|
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's body did not rise
entire. For flesh and blood belong to the integrity of the body:
whereas Christ seems not to have had both, for it is written (1
Cor. 15:50): "Flesh and blood can not possess the kingdom of
God." But Christ rose in the glory of the kingdom of God.
Therefore it seems that He did not have flesh and blood.
Objection 2: Further, blood is one of the four humors.
Consequently, if Christ had blood, with equal reason He also had
the other humors, from which corruption is caused in animal bodies.
It would follow, then, that Christ's body was corruptible, which
is unseemly. Therefore Christ did not have flesh and blood.
Objection 3: Further, the body of Christ which rose, ascended to
heaven. But some of His blood is kept as relics in various churches.
Therefore Christ's body did not rise with the integrity of all its
parts.
On the contrary, our Lord said (Lk. 24:39) while addressing
His disciples after the Resurrection: "A spirit hath not flesh and
bones as you see Me to have."
I answer that, As stated above (Article 2), Christ's body in
the Resurrection was "of the same nature, but differed in glory."
Accordingly, whatever goes with the nature of a human body, was
entirely in the body of Christ when He rose again. Now it is clear
that flesh, bones, blood, and other such things, are of the very
nature of the human body. Consequently, all these things were in
Christ's body when He rose again; and this also integrally, without
any diminution; otherwise it would not have been a complete
resurrection, if whatever was lost by death had not been restored.
Hence our Lord assured His faithful ones by saying (Mt.
10:30): "The very hairs of your head are all numbered": and
(Lk. 21:18): "A hair of your head shall not perish."
But to say that Christ's body had neither flesh, nor bones, nor the
other natural parts of a human body, belongs to the error of
Eutyches, Bishop of Constantinople, who maintained that "our body
in that glory of the resurrection will be impalpable, and more subtle
than wind and air: and that our Lord, after the hearts of the
disciples who handled Him were confirmed, brought back to subtlety
whatever could be handled in Him" [St. Gregory, Moral. in Job
14:56]. Now Gregory condemns this in the same book, because
Christ's body was not changed after the Resurrection, according to
Rm. 6:9: "Christ rising from the dead, dieth now no more."
Accordingly, the very man who had said these things, himself
retracted them at his death. For, if it be unbecoming for Christ to
take a body of another nature in His conception, a heavenly one for
instance, as Valentine asserted, it is much more unbecoming for Him
at His Resurrection to resume a body of another nature, because in
His Resurrection He resumed unto an everlasting life, the body which
in His conception He had assumed to a mortal life.
Reply to Objection 1: Flesh and blood are not to be taken there for
the nature of flesh and blood, but, either for the guilt of flesh and
blood, as Gregory says [St. Gregory, Moral. in Job
14:56], or else for the corruption of flesh and blood: because,
as Augustine says (Ad Consent., De Resur. Carn.), "there
will be neither corruption there, nor mortality of flesh and blood."
Therefore flesh according to its substance possesses the kingdom of
God, according to Lk. 24:39: "A spirit hath not flesh and
bones, as you see Me to have." But flesh, if understood as to its
corruption, will not possess it; hence it is straightway added in the
words of the Apostle: "Neither shall corruption possess
incorruption."
Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says in the same book:
"Perchance by reason of the blood some keener critic will press us and
say; If the blood was" in the body of Christ when He rose, "why
not the rheum?" that is, the phlegm; "why not also the yellow
gall?" that is, the gall proper; "and why not the black gall?"
that is, the bile, "with which four humors the body is tempered, as
medical science bears witness. But whatever anyone may add, let him
take heed not to add corruption, lest he corrupt the health and purity
of his own faith; because Divine power is equal to taking away such
qualities as it wills from the visible and tractable body, while
allowing others to remain, so that there be no defilement," i.e. of
corruption, "though the features be there; motion without weariness,
the power to eat, without need of food."
Reply to Objection 3: All the blood which flowed from Christ's
body, belonging as it does to the integrity of human nature, rose
again with His body: and the same reason holds good for all the
particles which belong to the truth and integrity of human nature. But
the blood preserved as relics in some churches did not flow from
Christ's side, but is said to have flowed from some maltreated image
of Christ.
|
|