Annotatio LXIV

”She conceived, and bore Cain.” — Genesis 4:1

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, book 2 On Cain and Abel, narrating this, hints that the souls of the deceased are, until the day of judgment, uncertain of their salvation;¹ for he says: “The soul is loosed from the body, even after the end of this life; yet it is still held in suspense, uncertain of the future judgment.” More openly he has this in the book On the Good of Death, chapter 10, where he relates that the souls of the saints are contained under the earth in hidden receptacles, and there, until the day of judgment, await the glory of God — speaking thus: “Scripture calls the habitations of souls the storehouses of Esdras”;² and, meeting the human complaint — that the just who have gone before seem, up to the day of judgment (that is, for a very great space of time), to be defrauded of the reward owed to them — he says, wonderfully, that the day of judgment is like a crown: for the crown[-day] is awaited by all, that within that day both the vanquished may blush and the victors obtain the palm of victory. Therefore, while the fullness of time is awaited, the souls await their due reward: for some, punishment remains; for others, glory. And in the same chapter he calls “the underworld” the place which is not seen, which all souls stripped of their bodies seek. Which words, indeed, one ought to refer to the consummated felicity — and misery — of soul and body [together]; for I would not believe that Ambrose held that opinion which these words at first sight present,³ since he himself, in many places, asserts that the souls of the saints enjoy the divine sight even before the resurrection — as in epistle 59, to the Thessalonians, on the death of Acholius, where he says: “Acholius, then, is an inhabitant of those on high, a possessor of that eternal city of Jerusalem which is in heaven: he sees there the immense measure of its city, pure gold, precious stone, perpetual light without a Sun; and all these things, indeed, [were] known to him long since, but now [he sees them] face to face.” And in the commentaries on the epistle to the Philippians,⁴ upon that saying “I desire to be dissolved,” he says of Paul: “He has the desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ — esteeming it much better, that he might now be present with God [and] enjoy the longed-for promises.” And in the first [epistle] to the Corinthians, chapter 13, he says: “The saints, going forth from this world, will find [it] more necessary [i.e. will find far more] than they now suppose — as John the Apostle said of the Savior, ‘Then they shall see him as he is.’”⁵ Seek the argument of this Annotation treated more fully below, in Annotation 163 of this book, and in Annotations 264 and 345 of the following book.