genu^ say, of 'corporeal' or 'animal substance'; and nothing when the human body rots, that cannot a third to put it in the species, say, of 4 man 9 or hinder the body from rising again numerically the 'horse9: for if the first form made it a substance, the same, since corporeity in the first sense does not fall forms that followed would supervene upon something away to nothing, but remains the same." that was already in actuality and subsisting in nature; * With the good man, the elements of the beauty and thus the latter forms would not make it an indi- of his youth may be expected so rise again rather vidua! thing, but would be in a subject that was already than the ungainly dimensions of middle-aged obesity, an individual thing, as is the case with accidental forms. f What is here said is answer sufficient to the Corporeity, therefore, considered as the substantial difficulty about cannibalism, which St Thomas next form in man, can be no other than the rational soul, goes into. The discussion of the man who all his life which requires in its matter the possession of three had eaten nothing but human flesh (sofu carnibus hu- dimensions:for it is the actualising principle of a body, manis pastus), and whose father and mother had been In another way corporeity is taken to mean the acci- reared on the same peculiar fare, reads like an after- dental form whereby a body is said to be in the genus noon causerie of the Angelic Doctor with some rather of quantity; and taken thus, corporeity is nothing else young undergraduates on the bank of the Seine, than the three dimensions which make the essence of t The case is that of infants, who die baptised a body. Though then this corporeity falls away to before they are old enough to make an act of faith.
CHAPTER LXXXII-That Men shall rise again Immortal THAT cannot be said to have been destroyed, which is to go on for ever. If then men were to rise again always with the prospe6t of another death, in no way could death be said to haye been destroyed by the death of Christ. But it has been destroyed, — for the present, causally, as was foretold: / »/// be thy deaths O death (Osee xiii, 14): and in the end it shall be destroyed actually: the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor.
3. The effeft is like its cause. But the resurre&ion of Christ is the cause of our resurrection; and Christ rising from the dead dieth now no more Hence it is said: The Lord shall cast out death for eJfer (Isa. xxv, 8): Death shall be no more (Apoc. xxi, 24).
Hereby entrance is denied to the error of certain Gentiles of old, who believed that times and temporal events recurred in cycles. For example, in that age one Plato, a philosopher in the city of Athens, and in the school that is called Academic, taught his scholars thus, that in the course of count- less revolving ages, recurring at long but fixed intervals, the same Plato, and the same city, and the same school, and the same scholars would recur, and so would be repeated again and again in the course of countless ages.* As for the text: What is that has been? That same that shall be. There is nothing net* under the sun: nor can any one say, Lo, this is fresh: for it hath already gone before in the ages that ha^e preceded us (Eccles i, 9): it is to be understood of events like in kind, but not in number.f CHAPTER LXXXIII-7^/ in the Resurre&ion there will be no use of Food nor Intercourse of the Sexes WHEN our perishable life is over, those things which serve the needs of a perishable existence must also come to an end. One such thing is food, which serves to supply the waste of the body. J The use of the intercourse of the sexes is for generation. If then such intercourse is to continue after the resurre<5tion, unless it is to continue to no purpose, many men will come to exist after the resurre6tion, who did not exist before.§ But if any one says that in the risen Saints there will be use of food and sexual intercourse, not for the preservation of the individual and of the species, but solely for the pleasure that goes with such a6ts, to the end that no pleasure may be lacking in man's final reward, — such a saying is fraught with many absurdities. In the first place, the life of the risen Saints will be better ordered than our present life. But in this present life it is a disorderly * Alter erit turn Tiphys, et altera quae vehat Argo X A flesh that thus has futon incorruftion, a body that Delectos heroas: erunt etiam altera bella, is no longer an animal body (i Cor. xv, 44, 53), will Atque iterum ad Trojam magnus mittetur Achilles, not waste. The animal life of man will be over: there — Virgil, Eclogue, iv, 34-36. will be no more nutrition, or reproduction, or (so at The fancy, we cannot call it the doctrine, appears least it would appear) respiration, or circulation of in the mythus of Plato, Politicus, 270 sq. the blood, or beating of the heart. The flesh, it would The distant way in which St Thomas speaks of appear, will be absolutely worked, or energised, by Plato is in strong contrast with his familiar mention of the spirit, the body by the soul. Quis softens et Intelt Nor indeed in detail. The text argues no more § St Thomas goes on to argue the theological inthan a general likeness. conveniences of such a supposition.
and vicious thing to make use of food and procreation solely for pleasure, and not for the need of sustaining the body or rearing children. For the pleasures that attend such adlions are not the ends of those adtions, but rather the adtion is the end and purpose of the pleasure, nature having arranged for pleasure as a concomitant of such actions, lest for the labour that goes with them animals should desist from these actions necessary to nature, as they certainly would desist, were they not enticed by pleasure. It is therefore a perversion of order and an indecency for actions to be done solely for the pleasure that goes with them (B. Ill, Chap. XXVII). This then shall no- wise be the case with the risen Saints, whose life we must assume to be a life of perfe6t order and propriety. Moreover the notion is ridiculous of seeking bodily pleasures, common to us with brute animals, where there are in view the highest delights, shared with the angels, in the vision of God (B. Ill, Chap. LI). Hence the Lord says: In the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God (Matt, xxii, 30).
As for the alleged example of Adam, the perfe&ion of Adam was personal, but human nature was not yet entirely perfect, as the race of mankind was not yet multiplied. Adam then was constituted in the perfe6tion proper to the origin of the human race, for the multiplication of which he needed to beget children, and consequently to make use of food.* But the maturity of the risen state is when human nature shall have come to its full perfec- tion, and the number of the eleft shall be complete. Then shall generation no more have place, nor the use of food. Therefore the immortality and incorruption of the risen Saints shall be different from that which was in Adam. The immortality and incorruption of the risen Saints will consist in their being incapable of death, or of the dissolution of any part of their bodily frame. The immortality of Adam consisted in his being capable of immortality, provided he did not sin, and capable of death, if he did sin; and this was secured, not by the prevention of all bodily waste in him, but by the aid of food to counteract an entire dissolution.
The Scripture texts that seem to promise the use of food after the resur- redlion, are to be understood in a spiritual sense. What is said in the Apocalypse, xx, 4, of the thousand years, is to be understood of the resurrec- tion of souls rising from sin,— cf. Eph. v, 14, Rise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee; and the thousand years means the whole period of Church history, during which the martyrs reign with Christ, and the other saints, as well in that kingdom of God which is the Church on earth, as in the heavenly country of departed souls.
Hence we may finally conclude that all the activities of the adtive life shall cease, as they all bear upon the use of food, and the getting of children, and other necessities of a perishable existence. Alone left in the risen Saints shall be the occupation of the contemplative life: wherefore it is said of the contemplative Mary: Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her (Luke x, 42).
• 44 The semen is the overplus of the food " (Aristotle, De gen. tn'rnal. Ill, iv, 1), was a farourite axiom with the schoolmen.
CHAPTER LXXXIV-That Risen Bodies shall be of the same Nature as before SOME have supposed that in the resurredtion our bodies are transformed into spirit, because the Apostle says: There is sown an animal bodyy there shall rise a spiritual body (i Cor. xv, 40).* And the text, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of Qod (1 Cor. xv, 50), has prompted the conjec- ture that risen bodies shall not have flesh and blood. But this is a manifest error.
1. Our resurre&ion shall be on the model of the resurrection of Christ, who Will reform the body of our humiliation^ so that it shall become conformable to the body of his glory (Phil, iii, 21). But Christ after His resurre&ion had a body that could be felt and handled, as He says: Feel and see, because a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have (Luke xxiv, 39): in like manner therefore also other risen men.
5. For numerically the same man to rise again, his essential parts must be numerically the same. If then the body of the risen man shall not consist of these muscles and these bones of which it is now composed, the risen man will not be numerically the same.f 6. The supposition of the body passing into a spirit is altogether impos- sible: for those things only pass into one another which have some matter in common [cf. Chap. LXIII].
7. If the body passes into a spiritual substance, it must either pass into that spiritual substance which is the soul, or into some other. If into that which is the soul, then in the resurredtion there will be nothing in man but soul, and he will be exactly as he was before the resurrection. But if into another spiritual substance, then two spiritual substances will be one in nature, which is impossible, since every spiritual substance subsists by itself.
9. He who rises again must be an animal, if he is to be a man. J CHAPTER LXXXV-That the Bodies of the Risen shall be otherwise organised than before T^HOUGH the bodies of the risen are to be of the same species with our present bodies, still they will be otherwise organised (aliam dis- positionem habebunt); and chiefly in this, that all the bodies of the risen, of good men and evil men alike, will be incorruptible. For that, three reasons may be assigned. First, in respeCt of the end of the resurre6tion, which is reward or punishment for the things done in the body; and both the one and the other is to be everlasting (B. Ill, Chapp. LXII, CXLV).
• The risen bodies are not transformed into many of their dynamic functions. There is still to be spirit, but subjected to the perfect control of the seen, I think, at Darlington Station one of Stephen- spirit that animates them. Whereas in mortal man son's first engines, erected on a pedestal. The parallel the soul can go only as far as the body will go, in the resurrection the body will go as far as the soul will go, to the utmost limits of its spiritual and quasi -angelic capacity. The soul (of the just) will then be delivered from the body of this death (Rom. vii, 24), inasmuch as the body will no longer hold it back and bring it down.
t The tissues and organs, it would appear, retain in the resurrection their static entity, but part with is not exact, but suggestive.
X The risen Saint is an animal, as consisting of body and soul: but he no longer functions as an ani- mal in the processes of organic life: in him those processes have ceased: they are rendered unnecessary by the direct control which the spirit now wields over the flesh. His body is not spirit, but spiritu- lised. So the human nature of our Lord is not God, but divinised, redtoTcoittfUvov, as the Fathers say.
Secondly, in respeft of the formal cause of the resurreftion, which is the soul. Since the recovery of the body is a provision for the perfe6tion of the soul, it is fitting that the body be organised in such fashion as shall suit the soul (Chap. LXXIX). But the soul is incorruptible, therefore the body shall be restored to it incorruptible. A third reason may be found in the efficient cause of the resurreftion. God will restore to life bodies already corrupted and fallen to decay: much more will He be able, once He has restored life to them, to ensure that life abiding in them everlastingly.
This body, now corruptible, will be rendered incorruptible in such sort that the soul shall have perfe6t control over it, giving it life.* Nor shall any foreign power be able to hinder this communication of life.f Risen man then shall be immortal, not by taking up another body, that shall be incorrup- tible, but by his present corruptible body being made incorruptible. This corruptible must put on incorruption (i Cor. xv, 53). So then that saying, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of Qod (1 Cor. xv, 50), means that in the risen state the corruption of flesh and blood shall be taken away, while the substance of flesh and blood remains. I CHAPTER LXXXVI-OftAe Qualities of Glorified Bodies BRIGHTNESS. Though by the merit of Christ the defeft of nature [i.e., death] is taken away from all, good and bad alike, at the resur- reftion, there will still remain a difference between the good and bad in their personal attributes. It is of the essence of nature that the human soul be the form of the body, quickening it and preserving it in being; while by personal adls the soul deserves to be raised to the glory of the vision of God, or to be shut out from the order of this glory through its own fault. The bodies of all men alike will be organised as befits the soul, so that the soul shall be an imperishable form giving imperishable being to the body, because to this effe<5t the power of God will entirely subjedl the matter of the human body to the human soul.§ But from the brightness and excellence of the soul that is raised to the vision of God, the body, united to such a soul, shall gain a further advantage. It will be entirely subject to the soul, God's power so disposing, not in being only, but in all its aftions, experiences, motions and bodily qualities. As then the soul in the enjoyment of the vision of God # Anima An if sum perftcte dominabitur quantum ad hoc quod if sum vivificet (see further Chap. LXXXVI). This axiom seems to furnish the key to the whole situation of risen humanity. No longer dependent on energy supplied from external nature in the shape of food and oxygen, man's soul shall breathe its own spiritual energy direct into his body. The case is otherwise with mortal man. Whatever in us the will insists on having done, even the very ad of the will so insisting, is paid for out of the store of physical energy belonging to the body, and latent somewhere in the animal system. Witness the reaction and pro- stration that follows sooner or later upon every heroic effort. The effort is only made by what we may call a forced loan of bodily energy, raised by the will, or rather by the man willing, — for the will is not a motor power distinct, but belongs to the 4 form' of the body. But in man risen and immortal, the soul (to use an expressive vulgarism) shall run the body, not merely by directing and whipping up bodily energy, but by communication to the body of the soul's own energy, proper to it as a spiritual substance, the energy of a spirit either itrayyeXoc (which Luke xx, 36, seems rather to imply), or minished a little less than the angels (Ps. viii, spoken of mortal man).
t Talis communicatio yita [sc. yit<? it yirium viue ab anima ad corpus]. Risen man, we may say, lives on his soul, as mortal man on his food.
I " Flesh and blood, that is, the body sown in cor- ruption (v. 42), the natural body (>. 44), image of the earthly Adam (>. 49). It is not the substance of flesh and blood that is excluded from heaven, but their mortal accidents, bodily needs, and passions -thence resulting. Corruption here means the corruptible body, as such, with all the train of evils attendant there- upon, both moral evils, which go by the name of the flesh in the bad sense of that term, and more particu- larly, the physical frailty and perishableness of our mortal frame." Notes on St Paul in h. 1.
§ Materia corporis humani aninue human* subjicietur mnino.
will be replenished with a spiritual brightness, so by an overflow from soul to body, the body itself, in its way, will be clad in a halo and glory of brightness. Hence the Apostle says: // is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory (i Cor. xv, 43): because our body, which now has no light of its own, shall then be bright and shining, according to the promise: The just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt, xiii, 43).
II. sAgility. The soul that shall enjoy the vision of God, being conjoined to its last end, will find its desire fulfilled in all things. And because the body moves at the desire of the soul, the body in this case will absolutely obey the beck of the spirit in its every command to move: hence the bodies of the risen will be agile; and this is what the Apostle means, when he says: // is sown in weakness: it shall rise in power (ib.) We experience weakness in the body, in that it proves incapable of satisfying the soul in the movements and adtions which the soul commands. This weakness shall then be entirely removed by virtue overflowing into the body from the soul united to God. Hence it is said of the just that they shall run hither and thither like sparks in a dry bed of reeds (Wisd. iii, 7).
III. Impassibility. As the soul that enjoys God will have its desire fulfilled in respedt of the gaining of all good, so also in respedt of the removal of all evil. The body therefore, being made perfect in proportion to the soul, shall be free from all evil, adtual and potential. As for actuality, there will be in the risen no corruption, no deformity, no defedt In point of potentiality, the risen Saints will be beyond the possibility of suffering aught that could give them pain: they will thus be impassible. Still this does not bar in them that sensibility which is proper to sentient beings: for they will use the senses to their delight in things that are not inconsistent with their state of incorrup- tion. This impassibility is declared by the Apostle: 2/ is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption.
IV. Subtlety.* As the soul enjoying God shall perfedtly adhere to Him, and share in His goodness to the full height of its capacity; so the body shall be perfedtly subjedt to the soul, and share in its attributes so far as possible, in clearness of sense, in seemliness of bodily appetite, and in general perfedtion of the entire organism: for a natural objedt is more perfedt, the more perfedtly its matter is subjedt to its form. Therefore the Apostle says (1 Cor. xv, 44): There is sown an animal body, there shall rise a spiritual body. The risen body will be spiritual, not as being a spirit, but as being wholly subjedt to the spirit; as the present body is called animal, not because it is an animal, f but because it is subjedt to animal appetites and needs food.
It appears by what has been said that the risen body shall be bright and shining, incapable of suffering, moving without difficulty and labour, and most perfedtly adtuated by its form.
* The fourth property is usually called ' subtlety.' shut" (John xx, 19). This is the property of ' subtle- st Thomas does not use the name, but indicates what ty,' whereby a glorified body passes through ob- is meant by it in the next chapter (Chap. LXXXVII), stacks with the freedom of a spirit, where he assigns as the " place of glorified bodies " Is the heaven of glorified bodies in some remote the region ahdte all the heavens (Eph. iv, 10), by star? Or is it in some unknown dimensions of space? which he understands the solid crystal spheres which There is a mystery in that cloud which receded him carry the stars. Then to the difficulty, " that these out of their sight (Ads i, 9); and in those clouds of heavenly spheres cannot be broken, for the glorified heaven in which he shall com again (Matt, xxvi, 64: bodies to rise above them," he answers: "Theglori- A&s i, 11).
fied bodies will be compenetrable with other bodies, t This remark hardly fits the Greek, <r&pa of which we have evidence in the Body of Christ, \pvxucov, which is better illustrated by ^vguroc which came in to the disciples rohen the doors were AvOpviroc (1 Cor. ii, 14).
CHAPTER LXXXVIII-Qf Sex and Age in the Resurre&ion STILL we must not suppose, what some have thought, that female sex has no place in the bodies of the risen Saints. For since resurre&ion means the reparation of the defedts of nature, nothing of what makes for the perfe6tion of nature will be withdrawn from the bodies of the risen. Now among other organs that belong to the integrity of the human body are those which minister to generation as well in male as in female. These organs therefore will rise again in both. Nor is this conclusion impaired by the fadt that there will be no longer any use of these organs (Chap. LXXXIII). If that were any ground for their absence from the risen body, all the organs bearing on digestion and nutrition should be absent, for there will not be any use for them either: thus great part of the organs proper to man would be wanting in the risen body. We conclude that all such organs will be there, even organs of which the fun&ion has ceased: these will not be there with- out a purpose, since they will serve to make up the restored integrity of the natural body.* Neither is the weakness of the female sex inconsistent with the perfec- tion of the resurre&ion. Such weakness is no departure from nature, but is intended by nature.f This natural differentiation will argue the thorough- going perfe&ion of nature, and commend the divine wisdom that arranges creation in diversity of ranks and orders. Nor is there anything to the con- trary in the expression of the Apostle: Till we all meet and attain to the unity of faith and recognition of the Son of God, even to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. iv, 13). This docs not mean that in that meet- ing in which the risen shall go forth to meet Christ in the air \ every one shall be of the male sex, but it indicates the perfedtion and strength of the Church, for the whole Church shall be like a perfedt, full-grown man, going out to meet Christ.§ Again, all must rise at the age of Christ, || which is the age of perfect manhood, for the sake of the perfection of nature, which is at its best in this age above others.
* And surely it it becoming that the arms of good men may be made perfect in Catholic unity; righteousness (Rom. vi, 13: 2 Cor. vi, 7) should re- but the text has no immediate bearing on the resur- main to the risen warrior. rection of the body. The schoolmen are not at their t The celebrated saying about the mas accidentatus best in exegesis, occurs in Aristotle, T>e gen. animal. B. II, iii, 1 8, to § Rather the converse of the usual Scriptural yap dij\v kxr/rfp appiy iarl -K€wi\pm\dvov. St Thomas figure, — Matt, xxv, 6: Apoc. xix, 7: xxi, 2: besides seems to have had it in mind here to repudiate it. the long passage in the same Epistle, Eph. v, 23-32. Whatever is 'intended by nature' is per se and not The perfetl man of Eph. iv, 13, is explained by the per acc idens. contrast vi babes in the next verse: cf. Heb. v, 13, X The reference is to I Thess. iv, 17, where how- 14, where the same contrast recurs, ever the subject is not 4 the risen,* but toe who fiye, || In atate Christi, a conclusion suggested by who are left behind, who seem to be contrasted with atatis plenitud'tnis Cbristi (V ulgate, 1. c). The intrin- ' the risen ' in the previous verse 16, as also in 1 Cor. sic appropriateness of this conclusion is more striking xv, 51 (Greek): 2 Cor. v, 4. Really this 1 Thess. than its exegetical cogency. It is commonly held by iv, 17, is not a parallel passage to Eph. iv, 13. From Catholics, although not with the certitude of faith, what the Apostle says in the latter passage we are led Nor is it devoid of philosophical significance: cf. B. to hope that the divisions of Christendom may one II, Chap. LXXV, B. II, Chap. LXXXI, with notes, day be healed, and the imperfect faith of so many 4» GOD &■ HIS CREATURES BOOK IV CHAPTER LXXXIX-Ofthe quality of Risen Bodies in the Lost THE bodies of those who are to be lost must be proportionate to their souls. Now the souls of the wicked have a nature which is good, as created by God: but the will in them will be disorderly, falling short of its proper end. Their bodies therefore, so far as nature goes, will be re- stored to entirety: thus they will rise at a perfect age without any diminution of organs or limbs, and without any defect or detriment, which any malfor- mation or sickness may have brought on. Hence the Apostle says: The dead shall rise incorrupt (i Cor. xv, 52): and that this is to be understood of all men, good and bad alike, is clear from the context.* But inasmuch as their soul will have its will turned away from God and deprived of its proper end, their bodies will not be spiritual (1 Cor. xv, 44), in the sense of being wholly subject to the spirit, but rather their soul will be in effect carnal. Nor will their bodies be agile, obeying the soul without difficulty, but rather pon- derous and heavy and insupportable to the soul, even as their souls are by disobedience turned away from God. Their bodies will remain liable to suffer- ing, even as now, or more so: they will suffer affliction from sensible things, but not corruption; as their souls will be tormented by the natural desire of happiness made frustrate. Their bodies too will be opaque and darksome, as their souls will be void of the light of divine knowledge. This is the mean- ing of what the Apostle says, that we shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed (1 Cor. xv, 51): for the good alone shall be changed to glory, and the bodies of the wicked shall rise without glory, t Some may think it impossible for the bodies of the wicked to be liable to suffering, and yet not liable to disintegration, since every impression suffered, when it goes beyond the common, takes off from the substance: so we see that if a body is long kept in the fire, it will be entirely consumed; and when pain becomes unusually intense, the soul is separated from the body. But all this happens on the supposition of the transmutability of matter from form to form. Now the human body, after the resurredtion, will not be transmutable from form to form, either in the good or in the wicked; because in both it will be entirely perfefted by the soul in respe6t of its natural being. J * This interpretation rests on the Vulgate read- ing of 1 Cor. xv, 51, and is sound theology, even though it be not correct exegesis: that is to say, the opinion is theologically right, though St Paul did not say so there.