ACC ~ 1 Thessalonians 4 v13 - 18

OVERVIEW:

In our grieving over those who have died, God’s intention is to teach us to trust in him alone, and so to cure us of earthly attachments (CHRYSOSTOM). Paul wishes the Thessalonians to know that their grieving and sadness over the dead is understandable but that it must not pass over into despondency and a lack of faith in God (THEODORE, CHRYSOSTOM, GREGORY THE GREAT). Paul’s warning here is against immoderate or unbounded grief (AMBROSE, AUGUSTINE, FULGENTIUS). Christians are privileged to know that their deceased loved ones go to a blessed place, unlike the unbelieving dead, and in this fact they can rejoice (AMBROSE, JEROME).

4:13a | Those Who Are Asleep

SLEEP AS METAPHOR OF DEATH. AUGUSTINE: In the Gospel it is written, “And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slept”? If we understand that sleep as caused by the delay of the last judgment, to which Christ is to come to judge, and the fact that because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many grows cold, how shall we put the wise virgins there, when they are rather of those of whom it is said, “But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved”? It says, “they all slept,” because it is not only the foolish who do their good works for the sake of human praise, but also the wise who do them that God may be glorified, who experience that death. Both kinds die. And that death is often spoken of in the Scripture as sleep, as the resurrection is called an awakening. Hence the apostle says, “But I will not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning them that are asleep,” and in another place, “of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep.” LETTERS 140.32.76.

SLEEP SIGNIFIES DEATH. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: In the Gospel passage which was read to us concerning the ten virgins, beloved brothers, it is said, “All the virgins trimmed their lamps.” Now the foolish virgins did not have oil ready with their lamps, “While the wise did take oil in their vessels. Then as the bridegroom was long in coming, they all became drowsy and slept. And at midnight a great cry arose, Behold the bridegroom is coming, go forth to meet him! Then all the virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.” When the lamps of the foolish virgins went out, they asked the others who had oil in their vessels to give them some of theirs, but they said, “Lest there may not be enough for us and for you, go rather to those who sell it, and buy some for yourselves. Now while they were gone to buy it, the bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterwards there came the other virgins, who said, ‘Sir, open the door for us!’ The answer was given to them, ‘I do not know where you are from.’” Now what these facts signify, dearest brothers, we briefly suggest to your charity according to what we read in the exposition of the ancient fathers. They were not called five virgins because there was to be so small a number in eternal life, but because of the five senses through which death or life enters the soul. If we use them badly, we are corrupted, but if we steadfastly use them well, we preserve the purity of our soul. When it was said, “As the bridegroom was long in coming, they all became drowsy and slept,” that sleep signified death. Finally, the apostle also speaks in the same way, “I would not, brothers, have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep.” When a great cry arose, the middle of the night typified the day of judgment. It is called the middle of the night on account of human ignorance, since no one knows when or at what hour the day of judgment will come. SERMONS 156.1.

PHILOXENUS OF MABBUG: “Brothers, I want you to know about those who sleep: you must not grieve like the rest of humanity, who have lost all hope.” Our resurrection too will take place by the power of the Holy Spirit who is within us. Because the Holy Spirit is in faithful persons when they die, their death cannot be called death, but only sleep. ON THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

4:13b | As Others Do Who Have No Hope

THE SIN OF EXCESSIVE GRIEF. CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul now proceeds to start his discourse concerning the resurrection. And why?. . . [Because] this subject of the resurrection was sufficient to comfort those who were grieving. Indeed that which Paul now teaches about the resurrection makes the resurrection eminently worthy of belief. … To continue to endure misery for the departed is to act like those who have no hope. Hear this, women, as many of you as are fond of wailing, as many as grieve impatiently; by doing so you act just like the heathens. Do you not grieve like a pagan when you beat yourself and tear your cheeks? Why do you lament if you believe that he will rise again, that he has not perished, that the matter is but a slumber or a sleep? You say, on account of his company, his protection, his care of our affairs, and all his other services. When, therefore, you lose a child at an untimely age, who is not yet able to do anything, on what account do you lament? Why do you seek to recall him? He was displaying, you say, good hopes, and I was expecting that he would support me financially. On this account I miss my husband, on this account my son, on this account I wail and lament, not believing the resurrection, but being left destitute of support, having lost my protector, my companion, who shared with me in all things—my comforter. … It is for these things that I afflict myself, for these things I wail. … But none of this is painful to us, if we are willing to cultivate wisdom. HOMILIES ON 1 THESSALONIANS 6.

GREGORY THE GREAT: Still, lest some tribulation should still maintain itself in your soul, I exhort you to rest from sorrow, to cease to be sad. For it is unseemly to addict oneself to weary affliction for those of whom it is to be believed that they have attained to true life by dying. Those have, perhaps, just reason for long continued grief who are unaware of another life and have no trust that there is a passing from this world to a better one. We, however, who know this, who believe it and teach it, should not be too much distressed for those that depart, lest what in others demonstrates affection be to us instead a matter of blame. For it is, as it were, a kind of distrust to be tormented by sadness in opposition to what everyone preaches. It is as the apostle says, “But we would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” LETTERS 107.

ON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED. AMBROSE: But if you again remind me of your grief because he departed so early from life, I certainly do not deny that he died at an untimely age, one whom we would have wished to support with time taken from our own life, that he might live out of our own years who could not complete his own. But I ask whether or not there is any consciousness after death? If there is, he is alive; no, rather, because there is, he now enjoys eternal life. For how does he not possess consciousness whose soul lives and flourishes and will return to the body, and will make that body live again when it has been reunited with it? The apostle cries out, “We would not, brothers, have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep, lest you should grieve, even as others who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so with him God will bring those also who have fallen asleep through Jesus.” Life, therefore, awaits them for whom resurrection awaits. CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 43-44.

FINAL REUNION. AUGUSTINE: And you should not grieve as the heathen do who have no hope, because we have hope, based on the most assured promise, that as we have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where, more than ever, their dearness to us will be proportional to the closeness we shared on earth and where we shall love them without fear of parting. LETTERS 92.1.1.

SADNESS AND HOPE. AUGUSTINE: Paul didn’t just say that you may not be saddened, but that you may not be saddened as the heathen are, who do not have any hope. It is unavoidable, after all, that you should be saddened; but when you feel sad, let hope console you. SERMONS 173.3.

FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE: There must remain in our heart a distinction between a beneficial and a harmful sadness. The benefit of the distinction is that we see that a spirit given over to eternal things does not collapse because of the loss of temporal solace. Rather it is able to feel a salutary sadness concerning those things in which it considers that it acted either below, or apart from, the standard which it ought to have observed. So Paul teaches that each type of sadness is different, no less in deed than in word. Finally, he shows that in one there is progress toward salvation but in the other an ending in death, saying, “For godly sorrow produces a beneficial repentance without regret, but worldly sorrow produces death.” LETTERS 2.3.

GOD’S GOOD PURPOSE. BASIL THE GREAT: All things are directed by the goodness of the Master. Nothing which happens to us should be received as distressful, although at present it affects our weakness. In fact, even if we are ignorant of the reasons for which each event is applied as a blessing to us from the Master, nevertheless, we ought to be convinced of this—that what happens is assuredly advantageous either for us as a reward for our patience or for the soul that was taken up, lest tarrying too long in this life it should be filled with the evil which exists in this world. For if the hope of Christians were limited to this life, for what reason would the premature separation from the body be considered difficult? If, however, the beginning of true life for those living in God is the release of the soul from these corporeal chains, why do you grieve, even as those who have no hope? Therefore, be encouraged. Do not succumb to your afflictions, but show that you are superior and have risen above them. LETTERS 101.

THE NATURAL AVERSION TO DEATH. GREGORY OF NYSSA: At the time that Basil, great among the saints, left the life of man and went to God, and a common onset of grief descended upon the churches, my sister and teacher was still alive, and I hurried to her to tell her the sad news about our brother. … She, however, like those who are skilled in the equestrian art, first allowed me to be swept along for a little while by the violence of my grief and, after this tried to restrain me, guiding the disorder of my soul with her own ideas as if with a bridle. She [Macrina] quoted the following apostolic saying: “It is not right to grieve for those who are asleep, since we are told that sorrow belongs only to those who have no hope.” And I, with my heart still seething with pain, asked: “How is it possible for me to achieve this attitude, since there is a natural aversion to death in each person, and no one can endure the sight of others dying, and those who are dying themselves flee from it as much as they can?” ON THE SOUL AND THE RESURRECTION.

4:14 | God Will Bring with Him Those Who Have Fallen Asleep

ALL MUST DIE. AUGUSTINE: The apostle’s words show with the utmost clarity that there will be a resurrection of the dead when Christ comes; and assuredly the purpose of his coming will be to judge the living and the dead. But it is continually being asked whether those whom Christ is to find living in this world (represented in the apostle’s picture by himself and his contemporaries) are never to die at all, or whether in that precise moment of time when they are caught up in the clouds, along with those rising again, to meet Christ in the air, they will pass with marvelous speed through death to immortality. For it must not be said that it is impossible for them to die and come to life again in that space of time when they are being carried on high through the air. … The apostle himself seems to demand that we should take his words in this sense; that is, we should take it that those whom the Lord will find alive here will undergo death and receive immortality in that brief space of time. He confirms this interpretation when he says, “In Christ all men will be brought to life,” and by his statement in another passage, dealing directly with the resurrection of the body: “The seed you sow does not come to life unless it first dies.” THE CITY OF GOD 20.20.1-2.

THE MEANING OF SLEEPING. AUGUSTINE: And after this he says to them, “Lazarus, our friend, is sleeping; but I am going that I may awaken him from sleep.” He spoke the truth. To the sisters he was dead; to the Lord he was sleeping. He was dead to men who were unable to raise him up; for the Lord roused him from the tomb with such ease as you would not rouse a sleeping person from his bed. Therefore, as regards his own power he spoke of him as sleeping; for other dead men, too, are often referred to in the Scriptures as sleeping, as the apostle says, “But I will not have you ignorant, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you may not grieve, even as others who have no hope.” And so he, too, called them sleeping, because he foretold that they would rise again. Therefore, every dead man sleeps, both the good and the evil. TRACTATES ON JOHN 49.9.1-2.

THE NAME OF DEATH ABOLISHED. CHRYSOSTOM: If, however, we are on the alert, these evils that came into life as a result of the sins of our forebears will in no way be able to harm us, going no further than the level of terminology, as they do. While it was the first formed human being who through the Fall brought on the punishment of death and was responsible for spending his life in pain and distress, and it was he who was the cause of servitude, Christ the Lord on the contrary came and permitted all these evils to occur only at the level of terminology, provided we are of the right mind. You see, death is now not death but only carries the name of death—or, rather, even the very name has been abolished. I mean, we no longer call it death, but sleeping and dreaming. Hence Christ himself said, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep.” And Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, said, “About those who are asleep, brethren, I don’t want you to be ignorant.” HOMILIES ON GENESIS 29.7.

JEROME: Thus when we have to face the hard and cruel necessity of death, we are upheld by this consolation, that we shall shortly see again those whose absence we now mourn. For their end is not called death but a slumber and a falling asleep. Therefore the blessed apostle forbids us to feel sorrow concerning those who are asleep, telling us to believe that those whom we know to sleep now may hereafter be roused from their sleep. And when their slumber is ended, they may watch once more with the saints and sing with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men of good will.” LETTERS 75.1.

4:14-15 | Shall Not Precede

IN HIS OWN ORDER. AMBROSE: All men shall rise again, but let no one lose heart, and let not the just grieve at the common lot of rising again, since he awaits the chief fruit of his virtue. All indeed shall rise again, but, as says the apostle, “each in his own order.” The fruit of the divine mercy is common to all, but the order of merit differs. The day gives light to all, the sun warms all, the rain fertilizes the possessions of all with genial flowers. We are all born, and we shall all rise again. But each shall be in his proper state, whether of living or living again, for grace differs and the condition differs. … Therefore he is aroused that he may live, that he may be like to Paul, that he may be able to say, “For we that are alive shall not precede those that are asleep.” He speaks here not of the common manner of life and the breath which we all alike now enjoy but of the future merit of the resurrection. ON BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION 2.92-93.

WITH THE ANGELS. CHRYSOSTOM: And do you say, How is it possible for one that is human not to mourn?. . . Do not say then, “he is perished and shall no more be”; for these are the words of unbelievers; but say, “He sleeps and will rise again,” [or] “He is gone a journey and will return with the King.” Who speaks like this? He that has Christ speaking in him. “For,” Paul says, “if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,” and revived, “even so God will bring with him those also who sleep in Jesus.” If then you seek your son, seek him where the King is, where the army of the angels is; not in the grave; not in the earth; lest while he is so highly exalted, you yourself remain groveling on the ground. HOMILIES ON 2 CORINTHIANS 1.6.

4:16 | The Sound of the Trumpet

FESTIVAL ANTICIPATION. AMBROSE: Shall we, then, think of festival days in terms of eating and drinking? On the contrary, let no one call us to account in respect to eating, “For we know that the law is spiritual.” “Let no one, therefore, call you to account for what you eat or drink in regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” So let us seek the body of Christ which is the voice of the Father from heaven, the last trumpet, as it were, showed to you on that occasion when the Jews said that it thundered for him. Let us seek, I repeat, the body of Christ which the last trumpet will reveal to us, “For the Lord himself with cry of command, with voice of archangel, and with trumpet of God will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise up first.” ON THE DEATH OF HIS BROTHER SATYRUS 2.108.

THE REVERSAL OF HUMAN WISDOM. JEROME: Then at the sound of the trumpet the earth and its peoples shall tremble, but you shall rejoice. The world shall howl at the Lord who comes to judge it, and the tribes of the earth shall smite the breast. Once mighty kings shall tremble in their nakedness. Venus shall be exposed, and her son, too. Jupiter with his fiery bolts will be brought to trial. Plato, with his disciples, will be but a fool. Aristotle’s arguments shall be of no avail. You may seem a poor man and country-bred, but then you shall exult and laugh, and say, Behold my crucified Lord, behold my judge. LETTERS 14.11.

PRUDENTIUS: When at the awful trumpet’s sound

The earth will be consumed by fire,

And with a mighty rush the world

Unhinged, will crash in dreadful ruin.

HYMNS 11, 105-8.

FINAL BLISS. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: I believe the words of the wise, that every fair and God-beloved soul, when, set free from the bonds of the body, it departs hence, at once enjoys a sense and perception of the blessings which await it. This happens to the extent that whatever darkened that soul has been purged away, or laid aside—this is the only way I can express it—such that it feels a marvelous pleasure and exultation and goes rejoicing to meet its Lord. This soul has escaped, as it were, the grievous poison of life here and has shaken off the fetters which bound it and held down the wings of the mind. And so the soul enters upon the bliss laid up for it, a bliss of which it has even now some conception. … Why, then, be faint-hearted in my hopes? Why behave like a mere creature of the day? I await the voice of the archangel, the last trumpet, the transformation of the heavens, the transfiguration of the earth, the liberation of the elements, the renovation of the universe. Then shall I see Caesarius for myself, no longer in exile, no longer laid upon a bier, no longer the object of mourning and pity, but brilliant, glorious, heavenly, such as in my dreams I have often beheld you, dearest and most loving of brothers, pictured thus by my desire, if not by the truth itself. ON HIS BROTHER ST. CAESARIUS 21.

RESURRECTION. JOHN OF DAMASCUS: Then after long seasons, Christ our God shall come to judge the world in awful glory, beyond words to tell. For fear of him the powers of heaven shall be shaken, and all the angel hosts shall stand beside him in dread. Then at the voice of the archangel, and at the trump of God, shall the dead arise and stand before his awful throne. Now the resurrection is the reuniting of soul and body. So that very body, which decays and perishes, shall arise incorruptible. And concerning this, take care not to be overwhelmed by unbelief, for it is not impossible for him, who at the beginning formed the body out of earth, when according to its maker’s judgment it had returned to earth whence it was taken, to raise the same again. BARLAAM AND IOASAPH 8.64.

4:16b | The Dead in Christ

THE DEAD IN CHRIST ARISE FIRST. ORIGEN: We think that those who have been perfected and who no longer commit sin are alive in Christ. The dead in Christ are those who are favorably disposed to the Christian faith and who prefer to live a good life but who have not, in fact, actually succeeded, but still sin, either in ignorance of the accurate true word of justice or in weakness, because their decisions are overcome by the flesh, which lusts against the spirit. And it is in conformity with these matters that Paul, conscious of himself, says, because he has already succeeded, “We who are alive.” But those whom we spoke of as dead have special need of the resurrection, since not even those who are alive can be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air before the dead in Christ first rise. This is why it has been written, “The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive,” etc. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 20.232-33.

THE TAX OF DEATH. AMBROSE: For truly death was no necessary part of the divine operation, since for those who were placed in paradise a continual succession of all good things streamed forth. Because of transgression, however, human life, condemned to lengthened labor, began to be wretched with intolerable groaning. Thus, it was fitting that an end should be set to the evils and that death should restore what life had lost. For immortality, unless grace breathed upon it, would be rather a burden than an advantage. And if one consider accurately, it is not the death of our being but of evil, for being continues, but it is evil that perishes. … So we shall either pay the penalty of our sins or attain to the reward of our good deeds. For the same being will rise again, now more honorably for having paid the tax of death. And then “the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive will follow,” it is said, “and together with them be caught up in the clouds into the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” ON BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION 2.47-48.

4:17 | To Meet the Lord in the Air

AS WITH CHRIST, SO FOR US. GREGORY OF NYSSA: For that which has taken place in Christ’s humanity is a common blessing on humanity generally. For we see in him the weight of the body, which naturally gravitates to earth, ascending through the air into the heavens. Therefore, we believe according to the words of the apostle, that we also “shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Even so, when we hear that the true God and Father has become the God and Father of Christ, precisely as the firstfruits of the general resurrection, we no longer doubt that the same God has become our God and Father too. This is true inasmuch as we have learned that we shall come to the same place where Christ has entered for us as our forerunner. AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.1.

CAUGHT UP IN THE CLOUDS. RUFINUS OF AQUILEIA: That the righteous shall ever abide with Christ our Lord, we have already demonstrated. This is where we have shown that the apostle says, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” And do not marvel that the flesh of the saints is to be changed into such a glorious condition at the resurrection as to be caught up to meet God, suspended in the clouds and borne in the air. Indeed, the same apostle, setting forth the great things which God bestows on them that love him, says, “Who shall change our vile body that it may be made like his glorious body.” It is in no way absurd, then, if the bodies of the saints are said to be raised up in the air, seeing that they are said to be renewed after the image of Christ’s body, which is seated at God’s right hand. A COMMENTARY ON THE APOSTLES’ CREED 46.

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. EPHREM THE SYRIAN: This Jesus that gathered and carried and brought with him of the fruit was longing for the Tree of Life to taste the fruit that quickens all. For him Rahab too was looking. For when the scarlet thread in type redeemed her from wrath, in type she tasted of the Truth. For him Elijah longed, and when he did not see him on earth, he, thoroughly cleansed through faith, mounted up to heaven to see him. Moses saw him and Elijah. The meek man from the depth ascended, the zealous from on high descended, and in the midst beheld the Son. They figured the mystery of his advent: Moses was a type of the dead, and Elijah a type of the living, that fly to meet him at his coming. For the dead that have tasted death, them he makes to be first: and the rest that are not buried, are at last caught up to meet him. HYMNS ON THE NATIVITY 1.

THE VENERABLE BEDE: By Moses and Elijah [at the transfiguration] we can rightly understand everyone who is going to reign with the Lord. By Moses, who died and was buried, [we can understand] those who at the judgment are going to be raised up from death. By Elijah, on the other hand, who has not yet paid the debt of death, [we can understand] those who are going to be found alive in the flesh at the Judge’s coming. At one and the same moment, both of them, having been caught up “in clouds to meet the Lord in the air,” will be led into eternal life, as soon as the judgment is brought to completion. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.24.

THE GREAT RECEPTION. CHRYSOSTOM: If he is about to descend, on what account shall we be caught up? For the sake of honor. For when a king drives into a city, those who are in honor go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within. And upon the coming of an affectionate father, his children indeed, and those who are worthy to be his children, are taken out in a chariot, that they may see and kiss him; but the housekeepers who have offended him remain within. We are carried upon the chariot of our Father. For he received him up in the clouds, and “we shall be caught up in the clouds.” Do you see how great is the honor? And as he descends, we go forth to meet him, and, what is more blessed than all, so shall we be with him. HOMILIES ON 1 THESSALONIANS 8.

TRUE LIFE. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: Now the life that is really and truly life is God the Father, the fount of life, who pours out his heavenly gifts upon all his creatures through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the blessings of eternal life are faithfully promised even to us men, through his love for us. There must be no incredulity about the possibility of that. For we ought to believe, because our minds should be set on his power, not on our feebleness. For anything is possible with God, and that our eternal life is both possible and to be looked forward to by us is shown when Daniel says, “the understanding. . . from among the many righteous shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.” And Paul says, “And so shall we be ever with the Lord.” For “being ever with the Lord” means the same thing as eternal life. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 18.29.

THE FINAL VISION. PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS: In a fashion beyond words, the simplicity of Jesus became something complex, the timeless took on the duration of the temporal, and, with neither change nor confusion of what constitutes him, he came into our human nature, he who totally transcends the natural order of the world. … And so it is that the Transcendent is clothed in the terms of being, with shape and form on things which have neither, and numerous symbols are employed to convey the varied attributes of what is an imageless and supranatural simplicity. But in time to come, when we are incorruptible and immortal, when we have come at last to the blessed inheritance of being like Christ, then, as Scripture says, “we shall always be with the Lord.” THE DIVINE NAMES 1.4.