The Living And The Dead

Sed quis est homo qui non moriatur, eum resurrectio nisi mortui esse non possit? Quamvis de Enoch et Elia nullam mortem corporis acceperimus, et de Evangelista Joanne Dominus dixerit: 'Sic eum volo manere donec venio; tamen quoniam non de uno Joanne hoc putamus expressum, sed generale de multis hoc esse praeceptum; non hic mors corporis, sed animae denegatur. Sunt enim qui mortui vivunt; quoniam sunt qui viventes mortui sunt, sicut vidua illa quae 'vivens mortua est' , sicut scriptum est: Veniat mors super eos, et descendant in infernum viventes' Si ergo vivus quis in infernum descendit, peccato enim mortuus in inferni descendit habitaculum, sunt profecto quibus nec in morte corporis interruptus sit ordo vivendi, sicut Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, quos vivere divinae sententiae auctoritate comperimus; quoniam cum sit Deus Abraham, Issac, et Jacob, non utique mortuorum est Deus, sed viventium Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Evangelii secundum Lucam, Liber VII

But who is the man who does not die? 1 For unless he is of the dead there is no resurrection for him. Although of Enoch and Elijah we do allow the death of the body, the Lord says concerning the evangelist John, ' So I wish him to remain until I come.' 2 however because not just about John do we judge this expression but that it is a precept concerning many in general, then here is indicated not the death of the body but the soul. For even those who are living may be dead, like that widow who 'living is dead' 3, and as it is written: 'May death come over them and may they descend living into hell,' 4 If, therefore, someone living falls into hell, for dead by sin he descends into the dwelling place of hell, there are undoubtedly those for whom bodily death was not an interruption of the order of life, like Abraham and Issac and Jacob, whom we judge by sense of Divine authority to be alive, because the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, is not the God of the dead but the living. 5 Saint Ambrose, On The Gospel of Luke, Book 7 1 Lk 9.27 2 Jn 21.22 3  1 Tim 5.6 4 Psal 54.16 5 Mt 22.32