Chapter 86 — The quality of glorified bodies

Although, by the merits of Christ, the defect of nature will be taken away from all (both good and bad) in the resurrection, there will still be a difference between good and bad as regards things that belong to them personally. Now it pertains to nature that the human soul is the body’s form, quickening and preserving it in being; but it is by personal deeds that the soul merits to be raised to the glory of the beatific vision, or to be excluded from this glory on account of sin. Accordingly, the bodies of all without exception will be disposed in a manner becoming the soul, so that the incorruptible form will impart its incorruptible being to the body, notwithstanding the latter’s formation from contrary elements. For by the divine power, the matter of the human body will be altogether subject to the soul in that respect. Besides this, on account of the glory and power of the soul when raised to the vision of God, the body united to it will acquire something more. For the divine power will have the effect of making the body wholly subject to the soul not only in its being, but also in its actions, and passions, and movements, and bodily qualities.

Accordingly, just as the soul that enjoys the sight of God will be filled with spiritual brightness, so (by a kind of overflow from the soul to the body) the latter will be clothed with the brightness of glory in its own way. Hence the Apostle says: It is sown, namely the body, in dishonor, it is raised in glory (1 Cor 15:43), because now this body of ours is impervious to light, whereas then it will be full of light: Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:43).

Again, the soul which will enjoy the sight of God, united to its last end, will find its every desire fulfilled; since the body moves in obedience to the soul’s desire, the result will be that the body’s movements will be in perfect obedience to the spirit. Hence the bodies of the blessed after the resurrection will be agile, and this is indicated by the Apostle: It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power (1 Cor 15:43). For we feel the body’s weakness when we find it unable to satisfy the soul’s desire in the movements and actions commanded by the soul. This weakness will then be wholly removed, because the body will receive an overflow of power from the soul united to God. Hence again is it said of the just that they will run like sparks through the stubble (Wis 3:7). Their movements, however, will not be occasioned by need, since those who possess God need nothing, but they will be exhibitions of power.

Moreover, just as the soul that enjoys God will have its desire fulfilled through having obtained possession of all good, so also will its desire be fulfilled as to the removal of all evil, since there can be no evil where the sovereign good is. Accordingly, the body that is perfected by that soul will, in conformity with it, be free from all evil, both in act and in potency. It will be so in act, since in it there will be neither corruption, nor deformity, nor defect of any kind; it will be so in potency, since nothing will be able to do it any harm, and thus it will be impassible. This impassibility, however, does not imply insensibility: for they will use their senses for such pleasures as are not incompatible with a state of incorruption. The Apostle indicates this state of impassibility, when he says: What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable (1 Cor 15:42).

Again. The soul that enjoys God will adhere to him most completely, and will participate in his goodness in the highest degree possible that is consistent with its mode of being. Therefore, the body will be perfectly subject to the soul and it will share in the soul’s properties, as far as possible, in acuteness of sense, in the orderliness of the bodily appetite, and in the superlative perfection of its nature. For a thing is so much the more perfect in nature as its matter is more completely subject to its form. Hence the Apostle says: It is sown an animal body; it shall rise a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:44). In the resurrection, the body will be spiritual—not that it will be a spirit, as some wrongly understood (whether ‘spirit’ means a spiritual substance, or air, or wind), but because it will be completely subject to the spirit. Even so, we speak of the animal body—not that it is an animal, but because it is subject to animal passions and needs food.

From the foregoing it follows that just as man’s soul will be raised to the glory of the heavenly spirits by seeing God in his essence, as above stated, (Bk. 3, ch. 51.) so will his body be uplifted to the properties of the heavenly bodies in brightness, impassibility, easy and unwearying movement, and perfection by its most perfect form. This is what the Apostle meant when he said that man will rise again with a celestial body: celestial indeed not in nature, but in glory. Hence, after saying that there are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies, he adds that the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another (1 Cor 15:40). And just as the glory to which the human soul is uplifted surpasses the natural power of the heavenly spirits, as we have proved, (Bk. 3, ch. 53.) so does the glory of risen bodies surpass the natural perfection of heavenly bodies in greater brightness, more changeless impassibility, and more perfect agility and dignity of nature.