The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
4. Sedulius, Cajetan, Theodoret, Ambrose understand this fire of the strict and severe examination of the judgment of God, punishing sin after death by fire ; or, as Bellarmine suggests, it is the fire partly of judgment, partly of purgatory. In other words, as the works of sinners shall have their fiery examination, so too shall they that work them have their fire, the fire of vengeance, in purgatory. By way of analogy that judgment is called by the name of fire, because, like fire, it will be most purifying, most searching, most rapid, and most efficacious (Mal. iii. 2 ; Heb. xii. 29). But since the words of the Apostle speak of nothing but fire, and repeat it twice and three times, they seem plainly and properly to mean what they say, and to denote literal fire throughout, with no figure, double meaning, or variation.
I say, then, 1. that it is certain that this place is understood of the fire of purgatory. So it is taken by the Council of Florence, by Ambrose, Theodoret, S. Thomas, Anselm, here, and in innumerable places by the Greek and Latin Fathers, cited at length by Bellarmine and Salmeron. This is the tradition and common opinion of the Church and of doctors, although they may sometimes explain the details differently, or apply them to purgatory in a different way.
It may be objected : If the Council of Florence understands this passage of purgatorial fire, it is therefore a matter de fide , and must be understood of it by all, and therefore also it is de fide , not only that there is a purgatory, but that souls are purged in it by fire.
I answer by denying that it follows. For although the Latin Fathers in the Council of Trent so understand it, and though consequently it is certain that there is a purgatorial fire, yet they were unwilling to define it to be a matter of faith that it is fire, but only that it is purgatorial. They did this, too, so as not to offend the Greeks, who admitted indeed a purgatory, but denied the existence of fire in it, saying merely that it was a dark place and full of suffering.
2. The fire spoken of here by the Apostle is, properly speaking, the fire of the conflagration of the world. This appears from the fact that it will be in the day of the Lord, that is, at the last judgment, which is everywhere described in Scripture “by fire which is to burn up the world.” Cf. Ps. xcvi. 3 ; 2 Thess. i. 8 ; Joel ii. 3 ; 2 S. Peter iii. 12. For this fire will at the same time consume the world, and prove and purge those who shall then be living, as theologians everywhere lay down ; it will also be the precursor, or rather the companion and lictor, of Christ, the Judge. It will, too, bring death and punishment, if not to the pure, at any rate to the impure, and will carry off the condemned with it into hell, and so it is said that “ the day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire;” which means that that day shall be revealed by fire as the day of the vengeance and judgment of the Lord.
You will ask, How does this fire purge works which have long passed away and are not? I reply that Scripture says that men’s good and evil deeds follow them ; they are with them after death, inasmuch as responsibility for them still remains with men, binding them either to reward or punishment.
You may ask again, How can works be said to be burnt? I answer, in two ways: (i.) Figuratively, for they are compared to stubble, which literally burns. Works, too, burn in a figurative sense, i.e., they are punished and destroyed like wood which is consumed . (2.) By metonymy the works are put for the worker, and are thus said to burn.
Notice here that the Apostle uses this figure and metonymy so as to carry on the illustration of a building which he introduced in ver. 9, and also because he is referring to the conflagration which is to burn all the buildings in the world. For men’s works build for them as it were houses, just as silkworms spin little balls of silk, and enwrap themselves in them, as if they were their houses ; so that if you burn these little balls you burn the silkworm, and vice versa . So here work is figuratively burnt like a house, because the worker and builder to whom the works adhere, and in whom they may be said to adhere, is burnt. Moreover, the works rather than the workman are said to be burnt, because the workman is not utterly consumed, but is saved, yet so as by fire. But the guilt of his works is by this fire consumed and done away.
It may be asked in the third place, How is it that this fire is said to try gold and silver, i.e., good works ? I answer, By the very fact that it does not touch them, but leaves them wholly unharmed, because they are wholly without alloy; the fire declares the perfection of the workmen and their works. But it will manifest by burning, by punishing wood, hay, stubble, when it shall attack and burn those that committed venial sin, and shall purge them from them, so as to save them, yet so as by fire. Similarly, in olden times, until it was forbidden by the Canons as tempting God, trial by ordeal was resorted to for the purpose of deciding guilt : an accused person had to handle a red-hot iron, or walk upon it barefoot . If he was really guilty he was burnt ; if innocent, uninjured. This happened to S. Cunegund, wife of the Emperor Henry, and to the three children in the Babylonian furnace. The one proved her chastity by walking barefoot over the hot iron, the others their innocence by passing uninjured through the fiery furnace.
It may be asked again, How does fire try the work of every man ? For Paul, and all who are already dead, do not pass through the fire that consumes the world. I reply (i.) that S. Paul is in the habit of speaking as if the last day were close at hand, that so he may stir up every one to prepare himself for a day that is uncertain, and perhaps soon to come. (2.) Moreover, this fire will purge the whole world, and therefore if there is any stain in any of the dead that has not yet been purged away, it will be attacked and punished by fire ; and so each one’s work, whether he be living or dead, will be manifested. (3.) As the Apostle includes the day of death under the day of the Lord, and particular judgment under the general, and regards them under one aspect, so in like manner, under the fire that will accompany Christ when He comes in judgment, and that will purge whatever then remains that needs purging, he wishes us to understand that fire by which souls begin to be purged directly after death. By this fire, therefore, he means the fire of purgatory.
It is no objection to this that the fire which shall destroy the world will be before death, when it should be after death. For (1.) it will do away with the sins of the whole life and of death also. But it cannot be after death so as to purge the dead, for they that are dead then will immediately rise and be carried to judgment. (2.) If any one before death shall chance not to have been sufficiently purged, he will after death be fully dealt with by the same purgatorial fire. This is proved by this verse ; for the Apostle writes it to the living, who were not to see the general conflagration, but were to have their own purgatory after death, as the others were to have theirs at death. For why should one escape this fire more than the other, if their merits were the same ? (3.) The Greek word is in the present tense, “is being revealed,” in other words, the “day of the Lord” is revealed at death. (4.) The work of every one will be tried by this purgatorial fire, and yet the work of those alive at the general conflagration will alone be tried by it. (5.) All the Catholic Fathers, the Latin doctors, and the Council of Florence, at its beginning, understand this passage of the fire of purgatory, and it has the unanimous tradition of the Church. (6.) To try by purging is in the strictest sense the work of purgatory, and of it we can most truly say that it shall save, yet so as by fire. For from the moment of death a man will be saved, and when he has been thoroughly purged he will fly from purgatory to heaven, before the great day of the Lord.
As, then, the saying of the Apostle’s, that the day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire, exactly suits the fire at the end of the world, so also it strictly falls in with the fire of purgatory, because it shall try each man’s work, and because the righteous man who has sinned shall be saved yet so as by fire.