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St. Thomas Aquinas
Catechetical Instructions
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  • THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE: "The Resurrection of the Body."
    • CONDITION OF THE BLESSED
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CONDITION OF THE BLESSED

 

It must be known that the good will enjoy a special glory because the

blessed will have glorified bodies which will be endowed with four gifts.

 

(a) Brilliance. - "Then shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of

their Father."15

 

(b) Impassibility (i.e., Incapability of Receiving Action). - "It is sown in

dishonor; it shall rise in glory." 16 "And God shall wipe away all tears

from their eyes; and death shall be no more. Nor mourning, nor crying, nor

sorrow shall be anymore, for the former things are passed away."17

 

(c) Agility. - "The just shall shine and shall run to and fro like sparks

among the reeds."18

 

(d) Subtility. - "It is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual

body."19 This is in the sense of not being altogether a spirit, but that

the body will be wholly subject to the spirit.

 



15. Matt., xiii. 43. "This brightness is a sort of refulgence reflected

from the supreme happiness of the soul; it is an emanation of the beatitude

which it enjoys and which shines through the body. Its communication is

like to the manner in which the soul itself is made happy, by a

participation of the happiness of God" ("Roman Catechism," "loc. cit.," 13).

 



16. I Cor., xv. 43

 



17. Apoc., xxi. 4. "The first is 'impassibility,' which shall place them

beyond the reach of pain or inconvenience of any sort. . . . This quality

the Scholastics called 'impassibility,' not incorruption, in order to

distinguish it as a property peculiar to a glorified body. The bodies of

the damned shall not be impassible, though incorruptible; they shall be

capable of experiencing heat and cold and of feeling pain." ("Roman

Catechism," "ibid.").

 



18. Wis., iii. 7. "Agility, as it is called, is a quality by which the body

shall be freed from the heaviness that now presses it down; and shall

acquire a capability of moving with the utmost ease and quickness

wheresoever the soul pleases" ("Roman Catechism," "ibid.").

 



19. I Cor., xv. 44. "Another quality is that of subtility, a quality which

subjects the body to the absolute dominion of the soul, and to an entire

obedience to her control" ("Roman Catechism," "ibid.").

 





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