Augustine, Sermones 234-243 (Classis II, de Tempore)

are going to have. You who say, "Every body is to be fled from," kill the world. You say that I should flee from my flesh: let your Jupiter flee from heaven and earth.

Chapter VIII. — 8. He is refuted again from Plato's own words. What of the fact that we find this same Plato, the master of all these men, in a certain book of his which he wrote on the constitution of the world, bringing in God as the maker of the gods, that is, as making the heavenly gods, all the stars, the sun and the moon? He says, then, that God is the craftsman of the heavenly gods; he says that the stars themselves have intellectual souls, which understand God, and visible bodies, which are seen. I say, so that you may understand: this sun which you see would not be seen if it were not a body; this is true. No star or moon would be seen if it were not a body; he speaks the truth. That is why the Apostle too says: And heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies. And it follows: The glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly another. And again, speaking of the glory of the heavenly bodies, the Apostle added, and said: One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:40–42). You see that brightness has been promised to the bodies of the saints, and differing kinds of brightness, because the merits of charity differ. But what do those men say? These stars which you see are indeed bodies, but they have their own intellectual souls, and they are gods. Meanwhile, about the bodies, that they are bodies, they speak the truth; but whether they have their own souls, why should I discuss? Now let us come to the point. God is brought in by Plato himself addressing the gods whom He made of bodily and of bodiless substance, and among other things saying to them: "Since you have come into being, you cannot be immortal and indissoluble." At that utterance they could already tremble. Why? Because they desired to be immortal, and did not wish to die. So, to take away their fear, He went on and added, and said: "Yet you will not be dissolved, nor will any fates of death destroy you, nor will they be stronger than My counsel, which is a greater bond for your perpetuity than those by which you are bound together." See, God gives security to the gods made by Himself: He gives them the security of immortality; He gives them the security that they will not leave the globes of their bodies. Surely every body is to be fled from? As far as I judge, they have been answered, as you are able to understand: as we too are able to speak, as far as the hour of the sermon allows, as far as your capacity permits, they have been answered. But now, what they too say, as if shrewdly, about the resurrection of bodies, so that, as they think, we may not be able to answer them as well, is too much for me to tell you today. But since I promised you once that during these days this question of the resurrection of the flesh would be dealt with, prepare both your ears and your hearts for tomorrow, for what remains, with the Lord's help.

Sermon 242. On the Days of Easter, 13. On the Resurrection of Bodies, against the Gentiles.

Chapter One. — 1. Faith in the resurrection manifestly

proven, is imprudently attacked by men. In these holy days dedicated to the resurrection of the Lord, let us treat of the resurrection of the flesh, so far as we are able by His gift. For this is our faith; this gift has been promised to us in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him the example has gone before. For He willed not only to foretell to us what He promised at the end, but also to demonstrate it. Those indeed who were with Him at that time saw, and when they were terrified and believed that they were seeing a spirit, they held the solidity of a body. For He spoke not only with words to their ears, but also with His appearance to their eyes; and it was too little to offer Himself to be seen, unless He also offered Himself to be handled and felt. For He says: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts rise up into your heart? For they thought that they were seeing a spirit. "Why are you troubled," He says, "and why do thoughts rise up into your heart? See My hands and My feet: feel, and see, that a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have." Against this evidence men dispute. For what else would men do, who savour the things that are of men, than dispute about God against God? For He is God, they are men. But God knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain (Ps. 93:11). In the carnal man the whole rule of understanding is the habit of seeing. What they are accustomed to see, they believe; what they are not accustomed to see, they do not believe. God works miracles beyond what is customary, because He is God. Indeed, that so many men who were not are born every day are greater miracles than that a few who were have risen again; and yet these miracles are not grasped by consideration, but have grown cheap through constant repetition. Christ has risen; the matter is settled. There was a body, there was flesh; He hung on the cross, He gave up His soul, [the flesh] was laid in the sepulchre. He Who lived in it showed it alive. Why do we marvel? Why do we not believe? It is God Who did it: consider the author, and put away doubt.

Chapter II. — 2. Against the resurrection of the flesh they put forward: If there will be no corruption, why will there be eating? So men ask whether this corruption of the body, which they feel in their flesh, will exist in the resurrection of the dead. We say that it will not. They answer us: If there will be no corruption, why will there be eating? Or if there will be no eating, why did the Lord eat after the resurrection? Just now, when the Gospel was being read, we heard that when He was showing Himself alive to the eyes and hands of His disciples, it seemed to Him too little for demonstrating the bodily evidence, but He added: Have you here anything to be eaten? And they offered Him a part of a roasted fish, and a honeycomb; and He ate, and gave the remains to them (Luke 24:37–43). So it is said to us: If the corruption of the body does not rise again, why did the Lord Christ eat? You have read that He ate; have you read that He was hungry? That He ate was a matter of power, not of need. If He had desired to eat, He would have been in need. Again, if He could not eat,

He would have been less strong. Did not the Angels too, when they were received in hospitality by our fathers, eat (Gen. 18:1–9, and Tob. 12:19), and yet they were not corruptible?

3. If the defects of the flesh will not rise again, why the scars in Christ. Again they say: Will the defects that were in the human body, with which a man dies, rise again? We answer: The defects will not rise again. And it is said to us: Why then did the Lord rise again with the scars of His wounds? What do we say to this, except that this too was a matter of power, not of necessity? So He willed to rise again, so He willed to show Himself to certain who doubted. In that flesh the scar of a wound healed the wound of unbelief.

Chapter III. — 4. Of what kind the resurrection of little ones is. They still dispute, and ask of us: Will little ones who die rise again as little ones? Or will the age of those coming back to life be full, whose age was small when they died? This indeed we do not find defined in the Scriptures. It is promised that bodies will rise again incorruptible and immortal. But if a small age is given back, if a tiny stature is called back, is weakness also called back on that account? If they are to be small, will they lie down, and be unable to walk? Yet it is accepted as more credible, and more probable and more reasonable, that ages will rise again full, so that there may be given back by gift what was going to be added by time. For we are not going to believe that old age too will rise again, short of breath and bent. In short, take away corruption, and add what you will.

5. How an earthly body will be in heaven. But, you say, how will an earthly body be in heaven? For the philosophers of the Gentiles, those very great men, whose opinions, whether senseless or at any rate human, I have already made known to you (for they sought these things not by the Spirit of God, but by the conjecture of the human heart), raise their question chiefly from this: they treat subtly of the moments of weights and the order of the elements; and they say, what we too see, that the world is so arranged that earth is lowest, as it were at its bottom, second water is poured over the earth, third comes air, fourth the aether covers all things. That uppermost element, which they call aether, they say is fire, clear and pure, that from it the stars were formed, that there nothing can be earthly, since the order of weights does not allow it. If we were to tell them that our bodies will live on a new earth and will not be in heaven, we speak boldly and rashly, nay unfaithfully. For we ought to believe that we shall have such bodies that where we wish, when we have wished, there we shall be. For if we answer, in order to resolve the question about the order of weights, that we shall live on earth, then the question for us concerns the very body of the Lord, with which He ascended into heaven.

Chapter IV. — 6. The body of Christ in heaven. You have heard what sounded just now, freshly, in our ears from the Gospel: Having lifted up His hands, He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He was blessing them, He withdrew from them, and was carried into heaven (Luke 24:50–51). Who was carried into heaven? The Lord Christ. Which Lord Christ? The Lord Jesus. For what, are you going to separate the man from God, and make one person of God, another of the man, so that it is no longer a Trinity, but a quaternity? Just as you,

a man, are soul and body; so the Lord Christ is the Word, soul and body. But the Word did not withdraw from the Father: He both came to us and did not forsake the Father; He both received flesh in the womb and ruled the world. What, then, was raised up into heaven, if not what was taken from the earth? That is, that flesh, that body, of which He says, speaking to the disciples: Handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see Me have. Let us believe this, brothers: and if we have difficulty refuting the arguments of the philosophers, let us hold without difficulty of faith what was demonstrated in the Lord. Let them chatter; let us believe.

Chapter V. — 7. By the will of God that comes about which otherwise cannot come about. But, they say, an earthly body cannot be in heaven. What if God wills this? Answer against God, and say: God cannot. Do you not also, whatever pagan you are, call God omnipotent? Is it not read in the book of Plato, which I showed yesterday (In the preceding sermon, n. 8), that the unmade God said to the gods made by Himself: « Since you have come into being, you cannot indeed be immortal and indissoluble; yet you will not be dissolved, nor will any fates of death destroy you; nor will they be stronger than My counsel, which is a greater bond for your perpetuity than those by which you are bound together? » God has brought everything under His will, He Who can do even what is impossible. For what else does it mean, You cannot be immortal, but I bring it about that you do not die, if not, I do even what cannot be done?

Chapter VI. — 8. The order of bodies from the difference of weights. An earthly body upon water, against the order of weights. Yet I wish also to discuss something concerning the difference of weights. I ask you, tell me: Earth is earth, Water is water, Air is air, Aether, that is heaven, and that liquid fire is heaven. These four, namely, built and constructed the world as if by steps; that is, from these four the world was built. Ask what is at the bottom: it is earth; what is above: it is water; what is above water: it is air; what is above air: it is heaven, it is aether. What of solid bodies, which are held and handled? I do not mean moist ones, which slip and flow; I mean tangible bodies: whence are they? Are they to be assigned to earth, or to water, or to air, or to aether? You will answer, To earth. Is wood, then, an earthly body? Plainly earthly. It is born in earth, it is nourished in earth, it grows in earth. It is tangible, not fluid. Return with me to that order of weights. Earth is at the foundation: follow the order. What is above earth? Water. Why does wood float on water? It is an earthly body: if you refer it to that order of weights, it ought to have been under water, not above. We find water in the middle between earth and wood: earth below, water above, and above the water earth again, since wood is earth. You have lost that order,

hold to the faith. Therefore earthly bodies have been found above the element which is second in the order of the elements, when pieces of wood float and do not sink.

Chapter VII. — 9. Lead upon water. Consider something else, at which you may marvel more. The very heaviest bodies, and yet earthly, which as soon as they have been let go upon water immediately sink and reach the lowest depths, as iron does, and finally as lead does. For what is heavier than lead? Yet the hand of a craftsman comes to the lead, makes from it some hollow vessel, and the lead floats upon the water. Will God then not give to my body what a craftsman gives to lead? Next, where do you place water itself? Go back to the order of the elements. Certainly you will answer that water is above earth. Why then, before they run upon the earth, do rivers hang in the clouds?

10. The swifter motion of certain heavier bodies. Turn your consideration and your thought from there to what I am about to say, if with the Lord's help I am able. What is moved more easily, what is driven more swiftly, a heavier body or a lighter? Who would not answer, The lighter? For lighter bodies are moved more easily and driven more swiftly; heavier ones with more difficulty and more slowly. Certainly you have fixed a rule, certainly you have considered, and having looked round at everything you have answered that lighter bodies are moved more easily and driven more swiftly than heavier ones. So it is, you say. Answer me, then. Why does the very light spider move slowly, and the heavy horse run swiftly? Let me speak of men themselves: the larger body of a man is heavier; the shorter body, which has less weight, is lighter. So indeed it is, but only if another carries it. But if the man himself carries his own body, the strong one runs, while the thin one, through weakness, scarcely walks. Weigh a thin man and a robust one: the one through weakness weighing scarcely a few little pounds, the other through the health of his body bearing many pounds in his flesh: try lifting them both; the strong one is heavy, the lean one is light. Let the carrier withdraw, let the walker appear; leave them to themselves, let them drive their own bodies: I see the thin man scarcely moving a step, I see the strong and robust man running. If health has this power, what power will immortality have?

Chapter VIII. — 11. Spiritual bodies after the resurrection: whence they are so called. God will therefore give a wonderful ease, a wonderful lightness. Not without reason have those bodies been named spiritual. They are not called spiritual because they will be spirits and not bodies. For these which we now have are called animal bodies, and yet they are not souls, but bodies. Just as these are now called animal and are not souls, so those are called spiritual, but are not spirits, because they will be bodies. Why is it called a spiritual body, dearly beloved, except because it will serve at the bidding of the spirit? Nothing from within you will contradict you, nothing in you will rebel against you. There will not be there what the Apostle groans over, The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). There will not be there, I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind (Rom. 7:23). These wars will not be there: there will be peace there, perfect peace