|
What am I to say now about the hair and nails? Once it is understood
that no part of the body shall so perish as to produce deformity in the
body, it is at the same time understood trial such things as would have
produced a deformity by their excessive proportions shall be added to
the total bulk of the body, not to parts in which the beauty of the
proportion would thus be marred. Just as if, after making a vessel of
clay, one wished to make it over again of the same clay, it would not
be necessary that the same portion of the clay which had formed the
handle should again form the new handle, or that what had formed the
bottom should again do so, but only that the whole clay should go to
make up the whole new vessel, and that no part of it should be left
unused. Wherefore, if the hair that has been cropped and the nails
that have been cut would cause a deformity were they to be restored to
their places, they shall not be restored; and yet no one will lose
these parts at the resurrection, for they shall be changed into the
same flesh, their substance being so altered as to preserve the
proportion of the various parts of the body. However, what our Lord
said, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," might more suitably
be interpreted of the number, and not of the length of the hairs, as
He elsewhere says, "The hairs of your head are all numbered." Nor
would I say this because I suppose that any part naturally belonging
to the body can perish, but that whatever deformity was in it, and
served to exhibit the penal condition in which we mortals are, should
be restored in such a way that, while the substance is entirely
preserved, the deformity shall perish. For if even a human workman,
who has, for some reason, made a deformed statue, can recast it and
make it very beautiful, and this without suffering any part of tile
substance, but only the deformity to be lost, if he can, for
example, remove some unbecoming or disproportionate part, not by
cutting off and separating this part from the whole, but by so breaking
down and mixing up the whole as to get rid of the blemish without
diminishing the quantity of his material, shall we not think as highly
of the almighty Worker? Shall He not be able to remove and abolish
all deformities of the human body, whether common ones or rare and
monstrous, which, though in keeping with this miserable life, are yet
not to be thought of in connection with that future blessedness; and
shall He not be able so to remove them that, while the natural but
unseemly blemishes are put an end to, the natural substance shall
suffer no diminution?
And consequently overgrown and emaciated persons need not fear that
they shall be in heaven of such a figure as they would not be even in
this world if they could help it. For all bodily beauty consists in
the proportion of the parts, together with a certain agreeableness of
color. Where there is no proportion, the eye is offended, either
because there is something awanting, or too small, or too large. And
thus there shall be no deformity resulting from want of proportion in
that state in which all that is wrong is corrected, and all that is
defective supplied from resources the Creator wots of, and all that is
excessive removed without destroying the integrity of the substance.
And as for the pleasant color, how conspicuous shall it be where "the
just shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father!"
This brightness we must rather believe to have been concealed from the
eyes of the disciples when Christ rose, than to have been awanting.
For weak human eyesight could not bear it, and it was necessary that
they should so look upon Him as to be able to recognize Him. For
this purpose also He allowed them to touch the marks of His wounds,
and also ate and drank, not because He needed nourishment, but
because He could take it if He wished. Now, when an object, though
present, is invisible to persons who see other things which are
present, as we say that that brightness was present but invisible by
those who saw other things, this is called in Greek aorasia; and our
Latin translators, for want of a better word, have rendered this
caecitas (blindness) in the book of Genesis. This blindness the men
of Sodom suffered when they sought the just Lot's gate and could not
find it. But if it had been blindness, that is to say, if they could
see nothing, then they would not have asked for the gate by which they
might enter the house, but for guides who might lead them away.
But the love we bear to the blessed martyrs causes us, I know not
how, to desire to see in the heavenly kingdom the marks of the wounds
which they received for the name of Christ, and possibly we shall see
them. For this will not be a deformity, but a mark of honor, and
will add lustre to their appearance, and a spiritual, if not a bodily
beauty. And yet we need not believe that they to whom it has been
said, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," shall, in the
resurrection, want such of their members as they have been deprived of
in their martyrdom. But if it will be seemly in that new kingdom to
have some marks of these wounds still visible in that immortal flesh,
the places where they have been wounded or mutilated shall retain the
scars without any of the members being lost. While, therefore, it is
quite true that no blemishes which the body has sustained shall appear
in the resurrection, yet we are not to reckon or name these marks of
virtue blemishes.
|
|