The whole story is about the great day of the Lord, when those things concealed from the human mind will be revealed through our understanding of divine judgment. Then the faith true to the Lord’s coming will win the just reward for unwavering hope. For in the five wise and five foolish virgins,^[1] a complete separation between the faithful and unfaithful is established. Similarly, Moses had received the Ten Commandments written on two tablets.^[2] For it was necessary that all these things be written on each. The double column represented, under a single testament, the division between the good and the bad, between the designation of right and left.

Let us now, beloved, discuss the five wise and the five foolish virgins. They wished to go to meet the bridegroom. What is the meaning of to go and meet the bridegroom? To go with all the heart, to eagerly await his coming.

So then let us understand, dearly beloved, that this parable relates to us all, that is, to the whole church together, not to the clergy only, of whom we spoke yesterday, nor to the laity only but generally to all. Why then are the virgins five and five? These five and five virgins are all Christian souls together. But that I may tell you what by the Lord’s inspiration I think, it is not souls of every sort but such souls as have the catholic faith and seem to have good works in the church of God. Yet even of them it is said, Five are wise, and five are foolish.

The wise virgins are those who, embracing the time available to them, were prepared at the first onset of the coming of the Lord. But the foolish were those who were lax and unmindful. They troubled themselves only over present matters and, forgetting what God said, did not direct their efforts toward hope for resurrection.

Every soul that enlivens a body is denoted by the number five, because it makes use of five senses. For there is nothing of which we have perception by the body except through this fivefold gate, either by sight, or hearing, or smelling, or tasting or touching. Whoever abstains from unlawful seeing, unlawful hearing, unlawful smelling, unlawful tasting and unlawful touching, by reason of blamelessness, is here called by the name of virgin.

It says that even of these, who were virgins and carrying lamps, some are wise and some foolish. How is this distinction made? By what clue do we tell the difference? Only by whether the oil is present or missing.

It is some great thing, some exceedingly great thing, that this oil signifies. Do you think it might be charity? If we try out this hypothesis, we hazard no precipitate judgment. I will tell you why charity seems to be signified by the oil. The apostle says, I will show you a still more excellent way.^[1] If I speak with the tongue of mortals and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.^[2] This is charity. It is that way above the rest,^[3] which is with good reason signified by the oil. For oil swims above all liquids. Pour in water, and pour in oil upon it; the oil will swim above. Pour in oil, pour in water upon it; the oil will swim above. If you keep the usual order, it will be uppermost; if you change the order, it will be uppermost. Charity never fails.^[4]

What is the meaning of took no oil with them? What is in their lamps? In their hearts. For this reason the apostle wrote, Indeed, this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience.^[1] There is the oil, the precious oil. This oil is of the gift of God. We can put oil into our lamps, but we ourselves cannot create the olive. See, I have oil. But did I create the oil? It is of the gift of God. So you have oil. Carry it with you. What does it mean to carry it with you? To have it within, where it is pleasing to God. Note: those foolish virgins, who brought no oil with them, wish to please a human audience by that abstinence of theirs by which they are called virgins, and by their good works, when they seem to carry lamps. But wishing to please human spectators, doing praiseworthy works, they forgot to carry with them the necessary oil.

Those ten virgins, whom the Lord compared with the kingdom of heaven, were set up as an example for all virgins. They went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. This means that they had received the grace of the Holy Spirit. They had come forth as virgins never stained by sin and had left behind earthly matters to meet Christ and the church. But five were foolish and five wise. For the wise took oil with them along with their lamps. But the foolish did not take oil. Thus they were foolish, because they were not prepared for the future but only for the present. Thus they were foolish, because they did not have works of compassion. For the oil is compassion. But the wise took oil with their lamps. Thus they were wise, because they took these things not on account of people but on account of God. Thus they were wise, because they were virgins not for the sake of the present but the future. Thus they were wise, because they had works of compassion. Thus they were wise, because they were virgins in spirit and body.

But if it is good to abstain from the unlawful excitements of the senses, and on that account every Christian soul has received the name of virgin, why then are five admitted and five rejected? They are both virgins, and yet half are rejected. It is not enough that they are virgins but that they also have lamps. They are virgins by reason of abstinence from unlawful indulgence of the senses. But they have lamps by reason of good works. Of these good works the Lord says, Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.^[1] Again he said to his disciples, Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.^[2] In the girded loins is virginity. In the burning lamps is good works.

The bridegroom and bride represent our Lord, God in the flesh. For as the spirit is wedded to the flesh, so the flesh is wedded to the spirit. When the trumpet finally summons us and the bridegroom is at hand, all this will be revealed. Indeed, the two aspects are the corruptible body and the incorruptible soul.

But he tarried. And while he tarried, they all slept. What is all? Both the foolish and the wise. All slumbered and slept. But is this sleeping good? What does this sleep mean at this time? Might it mean that during the delay of the bridegroom there is an inattentiveness, so that because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold?^[1] Are we to understand this sleep in this way? I don’t like that reading, and I will tell you why. Because among the ten are the five wise virgins. Certainly when the Lord said, And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold, he then went on directly to say, But the one who endures to the end will be saved.^[2] So on this premise, where would you place the wise virgins? Are they not among those that will endure to the end? They would not be admitted within unless they had endured to the end. No coldness of love then crept over them. In them love did not grow cold. Love preserves its glow even to the very end. And because it glows even to the end, therefore are the gates of the bridegroom opened to them. So they are told to enter in, just as did that excellent servant^[3] to whom it was said, Enter into the joy of thy Lord.^[4]

What then is the meaning of they all slept? There is another sleep which no one escapes. Don’t you remember the apostle saying, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep,^[5] that is, concerning those who are dead? For why are they called those who are asleep, except that they all have died in their own time? Therefore it is said they all slept. Do you imagine that just because one is wise, she does not have to die? Whether the virgin is foolish or wise, all suffer equally the sleep of death.

Why at midnight? That is the moment of least expectation. There is no thought of it. It is a moment of complete unawareness. It is as though one might calculate complacently, . . . So many years have passed since Adam, and the six thousand years are being completed,^[1] and then immediately, according to the computation of certain expositors, the day of judgment will come. Yet these calculations come and pass away, and still the coming of the bridegroom is delayed. So the virgins who had gone to meet him now are sleeping. But just when he is least looked for, when the best calculators are saying, The six thousand years were waited for, and, look, they are already gone by. So how then shall we know when he will come?—he comes at midnight. So what is midnight? It means when you are least aware.

The delay of the bridegroom is the time for repentance. The sleep of those waiting is the peaceful rest of believers. The delay has given time for repentance. The cry comes at midnight, when no one yet knows what is happening. The sound of the trumpet of God heralds his coming,^[1] rousing all to go out and meet the bridegroom. The taking up of the lamps is the return of souls into their bodies. And the light shining from them is the consciousness of good work, which is contained in our bodies, which are like flasks.

Of what cry are we speaking? That of which the apostle says, In the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump? For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed?^[1] And so when the cry was made at midnight, Behold, the bridegroom comes! what follows? Then all those maidens arose. But who are all those who arose? The hour will come, said the Lord himself, when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth.^[2] Therefore at the last trumpet they all arose. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.^[3]

Note then, beloved, that before those virgins slept, it is not said that their lamps were extinguished. The lamps of the wise virgins burned with an inward oil, with the assurance of a good conscience, with an inner glory, with an inmost charity. Yet the lamps of the foolish virgins were also still burning. In what way were they burning? They burned because there was no lack of praise among human onlookers. But after that they arose, that is, in the resurrection from the dead. They began to trim their lamps, that is, began to prepare to render to God an account of their works. And because there is then no human beholder to praise them, all persons are wholly employed in their own cause. There is no one then who is not thinking of self. Therefore there were none to sell them oil.

So their lamps began to fail, and the foolish plead with the five wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. They sought for what they had been most prone to seek for, to shine, that is, with others’ oil, to walk after others’ praises.

As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ^[1] Likewise, the blessed apostle, Paul, declared, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.^[2] So those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.^[3] Their spiritual virginity was running out and failing, because they did not have works of religious devotion and compassion. But the wise replied, Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. For on the day of the resurrection and judgment, however much anyone might be rich in holy works, he will fear for himself, lest he not have enough.

But the wise replied, ‘Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ This is hardly the voice of those who give counsel but rather those who rebuke. Why are they scornful? Because they were wise, because wisdom was in them. For they were not wise by anything that belonged to them. Rather that wisdom was in them of which it is written in a certain Scripture that wisdom shall say to those that despised her, when they have fallen upon the evils which she threatened them, I will laugh over your destruction.^[1] No wonder the wise mock the foolish virgins. And what is this mocking?

Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves, you who never desired to live well but because people praised you, who sold you oil. Who are these who sold you oil? They are the ones who sell praises. Who sells praises, but flatterers? How much better would it have been for you not to have acquiesced to flatterers, and to have carried oil within, and for the sake of a good conscience to have done all good works. . . .

Go then to those who deal in human praise, as you have been accustomed to doing, but do not expect the wise to give you oil at this crucial moment. Why? Lest there not be enough for us and you. What is lest there not be enough? This was not spoken in any lack of hope but in a sober and godly humility. For though the good person have a good conscience, how does he know how the final judge, who is deceived by no one, will judge? He has a good conscience; no sins conceived in the heart argue with him. Yet, though his conscience is good, because of the daily sins of human life, he says to God daily, Forgive us our debts, on the assumption that he has already done what comes next, as we also forgive our debtors.^[2] He has broken his bread to the hungry from the heart; from the heart has he clothed the naked. Out of that inward oil he has done good works, and yet in that judgment even his good conscience trembles.

Now it is no wonder that precisely while they were going out to buy, while they were seeking for praise from others and found none, while they were seeking for persons by whom to be comforted and found none—just then the shut door opened. Just then the bridegroom came, and the bride, the church, was glorified then with Christ and all its members gathered together into one.

Because the foolish were not able to go out and meet the bridegroom, since their lamps had gone out, they asked the wise to share their oil. They replied that they could not give them oil for there would perhaps not be enough. They told them to go to the dealers and buy for themselves.^[1] These foolish were not part of the group entering the wedding feast but late and unworthy of entering. They had lost their opportunity.

And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Then the foolish virgins came afterward. But had they bought any oil? Had they found any from whom they might buy it? No. Therefore they found the doors shut. They began to knock, but too late.

Jesus compares the rulers of the people with virgins. The person who discharges a sacred function must be undefiled in soul and body, just as Paul says, that she might be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.^[1] For it is customary for the Scripture to divide the present age into five seasons or times.^[2] It assigns to each time both God-fearing and foolish souls, just as each time has wise persons and simpletons, righteous persons and wicked ones. In the parable all the virgins go out with their lamps. Jesus indicates by this that all souls have been illuminated by God through innate and natural laws but also indeed by the laws written by Moses. Now all the virgins went out to meet the bridegroom. All were determined to seek favor with God and to join themselves spiritually to the bridegroom. He sows in the hearts of the faithful the seed of every kind of virtue. Indeed, this is why he is called a bridegroom! Nevertheless some prove to be undistinguished, though they possess an illumination from God. . . . He mockingly calls their drowsiness the death of the flesh, which by necessity will go before both wise and foolish, whom the trumpet of the angels awakes at the time of Christ’s second coming. For all who have been rendered powerless by death are awakened, the good and the bad, and all are made ready to present their defense before the judge. This is represented in the parable when each virgin trims her lamp, summing up all that has occurred in her life. The thoughtless virgins have brought no oil with them. Their soul begins to grow gloomy and as if snuffed out departs into a delirious state, so as to think they will be shown mercy through the virtue of the others. They are rejected as the other virgins say there is not enough for us and for you. The virtue of each scarcely suffices for the salvation of the soul, because even those who are very wise transgress in many ways.

This man, therefore, like a man going abroad, called his servants and delivered to them his money with pure words. Indeed, his words are words that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.^[1]

Who is the man who sets out for foreign parts but our Redeemer, who departed to heaven in the body he had taken on? Earth is the proper place for his body. It is transported to foreign parts, so to speak, when he establishes it in heaven.

In Luke^[1] the parable of the talents is told differently, and it is indeed different. For there, from the one pound different degrees of increase were made. From one pound one brought five, another ten, one nothing more, and they received recompense accordingly. Here it is different: The one that received two gave two. The one who received five made five more. But in Luke’s version, from the same investment, one made the greater and one the less increase, with the reward dispensed accordingly. But in both cases he does not require his investment back immediately.

The man who is the landowner is actually the Creator and Lord of all. The Word compares the time the landowner spends away from home in the parable to either the ascension of Christ into heaven or at any rate to the unseen and invisible character of the divine nature. Now one must conceive of the property of God as those in each country and city who believe in him. He calls his servants those who according to the times Christ crowns with the glory of the priesthood. For the holy Paul writes, No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God.^[1] He hands over [his property] to those who are under him, to each giving a spiritual gift so that he might have character and aptitude. We think that this distribution of the talents is not supplied to the household servants in equal measure because each is quite different from the other in their understanding. Immediately they head out for their labors, he says, directly indicating to us here that apart from the procrastination of one they are fit to carry out the work of God. Surely those who are bound by fear and laziness will end up in the worst evils. For he buried, Jesus says, the talent given to him in the earth. He kept the gift hidden, making it unprofitable for others and useless for himself. For that very reason the talent is taken away from him and will be given to the one who is already rich. The Spirit has departed from such as these and the gift of the divine gifts. But to those who are industrious an even more lavish gift will be presented.

The man setting out for foreign parts entrusted his goods to his servants, for he granted his spiritual gifts to those who believed in him. To one he entrusted five talents, to another two, to another one. There are five bodily senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. The five talents represent the gift of the five senses, that is, knowledge of externals; the two talents signify theory and practice; the one talent signifies theory alone.

There is the ability of those to whom five talents were given, the ability of those to whom two talents were given and the ability of those to whom one talent was given. Also, one person did not receive the same amount as the other. And he who had received the one talent received by no means a paltry sum, for even one talent from this master is considerable. However, three in number are the servants of him who set out like a man going abroad, just as in another parable those who bear fruit are three in number: some of them. Again one hundred, some sixty and some thirty.^[1] But he who gains thirty is saved.

The person who received five talents gained another five. There are some who, even without knowing how to probe into inward and mystical matters, use the natural gifts they have received to teach correctly those they can reach to strive for their heavenly home. While guarding themselves from physical wantonness, from striving after earthly things and from taking pleasure in things they can see, they restrain others too from these things by their counsel. ^[1] TWO TALENTS MORE. GREGORY THE GREAT. And there are some endowed with two talents, so to speak, who comprehend both theory and practice. They understand the fine points of interior matters and accomplish astonishing things outwardly. When they preach to others by both theory and practice, their business venture, so to call it, yields a twofold gain. It is good that another five and another two are said to have been gained, since when preaching is provided for both sexes the talents received are so to speak doubled. ^[1]

The master’s words scold him who had received the one talent and hid it in the ground. And I wonder whether those who received five talents can be deemed to be more mature than those who study and receive the more noble and sublime context of Scripture. Now those who received two talents improved somewhat on the original sum given but were unable to gain more. Those in the third group, however, were unable to capitalize on the amount they had first received. It is entirely a matter of numbers, therefore, in those words that form a fitting discourse of our Lord and Savior—namely, five and two and one.

But the person who received one talent went away, dug in the earth and hid his master’s money. Hiding a talent in the earth means employing one’s abilities in earthly affairs, failing to seek spiritual profit, never raising one’s heart from earthly thoughts. There are some who have received the gift of understanding but have a taste only for things that pertain to the body. The prophet says of them, They are wise in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.^[1]

Notice too that the servants did not go to the master so they might be judged and receive their just deserts. Rather, the master came to them in due course. After a long time he came and settled accounts with them on everything they had done, compensating them for the gains of their good works and the losses of their sins. Settling accounts and scrutinizing everything, he dealt with each one individually. It behooves us, then, as those who by sinning have done evil and by doing good reaped a profit, to keep a guard on our hearts. In this way, when our Master comes to settle accounts with us, we may not be found to have done evil, even through idle words.

In the case of the vineyard, he let it out to farmers and went into a far country. Here he committed to them the talents and took his journey that you might understand his patience and long-suffering. And to me he seems to say these things as an intimation of the resurrection. But here it is no more a vineyard and husbandmen but all farmers. For it is not to rulers only or to Jews but to all that he addresses this discourse. And those who bring a return to him confess frankly, both what is their own and what their Master’s. And the one says, Lord, you gave me five talents, and the other says, two, indicating that from him they received the source of their gain, and they are very thankful and reckon all to him.^[1]

The Lord who dispensed the talents returns to demand an account, because he who now generously bestows spiritual gifts may at the judgment inquire searchingly into what was achieved; he may take into account what everyone has received and weigh up the gain we bring back from his gifts.

We earnestly believe that we are incapable of explaining such things, unlike those who infer from the perceptible events of the Scriptures more inspired meanings. These are spiritual meanings that Solomon calls divine and which Jeremiah calls faculties of the heart^[1] and which Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews calls faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.^[2] The persons in the first group are those who in addition to the five talents gained five more, trading with them and capitalizing on their ability. Successfully negotiating and zealously teaching, they traded and acquired five more talents. Indeed, no one readily benefits from another’s ability unless he has that ability to begin with. A wise man grows in wisdom, a trustworthy man in trust.

He brought five talents more. Note this: What each man knows, he can teach to another, up to the level of as much as he knows. This he can teach to another and no more. Therefore whatever someone has in himself, by teaching this to another, he gains it in the other, making that person have what he too has. Consequently he who had received the five talents is said not to have gained more than the five which he had and he who had received the two talents not more than the two which he had.

The first servant stepped forward in confidence, because he had gone to work and made a profit. That confidence now made him bold, for he was the first one to approach the master and declare to him, Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more. The master replied in words favorable to us all, even as our master will reply when he settles with us: Well done, good and faithful servant. These words run counter to what he said to the third man: You wicked and slothful servant.

What then does the master say? Well done, good and faithful servant. For it is good to see the neighbor’s benefit. You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master. He means by this expression, enter into the realm of all blessedness.

Concerning the two talents, those who did not stay with the original sum given but sought to excel—though unable to surpass the measure of two talents—are those who had imbibed worldly know-how. Two seems to be an average or mundane number. Having received the two talents from the one who knew their ability, he gained two talents more. This can be viewed either with respect to worldly knowledge or to a higher knowledge.

The servant who returned with two talents was praised by his master. He was led to his eternal reward when his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. Because you have been faithful about a few things, I shall put you in charge of many.

All the good deeds of our present life, however many they may appear to be, are few in comparison with our eternal recompense. The faithful servant is put in charge of many things after overcoming all the troubles brought him by perishable things. He glories in the eternal joys of his heavenly dwelling. He is brought completely into the joy of his master when he is taken into his eternal home and joined to the company of angels. His inner joy at his gift is such that there is no longer any external perishable thing that can cause him sorrow.

They exemplify the very words of the servant who answers and says, I knew you to be a hard man and one who was able to reap where you did not sow and gather where you did not winnow.

The master answered him and reproached him as a wicked and lazy servant. Note that he did not call himself a hard man. But he agreed with the servant when he went on to say, You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow.

How are we to understand the phrase that our Lord truly reaps where he did not sow and gathers where he did not winnow? In this way, it seems to me: The righteous man sows in the Spirit, from which he will also reap eternal life.^[1] Everything that is sown and reaped for eternal life by the righteous man, God reaps. The righteous man belongs to God, who reaps where not he but the righteous man has sown. So we may say that the righteous man has scattered and given to the poor.^[2] The Lord, however, gathers to himself whatever the righteous man has scattered and given to the poor. Reaping what he has not sown and gathering where he has not winnowed, he counts as having been done to himself whatever the faithful have sown or winnowed for the poor. He says to those who have done good to their neighbors: Come you, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which was prepared for you. I was hungry and you gave me to eat . . .^[3]

And since he wishes to reap where he did not sow and to gather where he did not winnow, when he does not find anything, he says to those who failed to reap and gather: Depart from me, you wicked, into everlasting fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you did not give me to eat.^[4]

Then there was another servant who showed less ability. Because of it, the master of the household gave him one talent as though to the servant less capable. Receiving it, the servant went away and hid the talent in the earth. Instead he should have entrusted the money to the bankers.

But not so that other one, but how? Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow. I was afraid. I hid your talent. Here it is. It belongs to you.

But the third servant was unwilling to work with his talent. He returned to his master with words of excuse: Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you have not scattered; being afraid, I went away and hid your talent in the earth. Here it is; see, you have what is yours. The useless servant called his master hard, and yet he neglected to serve him for profit. He said that he was afraid to invest the talent for interest, when he should have been afraid only of bringing it back to his master without interest. For many people in the church resemble that servant. They are afraid to attempt a better way of life but not of resting in idleness. When they advert to the fact that they are sinners, the prospect of grasping the ways of holiness alarms them, but they feel no fear at remaining in their wickedness.

Peter is a good example. When he was still weak, he saw the miracle of the fishes and said, Depart from me, O Lord, because I am a sinful man.^[1] If you regard yourself as a sinner, it is only right that you not drive God away from you! But those who see that they are weak and are for this reason unwilling to improve their habits or way of life are like people admitting that they are sinners and at the same time banishing God. They flee him whom they ought to hallow in themselves; even in the agony of death they do not know where to turn and cling to life.

The Lord answered, You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered. Therefore you ought to have given my money to the moneylenders. On my return I would at least have received what was mine with interest. The servant was trapped by his own words when his master confirms, Yes, I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered. I expect something of you that I have not given. I expect much more than merely what I gave you to trade with.

What then does the Master say? You ought to have invested my money with the banker. You ought to have spoken to someone and received his advice and been admonished. Are the bankers bad people? That is not for you to say.

What could be more gentle than this? Those who give money at interest keep close accounts on its repayment. But you have not done anything with it. You ought to have given it to someone else to work with and required them to report to you. I require it back with increase, that is, with some good works to boot. You ought to have done the easy part and left with someone else the part that is more difficult.

To give money to moneylenders means to lay out knowledge of preaching to those who can practice it. As you perceive my danger, if I hold the Lord’s money, so carefully consider your own, dearly beloved. What you have will be required of you with interest. The point about interest is that more comes back than was laid out.

Note that the talent is taken away from the wicked and slothful servant and is given to him who has ten talents. It is not easy to explain how what has been given to a person can be taken away and given to another who does good, so he may have it in addition to what he gained. It is possible, however, since God, who invariably makes good sense in the teaching of truth, by his divinity can take away the corresponding amount from him who made poor use of it and give it to him who multiplied his own.

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Furthermore, whatever someone has from natural creation, when he has exercised it, he receives that very thing also from the grace of God. In this way he may have abundance and be stronger in what he has. Concerning not only wisdom but also every good quality, we should reflect on the words of Solomon: And if there is anyone perfect among the children of men, if your wisdom is taken away from him, he will be counted as nothing.^[1]

Since he did nothing with his one talent, even that one is to be taken from him and given to the more productive partner. For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. What does this mean for us? One who is given a gift of preaching or teaching is given it so others may profit from it. If one does not use this gift, he will lose it. But one who uses the gift diligently will gain even more of the gift in abundance, even as the inactive recipient will lose what he received. The penalty is not, however, limited to this. The punishment in addition is intolerable, and the sentence is filled with heavy accusation.

If someone should wish to peruse Scripture elsewhere to hear from his Master the word faithful, I believe Abraham is a good instance: Abraham believed God; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.^[1] Then there is the man who heard from his master the words faithful servant. Without doubt his faith was reckoned as righteousness to him, like the faith of him who was faithful in little things, so that every mystery of the resurrection and the administration of godly affairs may be entrusted to him. Everything in this life, by the way, consists of little things.

Let us note also where that good and faithful servant is going who was faithful in the little things of this life. Enter into the joy of your master, he is told. Every delight and every joy will be there when those who weep here below will be merry hereafter and those who righteously mourn will receive a worthy consolation. He says this in effect both to the one who had received the five talents and to the one who had received the two. He says, Enter. Know what it is to approach me and to pass from this world to the next. Notice also that the master said to the second servant what he said to the first: Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.

I wonder also, since the same words were said to both servants, whether by chance the one who had less ability and exercised it fully would be regarded less by God than the one who had more ability. I wonder if this is in fulfillment of what was said elsewhere: He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.^[2]

Such is indicated also concerning the commandment of love for God or for one’s neighbor, according to the words You shall love the Lord your God with all your whole heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.^[3] Without doubt, when someone has loved God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, he has the same reward of love as the person with a bigger heart or with a more gifted soul or with greater ability. This alone is required: At whatever level one has received a gift from God, one should use it for God’s glory.

It seems to me that he who had received the one talent was indeed among the believers, even though he was not among those who acted boldly in faith. He is among those who scatter their energies in trying to do everything but have nothing to show for it.^[4] Perhaps their behavior in other respects is not blameworthy. What they received they guard carefully, but they do not add to it, nor do they trade or faithfully transact with it. For that reason, the word does not bear any fruit in them, nor did anyone else gain from it. They even seem to be the type of people who fear God. They often see God as harsh and hard and implacable.

The master had three servants. After they believed and became his servants, they were given a task to do. They received money from their master. One of them traded with it and gained. The second one gained, but not as much. And the third, out of fear and being insufficiently faithful, went away and hid his master’s money. From his defensiveness it appears that he feared the master. He was in awe of the master even as the other had zeal for God but not according to knowledge.^[1] Diffidently, he hid his talent in the ground. Such are those who neither exert themselves nor question what has been said nor extend themselves to benefit souls, but they scatter their energies on what they have received and have been entrusted with.

Let us therefore, knowing these things, contribute whatever we have—wealth, diligence or care giving—for our neighbor’s advantage. For the talents here are each person’s abilities, whether in the way of protection, or in money, or in teaching or in whatever thing you have been given. Let no one say, I have but one talent and can do nothing with it. You are not poorer than the widow. You are not more uninstructed than Peter and John, who were both unlearned and ignorant men.^[1] Nevertheless, since they demonstrated zeal and did all things for the common good, they were received into heaven. For nothing is so pleasing to God as to live for the common advantage.

For this end God gave us speech, and hands, and feet, and strength of body and mind and understanding, that we might use all these things both for our own salvation and for our neighbor’s advantage. Our speech not only is useful for hymns and thanksgiving, but it is profitable also for instruction and admonition. And if indeed we used it to this end, we should be imitating our Master; but if for the opposite ends, the devil.

And immediately a general thought is added: For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough; but from everyone who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away from him. To the one who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. Whoever has love receives other gifts as well. Whoever does not have love loses even the gifts he appeared to have received. Hence it is necessary, my friends, that in everything you do, you be vigilant about guarding love. True love is to love your friend in God and your enemy for the sake of God. Whoever does not have this loses every good that he possesses; he is deprived of the talent he received, and according to the Lord’s sentence he is cast into external darkness. External darkness comes as a punishment to one who has fallen voluntarily into internal darkness through his own sin. The one who freely enjoyed pleasurable darkness in this world will be constrained to suffer punishing darkness in the next.

The unprofitable servant is to be cast into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you see how sins of omission also are met with extreme rejection? It is not only the covetous, the active doer of evil things and the adulterer, but also the one who fails to do good.

Let us listen carefully then to these words. As we have opportunity, let us work to cooperate with our salvation. Let us get oil for our lamps. Let us labor to add to our talent. For if we are backward and spend our time in sloth here, no one will pity us any more hereafter, though we should wail ten thousand times. . . . Remember the virgins who again entreated and came to him and knocked, all in vain and without effect.

In his previous parables when he speaks of two persons he is referring to two portions of humanity, the disobedient and the obedient. Here he speaks out more fearfully and with fuller clarity.

He does not say that the coming kingdom is compared to this or that, as he has been speaking previously, but now openly shows himself to be the Son of man, who shall come in his glory. If he has up to now appeared in a condition of dishonor, now he appears in a different role. He reproaches. He confronts. He sits upon his throne of glory.

And he continually mentions glory. For his cross was drawing near, a thing that seemed to be a matter of reproach. So he lifts his hearers up and brings before their sight the judgment seat, with all the world gathered around him.

Jesus rightly promises that the glory of the triumphant one [would follow] after two days in which he would celebrate the Passover and be consigned to the cross, mocked by humanity and given wine and gall to drink. Thus he will offset with the promised reward the blameworthy actions to follow. Clearly he who is to be seen in majesty is the Son of man.

And not in this way only does he make his discourse awesome but also by showing the heavens opened. For all the angels will be present with him. They are there to bear witness to the many ways they had served when sent by the Lord for the salvation of humanity. Everything spoken of that day shows that it is fearful. Then shall be gathered together, he says, all nations, that is, all humankind.^[1]

How can he be the Son of man when he is God and will come to judge all nations? He is the Son of man because he appeared on earth as a man and was persecuted as a man. Therefore this person who they said was a man will raise all nations from the dead and judge every person according to his works. Every race on earth will see him, both those who rejected him and those who despised him as a man. They will see him then, but not everyone in the same way: some will see him in punishment and others in heavenly bliss.^[1] All nations will be gathered together by the angels from the foundation of the world, beginning first with Adam and Eve down to the last person on earth—whoever experienced human birth. And he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He, our Lord, who knows our thoughts, who foresees all human works and knows how to judge righteously, will separate them according to the merits of each person, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. So then, people on earth are intermingled, and not only intermingled in that the righteous live side by side with the wicked, but they are also indistinguishable. Between the righteous and the wicked there is no apparent difference. Even as in wintertime you cannot tell the healthy trees apart from the withered trees but in beautiful springtime you can tell the difference, so too each person according to his faith and his works will be exposed. The wicked will not have any leaves or show any fruit, but the righteous will be clothed with the leaves of eternal life and adorned with the fruit of glory. In this way they will be separated by the heavenly shepherd and Lord. The earthly shepherd separates animals by their type of body, whereas Christ separates people by their type of soul. The sheep signify righteous people by reason of their gentleness, because they harm no one, and by reason of their patience, because when they are harmed by others, they bear it without resistance. He refers to sinners as goats, however, because these vices characterize goats: capriciousness toward other animals, pride and belligerence.

And he will place the sheep at his right hand but the goats at the left. When someone is brought into the presence of a king or a judge, on the very spot where he is ordered to stand he will learn whether he has been brought in because of the good he did or the evil. If he has been brought in because of the good, he is immediately made to stand close; if because of the evil, he is ordered to stand at a distance. So too God will place the righteous at his right hand but the goats at the left. Each one will know what his merits are, then and there. When judgment is passed, the punishment of shame will follow. He will justly place the righteous at his right hand, because they never knew the left side; he will justly place the wicked at the left, because they never wanted to know the right side.

He commended them for doing what was right. He reveals how great is his bond of love for them and has been from the beginning. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ To what other blessedness could this blessedness be compared? To be blessed of the Father! Why were they counted worthy of such a great honor? I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. What honor! What blessedness!

He did not say take but inherit as one’s own, as your Father’s, as yours, as due to you from the first. For before you were, he says, these things had been prepared and made ready for you, because I knew you would be such as you are.

Then he will say to those at his right hand . . . And why will he not address first those at his left? Because God is always more willing to praise than to denounce. For he gives good things to those who are good according to his intentions because he is good; but to those who are bad, he reluctantly gives bad things against his intentions because he is a judge. Whatever humanity does against his nature, he does rather hesitantly. If indeed Christ delighted in the punishment of sinners, he never would have delivered himself up for them. Come, O blessed of my Father, he says, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You who sowed one seed on earth will deservedly have a hundredfold in heaven. Indeed, the kingdom of heaven has not been created according to what human righteousness deserves but according to what God’s power can prepare. I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. And many other acts of mercy, as we pointed out.

Then, in order that you may see in another way also the justice of the sentence, he first praises those who have done right: Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food, and all that follows. Note that the judgment is in effect made by their fellow servants. This has happened before, when the virgins are judged by the virgins^[1] and in the case of the drunken and gluttonous servant who was judged by the faithful servant. It happened once again in the case of the man who buried his talent, [who was judged] by the actions of those who produced more.^[2] . . . This is said to bring them to the point of answering, When did we see you hungry?

This can also be said of teachers who gave the food of learning to those hungry for righteousness, so they might be fed and grow healthy in good actions; who administered the drink of truth to those thirsty for the knowledge of God. Teaching in the Word, they certainly fed them and also gave to drink, baptizing in the Holy Spirit those who are strangers in the world. For all souls are truly strangers on this earth who can say, For I am your passing guest, a sojourner, like all my fathers.^[1] Preaching the word of faith, they welcome souls from the spreading of error and make them fellow citizens and family members of the saints. They welcome Christ himself and clothe, by teaching righteousness, those who are naked and even without a garment of righteousness. As is written: Put on, then, compassion, faith, peace and kindness.^[2] That is to say, they clothe Christ and baptize them in Christ, as is written: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.^[3]

In the same way, we have woven a garment for the cold and shivering Christ. We have received the fabric of wisdom from God that we may impart knowledge to some and clothe them with compassion, chastity, kindness, lowliness and the other virtues. All these virtues are the spiritual garments of those who have listened to the words of those who teach these virtues, according to him who says, Put on, then, compassion, kindness, lowliness, gentleness and so forth, more so Christ himself, who is all these things to the faithful, according to him who said, Put on the Lord Jesus.^[1] Therefore, when we have clothed with garments of this type one of the least who believe in Christ, we have apparently clothed the Lord himself, so that the word of God in the world will not go naked. But we must also welcome the Son of God who became a stranger and the members of his body who are strangers in the world, untainted by all mundane actions, even as he says about himself and his disciples: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.^[2] And Christ asks the Father to permit them to be with him where he is.

He who visits the sick and those languishing with the disease of earthly vices, who heals them with the medicine of good doctrine, heals Christ in them. Even as Christ is healthy in souls that are healthy, he is ailing in souls that are ailing. But he is also the one who comes to those who have gone down to the world of the dead alive and are doing infernal work—that is, they are in prison and under guard of the devil. As Scripture says, Let them go down to the world of the dead alive.^[1] Coming through his word, he leads them out of that infernal prison and frees them from the guard of the devil. They give thanks to him, saying, O Lord my God, I cry to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from the world of the dead.^[2]

I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.^[1] [Jesus mentions] many other things, which we have recited. Having been given the faith, the righteous say, Lord, when did see you hungry and fed you, thirsty, and gave you something to drink, naked and clothed you?^[2] Other things also follow. What then, my most beloved? Does our Lord hunger and thirst? Is he who himself made everything in heaven and on earth, who feeds angels in heaven and every nation and race on earth, who needs nothing of an earthly character, as he is unfailing in his own nature, is this one naked? It is incredible to believe such a thing. Yet what must be confessed is easy to believe. For the Lord hungers not in his own nature but in his saints; the Lord thirsts not in his own nature but in his poor. The Lord who clothes everyone is not naked in his own nature but in his servants. The Lord who is able to heal all sicknesses and has already destroyed death itself is not diseased in his own nature but in his servants. Our Lord, the one who can liberate every person, is not in prison in his own nature but in his saints. Therefore, you see, my most beloved, that the saints are not alone. They suffer all these things because of the Lord. In the same way, because of the saints the Lord suffers all these things with them.

But to the others he says, Depart from me, you cursed. He does not say they are cursed by the Father, for the Father had not laid a curse upon them, but only their own works. He does not say that the eternal fire is prepared only for you but for the devil and his angels. For concerning the kingdom indeed, when he had said, Come, inherit the kingdom, he added, prepared for you before the foundation of the world.^[1] But concerning the fire, he does not say this but prepared for the devil. I prepared the kingdom for you, he says, but the fire I did not prepare for you but for the devil and his angels. But you have cast yourselves in it. You have imputed it to yourselves.

For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. For even though you should meet your enemy, is not his suffering enough to overcome and subdue your resistance to being merciful? And what about his hunger, cold, chains, nakedness and sickness? What about his homelessness? Are not these sufferings sufficient to overcome even your alienation? But you did not do these things for a friend, much less a foe. You could have at once befriended and done good. Even when you see a dog hungry you feel sympathy. But when you see the Lord hungry, you ignore it. You are left without excuse.

He could have said to the unrighteous, I was sick, and you did not visit me; I was in prison, and you did not come to me. Instead he abbreviated his discourse and compressed both phrases into one, saying, I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me, for it was proper for a merciful judge to embellish the good deeds of people but to skim over their evil deeds. The righteous, however, dwell on each word, saying, When did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison, and come to you? For it is characteristic of the righteous, out of humility, studiously to make light of each of their good deeds held up to them. It is as though to the Lord’s words, This, that and the other good thing you did to me, they disavowingly reply, Neither this, that nor the other thing did we do to you. The unrighteous do not treat each item individually but are quick to say, When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you, for we ministered the word to you. They refer to everything they did and tend to play down their evil actions, which might appear worse if enumerated one by one, for it is characteristic of wicked people to mention their faults, by way of excuse, as being either nonexistent or few and far between.

Then they will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry . . . or thirsty?’ Oh, the invariable disobedience of sinners! Who does not realize that every evil we do is done not because we are corruptible but because we have a bad intention? Plainly then the corruptible flesh of sinners will die, but wickedness will live on. Did they not hear the Lord saying to the righteous, As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me?^[1] Certainly they should have understood that what they fail to do to people, they fail to do to Christ. But those who hear, remain adamant; those who understand, pretend they do not understand. They stand in judgment, and yet they keep on sinning. This applies also to bad teachers . . . who did not clothe the naked, either by teaching justice or by baptizing in Christ; who did not welcome strangers in the world through the word or introduce them into the house of the church through faith; who did not heal the sick by their words; who did not lead out, through penance, those who were sitting in the prison of ungodliness. If it is ungodly not to offer material things to bodies, which cannot live forever even if they accept these things, can you imagine how ungodly it is not to administer spiritual things to souls that are in danger and could live forever if only these things were administered to them? Since the soul is more precious than the body, it is all the more sinful not to give spiritual alms to troubled souls rather than material alms to bodies.

You see, my beloved, there is no excuse for it. They knew what they had to do in this world. But greed and ill-will prevented them, so they laid up for themselves not treasures for the future but the world of the dead. Neither were they condemned because of the active wrong they did, nor did the Lord say to them, Depart from me, you wicked, because you committed murder or adultery or theft. But instead: because I was hungry and thirsty in my servants, and you did not minister to me. If those who did no wrong are thus condemned, what must be said of those who do the works of the devil? Will not the prophecy of blessed David come upon them: The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous?^[1] Not that they will not rise, but that neither in judgment [nor in] the congregation of the righteous do they deserve to enter. They will stand, however, so that from punishment they may enter into punishment. And they will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Whatever will be is everlasting. Sinners will have everlasting punishment; and the righteous, everlasting life.

By what course of conduct, then, shall we attain these things, but by leading a holy and righteous life, and by deeming these worldly things as not belonging to us, and not fixing our desires upon them? For if we desire to possess them, we fall away from the path of righteousness.

It is of the great day of judgment he speaks, when they shall see those among us who were guilty of ungodliness and erred in their estimate of the commands of Jesus Christ. The righteous, having succeeded in enduring the trials and hating the indulgences of the soul, whenever they witness how those who have swerved and denied Jesus by words or deeds are punished with grievous torments in fire unquenchable, will give glory to their God and say, “There will be hope for him who has served God with his whole heart”.

And more than all other men are we your helpers and allies in promoting peace, seeing that we hold this view, that it is impossible for the wicked, the covetous, the conspirator, and for the virtuous to escape the notice of God, and that each man goes to everlasting punishment or salvation according to the value of his actions. For if all men knew this, no one would choose wickedness even for a little, knowing that he goes to the everlasting punishment of fire; but would by all means restrain himself, and adorn himself with virtue, that he might obtain the good gifts of God, and escape the punishments.

[The martyrs] despised all the torments of this world, redeeming themselves from eternal punishment by [the suffering of] a single hour. For this reason the fire of their savage executioners appeared cool to them. For they kept before their view the escape from that fire that is eternal and shall never be quenched.

Then you will see, while still on earth, that God in the heavens rules over [the universe]; then you will begin to speak the mysteries of God; then will you love and admire those who suffer punishment because they will not deny God; then will you condemn the deceit and error of the world when you will know what it is to live truly in heaven, when you will despise what is here esteemed to be death, when you will fear what is truly death, which is reserved for those who shall be condemned to the eternal fire, which will afflict those even to the end who are committed to it. Then will you admire those who for righteousness’s sake endure the fire that is but for a moment, and will count them happy when you will know [the nature of] that fire.

For if we believed that we should live only the present life, then we might be suspected of sinning, through being enslaved to flesh and blood, or overmastered by gain or carnal desire; but since we know that God is witness to what we think and what we say by night and by day, and that he, himself being light, sees all things in our heart, we are persuaded that when we are removed from the present life we shall live another life, better than the present one, and heavenly, not earthly (since we shall abide near God, and with God, free from all change or suffering in the soul, not as flesh, even though we shall have flesh, but as heavenly spirit), or, falling with the rest, a worse one and in fire; for God has not made us as sheep or beasts of burden, that we should perish and be annihilated. On these grounds it is not likely that we should wish to do evil, or deliver ourselves over to the great judge to be punished.

But do you also, if you please, give reverential attention to the prophetic Scriptures, and they will make your way plainer for escaping the eternal punishments, and obtaining the eternal prizes of God. For he who gave the mouth for speech, and formed the ear to hear, and made the eye to see, will examine all things, and will judge righteous judgment, rendering merited awards to each. To those who by patient continuance in well-doing [Rom 2:7] seek immortality, he will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest, and abundance of good things, which neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to conceive [1 Cor 2:9]. But to the unbelieving and despisers, who obey not the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness, when they have been filled with adulteries and fornications, and filthiness, and covetousness, and unlawful idolatries, there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish [Rom 2:8–9], and at the last everlasting fire shall possess such men.

[T]hese have further set before us the proof he has given of his majesty in his judgments by floods and fires, the rules appointed by him for securing his favor, as well as the retribution in store for ignoring, forsaking, and keeping them, as being there at the end of all to judge his worshippers to everlasting life, and the wicked to the doom of fire without end and without break.

[T]hen the whole human race shall be raised again, to have its dues meted out according to what it merited in the period of good or evil, and then to have these paid out through the immeasurable ages of eternity. After this there is neither death nor repeated resurrections, but we shall be the same that we are now, and still unchanged—the servants of God, ever with God, clothed with the proper substance of eternity; but the profane, and all who are not true worshippers of God, shall be consigned to the punishment of everlasting fire—that fire that, from its very nature, directly ministers to their incorruptibility.

And I am not ignorant that many, conscious of what they deserve, desire rather than believe that they shall be nothing after death; for they would prefer to be altogether extinguished than to be restored for the purpose of punishment. . . . There is no measure or termination to these torments. The intelligent fire burns the limbs and restores them, feeds on them and nourishes them, as the fires of the thunderbolts strike the bodies, and do not consume them.

An ever-burning Gehenna and the punishment of being devoured by living flames will consume the condemned; nor will there be any way the tormented can ever have respite or be at an end. Souls along with their bodies will be preserved for suffering in unlimited agonies. . . . The grief at punishment will then be without the fruit of repentance; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual. Too late will they believe in eternal punishment, who would not believe in eternal life.

[T]he sacred writings inform us in what way the wicked are to undergo punishment. For because they have committed sins in their bodies, they will again be clothed with flesh, that they may make atonement in their bodies; and yet it will not be the flesh with which God clothed man, like our earthly body, but indestructible, and abiding forever, that it may be able to hold out against tortures and everlasting fire, which is different from this fire of ours, which we use for the necessary purposes of life, and which is extinguished unless it be sustained by fuel. But that divine fire always lives by itself, and flourishes without any nourishment. . . . Thus, without any wasting of bodies, which regain their substance, it will only burn and affect them with a sense of pain. But when [God] shall have judged the righteous, he will also try them with fire.

[Jesus Christ] sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty; thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead; at his coming all men have to rise again with their bodies and will render an account of their own deeds; and those who have done good will go into life everlasting, but those who have done evil into eternal fire [Rom 2:6–11]. This is the Catholic faith; unless everyone believes this faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God [1 Cor 6:9–10]. If, then, those who do this as respects the flesh have suffered death, how much more shall this be true of anyone who corrupts by wicked doctrine the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Anyone becoming defiled [in this way], shall go away into everlasting fire, and so shall everyone who listens unto him.

But, as we said above, wicked devils perpetrated these things. And we have learned that only those are deified who have lived near God in holiness and virtue; and we believe that those who live wickedly and do not repent are punished in everlasting fire (ibid., 21).

[Jesus] shall come from heaven with glory, accompanied by his angelic host, when he shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived, and shall clothe the worthy with immortality, and shall send the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with the wicked devils.

[T]hat he may send “spiritual wickednesses” [Eph 6:12], and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire.

Thus also the punishment of those who do not believe the Word of God, and despise his advent, and are turned away backwards, is increased; being not merely temporal, but eternal. For to whomever the Lord shall say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire” [Mt 25:41], these will be damned forever.

And being present at his judicial decision, all men and angels and demons, shall utter one voice, saying, “Righteous is your judgment,” in which voice the justification will be seen in the awarding to each what is just; since those who have done well shall righteously be assigned eternal bliss, and the lovers of iniquity shall be given eternal punishment. And the fire that is unquenchable and without end awaits these latter, and a certain fiery worm that does not die, and that does not waste the body, but continues bursting forth from the body with unending pain. No sleep will give them rest; no night will soothe them; no death will deliver them from punishment; no voice of interceding friends will profit them.

An ever-burning Gehenna and the punishment of being devoured by living flames will consume the condemned; nor will there be any way the tormented can ever have respite or be at an end. Souls along with their bodies will be preserved for suffering in unlimited agonies. . . . The grief at punishment will then be without the fruit of repentance; weeping will be useless, and prayer ineffectual. Too late will they believe in eternal punishment, who would not believe in eternal life.

We shall be raised therefore, all with our bodies eternal, but not all with bodies alike: for if a man is righteous, he will receive a heavenly body, that he may be able worthily to converse with angels; but if a man is a sinner, he shall receive an eternal body, fitted to endure the penalties of sins, that he may burn eternally in fire, nor ever be consumed. And righteously will God assign this portion to either company; for we do nothing without the body. We blaspheme with the mouth, and with the mouth we pray. With the body we commit fornication, and with the body we keep chastity. With the hand we rob, and by the hand we bestow alms; and the rest in like manner. Since the body has been our minister in all things, it shall also share with us in the future the fruits of the past.