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De resurrectione carnis

LVIII.

[1] Iocunditas, inquit Esaias, aeterna super caput eorum: nihil aeternum nisi post resurrectionem: Aufugit, inquit, dolor et maeror et gemitus ab illis. [2] Proinde et Iohanni angelus, Et delebit deus omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum: utique ex isdem oculis qui retro fleverant quique adhuc flere potuissent si non omnem lacrimae imbrem indulgentia divina siccasset. [3] Et rursus, Deus enim delebit omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum, et mors hactenus: igitur et corruptela hactenus, proinde per incorruptelam fugata quemadmodum mors per immortalitatem. [4] Si dolor et maeror et gemitus ipsaque mors ex laesuris et animae et carnis obveniunt, quomodo auferentur nisi cessaverint causae, scilicet laesurae carnis atque animae? [5] Ubi casus adversi apud deum, ubi incursus infesti apud Christum? Ubi daemonici impetus apud spiritum sanctum, iam et ipso diabolo cum angelis suis ignibus merso? Ubi necessitas, aut quod dicitur fortuna vel fatum? Quae resuscitatis plaga post veniam, quae reconciliatis ira post gratiam? Quae infirmitas post virtutem, quae imbecillitas post salutem? [6] Quod vestimenta et calciamenta filiorum Israelis quadraginta illis annis indetrita et inobsoleta manserunt, quod et in ipsis corporibus unguium et capillorum facilia crementa habilitatis et dignitatis iustitia defixit ne etiam enormitas corruptelae deputaretur, [7] quod Babylonii ignes trium fratrum nec tiaras nec sarabara quanquam Iudaeis aliena laeserunt, [8] quod Ionas devoratus a belua maris in cuius alvo naufragia de die digerebantur triduo post incolumis exspuitur, [9] quod hodie Enoch et Helias, nondum resurrectione dispuncti quia nec morte functi, qua tamen de orbe translati et hoc ipso iam aeternitatis candidati, ab omni vitio et ab omni damno et ab omni iniuria et contumelia immunitatem carnis ediscunt: cuinam fidei testimonium signant nisi qua credi oportet haec futurae integritatis esse documenta? [10] Figurae enim nostrae fuerunt, apostolo auctore, quae scripta sunt ut et deum potentiorem credamus omni corporum lege, et carnis magis utique et conservatorem cuius etiam vestimenta etiam calciamenta protexit.

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On the Resurrection of the Flesh

Chapter LVIII.--From This Perfection of Our Restored Bodies Will Flow the Consciousness of Undisturbed Joy and Peace.

"Everlasting joy," says Isaiah, "shall be upon their heads." ¹ Well, there is nothing eternal until after the resurrection. "And sorrow and sighing," continues he, "shall flee away." ² The angel echoes the same to John: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;" ³ from the same eyes indeed which had formerly wept, and which might weep again, if the loving-kindness of God did not dry up every fountain of tears. And again: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death," ⁴ and therefore no more corruption, it being chased away by incorruption, even as death is by immortality. If sorrow, and mourning, and sighing, and death itself, assail us from the afflictions both of soul and body, how shall they be removed, except by the cessation of their causes, that is to say, the afflictions of flesh and soul? where will you find adversities in the presence of God? where, incursions of an enemy in the bosom of Christ? where, attacks of the devil in the face of the Holy Spirit?--now that the devil himself and his angels are "cast into the lake of fire." ⁵ Where now is necessity, and what they call fortune or fate? What plague awaits the redeemed from death, after their eternal pardon? What wrath is there for the reconciled, after grace? What weakness, after their renewed strength? What risk and danger, after their salvation? That the raiment and shoes of the children of Israel remained unworn and fresh for the space of forty years; ⁶ that in their very persons the exact point ⁷ of convenience and propriety checked the rank growth of their nails and hair, so that any excess herein might not be attributed to indecency; that the fires of Babylon injured not either the mitres or the trousers of the three brethren, however foreign such dress might be to the Jews; ⁸ that Jonah was swallowed by the monster of the deep, in whose belly whole ships were devoured, and after three days was vomited out again safe and sound; ⁹ that Enoch and Elias, who even now, without experiencing a resurrection (because they have not even encountered death), are learning to the full what it is for the flesh to be exempted from all humiliation, and all loss, and all injury, and all disgrace--translated as they have been from this world, and from this very cause already candidates for everlasting life; ¹⁰ --to what faith do these notable facts bear witness, if not to that which ought to inspire in us the belief that they are proofs and documents of our own future integrity and perfect resurrection? For, to borrow the apostle's phrase, these were "figures of ourselves;" ¹¹ and they are written that we may believe both that the Lord is more powerful than all natural laws about the body, and that He shows Himself the preserver of the flesh the more emphatically, in that He has preserved for it its very clothes and shoes.