But, as I said, brothers, now there is no time to discuss this matter: I say this, that we ought to hope for the resurrection of the dead, which is expressed in our Head, which is expressed in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever hopes for something else, already does not build upon the foundation, not only with gold, silver, and precious stones, but not even with straw itself. For he sets the whole outside, because he does not set it in Christ. Therefore, our Lord rose in that body in which He was buried. The resurrection is promised to Christians. Let us hope for such a resurrection, as preceded in our Lord of all our faith. For He went before for this, so that our faith might be founded upon it. What then? How not such as we are now? For the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ rose, but ascended into heaven. On earth, He preserved human duties, to persuade that this had risen which was buried. But is there such food even in heaven? For we read that angels also executed human duties on earth. They came to Abraham, and ate; and with Tobias, the angel was, and ate. What do we say, that that eating was a phantom, and was not real? Is it not clear that Abraham killed a calf, made bread, and set it on the table; served the angels, and they ate? All these things were done very manifestly and expressed very manifestly.
Man eats out of necessity, angel eats out of power.
What then does the angel say in the book of Tobit? "You saw me eating, but with your sight you were seeing." Therefore, was it because he was not eating, but was seen to be eating? No, rather, he was eating. What then is the meaning of "with your sight you were seeing"? Let Your Holiness pay attention to what I say: pay attention in prayer more than to me; so that you may understand what we say, and we may speak as you ought to hear and understand what you hear. As long as our body is corruptible and destined to die, it suffers the need for nourishment, hence hunger arises: therefore we hunger and thirst; and if we postpone our hunger and thirst longer than the body can endure, it leads to emaciation and to a certain unhealthy thinness, as the strength departs and is not replaced: and if it is prolonged further, death will also follow. For always something leaves our body as if by a certain stream of departure, but we do not feel the strength departing because we take in replacements through nourishment. For what comes abundantly departs gradually: therefore, we refresh in a short time, but over a longer time, the strength we received when we were refreshed leaves us. Just as oil in a lamp, which is supplied in small amounts, is gradually consumed over a longer time. But when it is almost consumed, the weakness of that small flame, like hunger of the lamp, warns us, and we promptly intervene to restore that appearance and maintain the light in the lamp by feeding it its nourishment when we add oil. So our strength, which we receive by eating, departs and leaves us through continual departure, but gradually. For this is now happening in us, and in all our actions, every even in our stillness, what was taken in continues to depart: and if it is entirely consumed, man dies just as a lamp extinguishes. So that he does not die, that is, so that he does not extinguish—not because he dies in the spirit, but so that this corporeal life does not extinguish and a certain vigilance persists in this body—we run and replace what has left, and we say to refresh. Whoever says refresh, what does he refresh if nothing is deficient? Through this neediness and corruption, we are all mortal, because this body is such that death is reserved for it. The mortality is signified by the skins with which Adam and Eve were clothed and dismissed from paradise. Skins as a matter of fact signify death, which are usually taken from dead animals. Therefore, as we bear this defective weakness, even if food is never lacking, but repeatedly restores strength, it does not, however, prevent future death (for the entire state of the body through succeeding ages, even if one lives longer here, ultimately reaches the limit of old age, and beyond there is nothing further but death. For even the lamp itself, though oil is constantly provided, cannot always burn; for if it does not extinguish for other reasons, the wick itself wears out and is consumed by a sort of old age). Therefore, as long as we bear such bodies, from deficiency we need, from need we hunger, from hunger we eat. But the angel does not eat from need. It is one thing to do something out of power, another out of necessity. Man eats so as not to die: the angel eats to relate to mortals. For if the angel does not fear death, he is not refreshed out of deficiency: if he is not refreshed out of deficiency, he does not eat out of need. Those who saw the angel eating thought he was hungry. This is what he said: "You were seeing with your sight." He did not say: "You saw me eating, but I did not eat": he said, "You saw me eating, but with your sight you were seeing"; that is, I was eating to relate to you, not because I suffered any hunger or need, driven by which you are accustomed to eat, and therefore when you have seen someone eating, you suspect them to do so out of need, as you measure what you see by your own custom: this is "with your sight you were seeing."
After the resurrection, there will be no need for eating.
What then, my brothers? We know, as the Apostle says, that Christ, rising again from the dead, dies no more, and death shall have no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died to sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God. If therefore he dies no more, and death shall have no more dominion over him, so let us hope to rise, that we may always be in that state to which we shall be changed by rising. Even if there will be the power of eating and drinking, there will not be the necessity. But there was then a reason why the Lord did this, because there were still in the flesh those to whom he wished to be fitting, to whom he also wished to show his scars. For it was not that he who made the eyes of the blind, which he had not received in the mother's womb, could not rise again without scars. He who, if he wished, could change the mortal neediness of his own flesh before death so that it would have no need of want, indeed could: for he had it in his hand, because he was God in the flesh, and the omnipotent Son, as the omnipotent Father. For he even changed his own flesh before death into what he wished. Indeed, when he was on the mountain with his disciples, his face shone like the sun. But he did this by power, wishing to show that he could change his own flesh from all neediness, so that he would not die if he did not wish to. "I have power," he says, "to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. No one takes it from me." This power is great, by which he could also not die: but his mercy is greater, by which he wished to die. For he did this by mercy, which he could also not do by power, to establish for us the foundation of the resurrection: so that that which he bore for us in mortality, and died because we are to die, and rose to immortality, so that we might hope for immortality. Therefore before death it is written not only that he ate and drank, but also that he hungered and thirsted; after the resurrection, only that he ate and drank, but not that he hungered and thirsted; because in a body no longer subject to death there was not that need of corruption, so that there would be a necessity of replenishment, but there was the power of eating. It was done for the sake of fitting, not to relieve the want of the flesh, but to persuade the truth of the body.
On a certain statement of the Apostle which seems to contradict the resurrection.
Against such great evidence, some raise a question to us from the Apostle: against this dispute, see what they object. They say, "The flesh will not rise: for if it will rise, it will inherit the kingdom of God; yet the Apostle openly says: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." You heard it when the Apostle was read. We say that the flesh will rise, and the Apostle exclaims: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Therefore, do we preach against the Apostle, or did he himself preach against the Gospel? The Gospel testifies with a divine voice: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." If it was made flesh, it was made true flesh. For if it was not true flesh, it was not flesh. Just like the true flesh of Mary, the true flesh of Christ, which was assumed from there. This true flesh was seized, scourged, struck, and hung; this true flesh died, this true flesh was buried; this true flesh also rose from the dead. The scars bear witness: the eyes of the disciples see, and still, wonder fluctuates; the hand touches, lest the mind doubt. Against such great evidence, brothers, which our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to persuade the disciples to preach around the world in this way; does it seem the Apostle fights against this evidence, saying: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God?"
The question is very easily solved.
We could solve this question in this way, and resist the empty slanderers: nonetheless, it will also be solved thus, as it can be quickly answered, and more diligently, considering what the Apostle said, from where it is spoken. Therefore, I say how we can respond most easily. What does the Gospel have? That Christ rose in the body in which he was buried: because he was seen, because he was touched, because he said to the disciples, thinking he was a spirit: Touch, and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me having. What does the Apostle say against this? Flesh and blood, he said, will not possess the kingdom of God. I embrace both, and I do not say these things are in conflict, so I do not fight against the goad myself. How then do I embrace both? Quickly, as I said, I could respond thus: The Apostle said: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Rightly so; for it is not of the flesh to possess, but to be possessed. For it is not your body that possesses something, but your soul through the body that possesses, which even possesses that body itself. If then the flesh rises in such a way that it is held, not that it holds; so that it is possessed, not that it possesses: what wonder if flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God, because certainly it will be possessed? For the flesh possesses those who are not the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of the devil, and therefore are subject to the pleasures of the flesh. Whence also the paralyzed man was carried by a mat: but when healed the Lord said: Take up your mat, and go to your house. Thus, having healed the paralysis, he holds his flesh, and leads it where he wills: not where he does not will is he dragged by the flesh, and he rather carries the body, than is carried by the body. It is clear that in that resurrection the flesh will not have the lure of enticements, to lead the soul through certain titillations and blandishments, where the soul does not will, and often is overcome, saying: I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Still the paralyzed man is carried by the mat, not yet carries; let him therefore exclaim: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Let it be answered: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When therefore we have risen, the flesh will not carry us, but we will carry it: if we carry it, we will possess it: if we will possess it, we will not be possessed by it; because freed from the devil we are the kingdom of God: and thus flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God. Therefore let those slanderers be silent, who truly are flesh and blood, and can think nothing but carnally. For concerning those who persist in the same wisdom of the flesh, whence they are rightly called flesh and blood, it could rightly be said: Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God.
In this way, let this question also be resolved: because such people, who are called flesh and blood (for the Apostle also speaks of such people: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood), if they do not convert to a spiritual life, and by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh, will not be able to inherit the kingdom of God.
What the Apostle wished to signify.
Nevertheless, what does the Apostle say, someone might ask? For that is the truer meaning which is revealed by the context of the reading. Therefore, let us rather hear him, and from the entire structure of the Scripture around it, let us see what he wanted to be understood in that place. For he says thus: "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are those who are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption." Let us therefore examine each bit. "The first man," he says, "is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are those who are earthy," that is, all who are mortal; "and as is the heavenly, such are those who are heavenly," that is, all who will rise again. For the heavenly man has now risen and ascended into heaven: to whom we are now joined by faith, so that he may be our head; the members, however, follow their head in due order, and that which was prefigured in the head is shown in due time in the members: but now we bear this in faith, so that in due time we may come to the very thing and appearance itself. For thus he says in another place: "If then you have been risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth." Therefore, just as we have not yet risen ourselves, as Christ in the body, nevertheless by faith we are said to have risen with Christ: so he commands us to bear the image of the heavenly man by faith for the time being, that is, of the one who is already in the heavens.
How Christ, the heavenly man, is from heaven.
But if anyone asks why the man is spoken of as the second who is not in heaven but from heaven, since the Lord Himself took a body from the earth, because certainly Mary was born of Adam and Eve; let him understand that the earthly man is described according to earthly desire: and since that affectation is earthly, by which men are born through the union of a man and a woman, also drawing original sin from their parents; but the body of the Lord was created from the virginal womb without any such affection, although Christ assumed flesh from the earth, which is understood to be signified by the Holy Spirit, saying: "Truth has sprung from the earth"; yet not earthly, but heavenly man, and is said to be from heaven. For if He provided this to His faithful through grace, so that the Apostle rightly says: "Our conversation is in heaven"; how much more should the heavenly man Himself be said to be from heaven, in whom there was never any sin? For, on account of sin, it was said to man: "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." Therefore, the heavenly man is most rightly said to be from heaven, whose conversation never departed from heaven: although the Son of God, also made the son of man, assumed a body from the earth, that is, the form of a servant. For He did not ascend except He who descended. For even if others, to whomsoever it has been granted, ascend, or rather are lifted to heaven by His grace, even so He Himself ascended, because they become His body; and in this way, one ascended: because the Apostle explains that great sacrament in Christ and the Church, where it is written: "And the two shall become one flesh." Whence it is also said: "So then they are no longer two, but one flesh." Therefore, no one ascends into heaven except He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. For this reason, He added, who is in heaven, lest anyone should think that His conversation had departed from heaven, while He appeared to men on earth with an earthly body. Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly man, let us also bear the image of Him who is from heaven, meanwhile in faith, through which we have also risen with Him: so that we may have our hearts lifted up, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; and thus let us seek and savor the things which are above, not those on earth.
Something different is signified when flesh is mentioned, something different when body is mentioned.
But because he was discussing the resurrection of the body, for he had proposed thus: "But someone will say, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" And for this reason, he had said, "The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly," so that we may hope that what has preceded in Christ's body will happen to our body; and though we have not yet fully understood this in reality, let us meanwhile hold it by faith. Therefore, he added, "As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Lest we believe that we shall be resurrected to such a state in which we performed actions in corruption according to the first man, he added immediately, "But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." And wishing to show what he meant by flesh and blood, meaning not the substance of the body but the corruption signified by the name of flesh and blood, which corruption will not exist then, for a body without corruption is not properly called flesh and blood, but a body. If it is flesh, it is corruptible and mortal; but if it does not die anymore, it is no longer corruptible; and therefore, with the substance remaining without corruption, it is no longer called flesh but body: and if it is called flesh, it is not properly so called, but because of a certain similarity of appearance. Just as, for the same similarity, we might perhaps call even the bodies of angels flesh, when they appeared to men as human beings; although they were bodies, not flesh, because there was no need for corruption. Therefore, because we can call even an incorruptible body flesh according to resemblance, the Apostle, being careful, wishes to explain what he meant by flesh and blood: that he said this not according to substance but according to corruption, and he added immediately: "Nor does corruption inherit incorruption," as if he were saying: What I said, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," I said this because corruption cannot inherit incorruption.
The life of the body after the resurrection should not be thought of carnally.
And so that no one might say: If incorruptibility cannot be possessed from corruption, how will our body be there? Hear what follows. As if it were said to the Apostle: What then do you mean? Did we believe in the resurrection of the flesh in vain? If flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God, did we believe in vain that our Lord rose from the dead in the body in which he was born and crucified, and in that same body ascended into heaven before the eyes of his disciples, from which heaven he called out to you: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? This occurred to Paul, the holy and blessed Apostle, and by his pious love, he labored in giving birth to his children in Christ, begotten through the Gospel, whom he was still giving birth until Christ was formed in them, that is, until they bore the image of him who is from heaven through faith. For he did not want them to remain in that ruin, thinking that they would do such things in the kingdom of God, in that eternal life, as they did in this life, in the pleasures of eating and drinking, marrying, and begetting children: for these works belong to the corruption of the flesh, not to the nature of the flesh itself. Now then, since we are not to rise again for such things, the Lord prescribed, as I have already said, in the evangelical reading that has just been recited. For the Jews indeed believed in the resurrection of the flesh, but they thought that life in the resurrection would be like the life they lived in this world; and thinking carnally in this way, they could not answer the Sadducees who proposed the question about the resurrection, asking whose wife the woman would be who had had seven brothers in succession, each wanting to raise offspring for his deceased brother from her. For the Sadducees were a certain sect of the Jews who did not believe in the resurrection. Therefore, the Jews, wavering and hesitating, could not respond to the Sadducees who proposed such a question because they thought that the kingdom of God could be possessed by flesh and blood, that is, that incorruption could be possessed by corruption. The Truth came, was questioned by the deceived and deceiving Sadducees, and that question was proposed to the Lord. And the Lord, who knew what to say and wanted us to believe what we did not know, answered with the authority of his majesty what we should believe. The Apostle explained as much as he was given: that, as much as we can, we might understand. What then did the Lord say to the Sadducees? "You are wrong," he said, "not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither do they begin to die, but they will be like the angels of God." Great is the power of God. Why do they not marry nor are given in marriage? Because they do not begin to die. For where there is no dying, there is no succession. Therefore, no such corruption will be there. And the Lord himself ran through all ages from infancy to youth, for he still carried the substance of mortal flesh: but after he rose in the age in which he was buried, do we believe he ages in heaven? Therefore, he said, they will be like the angels of God. He took away the suspicion of the Jews and refuted the slanders of the Sadducees: for the Jews indeed believed the dead would rise, but as to what works they would rise to, they thought carnally. He said, they will be like the angels of God. You heard about the power of God, now hear also about the Scriptures. Concerning the resurrection, he said, have you not read how the Lord spoke to Moses from the bush, saying: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
What the change of the good in the future resurrection will be.
Therefore, it is said that we will rise again: and because we rise to the life of the Angels, we have heard from the Lord: in what form we will rise again, he showed in his own resurrection. Since that form will not have corruption, the Apostle says: But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption; to show that he wanted to be understood by the name of flesh and blood as the corruption of the mortal and animal body. Then he resolves the question himself, which anxious listeners might inquire of him: because he is more concerned about the understanding of the sons than the sons are about the words of the parents. Therefore, he adds and says: Behold, I tell you a mystery. Let your thoughts rest, O man, whoever you are. For you had begun to think from the words of the Apostle that human flesh does not rise again, when you heard: Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God: but lend your ear to the subsequent words and correct the presumption of thought. Behold, he says, I tell you a mystery: We shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed. What is this? Change is either for the worse or for the better. If therefore change is posited, so that we do not yet see what it will be like, whether into something better or something worse: therefore let it follow, and let him explain it himself; what are we to suspect? And perhaps apostolic authority does not allow you to err in your human conjecture and explains clearly what kind of change he wants to be understood. What then? When he said: We shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed: I see that all will rise, both the good and the wicked; but let us see who will be changed; and from this let us understand whether the change will be for the better or for the worse. For if this change is for the wicked, it will be for the worse; but if for the good, it will be for the better. In a moment, he says, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Therefore, this change will be for the better, when he says: And we shall be changed; but it has not yet been expressed to the extent that it ought to be expressed, as far as our body is changed for the better. What is this better, has not yet been said. For even when changing from infancy to adolescence, it can be said to be changing for the better, where, although less infirm, it is still infirm and mortal.
In an atom of time, the resurrection of all the dead will occur.
Therefore, let us consider each point more diligently. "In the atom," he says. It seems difficult for men that the dead should rise again, but it is astonishing how the Apostle has removed all perplexing difficulties from the hearts of the faithful. You say: "The dead do not rise again": I say not only that the dead rise, but they will rise with such speed, faster than you were conceived and born. For how long does it take for a man to be formed in the womb, to be perfected, to be born, to be strengthened by the succession of ages? Is it perhaps that he will rise in this way? No: but "in the atom," he says. Many do not know what an atom is. An atom is named from ἄτομος, which means section: τομή in Greek means something that cannot be divided. But an atom is said to be in the body, it is said to be in time. In the body, it is said, if something can be found that is indeed said to be indivisible, some very small body that no longer has a place where it can be divided. But an atom in time is a brief moment, which no longer has a place where it can be divided. For example, so that even the slower minds can grasp what I say: there is a stone; divide it into parts, and divide those parts into small pebbles, indeed the pebbles into grains, like sands, and again divide those grains of sand into the tiniest powder, until, if possible, you reach some minuteness that can no longer be divided. This is an atom in bodies. But in time it is understood thus. A year, for example, is divided into months, the months are divided into days, the days can still be divided into hours, the hours still into somewhat longer parts of hours, which allow divisions, until you come to such a point of time, and some drop of a moment, that it can no longer be extended by any delay, and therefore can no longer be divided: this is an atom of time. Therefore you said that the dead do not rise again: not only do they rise, but they rise with such speed that in an atom of time the resurrection of all the dead will take place.
And explaining to you the speed of the atom, after he said: "in an atom," he immediately added, as much as the action and motion of time can happen in an atom: "In the blink of an eye," he said. For he knew that he had spoken obscurely: "in an atom," and he wanted to say more plainly what could be more easily understood. What is the blink of an eye? It is not that with the eyelids we close or open the eye: but by the blink of the eye, he means the emission of rays to see something. For as soon as you cast your gaze, the ray emitted reaches the sky, where we behold the sun, moon, stars, and constellations, separated by such an immense distance from the earth. Indeed, he calls the last trumpet the final sign. For he says, the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. "We," indeed, he says, the faithful, and those rising first to eternal life. Therefore, that change, because it pertains to the pious and the holy, will be for the better, not for the worse.
The transformation will be of the body, not of the flesh, when we are clothed with immortality.
But what is this transformation? What does he mean when he says: "We shall be changed"? Is the current form lost, or is it only the corruption, because it is said: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption"? So that this might not move the listener to despair of the resurrection of the flesh, he adds: "Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed." And lest we think the change will be for the worse: "But we shall be changed," he says. Therefore, it remains for him to say what kind of change it will be. He says, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." If this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, then the flesh will no longer be corruptible. Therefore, if the flesh will no longer be corruptible, the name of corruption in flesh and blood will cease, and the proper name of flesh and blood will also cease; because these are names of mortality. And if it is so and the flesh rises, and because it is changed and becomes incorruptible, flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. But if someone wishes to understand that transformation in those whom that day will find still alive then: so that those who were already dead will rise, but those who are still alive will be changed; it may be believed that the Apostle took upon himself their identity when he says: "And we shall be changed"; yet the same reasoning follows, because that incorruption will apply to all, when this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality. Then the saying that is written will come to pass: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "Where, O Death, is your sting? Where, O Death, is your victory?" However, a body that is no longer mortal will not be called flesh and blood, which are earthly bodies; but it will be called a body, which can now be called heavenly. Just as the same Apostle, when speaking of the different kinds of flesh, says: "Not all flesh is the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of birds, another of serpents. And there are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial." By no means, however, would he speak of celestial flesh; although flesh can be called a body, but an earthly one. For every flesh is a body: but not every body is flesh; not only because a heavenly body is not called flesh, but even some earthly ones, like wood and stones, and anything of the sort. Therefore, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God thus: because the rising flesh will be changed into such a body, in which there will no longer be mortal corruption, and hence neither the name of flesh and blood.