Response to Anglican Aesthetics (Sean Luke) on Purgatory and St. Ambrose

On St. Ambrose and Purgatory. Ultimately, I don't think it's a good argument to conclude St. Ambrose denied purgatory from funeral orations. I have heard modern Catholic priests speak in the same way and yet we don't conclude they deny purgatory. Also, let’s look at the quotes in Ambrose and see the type of “punishments” he speaks of. He writes: Here you have the days of rest from penalties, for they contain the punishment decreed against the thorns of this life, the cares of the world, and the pleasures of riches which shut out the Word. Death is given for a remedy, because it is the end of evils. For God said not, ‘Because you have hearkened to the voice of the woman you shall return to the earth’, for this would have been a penal sentence, as this one is, ‘The earth under curse shall bring forth thorns and thistles to you’; but He said: ‘In sweat shall you eat your bread until thou return to the earth.’ You see that death is rather the goal of our penalties, by which an end is put to the course of this life. On the Death of Satyrus II, 38 (PL 16, 1325B). Hence, the “punishments” St. Ambrose speaks of are not temporal punishments for venial sins. They are the punishments that fall upon all of mankind after the fall, regardless of venial sins. This is akin to a sick man who suffers from a disease for years and, when he dies, others can now say “He now suffers no more.” That has nothing to do with whether or not they are suffering temporal punishments for venial sins. Timestamps: 00:00 St. Ambrose's funeral orations 12:25 Purgatory in St. Ambrose *Sean and I are cool. The thumbnail is merely comedic.** Here is Sean's article: https://anglicanaesthetics.substack.c... And here is my response article: https://sincethirtythree.wordpress.co...