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| St. Thomas Aquinas Catechetical Instructions IntraText CT - Text |
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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.
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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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