THE IMPASSIBILITY AND IMMORTALITY OF THE RISEN BODY.
Besides the attributes which immediately flow from the fact that our
animal bodies will rise spiritualized, there are two more qualities,
which we shall now consider; namely, the impassibility and
immortality of our risen bodies.
1. Impassibility implies the total loss of the power of suffering.
What an enormous capacity we have for suffering! The power of
receiving pleasure through our senses is only as a drop in the ocean,
when compared to our manifold capacities for suffering, in every
faculty of the soul, in every organ, member, and nerve of our frame.
Every one of them is susceptible of tortures, which, while endured,
make the enjoyment of life and its pleasures impossible. A violent
headache or a burning fever drives a man almost to distraction, and
destroys any pleasure he might otherwise experience. What
consolation, therefore, to think that this body of suffering shall
rise impassible! No more disease; no more pain or pang; no more
suffering either of mind or body; for we shall enter a new world from
which suffering is forever banished. St. John had a glimpse of this
new world, when he said: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For
the first heaven and the first earth were gone.... And I heard a
great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God
with men, and He shall dwell with them.... And God shall wipe away
all the tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor
mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former
things are passed away."*
* Apoc. xxi.
It was the thought of rising in glory, with a body free from
suffering, that gave comfort to the holy man Job when the storm of
adversity had burst upon him. Listen to his beautiful words: "I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day, I shall rise out of the
earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I
shall see my God. Whom I myself shall see, and not another. This my
hope is laid up in my bosom."* Lay up that hope in your bosom as he
did, and when the storm of adversity bursts upon you, the thought of
rising in a glorified, impassible body, and in a new world, will give
you patience and resignation.
* Job xix.
But rising with the gift of impassibility does not mean that our
bodies will be unfeeling as marble statues. It only means that they
shall be free from the power of suffering; but that does not exclude
the power of receiving pleasure. Glory does not destroy nature, but
perfects it. The bodies of the blessed will remain sensible to
impressions from suitable objects, and, according to St. Thomas, the
blessed will use their senses for enjoyment in all that is not
repugnant to a state of incorruption.*
* . . . . Et corpus igitur perfectum per animam proportionabiliter
animæ, immune erit ab omni malo, et quantum ad actum, et quantum ad
potentiam: quantum ad actum quidem, quia nulla erit in eis corruptio,
nulla deformitas, nullus defectus: quantum ad potentiam vero quia non
poterunt aliquid pati quod sit eis molestum, et propter hoc
impassibilia erunt; quæ tamen impassibilitas non excludit ab eis
passionem quæ est de ratione sensus; utentor enim sensibus ad
delectationem secundum illa quæ statui incorruptionis non
repugnant.--S. Thom., Cont. gent., lib. 4, c. 86.
2. We now come to consider the crowning glory of all the glorious
supernatural attributes wherewith God will clothe our bodies on the
last day. I say it is the crowning glory. For the splendor of form,
the vigor of youth, and the complete perfection of our human
nature--which are all included in the promise of rising conformable
to the glorified body of Jesus Christ--would scarcely be worth
working for or possessing, unless they were accompanied with the
promise of incorruptibility. Indeed, of what use would be the rising
with the bloom of youth and health on our cheek, and in perfect
beauty of form, if time could again destroy them--as in this world!
But there is no danger that the destroyer will ever enter our
heavenly home. Listen to St. Paul. Speaking again of the body, he
says: "It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption."*
* 1 Cor. xv 42.
Our bodies, as now constituted, are corruptible by their very nature.
The elements of matter which compose them are held together by the
laws of life, and not by their natural affinities. Hence, from the
very first moment of our existence to our death, there is a continual
struggle between the laws of life and those that govern inorganic
matter. For a time, vigorous young life claims the supremacy, and the
body grows to its degree of beauty and strength attainable in this
world. But full soon the laws of decay and corruption begin to assert
their empire. Beauty of feature and form gradually fade away;
elasticity of limb gives way to the decrepitude of old age, and
finally the whole frame becomes a burden under which nature groans
and totters, until it falls into the gloomy grave, where corruption
destroys every remaining vestige of beauty, and even of the human
form. On the resurrection day, we not only shall rise in splendor and
perfection of form, but we shall also be transferred to another
world, whose laws are in perfect harmony with the laws of life, and
into which corruption shall never enter.
In the present world, we already see things which, as far as we know
nature's laws, are incorruptible. The diamond, for instance, is the
most incorruptible of all known substances; and unless the now
existing laws of nature should change, the splendid Koh-i-noor and
other diamonds will glitter as brilliantly as they now do, when the
angel sounds the trumpet to announce to the world that time shall be
no more. These beautiful gems are therefore a faint image of our
glorified bodies, which shall not only rise in perfection of form,
but shall also be totally incorruptible. They shall forever be beyond
the reach of death, decay, or corruption, resplendent in themselves,
and increasing the very beauty of heaven, as sparkling gems enhance
the beauty of a royal crown.
Yes, this vile and corruptible body must be changed into an
incorruptible one. It must rise like the body of Jesus Christ, who,
"rising again from the dead, dies no more; death shall no more have
dominion over Him."* According to the beautiful and forcible words of
the Apostle: "This corruptible must put on incorruption; and this
mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal hath put on
immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O
death, where is thy sting?"+
* Rom. 'vi. 9. + 1 Cor. xv. 53.
These, then, are some of the supernatural gifts wherewith God will
clothe the bodies of the just on the last day. They are so great in
themselves, that it would almost seem they should be worth working
for even if there were no Beatific Vision. Yet, if taken separately,
they are, so to speak, the mere external ornaments and finish of the
happiness which heart of man cannot conceive. These glorious
attributes of the risen body perfect and complete the happiness of
man. As the soul and body reunited in glory form one human creature,
so the happiness of the soul and body is one. After the resurrection,
the beatitude of heaven can no longer be separated into the happiness
of the soul in the Beatific Vision, and then the pleasures of the
body through the glorified senses, as if there were two distinct
beatitudes, or as if the soul and body were two distinct individuals.
Whatever happiness comes from the union of the soul with God in the
Beatific Vision, and whatever pleasures may reach the soul through
the glorified senses, or from our communion with the saints, or the
contemplation of the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ, the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and other saints, it is all one happiness enjoyed by our
human nature, which is one.