And he was buried in hell, through the casting down into the place of punishments; and this on account of the fault of pride: Isaiah fourteen: "Your pride has been dragged down to hell, your corpse has fallen"; on account of the fault of wantonness: Job twenty-one: "They spend their days in good things, and in a moment they descend to hell"; on account of the fault of mercilessness: Psalm: "Like sheep they are placed in hell: death shall feed upon them"; and again: "Let death come upon them, and let them descend into hell alive, for there are wickednesses in their dwellings," etc.
From this it appears how great is the difference between the parishioners of Christ and of the devil, because the former are exalted in heaven, the latter are buried in hell, where there is a very deep pit; Job seventeen: "All my things shall descend into the deepest hell," etc.; and in the Psalm: "They shall enter into the lower parts of the earth, they shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes."
48. (Verse 23). Second, with respect to the distance from the place of the just, he adds: And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, namely in the place of continual affliction; Apocalypse fourteen: "The smoke of their torments ascends forever and ever"; Isaiah thirty: "Topheth has been prepared from of old." "Its nourishment is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord like a torrent of brimstone kindling it." — He saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Truly afar off both with respect to position and with respect to state, because the rich man was in the lowest place, but he in the highest; Proverbs twenty-nine: "Humility follows the proud, and glory shall uphold the humble in spirit"; and Proverbs fourteen: "The wicked shall lie before the good, and the ungodly before the gates of the just." Likewise, the rich man was in affliction, the poor man in rest: Isaiah sixty-five: "My servants shall eat, and you shall hunger." Likewise, because the rich man was in want, and the poor man in abundance; above in chapter one: "He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty"; the Psalm: "The poor shall eat and be satisfied"; and elsewhere: "The rich have been in want and have hungered, but those who seek the Lord," etc. Moreover, it is said that he saw Abraham, and not for consolation, but rather for an increase of torments. Whence Gregory: "It must be believed that before the retribution of the last judgment the unjust behold certain ones in rest, so that, seeing them in joy, they may be tormented not only by their own punishment, but also by the good of those others"; the Psalm: "The sinner shall see and be angry, he shall gnash his teeth and waste away: the desire of sinners shall perish"; and Wisdom five: "Seeing, they shall be troubled with horrible fear," etc.
49. (Verse 24). Third, with respect to the accumulation of manifold calamities it is added: And he, crying out, said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me; so that from the cry the magnitude of sorrow might appear, according to that passage of Isaiah 65: "Behold, my servants shall praise from exultation of heart, and you shall cry out from sorrow of heart and from contrition of spirit you shall howl." And this was indeed fitting for the rich man; Proverbs 21: "He who stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he himself shall cry out and shall not be heard." - And send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water: so that from the petition for a drop of water the multitude of want - might appear - Job 27: "The rich man, when he shall have fallen asleep, shall take nothing with him; he shall open his eyes and shall find nothing. And want shall cover him like water"; the Psalm: "They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands." Whence Chrysostom: "He who exceeded in precious things through guilt here petitioned for the vilest things in punishment"; and again, speaking to the rich man: "Once you did not deign to look upon Lazarus, and now you desire the tip of his finger?" And Bede: "That rich man, who was unwilling to give the least things from his table, placed in hell arrived at petitioning for the least things; for he who denied Lazarus a crumb of bread petitioned for a drop of water"; Proverbs 28: "He who gives to the poor shall not be in want; he who despises the suppliant shall sustain penury." - That he may cool my tongue: so that from the affliction of the tongue the rectitude of divine justice might appear. Whence Peter of Ravenna: "If already the fire of hell possesses you entirely, why do you desire that only your tongue be relieved from the burning? Is it because the tongue burns more, which insulted the poor man, which denied mercy? This proceeds first to judgment, which proceeded first to sin; this first tastes torments, which tasted precious foods and fragrant drinks," according to that passage of Wisdom 11: "By what things a man sins, by these also is he tormented." Whence also Bede in the Gloss: "Note that, as is the custom, amidst banquets he devoted himself to loquacity." On account of which, Proverbs 10: "In much speaking sin shall not be wanting."
Because I am tormented in this flame: so that the rigor of divine vengeance might appear: the Psalm: "You shall make them as an oven of fire in the time of your countenance"; and Deuteronomy 32: "A fire is kindled in my fury and shall burn even to the lowest depths of hell"; moreover Sirach 7: "Humble your spirit greatly, for the vengeance upon the flesh of the ungodly is fire and the worm."
50. And note that this flame was real, but the tongue was imaginary, because true fire afflicts spirits, according to that passage of Matthew twenty-five: "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire," etc. And the soul is also afflicted in the images which it drew from the body, according to that passage of Wisdom seventeen: "There appeared to them a sudden fire, full of fear, and struck with the fear of that face which was not seen, they deemed the things that were seen to be worse." And afterward: "They therefore were to themselves more grievous than the darkness." Whence from this it is gathered that in the affliction of the reprobate there concurs at once both true and imaginary punishment, at once both natural and supernatural action, at once both intrinsic and extrinsic affliction, and at once both one's own and another's, so that thus may be fulfilled that passage of Wisdom five: "The whole world shall fight for him against the senseless." For the true flame was burning, and the imaginary and phantasmal tongue in the soul of the rich man was also providing fuel to that burning. But mention is made more expressly of the tongue than of any other member that is tortured and afflicted in the infernal fire, because in sins it is as it were the kindling of all iniquity: James three: "The tongue is indeed a small member and boasts great things: behold, how great a fire, how great a forest it kindles! And our tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members, which defiles the whole body and sets on fire the wheel of our nativity, being itself set on fire by hell. For every nature of beasts is tamed, but the tongue no man can tame"; for it is "a restless evil, full of deadly poison."
51. But this is said because the tongue itself assails the divine majesty, truth, and goodness, mutual charity, and all moral uprightness.
It attacks majesty through words of boasting: Psalm: "Who said: We will magnify our tongue" etc.; and therefore he sets forth there: "May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips and the boastful tongue." Likewise, through words of blasphemy; Apocalypse 16: "They gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed God"; and Second Maccabees 15: "He commanded that the tongue of the impious Nicanor, cut off, be given piecemeal to the birds"; for he had blasphemed. - Truth, through words of falsehood: Proverbs 26: "A deceitful tongue does not love truth, and a slippery mouth works ruins"; Jeremiah 9: "They have bent their tongue like a bow of falsehood and not of truth." "They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood" etc.: Psalm: "They loved him with their mouth" etc. Through words of duplicity: Psalm: "All day long your tongue devised injustice; like a sharp razor you have wrought deceit"; and again: "Your tongue fashioned deceits"; and Sirach 5: "Do not winnow yourself in every wind and do not go in every way: for thus is every sinner proved by a double tongue." - Goodness, through words of flattery: Proverbs 6: "That they may guard you from the evil woman and from the flattery of the stranger's tongue"; and Sirach 20: "The fool will have no friend, and there will be no grace in his goods. For those who eat his bread are of a false tongue"; Proverbs 28: "He who corrects a man" etc. Likewise, through words of detraction: Wisdom 1: "Guard yourselves from murmuring, which profits nothing, and from detraction spare your tongue"; and Sirach 28: "Hedge your ears with thorns and do not listen to a wicked tongue"; and Proverbs 25: "The north wind drives away rains, and a sad countenance a detracting tongue"; Job 20: "When evil is sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue." 52. Mutual charity through words of contention: Psalm, "You will protect them in your tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues"; Sirach 8: "Do not quarrel with a man of tongue, and do not heap fire upon his wood"; and Sirach 4: "Do not be hasty in your tongue." Likewise, through words of provocation; Psalm: "Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows" etc.; and Jeremiah 9: "Their tongue is a wounding arrow; it has spoken deceit"; Psalm: "They have sharpened their tongues like serpents." - All uprightness of morals, through words of impurity: Sirach, last chapter: "You have delivered me from a defiled tongue and from the word of falsehood"; James 3: "The tongue is set among our members, which defiles the whole body and inflames" etc. Likewise, through words of fruitlessness: James 1: "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue" etc.; and Sirach 19: "For who is there who has not offended with his tongue" etc. And therefore James 3: "He who does not offend in word, this is a perfect man"; whence it is said in Proverbs 16: "It belongs to man to prepare the soul, and to the Lord to govern the tongue"; Proverbs 18: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." And therefore Sirach prayed, 22: "Who will set a guard over my mouth and a sure seal upon my lips, that I may not fall by them, and that my tongue may not destroy me?" - On account of this, therefore, the rich man placed here in hell says, that he might cool my tongue, because I am tormented in this flame.
53. And Abraham said to him, etc. After he described the punishment with regard to the misery inflicted, here he describes it with regard to mercy denied; and this part is divided into two. In the first of which is expressed the denial of mercy with respect to his own person, in the second with respect to a related person, at the words: And he said: I ask you therefore, father, etc.
Concerning the denial of mercy with respect to his own person, three things are introduced, namely the dissimilarity of merits, the opposition of rewards, and the depth of the divine judgments.
54. (Verse 23.). First, therefore, with regard to the dissimilarity of merits, he says: And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that you received good things in your lifetime. He calls him son not from imitation but from natural generation; the Psalm: "The strange children have dealt falsely with me, the strange children have grown old." Whence Peter of Ravenna says: "You call me father, and I call you son, so that you may grieve deeply at having lost what you were born to, what grace and nature had given you." To this son he says that he should remember the good things, not for consolation, but rather for torment; whence Boethius: "The most unhappy kind of fortune is to have been happy." And this he received as the recompense for his good deeds; whence Bede: "Note that this rich man had something good, on account of which he received a transitory good in this life"; whence he was among those of whom it is said in Matthew six: "Amen I say to you, they have received their reward." This merit, therefore, was transitory and a prelude to punishment.
But on the contrary was the merit of Lazarus; whence he adds: And Lazarus likewise evil things; for this means likewise in the contrary sense: for Lazarus received evil things for a time in order to purge the evils of sin and to acquire the goods of eternal happiness. Whence Bede: "Lazarus had something evil, but the fire of poverty purged it"; and Gregory: "If we see anything blameworthy in the poor, we ought not to despise them, because perhaps those whom the weakness of their morals wounds, the medicine of poverty heals." And this is the way of arriving at the kingdom; Acts fourteen: "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." Whence in this is verified that saying of Ecclesiastes eight: "There are just men to whom evil things happen, as though they had done the works of the wicked"; and not without reason, because Tobit twelve: "Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that trial should prove you."
55. Second, as regards the opposition of rewards, it is added: But now he is comforted here, while you are tormented. Here, I say, he is comforted for his tribulation: John 16: "The world shall rejoice, and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy"; whence Matthew 5: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." For as it is said in Second Corinthians 4: "That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, beyond measure," etc. And therefore James 1: "Count it all joy, brothers, when you fall into various temptations"; and afterwards: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation," etc. And therefore Chrysostom: "If we are sick, if we are poor, let us rejoice; let us receive evil things in our life, so that afterwards we may receive good things." For thus the Prophet says: "We passed through fire and water, and you brought us out into refreshment." And as a figure of this, in John 2, at the wedding feast of the chief steward, water was converted into wine. Thus therefore the poor man is comforted, and the rich man on the contrary is tormented: above in chapter six: "Woe to you rich, who have your consolation here"; and Proverbs 14: "Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the ends of joy." For this temporal delight gives way to eternal torment: whence Gregory: "Momentary is what delights, but eternal is what torments." Therefore by the just judgment of God there is a correspondence such that there is a passage from contrary to contrary, namely from tribulation to consolation and from consolation to everlasting affliction, after the manner of a certain cross. As a figure of which it is said of Jacob in Genesis 48 that in the blessing of the sons of Joseph he crossed his hands after the manner of a cross. 56. (Verse 26.) Third, as regards the depth of the divine judgments, he adds: And besides all this, a great chasm has been established between us and you: in which is intimated the impossibility of drawing near between the reprobate and the elect: Ecclesiastes 11: "If a tree fall to the south or to the north, in whatever place it shall fall, there it shall be." This impassability he calls a chasm, because neither can the good descend into the darkness of sinners, nor the wicked into the light of the good: on account of which it is said in John 12: "Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you." Concerning this impassable breadth, Ambrose says in the Gloss: "Between the poor man and the rich man there is a chasm, because after death merits cannot be changed," and on this account neither can any mutual consolation be had.
And therefore he adds: So that those who wish to cross from here to you cannot, by offering the aid of piety, nor cross from there to here, attaining to the eternal reward. Whence Gregory says: "The souls of the just, although in the goodness of their nature they have mercy, yet then, joined to the justice of their Author, are bound by such rectitude that they are moved by no compassion toward the reprobate." The wicked indeed cannot go out from the prison of infernal Tartarus: Psalm: "They shall leave their riches to strangers, and their graves shall be their dwelling places forever." From this they cannot go out, because, Ecclesiastes nine, "neither work nor reason nor knowledge nor wisdom shall be in the netherworld, to which you hasten"; for they can neither go out from hell nor enter into the rest of the elect: Isaiah fifty-two: "There shall no more pass through you the uncircumcised or the unclean"; whence Revelation, last chapter: "Outside are dogs and sorcerers, the unchaste and those who serve idols," etc. The good, however, cannot cross over to help the wicked, yet they can cross over to behold them: whence Isaiah, last chapter: "They shall go out and see the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be unto the satiety of vision for all flesh."
57. (Verse 27). And he said: I ask you therefore, father, etc. After the denial of mercy with respect to one's own person, here is added the denial with respect to a related person. Concerning which four things are introduced, namely the petition for mercy with respect to a related person, the denial of the mercy requested, the reason for the petition proposed, and the approval of the response already given.
First, therefore, as regards the petition for mercy with respect to a related person, he says: And he said: I ask you therefore, father, that you send him to my father's house. Now this petition was carnal, because it extended only to his brothers.
58. (Verse 28). Whence he adds: For I have five brothers: Sirach eighteen: "The compassion of a man is toward his neighbor," etc. Therefore it was carnal, because it was for carnal brothers and those living according to the flesh. And the number five itself also suggests this, in which it is understood that they were devoted to the five senses of the body, according to that which is said to the Samaritan woman in John four: "You have had five husbands, and the one you now have," etc.; and above in the fourteenth chapter: "I have bought five yoke of oxen." Also carnal, because he did not do this in order to avoid the punishment of others, but lest his own be increased by their arrival.
Wherefore he adds: That he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torments. This indeed he said lest from their presence his calamity should increase through the multiplied torments of his kinsmen; whence Bede: "There is preserved for the rich man unto his punishment both the recognition of the poor man whom he despised and the memory of the brothers whom he left behind, so that he might be more greatly tormented by the sight of the glory of the one he despised and by the punishment of those whom he loved unprofitably." And this is especially true when imitators of others' crimes are sharers in their punishments; whence Gregory: "That sinners may be more greatly tormented in their punishments, they will see both the glory of those whom they despised and the punishment of those whom they loved unprofitably." — Moreover, this petition was not only carnal with respect to himself, but also cruel with respect to his neighbor, because on account of love for his carnal kinsmen he wished that Lazarus should leave the bosom of rest and go to a place of perils, so that there might be verified in him that saying of Proverbs 12: "The just man regards the lives of his beasts, but the bowels of the wicked are cruel." Whence also Christ, who called Lazarus, the brother of Mary, back to life, is said to have wept, in John 11: "And Jesus wept."
It was also foolish, because he believed that the word of a dead man availed more than that of the immortal God; whence is fulfilled that saying of Ecclesiastes 10: "But the fool walking in the way, since he himself is a fool, esteems all men as fools," etc. Whence the Gloss: "Too late does this rich man begin to be a preacher, when now he has time neither for learning nor for teaching."
It was likewise shameless, because he had denied small things and now was requesting the greatest, contrary to that which is said in Sirach 4: "Let not your hand be stretched out to receive and closed when it comes to giving."
59. (Verse 29.) Second, as regards the denial of the requested mercy, he adds: And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them. Moses, that is, the doctrine of the Law, which must be heard on account of the greatness of its authority. For, Proverbs twenty-eight, "he who turns away his ear from hearing the Law, his prayer shall become abominable." And therefore the lawgiver said in Deuteronomy thirty-two: "Hear, O heavens, what I speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth." "Give magnificence to our God: the works of God are perfect." And they also have the Prophets, that is, the doctrine of the Prophets, which must be heard on account of the certainty of its truth, according to that passage in Second Peter one: "We have a more firm prophetic word, to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." He who refuses to hear the words of this twofold doctrine, so authoritative and so certain, has absolutely no excuse. On account of which the Lord says through Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah twenty-six: "If you will not hear me, so as to walk in my Law which I gave you, to hear the words of my servants the Prophets, whom I sent to you, rising early, and you did not hear — I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse." If therefore those who do not hear the Law and the Prophets are without excuse, utterly without excuse are those who do not hear the Apostles and the Evangelists, indeed not even incarnate Wisdom itself. Whence she herself complains in Proverbs one: "Because I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand, and there was no one who regarded it"; "I also will laugh at your destruction and will mock, when that which you feared has come upon you." He who does not wish to hear this Wisdom, which "preaches abroad in the streets," is utterly without excuse, because the Law and the Prophets bear witness to her. Whence in Matthew seventeen: "There appeared to them Moses and Elijah, speaking with him"; "and a voice came from the cloud: This is my beloved Son; hear him." And therefore it is said in Hebrews two: "(We ought to observe what we have heard, lest perhaps we drift away. For if the word spoken through Angels was made firm: how shall we escape, if we have neglected so great a salvation?" And in Hebrews twelve: "You have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new testament, and to the sprinkling of blood speaking much better than Abel. See that you do not refuse him who speaks."
60. (Verse 30). Thirdly, as to the reason for the petition proposed, he adds: But he said: No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. In this he was showing the carnality of his brothers, inasmuch as they would be moved more by a bodily resurrection than by a spiritual revelation. Hence these were of the number of those about whom Wisdom 2 says: "The impious said among themselves, thinking not rightly"; "There is no relief at the end of man, and there is no one known to have returned from the netherworld." In this he also showed the perversity of his brothers, that they would prefer the testimony of a dead man to the witnesses of the living God, against that saying in Isaiah 8: "Shall not the people seek a vision from their God, for the living from the dead? To the law rather, and to the testimony. And if they shall not speak according to this word, there shall be no morning light for them." In this he also showed the unbelief of his brothers, that they would not believe unless they saw signs and wonders, like that royal official in John 4: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe." In this he likewise showed the foolishness of his brothers, because they ought to be provoked to repentance more by the fact that they see men die than if they were to see them raised from the dead; Sirach 38: "Remember my judgment, for yours shall be likewise: yesterday for me, and today for you"; and Sirach 17: "Before death, make confession: from a dead man, confession perishes as if it were nothing"; Psalm: "The dead shall not praise you, O Lord, nor all those who descend into hell."
61. (Verse 31). Fourth, with regard to the approval of the response already given, he adds: But he said to him: If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, namely by obeying them: for thus they are to be heard, according to that passage in Revelation 1: "Blessed is he who reads and hears the words of this prophecy and keeps them," etc. He who does not hear such great witnesses despises the truth of God, according to that passage in Ezekiel 3: "The house of Israel will not hear you, because they will not hear me. For the whole house of Israel is of a hardened brow and an untamable heart." Whence, because they resist so great a truth, hardened and incapable of believing, he therefore adds: Neither will they believe, even if someone should rise from the dead. And the reason for this consequence is that he who does not believe the more credible testimony will not believe the less credible either. We have an example of this in Lazarus, another who was raised, whom the unbelieving Jews not only did not believe, but rather, as is said in John 12, "the Jews planned to kill Lazarus, because many on account of him were going away and believing from among the Jews." But the obstinate Pharisees not only did not believe, but even wished to extinguish the faith of those who believed. We also have an example of this in Christ, in whom, even when raised, the Jews refused to believe. Whence Chrysostom says: "Christ rose from the dead and announced what evils were in hell; he descended also from heaven and preached what good things were there; yet he was not believed." And this is because such men rejected the testimony of the Law and the Prophets; John 5: "If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"
From the foregoing, therefore, it is apparent that mercy was in every way denied to the unmerciful rich man by Abraham, the most loving father, so that that passage in Isaiah 63 might be fulfilled: "You, O Lord, are our father, and Abraham did not know us." And thus that passage in James 2 is verified: "Judgment without mercy shall be done to him who does not show mercy"; and Wisdom 19: "Upon the impious, wrath came without mercy even to the last." For to such as these is said at the judgment that passage in Matthew 25: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels."