Augustine, Sermones 277-283 (Classis III, de Sanctis)

Sermon 277. On the feast of the martyr Vincent, 4. In which there is a discussion of the spiritual body after the resurrection, and whether God can be seen by the eyes of such a body. Preached in the Basilica Restituta.

Chapter I. — 1. The unconquered corpse of Vincent. The relics of the saints for the consolation of the faithful. The bodies of the saints given to the Churches for memorials of prayers, not for the glories of the martyrs. With the eyes of faith we watched the Martyr contending, and we loved him as wholly invisibly

beautiful. For of what beauty was the spirit possessed, whose very corpse was unconquered? Living, he confessed the Lord; dead, he overcame the enemy as well. What do we think, brethren: in that the providence and counsel of the almighty Creator conferred this honour even upon the dead body, did it bestow anything on the Martyr? For what? If he were not buried, would he not have known whence he was to be raised? For him both the crown in victory and eternal life in the resurrection have been kept. But from his body a memorial of consolation has been bestowed on the Church. Thus for the most part God, by a certain condescension, bestows on His servants from His servants, giving what may profit him to whom it is given more than him from whom it is given. Thus God used to feed holy Elijah by a bird: yet the mercy and omnipotence of God had not failed, that He might always feed him so. Nevertheless he is sent to a widow to be fed (1 Kgs. 17:9): not because there was no means by which the servant of God might be nourished, but that a faithful widow might merit a blessing. He has therefore granted the bodies of the saints to His Churches for memorials of prayers, not for the glories of the martyrs. For they have their glory entire with their Creator. Nor do they fear anything for the body itself, since there is nothing for them to fear. Rather, if they spare the body, they harm the body as well. But if through faith they do not spare the body, they benefit the body as well.

Chapter II. — 2. The martyr, by not sparing the body, took thought for it. Judgement, put for eternal punishment. See, attend to this, and question your faith. If Saint Vincent, from dread of torments, had denied Christ, he would seem to have spared the body: yet by some condition of mortality he would be released from the body. What would he do in the resurrection, when he was being hurled into eternal fire? Denying Christ, he is denied by Christ. Whoever denies Me, He says, before men, I will deny him before My Father Who is in heaven (Luke 12:9). See, had he denied, those torturers would have rested, and with the soul wounded the body would have been sound; nay rather, with the soul slain, the body would have lived: what would the brief life of the body profit one dead for eternity? The day would come which the Lord recalls, when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth: but with a great difference. All will come forth, but not all will come forth to the same thing. All are to rise, but not all are to be changed. For those who have done well, He says, to the resurrection of life; but those who have done ill, to the resurrection of judgement (John 5:28–29). When He says, All who are in the tombs, He beyond doubt makes plain the resurrection of bodies. But when you hear judgement, do not flatter yourself as though it concerned a temporal judgement; judgement is put for eternal punishment. In accordance with this it was said, But he who does not believe is already judged (John 3:18). This difference, therefore, is going to separate the just from the unjust, the faithful from the unbelieving, confessors from deniers, lovers of the life that will perish from lovers of eternal life; that discrimination is going to separate them. And the just will go into eternal life, but the ungodly into eternal fire (Matt. 25:46). There, together with the body, they will be tormented,

who spared the body. For by fearing the torments of the body, they spared the body; and by sparing the body, they denied Christ; and by denying Christ, they deferred eternal punishments even for the body. If they deferred them, did they take them away?

Chapter III. — 3. The martyrs did not despise the body, but took good care of it. Therefore the martyrs of Christ wisely did not despise their bodies. Perverse is that worldly philosophy of those who do not believe in the resurrection of bodies. For they seem to themselves to be, as it were, great despisers of the body, because they consider that they have these very bodies as if for prisons, into which they think souls have been thrust down because they sinned elsewhere beforehand. But our God made both the body and the spirit; and He is the creator of both, and the re-creator of both; the founder of both, and also the restorer of both. So the martyrs neither despised nor persecuted the flesh as an enemy. For no one ever hated his own flesh (Eph. 5:29). Rather they took care of it when they seemed to neglect it: when, persisting faithfully in it, they endured temporal torments, they were also procuring eternal glory for the flesh itself.

Chapter IV. — 4. The glory of the body after the resurrection. The health of the body is the harmony of the things of which it consists. But what the glory of this flesh will be in the resurrection, who can set forth in words? None of us has yet experienced it by having it. Now we carry burdensome flesh; because it is needy, because it is weak, because it is mortal, because it is corruptible. For the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul (Wis. 9:15). But do not fear this in the resurrection. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). What is now a burden will be an honour: what is now a load will then be a relief. For it will not have weight, such that you feel you have a body. Consider, dearly beloved: when our body is healthy, even this frail and mortal one, when it is regulated by the balanced mixture of its parts, when nothing of it in it quarrels against another; heat does not overcome and press upon cold, nor is warmth extinguished by an abundance of chill, which afflicts [the body] while it struggles; dryness does not swallow up moisture, nor does moisture flood and oppress; but all the things of which it consists are balanced in a harmonious joining with one another, which is called health. Now, to put it briefly, the health of the body is the harmony of the things of which it consists. This health, then, that is, the harmony of the limbs and humours in a corruptible thing, in a needy and weak thing, in a thing which can still hunger and thirst, grow weary by standing, be refreshed by sitting, again grow weary by sitting, fail by hungering, be refreshed by eating; which cannot relieve past failings except by beginning others: for whatever else you have taken up for refreshment when weary is the beginning of another weariness; because in the very thing you took up in order to relieve yourself, if you persist, you will be fatigued by that too: in this weak and corruptible body, then, what is health itself, of whatever sort? For this, which in mortal and corruptible flesh is called

health, is in no way to be compared with the health of the Angels, equality with whom is promised to us in the resurrection (Luke 20:36).

Chapter V. Yet this health, as I have said, of whatever kind it is, what delight it has, how desirable a good it is to all! How great a thing the poor man has when he has this alone; how great a thing the rich man lacks when this alone he lacks! Why does he boast of himself as wealthy? Fever does not dread a silver bed: it does not fear the pomp of the rich man, it does not fear the javelins of the warrior.

5. Health is to feel nothing, namely nothing troublesome and burdensome. What then is this very health, which the martyrs rightly despised, because in that very flesh they hoped for another? Yet since we have not yet experienced that one, let us conjecture it somehow from this one which we know. What is health? If you say to me, What is seeing? as far as the body is concerned, I shall perhaps answer you, to perceive shapes and colours. If you say to me, What is hearing? I shall answer, to perceive sounds. If you say, What is smelling? I shall answer, to perceive odours. What is touching? To perceive hard or soft, hot or cold, rough and smooth, heavy or light. What is health? To feel nothing. But even these very things in us now grow cheap by comparison with others. You see keenly: an eagle perhaps more keenly than you. You hear keenly: there are little beasts which hear more keenly. You smell keenly: you do not surpass a keen-scented dog. You judge flavours keenly by tasting: there are animals which distinguish herbs they have not tried, and do not touch what is harmful. For you, however keenly you discern your food, rush unawares into poison. You perceive keenly by touching: how many birds feel beforehand the coming summer, and change their places; feel beforehand that winter is impending, and migrate to warmer places? What you feel when it has come, they feel beforehand before it comes. And this very thing which I have praised in health, a stone feels nothing, a tree nothing, a corpse nothing.

Chapter VI. 6. Dacian raging against a dead body. To live in the body, and to feel nothing of its burden, is to be healthy. The burden of the body always remains in this life. For did that governor Dacian feel nothing in his heart, when he raged against a corpse that felt nothing? For what was he now doing to one who felt nothing, he who could be overcome even by one who felt? Yet he did whatever he could; he did it in anger. But he who now suffered nothing in the open was being crowned in secret. For he held fast the saying of his Lord, Who, when He wished to make us secure concerning those who kill the body, said, Do not fear those who kill the body, and afterwards have nothing that they may do! (Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:4). How do they afterwards have nothing that they may do, when that madman did so much to the body of Vincent? But what did he do to Vincent, who did nothing to him even when he felt? Therefore not to feel nothing in the way a stone does not feel, in the way a tree does not feel, in the way a corpse does not feel; but to live in the body, and to feel nothing of its burden, this is to be healthy. And yet however healthy a man may be in this life, he feels also

the weight of a healthy body. Even a healthy body, which is corrupted, that is, corruptible, weighs down the soul. It weighs down the soul, that is, it does not obey the soul at the nod of every act of will. It obeys in many things: it moves the hands to work, the feet to walk, the tongue to speak, the eyes to see; it directs the hearing to perceive sounds: in all these things the body complies. The desire to change place feels a burden, feels a weight: the body is not moved with such ease to arrive where it desires. Someone placed in the body desires to see a friend placed in the body; he knows that the friend is far away, and many stages lie between: in mind he has already gone ahead; in body, when he arrives, then he feels what a burden he carries. The weight of the flesh could not obey the will at the speed it had presumed: it could not be carried off with the speed it wished, the speed with which the mind carries it. It is slow and burdensome.

Chapter VII. — 7. Something must be sought in this body from which the swiftness of the future spiritual body may be understood. Do we think that the body itself has anything by which the swiftness of the body may be shown? Shall we say the feet? What is slower? It is they that arrive, and they scarcely keep pace with our desires, and they arrive by toiling through their toils. But suppose someone as swift as certain animals are, with which our swiftness is not even to be compared; suppose someone as swift as birds are: he does not arrive in a single stroke where he would wish. Birds fly a long time when migrating, and sometimes, wearied, they settle on the masts of ships. So even if we could fly like birds, we would be slow in view of our desire to arrive. But when there shall be the spiritual body, of which it is said, It is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44), how great will be the ease there, how great the swiftness, how great the obedience to the one who wills? In nothing weight, in nothing want, in nothing weariness, in nothing resistance and struggle from another part.

Chapter VIII. — 8. Of the spiritual body, to be spoken of as the occasion offers. What kind of body was that which the Lord brought through closed doors? Pay attention, I beg you, to see whether, with the Lord's help, by whatever words I can, I may either satisfy your expectation or not fall far short of it. The occasion has arisen for us to discuss something about the spiritual body from the passion of the Martyr, by whom, as we saw and marvelled, the body was so despised amid torments. For we said that by not sparing his body he was in fact taking thought for that same body: lest perhaps, by fleeing temporal punishments and denying Christ, he should consign that very same body to everlasting punishments and most atrocious torments. Hence, therefore, desiring to exhort you, and myself too, to despise present things and to hope for future things: For indeed in this dwelling we groan, being burdened, and yet we do not want to die, and we dread to be stripped of the weight; for we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed over, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5:4): on this occasion, then, I undertook to say something to you about the spiritual body, and I thought that first of all I should commend this very health of this fragile and corruptible body, so that from it we may find something great. We find that in health itself one feels nothing. For we have many things within, in our entrails: which of us would know of them, unless he saw them in mangled bodies?

Our viscera, our inward parts, which are called intestines, how do we know them? And it is well precisely when we do not feel them. For when we do not feel them, then we are healthy. You say to someone, "Watch your stomach." He answers you, "What is a stomach?" Happy ignorance: he does not know where he has what he always has in health. If he did not have it in health, he would feel it; if he felt it, he would know it, and not to his good.

Chapter IX. — 9. The speed of the heavenly bodies. The bodies of angels. But although we have praised the health of the body, we come to speed of motion, and we find ourselves in a certain manner leaden. How great is the speed of the heavenly bodies? Do you wish to know how great it is? You gaze at the sun, and it seems to you as if it were not moving, and yet it moves. Perhaps you say: It moves, but rather slowly. Do you wish to know with what speed it moves? Do you wish to gather by reasoning what you do not perceive by sight? If someone were to run with post-horses by a straight road from the east to the west on this earth, in how many days would he arrive? At whatever speed of horses he were carried, how many stages would he make? The sun, which seems to you to stand still, completes in one day the distance of the journey from the beginning of the east to the end of the west, and in one night returns to its rising. I do not wish to say, because it is obscure and hard to make convincing, or perhaps uncertain, how much wider the heavenly spaces are than the earthly. Since, then, we see so great a speed in the heavenly bodies, which seem to us, when they are watched, not to move, to what speed can we compare the angelic body? They have also been present, and when they wished they offered themselves to be seen and touched. Abraham washed the angels' feet (Gen. 18:4). Not only did he wash those bodies, but he also handled them. They appeared as they wished, when they wished, to whom they wished. They feel no difficulty, no slowness at all. But we do not see them running, we do not see them passing from place to place, so that we might know them as they departed from the eyes of men: when they wished, they arrived. There is therefore no way for us to offer from them too a most evident example of this speed. Let us pass over things unknown, and let us not dare rashly to presume anything about things not experienced.

Chapter X. — 10. The speed of the eye's ray. In this very body which we carry I find something whose ineffable speed I may marvel at. What is this? The ray of our eye, by which we touch whatever we perceive. For what you see, you touch with the ray of your eye. If you wish to see further, and some body is placed in between, the ray rushes against the body set in the way, and is not allowed to pass through to that which you desire to see; and you say to the one hindering you, "Get out, you are in my way." You wish to see a column, a man stands in the middle, he hinders your gaze. Your ray has been sent out, but it reaches as far as the man; it is not allowed to reach as far as the column: it runs into something else, it is not permitted. See, the one who was obstructing you has moved out of the way; the gaze reaches where it wished. Now examine, and if you can, find out and answer whether that gaze, that ray of your eye, reaches the nearest thing more quickly and the distant thing more slowly. You have seen a man standing close by; with so much delay you saw him, with so much delay you stretched the ray of your eye to him, with so much delay to him with the ray of your eye

you arrived, with as much delay as you also arrive at that column which you wished to see, and, because a man had been placed in between, could not: not more quickly to him and more slowly to it; and behold, he was close by, and it further off. If you wished to walk, you would arrive sooner at the man than at the column: because you wished to see, you arrived as quickly at the man as at the column. This is nothing, this about the column and the man. Cast your eyes further still: you see a wall far off; send them further, you arrive at the sun. How much is there between you and the sun? Who could measure those distances? Who by any sharpness of thought could estimate how far from you the sun is? And yet as soon as you have opened your eye, behold, you are here, your ray is there. As soon as you wished to see, by seeing you arrived. You did not seek machines by which to strive upwards, nor ladders by which to climb, nor ropes by which to be lifted, nor wings by which to fly. To have opened the eye, this is to have arrived.

Chapter XI. — 11. The resurrection compared to the swiftness of the ray sent out from the eye. What then is this swiftness? How great is it? What does it mean? It belongs to our body, it is sent out from our flesh. We have rays, and we do not marvel. We use them in seeing; in considering them we are struck with dread. You find nothing that you could compare to this swiftness, as far as concerns the swiftness of the body. Rightly did the apostle Paul compare the ease of the resurrection to this swiftness, saying: In the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52). The twinkling of an eye is not in closing and opening the eyelids: for that is done more slowly than seeing is. You raise the eyelid more slowly than you direct the ray. Your ray reaches heaven more quickly than the raised eyelid reaches the eyebrow. You see what the twinkling of an eye is: you see what ease the Apostle has given to the resurrection of bodies. How slowly were these things created and formed? Let us recall the delays of conception, and the seeds of little ones growing together in the very wombs of their mothers; the limbs formed through a number of times, on fixed days, over many months, until that which has been created and formed within is brought forth into the light. Then with how much delay it grows, with how much delay adolescence succeeds childhood, youth adolescence, old age youth, death all of them. There is also another delay: a fresh corpse is seen whole, it is dissolved into putrefaction; and for that very dissolution times are needed, until it flows away into corruption and is dried into ash: and from the very beginnings in the womb up to the final ash of the tomb, how much delay lies between? How many days? What spans of time? It comes to rise again: in the twinkling of an eye it is restored.

Chapter XII. — 12. From the ease of the future resurrection the ease of the spiritual body is to be understood. This is more wonderful than the swiftness of the eye's ray. Pay attention then, brethren, and compare the things that are to be compared with the things to which they are to be compared. This flesh moves more quickly in walking than it was formed, than it was nourished, than it grew, than it reached the condition of youth and attained its full age and stature: it moves more quickly in walking than this comes about in it. But further, the resurrection will happen in the twinkling of an eye: how great will be the swiftness of moving, if so great could be the swiftness of rising again? Bodies have been torn to pieces by those raging against them: although in the whole

world the members of the dead be torn apart, their ashes be dispersed through the whole earth; from the whole of so great a bosom all that was scattered is restored in the twinkling of an eye. We marvel at the exceeding, and, were we not to experience it, incredible swiftness of our rays, which are poured forth from the eyes: more marvellous in the spiritual body that is to be is its ease. In the twinkling of an eye indeed it will rise again: but our Lord, something the ray of our eye cannot do, brought even His body through barriers. After the resurrection, when His disciples were gathered in one place, He suddenly appeared, the doors being shut (John 20:19). Where we cannot see, He was able even to enter. Let no one say: This indeed it was able to do, but it was the Lord's body; will mine too straightway be able to? Here too receive full assurance from the Spirit, Who spoke through the Apostle. For of the Lord Himself it is said: Who will transfigure the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21).

Chapter XIII. — 13. Whether God will be seen through the spiritual body. God cannot be seen in a place after the manner of a body. Concerning such a body, then, concerning so great an ease of this body, so great a swiftness, so great a soundness, let human frailty dare to define nothing rashly and presumptuously. What we shall be, we shall know when we have become it. Before we are, let us not be rash, lest we fail to be that. Human curiosity sometimes asks, and says to itself: Do you think that we shall see God through that spiritual body? It can indeed be quickly answered: God is not seen in a place, God is not seen by parts, God is not seen diffused through spaces and separated by intervals. Although He fills heaven and earth, He is not for that reason half in heaven, half on earth. For if this air fills heaven and earth, the part of it which is in heaven is not on earth. And whatever water fills, it does indeed fill the space by which it is contained; but half of it is in half the space, half in the other half, the whole in the whole. God is not any such thing. Do not doubt this at all, since God is not a body. To be diffused through spaces, to be contained by places, to have halves, thirds, quarters, wholes, is proper to bodies. God is nothing of the sort; for God is everywhere whole: not half in one place, and placed with the other half in another; but everywhere whole. He fills heaven and earth: but He is whole in heaven, whole on earth. In the beginning was the Word. That you may hear this same thing also of the Son Himself, because the Son too is one God with the Father: equal not in bulk, but in divinity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. And a little after, And the light shines in the darkness (John 1:1–5). This Only-begotten, remaining whole with the Father, shines whole in the darkness, whole in heaven, whole on earth, whole in the Virgin, whole in the infant; not at alternate times, as though migrating from place to place. For you too are whole in your house, and whole in the church: but when you are in the church, you are not in your house; when in your house, not in the church. He, then, is not thus whole in heaven, whole on earth, whole in the Virgin, whole in the infant (to mention nothing else), as though migrating from heaven to earth, from earth to

the Virgin, from the Virgin into an infant, but everywhere wholly at once. For He is not poured out like water, nor is He separated and carried across with effort like earth. When He is wholly on earth, He does not desert heaven; and when He fills heaven, He does not withdraw from the earth. For He reaches from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly (Wis. 8:1).

Chapter XIV. — 14. Whether through the spiritual body a substance which is not seen in a place can be seen is still undiscovered. If, then, bodily eyes will be able even then, when the body has become spiritual, to see the substance which is not seen in a place; if they will be able to by some hidden power, by some power untried and wholly unknown, and grasped by no estimation, if they will be able to, let them be able to. For we see with eyes; we do not begrudge our own eyes. Only let us not attempt to bring God into a place, let us not attempt to enclose God in a place, let us not attempt to spread God out through the extents of places as if in some bulk; let us not dare this, let us not think it. Let the substance of the Godhead remain in its own proper dignity. Let us certainly, as far as we can, be changed for the better, not change God for the worse. Especially since we do not find anything defined on this in Scripture, or have not yet found it. For I do not dare to presume this either, that there is not in it something that could be found. Either it is not there, or it lies hidden, or it lies hidden from me. If anything on either side can be found by anyone, I gladly accept it, and, once instructed, unless I give thanks, not to the man who speaks but to Him Who teaches through a man, I shall be ungrateful. But far be it that the Giver of grace should allow me to be ungrateful. This only I say: that the eyes which see what they see through intervals of places, that is, such that there is a space between the one who sees and that which is seen (for otherwise these eyes do not see: for if you remove something far off from them, they do not see it, because their rays do not reach things placed far away; but if you bring something nearer to them, unless there is some interval between the eyes of the one seeing and the body which is seen, it cannot be seen at all; for if, by bringing it closer, you touch the very eyes by which something is seen, the space is lost and sight is lost): this, then, I say, that such eyes, which see whatever they see only through intervals and extents of places, can neither see God now, nor will they be able to then, because He is not in a place. Either, then, it will be something else that they can see, and which cannot be seen in a place; or, if it remains with them that they cannot see except in a place, they will not see Him Who is not in a place.

Chapter XV. — 15. What is now certain concerning the spiritual body, and concerning the invisible nature of God. But until this is more diligently inquired into concerning the spiritual body, so that it may either be understood or rightly believed, let us hold that the body will rise again; let us hold that the form of our body will be that which Christ either displayed or promised in secret. Let us hold that the body will be spiritual, not animal as it now is. For it is plainly expressed, and cannot be contradicted: It is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44). Let us hold the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit by nature

proper, by substance proper, to be equally and alike invisible, because we believe it equally and alike immortal, and we believe it equally and alike incorruptible. In one place the Apostle has set these together: Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, incorruptible, to the only God, be honour and glory for ages of ages. Amen (1 Tim. 1:17). God alone, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, is immortal, invisible, incorruptible: not invisible now and visible afterwards, since He is not incorruptible now and corruptible afterwards. As He is immortal always, as He is incorruptible always, so too He is invisible always. If invisibility is changed, it is to be feared that immortality may be changed. I think that for this reason the Apostle himself put invisible in the middle, between immortal and incorruptible. That about which there could be doubt, he fortified on both sides, so that it could not be overthrown.

Chapter XVI. — Let us hold fast this unswerving confession. It is not the same thing to stumble against the creature and to stumble against the Creator. Certainly let us inquire into the qualities of creatures by discussing them, and if we are mistaken in anything, let us walk in that to which we have attained. For then, if we think otherwise in anything, God will reveal this too to us (Phil. 3:15–16). On this we argued at some length yesterday. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). Let us press on by every means with the cleansing of our hearts, let us keep watch with every effort; let us obtain by every prayer, as far as we can, that we may cleanse the heart. And if we think about the things that are outside: Cleanse, He says, the things that are within, and the things that are outside will be clean (ibid. 23:26).

16. Whether the vision of God is promised to the flesh. The salvation of God, Christ, will be seen through the flesh. Christ at the judgement will be seen by all flesh. Perhaps it may seem to someone that the testimony about the flesh is as clear as that about the heart, because it is written, All flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6). We have about the heart a most evident testimony: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. We have also about the flesh: All flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now who would doubt that the vision of God has been promised to the flesh, were it not for the question, what is the salvation of God? Rather, since it raises no question, for we are not in doubt: the salvation of God is Christ the Lord. So if our Lord Jesus Christ were seen in His divinity alone, no one would doubt that the flesh is to see the substance of God, because All flesh shall see the salvation of God. But since our Lord Jesus Christ can be seen with the eyes of the heart, clean, perfected, full of God, as far as concerns His divinity, and yet He was also seen in the body, according to what is written, After these things He was seen on earth, and conversed with men (Bar. 3:38): from this I know how it was said, All flesh shall see the salvation of God. Let no one doubt that it was said that it will see Christ.

Chapter XVII. — But whether [it will see] Christ the Lord in the body, or as in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, on this there is doubt, this is the question. Do not press me with one testimony;

I readily acknowledge: All flesh shall see the salvation of God. They say that this means, All flesh shall see the Christ of God. But Christ was seen also in the flesh, not indeed in mortal flesh, if that spiritual transformation is still to be called flesh; for He Himself too after the resurrection spoke thus to those who were seeing and touching Him: "Handle, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me to have" (Luke 24:39). He will be seen thus too: not only has He been seen, but He will also be seen. And perhaps then what was said, all flesh, will be fulfilled more perfectly. For now flesh has seen Him, but not all flesh: but then, when He comes in judgement with His angels to judge the living and the dead, when all who are in the tombs hear His voice, and some come forth to the resurrection of life, others to the resurrection of judgement (John 5:28–29), they will see the very form which He deigned to take up for us, not only the just but also the unjust, some at the right hand, others at the left; for those also who killed Him shall see Him whom they pierced (John 19:37). Therefore all flesh shall see the salvation of God. A body through a body: for He will come to judge in a true body. But to those placed at the right hand and sent into the kingdom of heaven He will show Himself in the way in which He was already seen in the body: and yet He said, He who loves Me shall be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him (John 14:21). This the impious Jew will not see. For the impious shall be taken away, lest he see the brightness of God (Isa. 26:10, according to the LXX).

Chapter XVIII. — 17. Simeon here saw the salvation of God with his eyes. Christ visible at the future judgement. The just Simeon saw Him both with the heart, because he recognized the infant; and with the eyes, because he carried the infant. Seeing Him in both ways, acknowledging the Son of God, and embracing Him begotten of the Virgin, he said: "Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, in peace, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation" (Luke 2:29–30). See what he said. For he was held back until he should see with his eyes also Him whom he discerned by faith. He received a little body, he embraced a body; seeing a body, that is, discerning the Lord in the flesh, he said, My eyes have seen Thy salvation. Whence do you know that all flesh may not see the salvation of God in this way? But lest we despair that He will come to judgement in that form which He took for us, not in that in which He has always remained equal to the Father, let us hear on this point also the voice of the angels. When He was being carried into heaven before the eyes of His disciples, and they were watching intently, and were following with their gaze Him whom they longed for in their heart, they heard from the angels: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11). So then, so He will come, in the way in which He departed into heaven. Visible He will come to judgement; because visible He departed into heaven. For if He departed visible and will come invisible, how will He come in the same way? But if He will come in the same way, then He will come visible; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.