by being in a way bound to things beneath it, and thus made subject to them.

Again. Sin that is committed against God deserves not only the pain of loss, but also the pain of sense, as we have proved. (Bk. 3, ch. 145.) For the pain of sense corresponds to sin with respect to the inordinate conversion to a mutable good, even as the pain of loss corresponds to sin as regards the aversion from the immutable good. Now the rational creature (and especially the human soul) sins by turning inordinately to material things. Therefore, it is fitting for it to be punished by means of material things.

Further. If sin deserves the painful punishment which is called the pain of sense, as proved above, (Bk. 3, ch. 145.) this punishment must come from something that can cause pain. Now nothing causes pain except insofar as it is contrary to the will. And it is not contrary to the natural will of the rational creature to be united to a spiritual substance; on the contrary, it gives it pleasure and conduces to its perfection. For it is the union of like to like, and of the intelligible object to the intelligence, since every spiritual substance is, in itself, intelligible. On the other hand, it is contrary to the natural will of a spiritual substance that it be subject to a body, from which, according to the order of its nature, it should be free. Therefore, it is fitting that a spiritual substance should be punished by means of material things.

Hence it follows that, although the material things spoken of by Scripture to describe the rewards of the blessed are to be understood in a spiritual sense (as we have stated in regard to the promise of meat and drink), nevertheless some of the corporal punishments with which Scripture threatens the sinner are to be understood in the material and strict sense. For it is not fitting for the higher nature to be rewarded by using a lower nature, but by being united to a yet higher nature; but it is fitting for it to be punished by being consigned to the society of things beneath it.

However, this does not forbid our giving a spiritual and metaphorical interpretation to certain material expressions of Scripture in reference to the punishments of the damned. For instance, it is said: Their worm shall not die (Isa 66:24), since by the worm we may understand the remorse of conscience, with which also the wicked will be tortured. For a material worm can eat neither into a spiritual substance, nor into the bodies of the damned, which will be incorruptible. Again, weeping and gnashing of teeth cannot be ascribed, save metaphorically, to spiritual substances; although they can be applied in the material sense to the bodies of the damned after the resurrection. By weeping, however, we must not understand the shedding of tears, since nothing will be resolved from those bodies; but this signifies the constriction of the heart, the convulsion of the eyes and brow, which are associated with weeping.