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The Permanence of Virtues After This Life
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Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology
Vol. I, Bk. I, Tr. III, Diss. I, Pt. I, Section V. On the Permanence of Virtues After This Life
After the origin, increase, diminution, and destruction in this life of all virtues, both natural and supernatural, have been considered, certain things remain to be explained concerning their permanence after this life. To hand these down in order, the discussion will first be about the permanence of virtues with respect to the Blessed, then with respect to the damned, and finally with respect to those being purified.
I. Permanence of Virtues in the Blessed. As a general rule it can be established: in the blessed there remain all virtues which are, and insofar as they are, compossible with their state of beatitude. For God, as most highly loving the blessed, does not take away their perfections; now that virtues are perfections is clearer than light. Hence we conclude:
Among the theological virtues, in the blessed there remains only charity, and this most perfect. For this follows of itself from the perfect intellectual apprehension of God. But the virtues of faith and hope do not remain. Faith, as such, concerns things not seen and cannot be combined with the light of glory; and hope, since it is occupied around things not possessed, cannot be combined with the apprehension of God itself. And since in the beatitude of the soul the future glorification of the body is already possessed as in an absolute cause, the act which the blessed place with respect to the glorification of the body is not an act of hope, but properly of desire; hence for this reason the virtue of hope is not required.
With regard to moral virtues it must be said that in the blessed they do not remain according to their material being. "For in the future life there will not have place concupiscences and delights of foods and venereal things; nor fears and daring concerning dangers of death; nor distributions and communications of things which come into the use of the present life." Nevertheless they remain according to their formal being, or according to their being in accord with the order of reason, "insofar as the reason of each one will be most right concerning those things which pertain to him according to that state, and the appetitive power will be moved wholly according to the order of reason in those things which pertain to that state; whence Augustine says that prudence will be there without any danger of error; fortitude without the trouble of enduring evils; temperance without the rebellion of passions; so that it belongs to prudence to prefer or equal no good to God, to fortitude to adhere to Him most firmly, to temperance to be delighted by no harmful defect. Concerning justice, however, it is more manifest what act it will have there, namely, to be subject to God; because even in this life it pertains to justice to be subject to a superior" (St. Thomas, I-II, q. 67, a. 1). It must be observed, however, that before the day of resurrection moral virtues, such as fortitude and temperance, which have the sensitive appetite as their immediate subject of inherence, do not remain actually in the separated soul, but only in the root, insofar as radically they are in the intellect and the supernatural will; but after the resurrection they will exist actually, just like the other virtues (St. Thomas, De virtutibus in communi, q. 1, a. 5, ad 3; I-II, q. 67, a. 1).
II. Permanence of Virtues in the Damned. No virtue remains in them, neither natural nor supernatural. For they are so confirmed in evil that at least there is in them a strictly so called moral impossibility of ever placing a naturally honorable act; and certainly there is a physical impossibility with respect to any supernatural act, since grace is entirely lacking. Now a state of soul so perverse, in which no honorable act at all, either supernatural or natural, is ever admitted, certainly does not admit a habit which inclines solely to honorableness.
III. Permanence of Virtues in Souls Being Purified. Since they are in the state of sanctifying grace, they have charity and all moral virtues in that manner in which the Blessed have them before the day of resurrection. Moreover faith and hope remain in them, since they still lack the light of glory, which removes faith in the Blessed, and they still tend toward the fruition of God, who in prison has remained for them a good absent and arduous.
Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
Vol. I, Pt. I, Tract VI. On Virtues In Ge…, Ch. II, Art. II, § 4. On the duration of virtues
471. Moral virtues endure after this life as to their formal element, but not as to their material element.
It suffices to bring forward what St. Thomas has on this matter:48 "In virtues of this kind there is something formal and something as it were material. The material element, indeed, in these virtues is a certain inclination of the appetitive part toward passions or operations according to some mode. But because this mode is determined by reason, therefore the formal element in all virtues is the very order of reason. Thus, therefore, it must be said that moral virtues of this kind do not remain in the future life as to that which is material in them; for in the future life concupiscences and pleasures of foods and venereal things will have no place; nor also fears and daring acts concerning dangers of death; nor also distributions and exchanges of things, which come into the use of the present life. But as to that which is formal, they will remain most perfectly in the blessed after this life; inasmuch as the reason of each one will be most right concerning those things which pertain to him according to that state; and the appetitive power will be moved wholly according to the order of reason in those things which pertain to that state. Hence Augustine says that 'prudence will be there without any danger of error; fortitude without the trouble of evils to be endured; temperance without the resistance of lusts; so that it belongs to prudence to prefer or equal no good to God, to fortitude to adhere to him most firmly, to temperance to be delighted by no harmful defect.' But concerning justice it is manifest what act it will have there, namely to be subject to God; because even in this life it pertains to justice to be subject to a superior."
After this life the theological virtue of charity indeed remains, but not faith nor hope.49
48 S. theol. 1, 2, q. 67, a. 1.
49 Cf. ib. 2, 2, q. 18, a. 2.
Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis
Vol. I, General Moral Theology, Treatise: On Habits and Vi…, Second Part: On Habits Acc…, Question Four: On the Prop…, Article IV: On the Duration of Virtues · Vol. I, General Moral Theology, Treatise: On Habits and Vi…, Third Part: On Habits Acco…, Question Four: On the Prop…, Article IV: On the Duration of Infused Habits
Vol. I, General Moral Theology, Treatise: On Habits and Vi…, Second Part: On Habits Acc…, Question Four: On the Prop…, Article IV: On the Duration of Virtues
St. Thomas, I-II, q. 67, art. 1-2; De Virt., q. 5, a. 4.
612. Principle. In the blessed there remain those virtues which include no imperfection repugnant to their state. - Whence moral virtues remain, not indeed:
a) as to the material element or inclination to their acts, for in the future life there will not be exchanges and distributions of things, nor dangers of death, nor delights of foods and sexual matters, etc.; - but
b) as to the formal element, which is conformity to right reason, or as to their essence, insofar as the appetite, whether rational or sensitive, will be wholly and in all things conformable to reason; whence those virtues will exercise other acts, conformable to heavenly life. Say the same of prudence, which is concerned with the same matter as the moral virtues. Whence, according to Augustine, De Trin., l. XIV, c. 9, "it will belong to prudence to place or equal no good before God, to fortitude to adhere firmly to Him, to temperance to delight in no harmful defect"; likewise it belongs to justice to be subject to God. - Nevertheless:
c) before the resurrection, temperance, fortitude, and other virtues concerning passions will not exist except in root, because they are in the sensitive appetite, concupiscible and irascible; and that appetite cannot exist without the body.
The same must be said of the souls of purgatory; but in the damned there can be no virtue properly so called or perfect.
613. Corollary. - Likewise the intellectual virtues remain according to the formal element, or essence, because their subject, the intellect, is incorruptible, and it always preserves the intelligible species on which intellectual virtues depend. But they do not remain according to the material element, that is, according to the images of imagination which we use in the sciences, nor according to the acts of this life, because for these are required images which cannot exist without the body. And in this sense the Apostle says, I Cor. XIII, 8: knowledge will be destroyed, namely, as to the mode of operating of this life, but it will have another act.
Vol. I, General Moral Theology, Treatise: On Habits and Vi…, Third Part: On Habits Acco…, Question Four: On the Prop…, Article IV: On the Duration of Infused Habits
St. Thomas, I-II, q. 67; q. 68, a. 6; De Virt., q. 5, a. 4.
654. Principle. In the blessed there remain infused habits which include no imperfection repugnant to their state. - Hence:
- Faith and hope do not remain, which include imperfection because they concern what is not seen and what is not possessed; whence, when vision and possession arrive, they are made void.
- Charity remains because love from its nature includes no imperfection: it can concern what is possessed and what is not possessed, what is seen and what is not seen.
- Supernatural moral virtues remain as to essence, but they will have other acts conformable to heavenly life, as was said concerning acquired virtues; nevertheless, before the resurrection, the virtues which are concerned with passions will not exist except in root, because they are in the sensitive appetite, which cannot exist without the body.
- The gifts of the Holy Spirit remain as to essence in the other life because the blessed perfectly follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and are most perfectly subjected to Him; but they will have other acts suitable to heavenly life.
655. Observation. - In the souls of purgatory, faith and hope also remain because they do not yet see nor possess God. But in the damned no supernatural habit or virtue can exist, because they are no longer destined to supernatural life.