Chapter V.
On the things that accompany the judgment, such as the resurrection of bodies.
Concerning the resurrection of bodies, this must be held: that the bodies of all human beings will rise in the general resurrection, with no difference among them as to the order of time, but a great difference as to the order of dignity. — For the wicked will rise with their deformities and punishments, miseries and defects, which they had in the state of wayfare. But in the good, "nature will be preserved, and defects will be removed," and all will rise with a whole body and full age and due measure of members; so that all the Saints may attain to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.
Moreover, both in the good and in the wicked, the bodies that rise will be numerically the same as before and constituted from the same parts, with the entire truth of nature preserved not only as to the principal members and the radical moisture, but also with the hair and other members preserved that contribute to the comeliness of the body; so that "into whatever breezes or recesses of nature the dust of the human body may pass, it will return to that soul which first animated it, that it might live and grow."
The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because the first principle, by the very fact that it is first and highest, is most universal and most sufficient, and thereby is the principle of natures, of graces, and of rewards, and is also a most powerful, most merciful, and most just principle; and although by a certain appropriation it is most powerful in the constitution of natures and most merciful in the bestowal of graces and most just in the retribution of rewards: yet each is in each, because supreme power, mercy, and justice can in no way be separated from one another. And therefore in the work of retribution it is necessary that it be accomplished according to what the rectitude of justice, the reformation of grace, and the completion of nature require. Since therefore justice necessarily requires that the human being, who merited or demerited not in soul alone nor in body alone, but in soul and body together, be punished or rewarded in both; the reformation of grace also requires that the whole body be conformed to Christ the Head, whose dead body necessarily had to rise, since it was inseparably united to the Divinity; and the completion of nature requires that the human being consist simultaneously of body and soul as of matter and form, which have a mutual appetite and mutual inclination: it is necessary that the resurrection be future, since the constitution of nature, the infusion of grace, and the retribution of justice demand this, according to which the whole universe is governed. And therefore from these three all things cry out that the human being must be raised, so that every excuse may be taken away from those who are deaf to this truth of faith, and deservedly against such people the whole world fights.
First, therefore, since the resurrection must be in accordance with the demand of the order of divine justice, and divine justice renders to each one what is his own according to place and time, and every soul once united to a body at a point in time has in it either guilt or grace: it is necessary that all rise again. — And because the state of retribution must be distinct from the state of the wayfarer, and the resurrection pertains to the state of retribution; so that the order of the universe may not be confounded, and so that faith, which believes what it does not see, may have merit, and so that the equity of divine justice may appear more certainly and clearly, and so that the consummation and final retribution in Angels and in men may take place at once: divine justice requires this, that all rise again at once, as far as the common law is concerned. Which I say on account of Christ and his most blessed mother, the glorious Virgin Mary.
But because punishment and misery are owed to the wicked and glory to the good: therefore, even though they rise again at the same time, they will nevertheless be very dissimilar in condition. For because for the wicked the resurrection is not unto life, but unto punishment, it is necessary that they be raised with infirmities, deformities, and defects.
Again, because the resurrection must be in accordance with the demand of the consummation of grace, and perfect grace makes us conformed to Christ, our head, in whom there was no defect of members, but perfect age and due stature and beautiful form: it is fitting that the good be raised in the best conditions; and through this it is necessary that in them defects be removed and nature be preserved. — It is also fitting that, if any member was lacking, it be supplied; if there was any superfluity, it be removed; if there was any disorder of the members, it be corrected; if one was a child, he be brought by divine power to the measure of the age of Christ which he had at the resurrection, though "not in mass"; if decrepit, he be restored to the same age; if a giant, if a dwarf, he be limited to a fitting measure; so that thus all, whole and perfect, may attain to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.
Finally, because the resurrection ought to be according to the exigency of the perfection of nature; and the nature of the rational spirit requires that it vivify its own body, since "a proper act must come to be in its proper matter": it is necessary that the same body numerically rise again, otherwise it would not be a true resurrection. The nature of the rational and immortal soul also requires that, just as it has perpetual being, so it should have a body to which it perpetually infuses life: and through this, the body that is united to the soul, from that very union, has an ordination to perpetual incorruption, yet in such a way that that in which the substance of the whole body consists, such as the principal members and also the radical moisture and the flesh according to species, has an ordination of necessity: but other things, namely the flesh according to matter and the parts that pertain to the well-being of the body, have an ordination of fittingness: and therefore the first parts are ordained to the resurrection according to the order of necessity, but all the others according to the order of fittingness. Which order indeed, because God has impressed it upon nature, and nature cannot bring it to perfection, since it cannot raise the dead, and divine providence itself ought to do nothing in vain: it is necessary that by His power the same body in number be restored, both immortal and constituted from all its parts, with the whole truth of nature preserved.
Since, however, nature does not have this in its power, but only in its appetite, because it can neither restore the same body in number once destroyed, since it cannot act upon the whole substance of a thing, nor make a body immortal, since everything generable by nature is corruptible, nor gather together what has been dispersed: it is necessary that the resurrection be attributed not to seminal nor to natural causes, but to primordial causes, so that it may come about according to a wondrous and supernatural course and the command of the divine will.