Sermon 277
SERMO 277
ON THE FEAST OF THE MARTYR VINCENT
(In which it is disputed concerning the spiritual body after the resurrection, and whether God can be seen by the eyes of such a body).
[DRESSED IN THE RESTORED BASILICA]
The invincible body of Vincent. The relics of the saints for the consolation of the faithful. The bodies of the saints given to the churches as remembrances of prayers, not for the glories of the martyrs.
We awaited the Martyr struggling with the eyes of faith, and we loved all invisibly beautiful. For what kind of beauty did the spirit have, whose corpse was also invincible? He confessed the Lord while alive: he overcame the enemy even in death. What do we think, brothers, that this honor and the providence and counsel of the almighty Creator carried even to the deceased body, provided something to the Martyr? Why? if he were not buried, did He not know where he would be resurrected from? To him, both the crown in victory and eternal life in the resurrection are preserved. But from his body, a memory of consolation was provided to the Church. Thus, often God grants from His servants to His servants with a certain dignity, giving what benefits more to him to whom it is given than to him from whom it is given. Thus, God fed the holy Elijah through a bird: but the mercy and omnipotence of God did not fail, so as always to feed him in this way. However, he was sent to be fed by a widow: not because there was no way for the servant of God to be fed, but so that the faithful widow might deserve a blessing. He granted, therefore, the bodies of the saints to His Churches as memorials of prayers, not to the glories of the martyrs. For they have their whole glory with their Creator. Nor do they fear anything for the body itself, for there is nothing to fear. More if they spare the body, they harm even the body. If, however, they do not spare the body through faith, they benefit even the body.
The martyr, by not sparing the body, benefits himself. Judgment, for eternal punishment.
Behold, listen to this, and question your faith. If Saint Vincent, out of fear of torments, denied Christ, it might seem that he spared his body: under a certain mortal condition, he would be released by the body. What would he do at the resurrection, when he would be cast into eternal fire? Denying Christ, he is denied by Christ. "Whoever denies me," he says, "before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven." Behold, he would deny, those torturers would rest, and with his soul wounded, his body would be healthy; or rather with the soul killed, the body would live: what use would a brief life of the body be to one eternally dead? The day would come, which the Lord recalls, when all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and will come out: but with a great difference. All will come out, but not all to the same purpose. All will rise, but not all will be changed. For those who have done good, he says, will rise to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. When he says: "All who are in the graves," he undoubtedly manifests the resurrection of bodies. But when you hear of judgment, do not flatter yourself as if it were a temporal judgment; judgment is placed for eternal punishment. It is said according to this: "Whoever does not believe is already judged." This difference, therefore, will separate the just from the unjust, the faithful from the unfaithful, the confessors from the deniers, the lovers of perishable life from the lovers of eternal life; that difference will separate them. And the just will go into eternal life, but the impious into eternal fire. There they will be tormented with the body, who spared the body. For fearing bodily torments, they spared the body; and by sparing the body, they denied Christ; and by denying Christ, they have also reserved eternal punishments for the body. If they postponed them, did they take them away?
The martyrs did not despise the body, but took good care of it.
Therefore, the martyrs of Christ did not despise their own bodies prudently. It is a perverse and worldly philosophy of those who do not believe in the resurrection of the body. For they seem to themselves to be great despisers of the body, because they view the body as a prison in which they think souls are confined due to sins committed elsewhere. But our God created both body and spirit; He is the creator of both, and the recreator of both; the originator of both, and also the restorer of both. Therefore, the martyrs did not regard the flesh as an enemy, nor did they despise or persecute it. For no one ever hated his own flesh. Rather, they took care of it, even when they seemed to neglect it: when they steadfastly endured temporary torments in it, they secured eternal glory even for that flesh.
The glory of the body after the resurrection. The health of the body, the harmony of those things of which it consists.
But who can explain in words what the future glory of this flesh will be in the resurrection? None of us has yet experienced it. Now we bear burdensome flesh: because it is needy, because it is weak, because it is mortal, because it is corruptible. For the corruptible body weighs down the soul. But do not fear this in the resurrection. This corruptible body must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. What is now a burden will be an honor: what is now a load will then be a relief. For it will not have weight, so that you feel you have a body. Beloved, see: when our body is healthy, even this fragile and mortal one, when it is moderated by the temperance of its parts, when nothing in it contends against another; heat does not overcome and oppress the cold, the abundance of cold does not extinguish the fervor, and, while struggling, afflicts; dryness does not absorb moisture, nor does moisture inundate and oppress; but all the things which make it up are balanced by a harmonious joining, which is called health. Briefly put, the health of the body is the harmony of those parts which make it up. Therefore, this health, that is, the harmony of members and humors in a corruptible thing, in a needy and weak thing, in a thing that can still hunger and thirst, stand and tire, sit and be refreshed, again tire from sitting, weaken from hunger, refresh from eating; not aiding past exhaustions without beginning others: for whatever else you take for refreshment when weary, is the beginning of another weariness; because in the thing you took to help, if you persist, you will also tire: therefore, in this weak and corruptible body, what is this so-called health? For this health, which is called health in mortal and corruptible flesh, in no way can be compared to the health of Angels, whose equality is promised to us in the resurrection.
This health, however, as I said, however kind it is, what delight does it have, which is a desirable good for all? How great a thing does the poor man have, when he has this alone; how great a thing does the rich man not have, when he does not have this alone? Why does he boast of abundance? Fever does not fear a silver bed: it does not fear the pomp of a rich man, it does not fear the weapons of a warrior.
Health is to feel nothing, namely troublesome and burdensome.
What then is this health itself, which the martyrs rightly despised, because they hoped for another in the same flesh? However, because we have not yet experienced that one, from the one we know, let us conjecture about it somehow. What is health? If you say to me, "What is seeing?" as far as the body is concerned, I will perhaps respond to you, perceiving shapes and colors. If you say to me, "What is hearing?" I will respond, perceiving sounds. If you say, "What is smelling?" I will respond, perceiving odors. What is touching? Perceiving hard or soft, hot or cold, rough and smooth, heavy or light. What is health? Perceiving nothing. But even these very things in us now become insignificant in comparison to others. You see sharply: perhaps the eagle sees more sharply than you. You hear sharply: there are little beasts that hear more sharply. You smell sharply: you do not surpass the keen-scented dog. You judge tastes sharply by tasting them: there are animals that discern unfamiliar herbs and do not touch what is harmful. For, however sharply you discern food, you rashly rush into poison. You perceive sharply by touching: how many birds sense the coming summer and change their locations; they sense that winter is approaching, and migrate to warmer places? What you feel when it comes, they sense before it arrives. And this very thing which I praised in health, the stone, the tree, the corpse perceive nothing.
Dacian raging against the dead body. To live in the body, and to feel nothing of its burden, is to be healthy. The burden of the body always remains in this life.
For that governor Dacian in his heart felt nothing, when he raged against a senseless corpse? For what indeed was he doing now to one who felt nothing, who could also be overcome by one who felt? Yet he did whatever he could, and he did it angrily. But he who now felt nothing in public, was crowned in secret. For he held to the sentence of his Lord: who wished to make us secure about those who kill the body: "Do not," he says, "fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do." How do they have nothing more they can do afterward, when that madman did so many things to Vincent's body? But what did he do to Vincent, who even feeling nothing, did nothing to him? Therefore, it is not that he did not feel like a stone, like a tree, like a corpse; but to live in the body and feel nothing of its burden, this is to be healthy. And yet, however healthy a man may be in this life, he also feels the weight of a healthy body. Even a healthy body, which is corrupted, that is, corruptible, weighs down the soul. It weighs down the soul, that is, it does not obey the soul at every command of the will. It obeys in many things: it moves the hands to work, the feet to walk, the tongue to speak, the eyes to see, and directs the hearing to perceive sounds: in all these things the body obeys. The desire to change place feels the burden, feels the weight: the body is not moved with such ease to reach where it desires. Someone desires to see a friend while established in the body, and knows him to be far away, with many dwellings between: the mind has already gone ahead, when the body arrives, it then feels what sort of burden it carries. The weight of the flesh could not obey the presumed speed of the will: it could not be snatched away with the speed it wished, as the mind carries it. It is slow and burdensome.
One must seek something in this body from which the swiftness of the future spiritual body is understood.
Do we think that the body itself has something from which the speed of the body can be proven? Shall we say the feet? What is slower? They themselves are the ones that make progress, and desires scarcely follow, and achievements reach through toiling. But let anyone be as swift as some animals, whose speed is not to be compared to ours; let anyone be as swift as birds: he does not reach his goal as quickly as he wished. Birds fly for a long time when migrating, and sometimes, weary, they perch on trees or ships. Therefore, even if we could fly like birds, we would still be slow due to our desire to reach our destination. But when the body becomes spiritual, as it is said: "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body"; how much ease, how much swiftness, how much obedience to the will shall there be? In nothing shall there be weight, in nothing need, in nothing fatigue, in nothing resistance and struggling from another part.
It must be said about the spiritual body on occasion.
What kind of body was it which the Lord carried through barriers? Consider, I entreat you, if by God’s help I may with whatever words fulfill your expectation or not fall far short. An occasion has arisen for us to discuss something about the spiritual body from the martyr's passion, from whom we saw and marveled at the body's disregard for torments. For we said that by not sparing the body, he was indeed taking care of it: lest by fleeing temporal pains and denying Christ, the same body should be destined for eternal and most atrocious punishments. Hence, desiring to exhort you and myself to despise present things and hope for the future: "For in this tabernacle we groan being burdened," and yet we do not wish to die, and we fear to be unclothed from the weight; "for we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by life." Therefore on this occasion I have undertaken to speak to you something about the spiritual body, and I first thought it proper to commend the very health of this frail and corruptible body, that from it we might find something great. We find in this very health that we feel nothing. For we have many things within in our intestines; who among us would know them unless he saw them in mangled bodies? Our vitals, our inner parts, which are called intestines, how do we know them? And it is good when we do not feel them. For when we do not feel them, we are healthy. You say to someone, "Take care of your stomach." He answers you, "What is a stomach?" Blessed ignorance: he does not know he has it, which he always has in good health. If he did not have it in good health, he would feel it: if he felt it, he would not know it to his advantage.
The speed of celestial bodies. The bodies of angels.
But although we come with praiseworthy bodily health to the swiftness of motion, we find ourselves somewhat leaden. How great is the speed of heavenly bodies? Do you wish to know how great it is? You observe the sun, and it seems to you as if it does not move, and yet it moves. Perhaps you say: It moves, but slowly. Do you wish to know at what speed it moves? Do you wish to reason out what you do not perceive by sight? If someone were to run a straight path from the east to the west of this earth with the fastest horses, in how many days would they arrive? With whatever speed of horses they would be carried, how many stops would they make? The distance of the journey from the beginning of the east to the end of the west, the sun, which seems to you to stand still, covers in one day, and in one night it returns to the east. I do not wish to say, because it is obscure and difficult to persuade, or perhaps uncertain, how much broader celestial spaces are than terrestrial ones. When, therefore, we see such great speed of heavenly bodies, which appear to us when observed to not move, to what speed can we compare the angelic body? They were also present, and whenever they willed, they presented themselves to be seen and touched. Abraham washed the feet of Angels. Not only did he wash those bodies, but he even handled them. They appeared, as they wanted, when they wanted, to whom they wanted. They feel no difficulty, no slowness at all. But we do not see them running, we do not see them moving from place to place, so that we may know them departing from the sight of men: whenever they wanted, they arrived. Therefore, there is no evident example of this speed for us to provide. Let us omit the unknown, and dare to presume nothing rashly about the untested.
The rays of the eye's speed.
In this very body, which we carry, I find something whose ineffable swiftness I marvel at. What is this? The ray of our eye, with which we touch whatever we see. For whatever you see, you touch with the ray of your eye. If you wish to see farther, and some object is interposed, the ray strikes the obstructing object and is not permitted to pass to what you desire to see; and you say to the one obstructing, "Move, you are blocking me." You want to see the column, a man stands in the middle, obstructing your vision. Your ray is emitted, but it reaches up to the man, and it is not allowed to reach the column. It runs into something else, it is not permitted. Behold, he who was obstructing you has moved away, and your vision reaches where it wants. Now examine, and if you can, find and answer whether this vision, this ray of your eye reaches the near object faster and the distant one slower. You saw a man standing nearby, you saw him with the same effort, you extended the ray of your eye to him with the same effort, you reached him with the ray of your eye with the same effort as you reached that column you wanted to see, and because the man was interposed, you could not: not sooner to him, and later to the column; and behold, he was nearby, and the column farther away. If you wished to walk, you would reach the man sooner than the column: because you wished to see, you reached the man as soon as the column. There is nothing about the column and the man. Cast your eyes further, you see a wall in the distance: cast them farther still, you reach the sun. How far is it between you and the sun? Who can measure those intervals? Who can estimate with any precision of thought how far the sun is from you? And yet as soon as you opened your eye, behold, you are here, your ray is there. As soon as you desired to see, by seeing you reached it. You did not seek machines to support yourself, not ladders to climb, not ropes to lift yourself, not wings to fly. Opening the eye is reaching.
The resurrection is compared to the speed of rays emitted from the eye.
What then is this speed? How great is it? What does it mean? It belongs to our body, it is emitted from our flesh. We have rays and we do not wonder. We use sight, but we are astonished upon considering. You do not find something comparable to this speed, as far as bodily speed is concerned. Rightly did the apostle Paul compare the ease of resurrection to this speed, saying: In the blink of an eye. It is a blink of an eye, not in the closing and opening of eyelids: for this is done more slowly than it seems. You raise an eyelid more slowly than you direct a ray. Your ray reaches heaven more quickly than a raised eyelid reaches the eyebrow. You see what a blink of an eye is: you see what ease the Apostle has assigned to the resurrection of bodies. How slowly were these things created and formed? Let us recall the delays of conception, and the seeds of little ones coalescing in the very wombs of mothers; members formed over time, on set days, over many months, until that which is created and formed within is brought forth into the light. Then how slowly it grows, how slowly adolescence follows childhood, youth follows adolescence, old age follows youth, death follows all. Another delay is added: the fresh corpse is seen whole, it dissolves into decay; and even for that dissolution, time is necessary until it flows down into rot, until it dries into ash: and from the very beginnings in the womb until the final ash of the grave, how great is the delay? How many days? What spaces of time? It comes to rise again, and in the blink of an eye it is restored.
From the facility of the future resurrection is to be understood the facility of the spiritual body. This is more wonderful in speed than the ray of the eye.
Therefore, listen, brothers, and compare what is to be compared with the things with which they are to be compared. This flesh moves faster in walking than it was formed, than it was nourished, than it grew, than it reached a youthful state, and attained full age and stature; it moves faster in walking than this happened in it. Moreover, the resurrection will occur in the blink of an eye: how great will be the speed of movement if the resurrection could be so fast? Bodies were torn apart by raging forces: even if the parts of the dead are scattered throughout the whole world, if ashes are dispersed over the entire earth; in the blink of an eye, everything that was scattered is restored from such a vast expanse. We marvel at the excessive and, unless we experienced it, unbelievable speed of our own rays that are emitted from our eyes: more marvelous is the ease in the spiritual body that is to come. Indeed, it will rise in the blink of an eye: but our Lord, which our eyesight cannot do, even passed His body through barriers. After the resurrection, to his disciples who were assembled in one place, He suddenly appeared with closed doors. Where we cannot see, He was able to enter. Let no one say, "Of course, He could do this, but with the Lord's body; will He also be able to do this with mine?" And take from the Spirit, who spoke through the Apostle, full security. For it was said of the Lord Himself: "He will transform the body of our humiliation to be like the body of His glory."
Will God be seen through a spiritual body? God cannot be seen in a place in the manner of a body.
Therefore, concerning this kind of body, concerning the great ease, great swiftness, great health of this body, let human frailty dare to define nothing rashly and presumptuously. What we shall be, we shall know when we shall have been. Before we are, let us not be rash, lest we be not. Sometimes human curiosity inquires, and says to itself: Do you think we will see God through that spiritual body? It can indeed be answered quickly: God is not seen in a place, God is not seen through parts, God is not seen spread out through spaces and separated by intervals. Although He fills heaven and earth, He is not therefore half in heaven and half on earth. For if this air fills heaven and earth, the part of it that is in heaven is not on earth. And whatever water fills, it indeed fills the space in which it is contained; but half of it is in half the space, and half in the other half, the whole in the whole. God is not such a thing. Do not doubt this at all, since God is not a body. To be spread out through spaces, contained by places, to have parts half and third and fourth and whole, is proper to bodies. God is not such at all; because God is wholly everywhere: not half here, and half there; but wholly everywhere. He fills heaven and earth: but He is wholly in heaven, wholly on earth. In the beginning was the Word. To hear also the same about the Son himself, because the Son is also one God with the Father: not equal in size, but in divinity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. And a little later: And the light shines in the darkness. This only-begotten wholly remaining with the Father, wholly shines in the darkness, wholly in heaven, wholly on earth, wholly in the Virgin, wholly in the infant; not by moving alternately from place to place. For you too are wholly in your house, and wholly in the church: but when you are in the church, you are not in your house; when you are in your house, you are not in the church. Therefore, He is not wholly in heaven, wholly on earth, wholly in the Virgin, wholly in the infant (to mention nothing else), as if migrating from heaven to earth, from earth to the Virgin, from the Virgin to the infant, but wholly everywhere at once. For He is not poured out like water, nor separated and transferred like earth. When He is wholly on earth, He does not leave heaven: and when He fills heaven, He does not depart from earth. For He reaches from end to end mightily, and arranges all things sweetly.
If a substance that cannot be seen in a place can be seen through a spiritual body, this is still unknown.
If therefore they will be able to see the substance, which is not seen in a place, with bodily eyes even when the body has become spiritual; if by some hidden power, some unexperienced and utterly unknown power, and not perceived by any understanding, they will be able, let them be able. For we see with our eyes, we do not envy with our eyes. Let us not attempt to lead God into a place, let us not attempt to enclose God in a place, let us not attempt to diffuse God through the spaces of places as if by some bulk; let us not dare this, let us not think this. Let the substance of divinity remain in its own proper dignity. Certainly, let us change for the better as much as we can, not change God for the worse. Especially because we do not find any definite thing about this in Scripture, or we have not yet found. For I do not even dare to presume that it is not in it what might be found. Either it is not, or it is hidden, or it is hidden from me. Whatever might be found by anyone on either side, I accept gladly, and unless I give thanks for being instructed, I will be ungrateful, not to the person speaking, but to Him who teaches through the person. However, may the Giver of grace never permit me to be ungrateful. I say only this, because eyes which see whatever they see through the intervals of places— that is, so that there is space between the seer and that which is seen; for otherwise these eyes do not see— for if you remove something very far from them, they do not see it because the rays do not reach far places; but if you bring something closer to them, unless there is some interval between the eyes of the seer and the body that is seen, it cannot be seen at all; for if by bringing it too close, you touch the very eyes with which something is seen, vision is lost due to the lost space: therefore, I say this, that such eyes, which see whatever they see only through intervals and spaces of places, can neither now see God nor then, because He is not in a place. Therefore, either it will be something else that they will be able to see, which cannot be seen in a place: or if they retain the inability to see except in a place, they will not see Him who is not in a place.
About the spiritual body, and what is now certain concerning the invisible nature of God.
However, until the spiritual body is more diligently inquired into, what is either understood or rightly believed, let us hold that the body will be resurrected, let us hold that the form of our body, this future form, will be what Christ has exhibited or promised in secret. Let us hold that the body will be spiritual, not animal, as it is now. For it is clearly expressed and cannot be contradicted: A natural body is sown, a spiritual body will rise. Let us hold that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of their own proper nature, their own proper substance, equally and equally invisible, because we equally and equally believe them to be immortal, we equally and equally believe them to be incorruptible. The Apostle placed these together in one place: Now to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, incorruptible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. God alone, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, immortal, invisible, incorruptible: not now invisible, and later visible; because not now incorruptible, and later corruptible. As always immortal, as always incorruptible; so also always invisible. If invisibility is changed, it must be feared lest immortality be changed. I think, for this reason the Apostle himself placed invisible in the middle, between immortal and incorruptible. Concerning which there could be doubt, he secured it on both sides.
Let us hold firmly to that unalterable confession. It is not the same to offend a creature and to offend the Creator. Certainly, let us inquire into the qualities of creatures by reasoning, and if we err in anything, let us walk in what we have reached. For then, if we think otherwise in anything, God will also reveal this to us. Hence, we discussed at greater length yesterday. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Let us strive in all ways to cleanse our hearts, let us be vigilant with all effort; with all prayer, as much as we can, let us beseech, so that we may cleanse the heart. And if we think of those things that are outside: “Cleanse, he says, the things that are inside, and the things that are outside will be clean.”
The vision of God, whether promised to the flesh. The salvation of God, Christ will be seen through the flesh. Christ will be seen by all flesh in judgment.
Perhaps it seems to someone that the testimony about the flesh is as clear as that about the heart: because it is written: Every flesh shall see the salvation of God. We have the clearest testimony about the heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. We also have it about the flesh: Every flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now who would doubt that the vision of God was promised to the flesh, unless it troubled, what is the salvation of God? Rather, because it does not trouble, for we are not doubtful: the salvation of God is Christ the Lord. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, if He were seen in His divinity alone, no one would doubt that the flesh would see the substance of God; because: Every flesh shall see the salvation of God. But because our Lord Jesus Christ can be seen both with the eyes of the pure, perfect, and God-filled heart as far as His divinity is concerned; yet He was also seen in the body, according to what is written: After this He was seen on earth and conversed with men: from where I know how it was said: Every flesh shall see the salvation of God? Because it was said that Christ would be seen, no one should doubt.
But whether in the body the Lord Christ, or just as He was in the beginning the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, is ambiguous, that is being asked. Do not press me with a single testimony; I quickly confess: Every flesh shall see the salvation of God. They say this means, Every flesh shall see the Christ of God. But Christ was seen also in the flesh, not indeed with a mortal flesh, if that spiritual transformation is still to be called flesh; because even He after the resurrection thus spoke to those seeing and touching: Touch and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. He will also be seen thus: not only was He seen, but He will also be seen. And perhaps then it will be fulfilled more perfectly what was said, every flesh. For now indeed flesh has seen Him, but not every flesh: but then at the judgment coming with His Angels to judge the living and the dead when all who are in the tombs hear His voice and come out, some to the resurrection of life, others to the resurrection of judgment, they will see that form, which He deemed worthy to assume for us, not only the just, but also the wicked, some on the right, some on the left; because even those who killed will see whom they pierced. Therefore, every flesh shall see the salvation of God. Body by body: because He will come in true body to judge. But to those positioned on the right, and sent into the kingdom of heaven, He will show Himself as He was already seen in the body: and yet He said: He who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. This the impious Jew will not see. For the wicked will be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God.
Simeon with his eyes saw the salvation of God. Christ visible in the future judgment.
Simeon, the just, saw him both with his heart, because he recognized the infant; and with his eyes, because he held the infant. Seeing him in both ways, recognizing the Son of God, and embracing the one born of the Virgin, he said: "Now, dismiss your servant, Lord, in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation." Notice what he said. He was held until he saw with his eyes the one he perceived by faith. He received the little body, he embraced the body; seeing the body, that is, seeing the Lord in the flesh, he said: "My eyes have seen your salvation." How do you know whether all flesh shall see the salvation of God this way? So that we do not despair that he will come to judgment in this form, which he assumed for us, not in which he has always remained equal to the Father, let us also hear the voice of the angels from this. While he was being carried up to heaven before the eyes of his disciples, and they were gazing, sending him off with their gaze as they desired him in their heart, they heard from the angels: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking towards heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you, will so come as you saw him going into heaven." So then, he will come as he ascended to heaven. He will come visibly to judgment; because he ascended visibly to heaven. For if he ascended visibly and will come invisibly, how will he come the same way? But if he will come the same way, therefore he will come visibly; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
On the difficulty presented, and concerning God and the future spiritual body, what is to be held.
I did not say this because I denied that the flesh would see (remember as much as you can, so that we may learn until we discover what we do not yet know; but as for what we already know, it is not necessary for us to learn it, but with the Lord's help, to teach it): I did not say this, therefore, because I denied that the flesh would see; but because clearer testimonies must be sought, if they can be found. For you see how scant what has been presented is. It works more for us, or for the very truth itself, or for those who argue as if certain that the flesh will not in any way see God, not even in the resurrection of the dead. We do not contend from this point, but remind the sharp-minded by repetition, and impress upon the slow-minded. Even though we may be tedious to many, we still say it. God is not seen in a place, because He is not a body; because He is wholly everywhere, not lesser in one part and greater in another. Let us hold this most firmly. But if that flesh has received such a transformation, that it can see through it what is not seen in a place; let it entirely be so. But it must be sought, from where it can be taught. And if it is not yet taught, let it not yet be denied; but certainly, let it at least be doubted. However, let it not be doubted that the flesh will rise again, that the spiritual body will come from the animal body, that this corruptible and mortal nature will put on immortality and incorruption: so that we may walk in whatever we have attained. Certainly, if we stray too much in seeking something, let us at least stray in the creature, not in the Creator. Let each one strive as much as he can to convert the body into spirit, provided that he does not convert God into a body.