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The City of God

Chapter 22.--That the Bodies of the Saints Shall After the Resurrection Be Spiritual, and Yet Flesh Shall Not Be Changed into Spirit.

The bodies of the righteous, then, such as they shall be in the resurrection, shall need neither any fruit to preserve them from dying of disease or the wasting decay of old age, nor any other physical nourishment to allay the cravings of hunger or of thirst; for they shall be invested with so sure and every way inviolable an immortality, that they shall not eat save when they choose, nor be under the necessity of eating, while they enjoy the power of doing so. For so also was it with the angels who presented themselves to the eye and touch of men, not because they could do no otherwise, but because they were able and desirous to suit themselves to men by a kind of manhood ministry. For neither are we to suppose, when men receive them as guests, that the angels eat only in appearance, though to any who did not know them to be angels they might seem to eat from the same necessity as ourselves. So these words spoken in the Book of Tobit, "You saw me eat, but you saw it but in vision;" ¹ that is, you thought I took food as you do for the sake of refreshing my body. But if in the case of the angels another opinion seems more capable of defence, certainly our faith leaves no room to doubt regarding our Lord Himself, that even after His resurrection, and when now in spiritual but yet real flesh, He ate and drank with His disciples; for not the power, but the need, of eating and drinking is taken from these bodies. And so they will be spiritual, not because they shall cease to be bodies, but because they shall subsist by the quickening spirit.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XII: De corporibus sanctorum post resurrectionem, quae sic spiritalia erunt, ut non in spiritum caro uertatur.

Corpora ergo iustorum, quae in resurrectione futura sunt, neque ullo ligno indigebunt, quo fiat ut nullo morbo uel senectute inueterata moriantur, neque ullis aliis corporalibus alimentis, quibus esuriendi ac sitiendi qualiscumque molestia deuitetur; quoniam certo et omni modo inuiolabili munere inmortalitatis induentur, ut nonnisi uelint, possibilitate, non necessitate uescantur. quod angeli quoque uisibiliter et tractabiliter apparentes, non quia indigebant, sed quia uolebant et poterant, ut hominibus congruerent sui ministerii quadam humanitate, fecerunt. neque enim in phantasmate angelos edisse credendum est, quando eos homines hospitio susceperunt, quamuis utrum angeli essent ignorantibus simili nobis indigentia uesci uiderentur. unde est quod ait angelus in libro Tobiae: uidebatis me manducare, sed uisu uestro uidebatis; id est necessitate reficiendi corporis, sicut uos facitis, me cibum sumere putabatis. sed si forte de angelis aliud credibilius disputari potest, certe fides Christiana de ipso saluatore non dubitat, quod etiam post resurrectionem, iam quidem in spiritali carne, sed tamen uera, cibum ac potum cum discipulis sumpsit. non enim potestas, sed egestas edendi ac bibendi talibus corporibus auferetur. unde et spiritalia erunt, non quia corpora esse desistent, sed quia spiritu uiuificante subsistent.