CHAPTER XII

OF THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE

“THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH”

QUESTION I

How important it is to have an explicit knowledge of this Article

That this article possesses great force in establishing the truth of our faith, is most strongly evinced by the fact, that in the sacred Scriptures it is not only propounded to the belief of the faithful, but is also confirmed by numerous arguments. Since we scarcely find this to be the case with regard to the other articles, we may justly infer that on it, as on its most solid basis, rests our hope of salvation; for, according to the reasoning of the apostle, If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. The pastor, therefore, should not bestow less diligence and zeal upon its exposition, than the labour which the impiety of many has expended in attempting to overturn its truth. For that eminent and important advantages flow to the profit of the faithful from the knowledge of this article, will shortly be proved.

QUESTION II

Why the Apostles called the Resurrection of Mankind “the Resurrection of the Flesh”

And first, that in this article the resurrection of mankind is called the resurrection of the flesh, is a circumstance that deserves especial attention. For the apostles had for the object of their teaching a necessary truth, namely, the immortality of the soul. Lest, therefore, albeit the sacred Scriptures in many places teach the soul to be immortal, any one may imagine that it dies with the body, and that both are to be resuscitated unto life, this article speaks only of the resurrection of the flesh. The word flesh, it is true, often also signifies in Scripture the whole man, as in Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and in St. John, The Word was made flesh; but in this place it is used to denote the body only; thus giving us to understand, that of the two constituent parts of man, body and soul, one only, that is the body, is corrupted and returns to the dust of the earth, whence it was formed, whilst the soul remains incorrupt. As then, without dying, a man cannot be said to return to life, so the soul cannot properly be said to rise again. Mention of the flesh is also made, in order to confute the heresy of Hymenæus and Philetus, who during the lifetime of the apostle asserted, that, whenever Scripture speaks of the resurrection, it is to be understood to mean, not a corporeal, but a spiritual resurrection, by which it rises from the death of sin to the life of innocence. That error, therefore, these words clearly exclude, whilst they establish the real resurrection of the body.

QUESTION III

Upon what Grounds the Doctrine concerning the real Resurrection of the Body is to be proved

But it will be the duty of the pastor to illustrate this truth by examples taken from the Old and New Testaments, and from all ecclesiastical history. In the Old Testament, some were resuscitated to life by Elijah and Elisha, and, besides those who were raised from the dead by our Lord, some were recalled to life by the apostles, and by many others. This resurrection of many confirms the doctrine conveyed by this article; for, as we believe that many were resuscitated from death to life, so are we to believe that all will be resuscitated unto life: nay, the principal fruit, that we ought to derive from these miracles, is that we should yield to this article our most unqualified belief. To pastors but ordinarily conversant with the sacred writings, many proofs will at once present themselves; but, in the Old Testament, the most conspicuous are those that are read in Job, when he says, that in his flesh he shall see his God, and in Daniel when, speaking of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, he says that they shall awake, some unto everlasting life, and others unto eternal reproach. In the New Testament [the principal passages are] the words of St. Matthew, when recording the disputation which our Lord had with the Sadducces, and what the evangelists relate concerning the last judgment. To the same point may also be referred the accurate reasoning of the apostle on the subject, in his Epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians.

QUESTION IV

Comparisons by which the same truth may be confirmed

But, incontrovertibly as this truth is established by faith, it will notwithstanding be of advantage to show from the analogy of examples and other arguments, that what faith proposes to our belief is not at variance with the nature or intelligence of the human mind. To one, asking how the dead should rise again, the apostle answers, Thou foolish! that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die first; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some of the rest; but God giveth it a body as he will; and a little after he saith: It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption. St. Gregory calls our attention to many other arguments that might be adduced to the same effect: For the light, says he, is every day withdrawn from our eyes, as it were by dying, and is again recalled, as it were by rising again: trees lose, and again, as it were by a resurrection, are restored to their verdure: seeds die by putrefaction, and rise again by germination.

QUESTION V

Reasons by which this very truth is proved

The reasons also which are adduced by ecclesiastical writers seem sufficiently calculated to establish this truth. In the first place, since the souls [of men] are immortal, and have, as part of man, a natural tendency towards the body, their perpetual separation from the bodies must be considered at variance with nature. But as that which is at variance with nature, and violent, cannot be permanent, it appears congruous to reason that the soul should be reunited with the body; whence it also follows that the bodies also should rise again. This kind of argument our Saviour himself employed, when, in his disputation with the Sadducees, he deduced the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soul.

Furthermore, as the all-just God holds out punishments to the wicked, and rewards to the good, and as very many of the former depart this life before they suffer due punishment, and many of the latter without meeting with any reward for their virtues; it necessarily follows that the souls should be reunited with the bodies, to the end that, as the partners of their crimes, or the companions of their virtues, they may become sharers in their punishments, or rewards. This argument has been most elaborately treated by St. Chrysostom in a homily to the people of Antioch. To this effect, the apostle, speaking concerning the resurrection, says: If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Which words no one can suppose are meant to refer to the misery of the soul, which, because immortal, might enjoy happiness in a future life, although the bodies should not rise again; but are to be understood of the whole man; for, unless the body receive the due rewards of its labours, those who, like the apostles, endured so many afflictions and calamities during this life, would necessarily be the most miserable of men. The same doctrine is more explicitly taught [by the same apostle] in his epistle to the Thessalonians: We glory, says he, in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations, which ye endure for an example of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you, who are troubled, rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of his power; in a flame of fire, yielding vengeance to them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, as long as the soul is separated from the body, men cannot attain consummate happiness, replete with every good. For as any part separated from the whole is imperfect, so the soul which is not joined to the body must be also imperfect. Hence it follows, that, in order that nothing may be wanting to the consummation of its happiness, the resurrection of the body is necessary. By means of these and similar arguments, the pastor will be able to instruct the faithful in this article.

QUESTION VI

No man will then be found who is free from Death or the Resurrection

He should also carefully explain, from the doctrine of the apostle, who are to be raised unto life. Writing to the Corinthians, St. Paul says: As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Good and bad, then, without any distinction, shall all rise from the dead, although the condition of all shall not be the same: They that have done good shall rise unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

When we say all, we mean those who shall have died before the day of judgment, as well as those who shall then die. That the Church acquiesces in this opinion, which asserts that all without any exception shall die, and that this opinion is more agreeable to truth, we read in St. Jerome, whose opinion coincides with that of St. Augustine. Nor do the words of the apostle, in his epistle to the Thessalonians, teach a different doctrine from this, when he says: The dead who are in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, in the air. Explaining these words, St. Ambrose says: In that very taking up, death shall anticipate, as it were by a deep sleep, and the soul, having gone forth from the body, shall instantly return; for [those who are alive] when taken up, shall die, that, coming to the Lord, they may receive their souls from his presence; because in the presence of the Lord they cannot be dead. This opinion is further confirmed by the authority of St. Augustine in his book on the City of God.

QUESTION VII

The Human Soul will receive the very same Body in the Last Judgment

But where, as it is of much importance for us to be fully convinced that the identical body, that belongs to each one during life, shall, though it have been corrupted and dissolved into dust, be nevertheless resuscitated to life; this too is a subject that demands accurate exposition from the pastor. It is a truth conveyed by the apostle when he says: This corruptible must put on incorruption, evidently designating by the word this, his own body. It is also most clearly prophesied by Job: I shall see my God, says he, whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. The same inference is drawn from the very definition of resurrection; for resurrection, as Damascenus defines it, is a return to the state, from which one has fallen. Finally, if we consider the reason for a future resurrection, pointed out by us a little before, every doubt that can possibly occur on the subject must be at an end.

QUESTION VIII

For what reason the Resurrection of the Body was ordained by God

But we have taught that the bodies are to rise again, in order that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil. Man therefore must needs again rise from the same body with which he served God, or the devil: that with the same body he may attain rewards, and a crown of triumph, or endure punishments, and torments the most miserable.

QUESTION IX

The Bodies will not resume the Deformity contracted during this Life

Not only will the body rise, but it will rise endowed with whatever appertains to the reality of its nature, and to the symmetry and ornament of man. In St. Augustine we read a fine testimony to this effect: There will then be no corporal deformity; if some have been overburdened with flesh, they shall not resume the entire mass of the body; whatever exceeds that proper habit, shall be deemed superfluous. On the other hand, in whatsoever the body has been wasted by disease or age, as, for instance, should some have been thin through emaciation, it shall be restored by Christ through his divine power, seeing that Christ will not only restore the body unto us, but also whatever shall have been taken therefrom through the wretchedness of this life. In another place the same author says: Man shall not resume the hair he once possessed, but such as will become him, according to that saying: The very hairs of your head are all numbered; which shall be restored according to the divine wisdom. In the first place the members, because appertaining to the integrity of human nature, shall altogether be restored. For they who from nature were blind, or who lost their sight through some disease, the lame, the maimed, and those paralyzed in any of their members, shall rise again with an entire and perfect body; for otherwise the desires of the soul, which is so strongly inclined to an union with the body, would be far from satisfied; and yet we are convinced, that in the resurrection its desires shall be fully realized. Besides, it is sufficiently evident that the resurrection, like the creation, is clearly to be numbered amongst the principal works of God. As then, at the beginning of creation, all things came perfect from the hand of God, we must affirm that such shall also be the case at the resurrection. Nor are these observations to be restricted to the bodies of the martyrs, of whom St. Augustine beareth witness: As that mutilation could not but prove a deformity, they shall not be without those members; otherwise they who were beheaded would rise without a head. The scars, however, which they received, shall remain, shining with a brilliancy more refulgent than that of gold and precious stones, even as the scars of the wounds of Christ. This fact also applies most truly to the wicked also, although their members may have been lost through their own fault. For the greater the number of members which they shall have, with so much greater pangs of torments shall they be worn out; and, therefore, this restoration of members will serve to increase, not their happiness, but their unhappiness and misery, as merit or demerit is ascribed not to the members themselves, but to the person to whose body they are united. For to those who shall have done penance, they shall be restored for the purpose of reward; but to those who shall have contemned the same, for punishment. If these things be maturely considered by pastors, they can never lack words or ideas to move and rekindle the hearts of the faithful with the zeal of piety; that, considering the troubles and calamities of this life, they may eagerly look forward to that blessed glory of the resurrection, which is set forth for the righteous and the pious.

QUESTION X

Of what kind the Bodies of Men shall be after they have arisen

It now follows that the faithful understand that, with regard to the things that make up the substance of the body, although that very same body that was before dead must needs be restored to life, its condition is yet to be far different. To omit the other points, the great difference between the state of all bodies when risen from the dead, and when in their previous state, is, that before [the resurrection] they were subject to the laws of death, but afterwards, when reanimated, they shall all, without distinction of good and bad, attain to immortality. This admirable restoration of nature was, as the testimonies of the holy Scriptures admonish us, earned by the glorious victory borne off by Christ over death. For it is written: He shall cast death dawn headlong for ever; and: O death! I will be thy death; words which the apostle thus explains: And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; and we read in St. John: Death shall be no more. For it was most fitting, that by the merits of Christ our Lord, by whom the empire of death has been overthrown, the sin of Adam should be far exceeded also; and it was agreeable to the divine justice, that the good should enjoy a life of endless bliss, whilst the wicked, condemned to everlasting torments, shall seek death, and shall not find it; shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. To the good, therefore, and the bad, this immortality shall be common.

QUESTION XI

What shall be the Qualities of the Bodies of the Blest after the Resurrection

Moreover, the bodies of the saints, when resuscitated, shall possess certain transcendant and glorious adornments, which will ennoble them far beyond their former condition. Amongst these endowments, four are especially mentioned by the Fathers, which they infer from the doctrine of the apostle, and which are called gifts. The first is impassibility, a gift and endowment that shall place them beyond the reach of suffering anything disagreeable, or being afflicted with pain, or inconvenience of any sort. For neither the piercing severity of cold, nor the glowing intensity of heat, nor the rush of waters, can affect them: It is sown, says the apostle, in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption. This quality schoolmen call impassibility, not incorruption, in order to distinguish it as a property peculiar to a glorified body. For the bodies of the damned, though incorruptible, do not partake in this impassibility; for their bodies, although they be incorruptible, shall be capable of experiencing heat and cold, and of being afflicted by various torments.

The next quality is the brightness, by which the bodies of the saints shall shine like the sun, according to these words of our Lord in St. Matthew: The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father; and, lest any one should doubt on the subject, he exemplified this in his transfiguration. This quality the apostle sometimes calls glory, sometimes brightness: He will reform the body of our lowness, that it may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory; and again: It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. Of this glory the Israelites too beheld a certain image in the desert, when the face of Moses, after he had been in the presence of, and had conversed with God, shone with such lustre, that the children of Israel could not look thereon. Now this brightness is a sort of refulgence redounding to the body from the supreme happiness of the soul, so that it is a sort of emanation from the bliss which it enjoys; and its communication is analogous to the manner in which the soul itself is rendered blessed, which is, by a participation of the divine happiness. Unlike the first, we must not believe this quality is common to all in the same degree: all the bodies of the saints shall, it is true, be equally impassible: but the brightness of all shall not be the same; for, as the apostle beareth witness: There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead.

To this quality is united that which they call agility, by which the body shall be freed from the burden by which it is now pressed down; and shall acquire a capability of moving with the utmost facility and celerity whithersoever the soul pleases, as St. Augustine clearly teaches in his book on the City of God, and St. Jerome on Isaiah. Hence saith the apostle: It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power.

To these is added another quality,—that of subtilty, by force of which the body will be subjected to the absolute dominion of the soul, and to an entire obedience to her control; as is shown from these words of the apostle: It is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body. In the exposition of this article, these are nearly the principal heads deserving notice.

QUESTION XII

What Benefit the Faithful may derive from these so great Mysteries of Resurrection

But that the faithful may know what fruit they are to reap from a knowledge of so many and such great mysteries, [the pastor] must proclaim, in the first place, that to God, who has hidden these things from the wise, and opened them unto little ones, we should return boundless thanks. For how many men, pre-eminent for the praise of wisdom and learning, never caught the least glimpse of this so certain a truth. Aware, then, that he made those things known to us, who could never dare to aspire to such knowledge, it becomes our duty to celebrate his goodness and clemency with incessant praises.

Another important benefit is to be derived from meditation on this article, in that in it we shall easily find consolation both for ourselves and for others, touching the loss of those who were connected with us by ties of friendship or of blood; a species of consolation which we know the apostle himself to have administered to the Thessalonians, when writing to them of those which are asleep.

But in all our other afflictions and calamities also, the thought of a future resurrection must bring to us the greatest relief of our sorrows; as we learn from the example of holy Job, who supported his afflicted and sorrowing mind, solely by the hope of one day rising from the grave, and beholding the Lord his God.

It must, furthermore, prove of powerful influence with the faithful, to the end that they may use every exertion to lead a life of rectitude and integrity, unsullied by any defilement of sin. For, if they reflect, that those mighty riches which will be bestowed after the resurrection are proposed to them as rewards, they must find a strong inducement to the pursuits of virtue and holiness. On the other hand, nothing will have greater effect in subduing the passions of the mind, and withdrawing men from crimes, than if they be frequently reminded of the miseries and torments with which the reprobate will be visited, who, on the last day, shall rise to the resurrection of judgment.