Death Of Body And Soul

Corpus quomodo moritur? Anima deserente. Anima, inquam, deserente moritur corpus: et jacet cadaver paulo ante appetibile, modo aspernabile. Insunt membri, oculi, aures: sed hae fenestrae sunt domus, habitator abscessit. Qui plangit mortuum, ad fenestras habitaculi frustra clamat: non est intus qui audiat. Quanta dicit plangentis affectus, quanta enumerat, quanta commemorat; et per quantam, ut ita dixerim, doloris insaniam quasi cum sentiente loquitur, cum loquatur cum absente? Enumerat mores, enumerat indicia benevolentiae circa se. Tu es qui mihi illud dedisti; illud et illud praestitisti: tu es qui sic et sic me dilexisti. Si attendas, si intelligas, si insaniam doloris premas, qui te dilexit abscessit: frustra te domus patitur pulsatorem, in qua non potes invenire mansorem. Redeamus ad causam quam paulo ante dicebam. Mortuum est corpus. Quare? Quia discessit vita eius, hoc est, anima. Vivit corpus, et impius est, infidelis est, ad credendum durus, ad corrigendos mores ferreus: vivente corpore mortua est anima, per quam corpus vivit. Tanta enim res est anima, ut idonea sit vitam praestare corpori etiam mortua. Tanta, inquam, res est anima, tam excellens creatura, ut idonea sit etiam mortua carnem vivificare. Nam ipsa anima impii, anima infidelis, anima perversi, duri, mortua est: et tamen per ipsam mortuam vivit corpus. Ideo ibi est: movet ad operandum manus, ad ambulandum pedes, ad videndum intendit obtutum, ad audiendum auribus inclinatur; sapores diiudicat, dolores refugit, appetit voluptates. Omnia haec corporis viventis indicia, sed ex animae praesentia. Interrogo corpus, an vivat. Respondet mihi: Vides ambulantem, vides operantem, audis loquentem, cernis appetentem et fugientem, et non intellegis corpus vivere? Per haec opera animae intus constitutae, intellego corpus vivere. Et interrogo ipsam animam, an vivat. Habet et ipsa opera sua, per quae ostendat vitam suam. Pedes ambulant, intellego corpus vivere, sed animae praesentia. Quaero, utrum vivat anima. Pedes isti ambulant. Ecce de uno motu. De vita interrogo corpus et animam. Ambulant pedes, intellego corpus vivere. Sed quo ambulant? Ad adulterium, inquit. Ergo mortua est anima. Sic enim veracissima Scriptura dixit: Mortua est vidua quae in deliciis vivit. Cum multum intersit inter delicias et adulterium, quomodo potest anima, quae in deliciis mortua dicitur, in adulterio vivere? Mortua est. Sed nec sic quidem agens mortua est. Loquentem audio, vivit corpus. Non enim lingua in ore moveretur, et percuteret quibusque locis articulares sonos, nisi intus habitator esset; et quasi ad hoc organum musicus, qui lingua sua uteretur. Prorsus intellego. Hoc modo corpus loquitur, corpus vivit. Sed interrogo, utrum et anima vivat. Ecce loquitur corpus, vivit. Quid loquitur? Quomodo dicebam de pedibus, Ambulant, ecce vivit corpus; et quaerebam, Quo ambulant? ut intellegerem utrum et anima viveret: sic etiam cum audio loquentem, intellego quia corpus vivit; quaero quid loquatur, utrum et anima vivat. Mendacium loquitur. Si mendacium loquitur, ergo mortua est. Unde hoc probamus? Ipsam veritatem interrogemus, quae ait: Os quod mentitur, occidit animam. Quaero, Quare mortua est anima? Quod paulo ante dicebam, quaero, Quare mortuum est corpus? Quia discessit vita eius anima. Quare mortua est anima? Quia deseruit eam vita eius Deus. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, Sermons ad Populum, Sermones De Scripturis Veteris et Novi Testamenti, Sermo LXV Source: Migne PL 38.428-9

How does the body die? It is abandoned by the soul. The soul, I say, departing, the body dies, and the corpse which was desirable is now bitter. The members remain, the eyes, the ears, but these are the windows of the house from which the dweller has departed. He who cries out to the dead body vainly cries at the windows of a little dwelling; there is no one within to hear. How much the emotion of the mourner tells, how much it says, how much it recalls, for so much, as I have said, is the madness of grief that it speaks as if to something aware, speaking to something not there. It tells the deeds, it tells the tales of goodness concerning him. 'You are he who gave me this, in this and that you excelled, you loved me for in this and that way.' If you attend, if you understand, if you suppress the madness of grief, he who loved you has gone, and vainly you exert yourself knocking at the door of that house in which you are not able to find the owner. Let us return to the matter of which I was speaking a little while ago. The body is dead. Why? Because it has been cut off from life, that is, the soul. A body that lives, and is impious and unfaithful, and reluctant to believe, which is iron in the face of correction, is a living body with a dead soul, that by which the body lives. Such a thing is the soul, so excellent a creation, that it is able to give life to a body even when it is dead. For the soul of an impious man, an unfaithful man, a perverse man, a cruel man, is dead, and however in its death the body lives. Therefore here we find that the hands move to deeds, the feet walk, vision looks on living things, ears incline to hearing, tastes are distinguished, suffering is fled, pleasures are desired. All signs of a living body, but because of the presence of a soul. I ask the body: do you live? It answers me: 'You see that I walk, you see that I act, you hear that I speak, you discern that I desire and I am averse, and you do not understand that the body lives?' By these works of the soul established within I understand that a body lives. I ask the soul: do you live? It has its works by which is shows that it lives. By feet that walk I understand that the body lives, but with the presence of the soul. I wonder if the soul lives. The feet walk. Behold, one motion. I ask the body and soul about life. The feet walk, I understand the body lives. But where does it walk? To adultery, it says. Therefore the soul is dead. So truly Scripture has said, 'Dead is the widow living in vice.' 1 When it is found among errors, even adultery, how can the soul, of which it is said that it is dead in sin, live in adultery? It is dead. But nothing that acts is dead. I heard it said: the body lives. For the tongue would not move in the mouth, and striking in whatever place articulate its sounds, unless it had its dweller within, for as a musical instrument, so the tongue is used. I understand perfectly. Spoken of in this manner, the body lives, But I ask whether the soul lives. Behold the body says that it lives. What does it say? I spoke concerning the feet, they walk, and behold the body lives, and then I asked: where do they go? That I might understand whether the soul lives. So when I hear speech, I understand that the body lives, but I seek that which I said, whether the soul lives. It speaks a lie. If it tells a lie it is dead. How do I prove this? The truth we have questioned says: 'The mouth which speaks a lie kills the soul.' 2 I ask, why is the soul dead? A little earlier I asked: why is the body dead? Because its life, the soul, has gone. Why is the soul dead? Because it's life, God, has gone. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on the Old and New Testament, from Sermon 65 1 1 Tim 5.6  2 Wis 1.11