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Roman Catechism
The Condition of the Risen Body Shall be Different
It now remains for the faithful to understand how the body, when raised from the dead, although substantially the same body that had been dead, shall be vastly different and changed in its condition.
IMMORTALITY
To omit other points, the chief difference between the state of all bodies when risen from the dead and what they had previously been is that before the resurrection they were subject to dissolution, but when reanimated they shall all, without distinction of good and bad, be invested with immortality.
This admirable restoration of nature, as the Scriptures testify, is the result of the glorious victory of Christ over death. For it is written: He shall cast death down headlong for ever,36 and, O death! I will be thy death.37 Explaining these words the Apostle says: And the enemy death shall be destroyed last;38 and St. John also says: Death shall be no more.39
It was most fitting that the sin of Adam should be far exceeded by the merit of Christ the Lord, who overthrew the empire of death. It was also in keeping with divine justice, that the good should enjoy endless felicity, while the wicked, condemned to everlasting torments, shall seek death, and shall not find it, shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them.40 Immortality, therefore, will be common to the good and to the bad.
THE QUALITIES OF A GLORIFIED BODY
In addition to this, the bodies of the risen Saints will be distinguished by certain transcendent endowments, which will ennoble them far beyond their former condition. Among these endowments four are specially mentioned by the Fathers, which they infer from the doctrine of St. Paul, and which are called gifts.
IMPASSIBILITY
The first endowment or gift is impassibility, which shall place them beyond the reach of suffering anything disagreeable or of being affected by pain or inconvenience of any sort. Neither the piercing severity of cold, nor the glowing intensity of heat, nor the impetuosity of waters can hurt them. It is sown says the Apostle, in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption.41 This quality the Schoolmen call impassibility, not incorruption, in order to distinguish it as a property peculiar to a glorified body. The bodies of the damned, though incorruptible, will not be impassible; they will be capable of experiencing heat and cold and of suffering various afflictions.
BRIGHTNESS
The next quality is brightness, by which the bodies of the Saints shall shine like the sun, according to the words of our Lord recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew: The just shall shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father.42 To remove the possibility of doubt on the subject, He exemplifies this in His Transfiguration.43 This quality the Apostle sometimes calls glory, sometimes brightness: He will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory;43 and again, It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory.44 Of this glory the Israelites beheld some image in the desert, when the face of Moses, after he had enjoyed the presence and conversation of God, shone with such lustre that they could not look on it.45
This brightness is a sort of radiance reflected on the body from the supreme happiness of the soul. It is a participation in that bliss which the soul enjoys just as the soul itself is rendered happy by a participation in the happiness of God.
Unlike the gift of impassibility, this quality is not common to all in the same degree. All the bodies of the Saints will be equally impassible; but the brightness of all will not be the same, for, according to the Apostle, One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars, for star differeth from star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead.46
AGILITY
To the preceding quality is united that which is called agility, by which the body will be freed from the heaviness that now presses it down, and will take on a capability of moving with the utmost ease and swiftness, wherever the soul pleases, as St. Augustine teaches in his book On the City of God47, and St. Jerome On Isaias.48 Hence these words of the Apostle: It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power.49
SUBTILITY
Another quality is that of subtility, which subjects the body to the dominion of the soul, so that the body shall be subject to the soul and ever ready to follow her desires. This quality we learn from these words of the Apostle: It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body.50
These are the principal points which should be dwelt on in the exposition of this Article.
36. Isa 25:8
37. Hosea 13:14
38. 1 Cor 15:26
39. Rev 21:4
40. Rev 9:6
41. 1 Cor 15:42
41. Matt 13:43
42. Matt 15:2
43. Phil 3:21
44. 1 Cor 15:43
45. Ex 34:29; 2 Cor 3:7
46. 1 Cor 15:21-22
47. De Civ. Dei. lib xiii., c. 18, 20
48. In Isaiam, cap. 40.
49. 1 Cor 15:43
50. 1 Cor 15:44