On the Resurrection of the Dead

1We spoke to you earlier about doctrines and about the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, stopping the mouths of those who tear down His dignity and alienate Him from His begetter. Today I want to exercise a more ethical discourse and make my whole exhortation about life and conduct. Yet this discourse will not be ethical only; it will also be doctrinal, for I am preparing to enter upon the subject of the resurrection. This subject is rich and varied: it sets our doctrines straight, orders our life, and frees God's providence from every accusation. When the resurrection is disbelieved, it overturns our life, fills it with countless evils, and turns things upside down. But when it is believed, it brings with it the arguments about providence, makes us take great care for virtue, makes us flee wickedness with great zeal, and fills everything with calm and peace.

The person who does not expect to rise again, who does not expect to give an account of what he has done here, who thinks that our affairs stop with the present life and that there is nothing more beyond it—such a person will not care for virtue. How could he, when he expects no reward to be laid up for his labors? Nor will he keep away from wickedness, since he expects no punishment for the evil he has done. Instead, he gives himself over to disordered desires and will rush into every kind of evil. But the person who has persuaded himself about the coming judgment, who keeps that fearful tribunal before his eyes along with the inexorable accounting and the irrefutable verdict, will try in every way to hold fast to self-control and gentleness and the rest of virtue, and to flee licentiousness, insolence, and every other wickedness. And this person will be able with great abundance to stop the mouths of those who accuse God's providence.

For when some people see the gentle and self-controlled, those who live in righteousness, being choked by poverty, mistreated, slandered, scarcely able to obtain necessary food, and often wasting away with long illness and harsh diseases while receiving no protection—and when they see charlatans and defiled men, full of many evils, clothed in wealth, living in luxury, wearing splendid garments, dragging after themselves a great swarm of household servants, admired, enjoying power, and possessing great confidence before the king—then some people accuse God's providence over these things and say: Where is providence in this? Where is just judgment? The self-controlled and gentle person is in evils, while the licentious and corrupt person is in good things. This one is admired, that one is despised. This one enjoys great luxury, that one is in poverty and the worst evils. The person who doubts about the things to come will be silenced and will say nothing at all. But the person who knows how to philosophize about the resurrection will easily check the blasphemy and will say to those who are vexed at such things: Stop sharpening your tongues against the God who made you. Our affairs do not stop with the present life; we are pressing on to another life far longer—or rather, one that has no end. And there, certainly, this poor man who lives with righteousness will receive the rewards for his labors, while the licentious charlatan will pay the penalty for this wickedness and unjust luxury.

2So let us not judge God's providence from present things alone, but also from the things to come. For the present things are a contest, wrestling-grounds, and a stadium; the things to come are prizes, crowns, and awards. Just as an athlete must fight in the wrestling-ground with sweat, dust, great heat, labors, and hardships, so also the righteous person here must endure many things and bear everything nobly, if he is going to receive back the shining crowns there. But if the prosperity of the wicked troubles some people, let them reason about those people in the same way again: just as robbers, grave-diggers, murderers, and pirates who sail the sea enjoy great luxury before they enter the courtroom, making other people's misfortunes their own wealth, acquiring unjust riches, and getting drunk every day—but when they come under the judge's votes, they pay the penalty for all those things—so also these people who buy prostitutes, set out Sybaritic tables, raise their eyebrows, swagger in the marketplace, and tear the poor to pieces, when the only-begotten Son of God arrives with His own angels and sits on that judgment seat and brings the whole world into the middle, will be brought in naked and stripped of all their show, with no advocate or protector, and without any pardon they will be carried away into the rivers of fire. So do not call these people blessed because of their luxury here, but weep for them because of the punishment to come. And do not call the righteous person wretched because of his poverty here, but call him blessed because of the coming wealth of good things. Root the teaching about the resurrection in your own mind, so that if you are good and are tested, you may become more approved, receiving greater eagerness from the hopes to come; and if you are wicked, you may turn away from evil, making yourself more self-controlled by the fear of the coming punishment.

2. For this reason Paul constantly stirs up the teaching about the resurrection for us, just as you heard him crying out today and saying: "For we know that if our earthly dwelling of the tent is destroyed, we have a dwelling from God, not made by hands, eternal, in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). But let us take the discussion further back and see from where he fell into the teaching about the resurrection. For he does not stir up this teaching constantly simply or by chance, but because he wants at the same time to teach about the things to come and to strengthen the athletes of godliness. For now, by God's grace, we enjoy great peace: kings live in godliness, rulers have come to know the truth, and peoples, cities, and nations have been freed from error and all worship Christ. But then, at the beginning of the preaching, when the seeds of godliness had just been sown, the war was great, varied, and of many kinds. For rulers, kings, household members, relatives, and everyone made war on the faithful, and the war was stirred up through nature itself. For a father often handed over his child, a mother her daughter, and a master his servant.

3For it was not only cities and countrysides that fought, but often households fought against themselves, and the turmoil that gripped them then was harsher than any civil war. Property was being snatched away, freedom was being betrayed, and danger hung over life itself—not because barbarians were raiding and attacking, but because the very people who seemed to be leaders and rulers treated their subjects more harshly than any enemy. Paul made this clear when he said, “You endured a great contest of sufferings: sometimes being made a spectacle through reproaches and afflictions, and sometimes becoming partners with those who were treated this way. For you suffered together with me in my chains, and you accepted the plundering of your possessions with joy” (Hebrews 10:32-34). And to the Galatians he says, “Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?” (Galatians 3:4). And to the Thessalonians, and the Philippians, and simply to all those to whom he writes, he bears witness to many such things.

And this was not the only difficulty—that a great and unceasing war was stirred up from outside—but also among the faithful themselves there happened to be scandals, strifes, rivalries, and jealousies. Paul made this clear when he said, “Outside are battles, within are fears” (2 Corinthians 7:5). And this war was harsher than the other, both for those being led and for the teachers. Paul did not fear the plots of enemies as much as he feared the falls within and the transgressions of his own people. When someone among the Corinthians committed fornication, he spent all that time mourning, tearing at his own heart and crying out bitterly.

There was also a third thing, no less than those already mentioned, that brought great labor upon the faithful: the very nature of the matters themselves, full of many sweats and toils. For the road onto which the apostles led them was not easy and smooth, but rough and hard to set right, requiring a soul that was philosophical, wakeful, and precise in every way. This is why Christ called it narrow and afflicted. For it was not permitted to live without fear, as among the Greeks, in shamefulness, drunkenness, gluttony, luxury, and extravagance. Instead, one had to bridle anger, master disordered desire, look down on money, trample on glory, and rise above envy and malice. How much labor these things require is known by those who wrestle with them every day.

Tell me, what is harsher than disordered desire, which leaps on us constantly like a rabid dog, troubles us every day, and requires a soul that is perpetually awake? And what is more bitter than anger? For it is sweet to take revenge on the one who wronged you, but this was not permitted. And why do I say it was not permitted to take revenge on the one who wronged you? One had to do good to those who caused grief, bless those who insulted, and never utter a bitter word. And one had to display self-control not only in actions but even in thought. For one must abstain not only from the licentious act itself but also from such looking, and not even feast one's eyes on the sight of beautiful women, since one was about to undergo the ultimate punishment even for this gazing. Since, then, the war from outside was great, the fear from within was great, and the labor for the work of virtue was great.

4And there was a fourth hardship as well: the inexperience of those who were about to contend in this great contest. The apostles did not receive people who had inherited piety from their ancestors, but people raised in laziness, luxury, drunkenness, shamefulness, and licentiousness. And this was no small obstacle to the contests—that they had not been trained in this philosophy from the beginning or from their ancestors, but were now for the first time stripping for these contests.

Since the difficulty for those contending then was so great, Paul comforted their labor by constantly stirring up the word about the resurrection. And he urges on and anoints the athletes not only by this, but also by recounting his own sufferings. So before he enters into the words about the resurrection, he recounts his own sufferings, saying: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). Through these words he reveals his daily deaths—that they went about like living corpses, handed over to death every day.

So when the things brought against them were at their height, then he stirs up the word about the resurrection: “For we believe,” he says, “that He who raised our Lord Jesus Christ will also raise us through Jesus and present us with you. Therefore we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:14). Having the greatest comfort in their contests: the hope of what is to come. And he did not say to them, “Therefore do not lose heart.” What then? “Therefore we do not lose heart,” showing that he himself was also constantly in the contests. For in the Olympic contests, the athlete contends inside while the trainer sits far off and brings help through words, contributing only as much to the wrestler as shouting and calling out can do. No law permits the trainer to stand near and bring the aid of his hands. But in the contests of piety it is not so: the same person is at once trainer and athlete. Therefore he does not sit outside the wrestling ground, but has thrown himself into the contests themselves and anoints those boxing alongside him, saying, “Therefore we do not lose heart.” And he did not say, “Therefore I do not lose heart,” but “Therefore we do not lose heart,” wanting to raise them up with praises of them.

“But even if our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). See the apostle’s wisdom. He urged them on from what they suffered: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.” He urged them on from the resurrection of Jesus, saying, “He who raised Jesus will also raise us.” Then he stirs up yet another kind of comfort. Since many people are small-souled, weak, and miserable, even if they are persuaded about the resurrection they grow discouraged at the length of time, grow dizzy, and collapse. So Paul gives them another reward and recompense before the resurrection. What is it? “Even if our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” He calls the body the outer self, and the soul the inner self. What he says is this: even before the resurrection, even before you enjoy the glory to come, you have already received no small reward for your labors from this present time—in the very affliction your soul is renewed, becoming wiser and more reverent, gaining greater endurance, becoming more vigorous and more powerful.

5Just as those who compete in a bodily contest receive a great reward even before the crowns and prizes, from the training itself and the wrestling, because they make their bodies healthier and stronger through the exercise and escape every illness, so also in the contests of virtue, even before heaven is opened, before the Son of God arrives, and before we receive our rewards, we already reap a great reward from this, because our soul becomes more philosophical. For those who have sailed a great deal of sea, endured countless waves, fought with many beasts, and borne many storms, even before the trading itself they reap no small profit from this long journey, by being bold and daring against the open sea and making these voyages across the water fearlessly and with pleasure. So also in this present life, the one who has borne many afflictions for Christ, who has suffered many terrible things, has received a great reward even before the kingdom of heaven, having already gained confidence before God from this, and having made his own soul more exalted, so that he now laughs at all terrible things.

To make what I am saying clearer, I want to show it by an example. This very Paul, who endured countless terrible things, received no small rewards even from this: he laughed at tyrants, withstood raging mobs, despised every punishment, and remained unshaken before beasts, iron, seas, cliffs, uprisings, plots, and all terrible things. What could equal this? The untrained person who has suffered nothing terrible is usually disturbed even by ordinary things—or rather, not only by the events themselves, but even by mere expectations. And why do I say mere expectations? Shadows frighten and terrify such a person. But the one who has stripped off everything, entered the contests, and suffered countless terrible things is now above them all, laughing at those who threaten him as if they were cawing jackdaws.

This is no small crown, no ordinary reward: when none of the things of human life can grieve him, when what is fearful to others becomes contemptible to him, when he is about to laugh at the very things that make others shudder and stand amazed, having transferred himself by the excess of his endurance into the philosophy of the angelic powers. For if we bless a body that can bear cold and heat without pain, and hunger, and want, and travel, and other hardships, much more should we bless a soul that can bear all the assaults of terrible things with steadfastness and nobility, and keep its purpose unenslaved through everything. Such a person is more royal than kings themselves. For a king can be wronged in many ways by bodyguards, friends, and enemies who plot against him and do him harm. But the one who has the kind of soul I have just described cannot be harmed by king, bodyguard, servant, friend, enemy, or the devil himself. How could he be, when he has trained himself to consider none of the things thought to be terrible as terrible?

6Such was the blessed Paul. That is why he said: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35-37). This is what he was hinting at here when he said: “Even if our outer self is wasting away, yet the inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). The body becomes weaker, he says, but the soul becomes more powerful and stronger, and is winged more. Just as a soldier carrying heavy weapons, even if he is very brave and skilled in war, cannot be terrifying to his enemies, because the weight of his weapons undermines the speed of his feet and his experience in battle—but if he takes light and easily handled weapons, he comes upon his opponents like any winged creature—so also the one who does not fatten his own flesh with drunkenness or with ease and luxury, but makes it lighter and thinner through fasts and prayers and great endurance of afflictions, descends from above like a winged being, and with great force falls upon the phalanxes of demons, easily overthrows the opposing powers, and makes them subject to him. So Paul, after receiving many blows and being thrown into prison and bound in the stocks, had a body made weaker by being stretched with labors, but a soul strong and vigorous. And the bound man was so strong that by his voice alone he shook the foundations of the prison, brought the unbound jailer bound to his own feet, and opened the doors that had been shut. Paul therefore gave us no small comfort even before the resurrection: that we become better and more philosophical through trials. That is why he says: “Affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces testedness, and testedness produces hope, and hope does not put to shame” (Romans 5:3-5). And again someone else says: “An untested man is unapproved, and the unapproved man is worthy of no account.” So we reap no small fruit from affliction even before the resurrection: having a soul that is more tested, wiser, and more understanding, and freed from all cowardice. That is why he says: “Even if our outer self is wasting away, yet the inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). How is it renewed? Tell me. All unmanliness is driven out, disordered desire is quenched, love of money, vainglory, and simply all the other corrupted thoughts are destroyed. Just as a soul enjoying idleness and security is easily captured by these passions, so the soul continually occupied with contests for godliness never has leisure even to think of them, since concern about its wrestling matches draws it away from all those things. That is why he said: “It is being renewed day by day.” Then again, comforting the souls that grieve over the terrible things that come upon them and do not know how to be philosophical, he raises them up through the hope of things to come, saying: “For this momentary light affliction is working out for us, beyond measure unto excess, an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

7For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). What he means is this: affliction benefits us most of all even here, making our soul wiser and more philosophical, and after this it also procures for us countless good things in the age to come—not merely counterbalancing our labors, but far greater than our wrestling matches, both in quantity and in quality. Paul makes both of these points clear, I say, and he compares the surpassing greatness of the dangers and the prizes, setting the eternal against the momentary, the weight against the light, the glory against the affliction. For affliction, he says, is temporary and light, but the relief—or rather he did not say relief, but glory, which is far greater than relief—is eternal and perpetual and great. By weight here he does not mean what is burdensome and heavy to carry, but what is costly and honored, according to the custom of most people, who are accustomed to call very valuable things very weighty. So when he says weight of glory, he means greatness of glory. Do not think only of this, he says—that you are scourged and driven about—but also of the crowns and the rewards, because those are far greater and more splendid than the present things, and they have no end and no limit. But these things, he says, are in trial, while those are in hopes; and these are visible, while those do not appear but are suspended and in mid-air. Yet even if they are unseen, they are more visible than the things that are seen. What do I mean, more visible? You can see those things more than these. For these things pass away, but those remain. That is why he added: While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). But if you say, How will I be able to see the unseen things and not see the present things? I will try to lead you into this faith from the affairs of daily life. For no one would readily lay hold of even the perishable affairs of this world without first seeing the unseen things before the visible ones. What I mean is this: the merchant endures many storms and risings of waves and shipwrecks and countless difficulties, and he also enjoys wealth after the storms, disposing of his cargo and carrying on much business. But the storms come first, and the cargo comes later; and the seas and the waves are visible when he leaves the harbor, but the trade is not visible, for it is still in hopes. Yet unless he first looks to that unseen thing which is not present and not in his hands but in hopes, he would not lay hold of these present and visible things. So also the farmer yokes oxen, drags the plow, cuts a deep furrow, casts in seed, spends all that he has, and endures frost and ice and rains and many other hardships; and after this labor he expects to see the fields thick with grain and the threshing floor filled. Do you see how here too the labor comes first, and after it the reward—and the reward is unseen, while the labor is clear and visible; and the one is in hopes, while the other is in his hands? Yet unless he first looks to that reward which is unseen and invisible and not visible to the eyes of the body, he will not only not yoke oxen or drag the plow or cast in seed, but he will never even stir from his house to go to this work.

8How then is it not absurd that in the affairs of this life we look at what is unseen before what is visible, and endure labors before the wages, and first bear all the hardships and only then expect the good that comes from them, and are stirred by hopes of unseen things to take hold of visible things in this way—yet when it comes to God we hesitate and doubt, and demand the rewards before the labors, and show ourselves more fainthearted than farmers and sailors? For we will appear worse than them not only in this respect, by being impatient about the future, but also in another respect no less than this. What is that? They, even when they cannot be entirely confident about the outcome, still do not abandon their labors; but you, though you have a trustworthy guarantor of the crowns, still do not imitate their endurance. The farmer, after casting the seed and tending the ground and seeing the crops flourishing, often loses the reward of his labors when hail or blight or locusts or some other such blow falls on them, and after his many sweats returns home with empty hands. And the merchant again, after crossing a great expanse of sea with his cargo ship fully loaded, often strikes a rock just at the mouth of the harbor when winds rush in, and barely escapes with his life, naked. And in all the affairs of this life, many such disasters often happen right at the end. But in your contests this is not so. The one who has contended, who has sown godliness and borne many labors, must by all means attain the end. For God has not entrusted the rewards of these labors to the unevenness of the air or the force of the winds, but they are stored up in the heavens, in inviolable treasuries. This is why Paul also said, "Affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces provenness, and provenness produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame" (Romans 5:3-5). So do not say that the things to come are unseen. For if you are willing to examine carefully, they are far more visible than the things in hand. And Paul, showing us this very thing again, calls the one things eternal and the other things temporary, revealing their corruptibility by the word "temporary." For before it appears it flies away, and it runs off before it arrives, and its changes are swift, and its possession is untrustworthy. One may see this happening with wealth and glory and power, and with beauty of body, and with strength and with all the other affairs of this life. This is why the prophet, mocking those who live in luxury and rage after money and all the rest of the illusion, says, "They considered these things as standing, and not as fleeing." For just as it is impossible to grasp a shadow, so it is with the affairs of this life. Some are dissolved by death, and others flow away even before death, more swiftly than any winter torrent. But the things to come are not like this. They know no change, they admit no turning, they do not understand old age, they have no alteration, but they flourish continually and remain in the same beauty. So if one must call anything unseen and uncertain and untrustworthy, it is the present things that should be called so—things that do not remain with those who possess them, but change masters and leap every day from this person to another, and again from that one to another.

9After making all these things clear to us, Paul calls the present things temporary and the future things eternal, and then he sets in motion his argument about the resurrection. He says: “For we know that if our earthly dwelling of the tent is dissolved, we have a dwelling from God, not made by hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Notice again here how precisely he uses his words, showing the force of his thoughts through the very names he chooses. He did not simply call the body a tent. He did so to point out to us the temporary character of our present life and to make clear the change for the better. He is all but saying: Why do you groan and weep, beloved, because you are beaten and driven out and thrown into prison? Why do you lament these partial hardships, when you ought to welcome the complete dissolution of the body—or rather, not simply of the body, but of the corruption in the body?

To show that these partial hardships not only should not grieve us but should actually make us rejoice, he shows that the complete and final taking down is something we pray for. That is why he speaks of the dissolution that comes through death. And again: “For in this tent we groan, longing to put on over it our dwelling place from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2).

He calls it “the dwelling of the tent,” meaning either the body by both names together, or “the dwelling of the tent” meaning the houses in which we live, the cities, the whole shape of this present life. And he did not simply say “I know,” but “we know,” drawing his hearers into his own conviction. “I am not discussing matters that are in doubt,” he says, “nor things that are unknown, but things for which you have already received the faith, since you have believed in the resurrection of the Lord.” That is why we also call the bodies of those who have departed “tents.”

Notice how precisely he uses the word. He did not say, “It is destroyed and made to disappear,” but “It is dissolved,” showing that it is dissolved so that it may rise again more radiant and more splendid. Then, just as he made a comparison in the case of labors and prizes—from quality, from time, and from quantity—so he does here as well. He calls the body that falls a tent, but the body that rises a dwelling. And not simply a dwelling, but an eternal one. And not simply eternal, but heavenly, showing its superiority both from time and from place. For this one is earthly, but that one is heavenly. This one is temporary, but that one is eternal.

Now we need both a body and houses because of the weakness of the flesh. But then the same thing will be both body and dwelling, needing no roof and no coverings of any kind, since incorruption will be enough for it in place of everything.

Then, showing the superiority of the good things stored up in it, he says: “For in this tent we groan.” He did not say, “I groan,” but he makes the conviction a shared one. “For in this tent,” he says, “we groan,” wanting to draw them into his own way of thinking and make them partners in his judgment. “For in this tent we groan, longing to put on over it our dwelling place from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2). He did not say simply “to put on,” but “to put on over.” And he adds: “If indeed, having put it on, we will not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3).

10The saying seems unclear at first, but it becomes clearer through what follows. For he says, “For while we are in this tent, we groan, being weighed down, because we do not want to be stripped, but to be clothed over” (2 Corinthians 5:4). Do you see how he does not forget himself, and does not call this body a dwelling, but again a tent? “Because we do not want to be stripped, but to be clothed over.” Here he gave a decisive blow to those who slander the nature of the body and accuse our flesh. Since he said that we groan and do not want to be stripped, so that you would not think he flees the body as something evil, a cause of wickedness, an enemy and adversary, hear how he corrects that suspicion. First, by saying, “We groan, longing to be clothed over with our dwelling place from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2). For the one who is clothed over puts on something else over what already exists. Then by saying, “We groan, being weighed down, because we do not want to be stripped, but to be clothed over, longing for it.” What he means is this: We do not want to put off the flesh, he says, but corruption; not the body, but death. The body is one thing, and death is another. The body is one thing, and corruption is another. The body is not corruption, nor is corruption the body. The body is corruptible, but the body is not corruption. The body is mortal, but the body is not death. The body was made by God, but corruption and death were introduced by sin. So I want to strip off what is foreign, he says, not what is my own. And what is foreign is not the body, but corruption. That is why he says, “Because we do not want to be stripped”—that is, of the body—“but to be clothed over” with incorruption for the body. The body stands between corruption and incorruption. It strips off corruption and is clothed over with incorruption. It casts off what it received from sin, and acquires what the grace of God gave. And so that you may learn that when he says “to be stripped,” he is not speaking about the body but about corruption and death, listen to what follows immediately. After saying, “We do not want to be stripped, but to be clothed over,” he did not say, “So that the body may be swallowed up by bodilessness.” But what? “So that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4)—that is, so that it may be destroyed, so that it may perish. So he speaks of the destruction not of the body, but of death and corruption. For when life comes upon it, it does not destroy and consume the body, but the corruption and death that have come upon it. So the groaning is not because of the body, but because of the corruption that lies upon it. For the body is heavy, burdensome, and oppressive, not by its own nature, but because of the mortality that was added to it later. But the body is not corruptible; it is incorruptible. For its nobility is so great that even in corruption itself it displays its own dignity. The shadows of the apostles drove away bodiless powers, the dust and ashes prevailed over demons, and the garments that touched their bodies removed diseases and restored health.

Do not tell me about phlegm and bile, sweat and filth, and the other things the accusers of the body mention. These were not part of the body's nature, but of the corruption that came upon it later.

11But if you want to learn the body's excellence, examine the formation of all its members, their shape, their functions, their harmony with one another. You will see that the constitution of these members toward one another is more precise than any well-governed city whose citizens are all philosophers. And if you pass over all this and bring forward only its corruptible and mortal aspect, we will not lack a defense even from that. For it is clear from this that not only has no harm come from it, but great gain has come to the human race. All the saints who lived with this body displayed that angelic way of life, and it caused them no harm in their course toward virtue. And those who looked toward impiety had no small hindrance in the corruption of the body, keeping them from advancing further in their own lawlessness. For if many people, while clothed in this corruptible and passible body, imagined equality with God and worked hard to wrap such glory around themselves, then if they had not had a passible and corruptible body to expose their weakness, whom would they not have deceived among the more foolish? So when corruption appears as a hindrance even to impiety—which is the furthest limit of wickedness—and provides the saints an opportunity to display the courage of their soul, what pardon could those deserve who slander and abuse it? Nor is this all we can say about it. It has also become for us a cause of the knowledge of God. For since his invisible attributes are perceived through the things he has made, from the creation of the world (Romans 1:20), and faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:17), it is clear that the soul, led by the hand through eyes and ears, came to know the God who made it. This is why Paul loves it and cries out, saying, "We do not want to be unclothed, but to put on over it immortality" (2 Corinthians 5:4). And do not tell me, "How can the body rise again and become incorruptible?" When God's power is at work, do not ask how. And why do I speak only of God? He made you yourself to become a craftsman of resurrection—in seeds, in crafts, and in metallic materials. For seeds, unless they first die and rot and decay, do not produce the ear of grain. So when you see the grain rotting and dissolving, you do not doubt the resurrection; you make it a very clear proof for yourself. For unless it remains rotting and decaying, it would never rise. Think the same way about your own body: when you see corruption, then especially reflect on the resurrection. For death is nothing other than the removal of corruption. Death does not consume the body itself, but its corruption. You can see this happening with metallic materials as well. Those experienced in these things take gold-bearing earth, hand it over to the furnace, and produce gold. They mix sand and other material and make pure glass. Tell me then: what the power of fire does, will the grace of God not be able to do? Who among those with any sense at all would say that? Consider how he made you in the beginning, and no longer doubt the resurrection.

12Did He not take earth and form it? And yet which is harder: to make from earth flesh and veins and skin and bones and sinews and nerves and arteries, and the organs and the simple parts of the body—eyes, ears, nose, feet, and hands—and to give each of these its own proper function as well as a common one, or to make corruptible things immortal? Do you not see how the earth is uniform, but the body is varied and manifold in its functions, in its colors, in its shape, in its substances, and in everything else? How then can you doubt what is to come, tell me? And why speak only of bodies? Tell me, how did He make the boundless powers and the hosts of angels, the archangels, and the orders above them? I cannot say how, except that His will alone was enough. Then He who made so many bodiless armies cannot renew again a human body that has decayed, and bring it to a greater dignity? Who is so senseless as to doubt these things and do away with the resurrection? For if the body does not rise, the human being does not rise. A human being is not soul alone, but soul and body. If then only the soul rises, the living creature rises by half, not whole. And properly speaking, resurrection cannot be said of the soul. For resurrection is of what has fallen and been dissolved, and the soul is not dissolved—the body is.

What then does this mean: “if indeed, having put it on, we will not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3)? A great and secret mystery is hinted to us here. What is it? It is what he also says in the letter to the Corinthians: that we will all rise, but each in his own order (1 Corinthians 15:23). What does that mean? That Greek and Jew and heretic and every human being who has entered this world will rise on that day. And to make this clear he said: “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

Since then the resurrection is universal for all, common to the devout and the impious, to the wicked and the good, do not suppose from this that some unjust judgment is taking place, and do not say to yourself: “What is this? I, the earnest one who labored and suffered so much, rise, and the Greek, and the one who acted impiously and worshiped idols and did not know Christ—he also rises in the same way and enjoys the same honor?” So that you are not troubled by saying these things, hear what he says: “If indeed, having put it on, we will not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3). And how, he says, can one who has put on incorruption and immortality be found naked? How? When we are destitute of glory and stripped of confidence before God. For the bodies of sinners also rise incorruptible and immortal, but this honor becomes for them provision for punishment and retribution. They rise incorruptible so that they may burn forever. Since that fire is unquenchable, it needs bodies that are never consumed. Therefore he says: “If indeed, having put it on, we will not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3).

13For the question is not only that we rise and put on immortality, but that after rising and putting on immortality, we may not be found naked of glory and of confidence before God—so that we may not be handed over to the fire. That is why he says: “If indeed, having put it on, we will not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3). Then, making the argument about the resurrection more trustworthy, after saying that what is mortal is going to be swallowed up by life, he added: “And the one who worked us for this very thing is God” (2 Corinthians 5:5). What he means is this: from the beginning God formed the human being for this purpose, not so that he might perish, but so that he might journey toward incorruption. So even when he permitted death, he permitted it with this intention: that you might be disciplined by the punishment, and having become better, you might be able to be led again to immortality. From above and from the beginning this counsel and purpose prevailed with God, and with this decree he formed the first human being. He hinted this to us immediately from the very opening events. For if he had not wanted to open the doors of the resurrection to us from the beginning, he would not have allowed Abel, who had displayed every virtue and had become his friend, to suffer what he suffered. But now, showing us that we are journeying toward another life, and that another age remains for the righteous, holding the rewards and crowns laid up, he allowed the first righteous man, who did not receive here the wages of his labors, to depart crying out through what he suffered, saying to all that after this life there is a recompense and a wage and a reward. For this reason he also translated Enoch and snatched up Elijah, hinting to us the doctrine of the resurrection. The power of the Maker is enough for full assurance. But if someone is weaker and wants to receive another proof and a pledge of the coming resurrection, God gave this too with great abundance, pouring out the grace of the Spirit with great generosity. For this reason Paul, after making the argument about the resurrection trustworthy from the resurrection of Christ and from God being the Creator, adds this saying as well, saying that he also gave us a guarantee—not of money, nor of gold and silver, but a guarantee of the Spirit. And a guarantee is a part of the whole, and it is trustworthy for the whole. For just as in contracts the one who has received the guarantee is confident about the whole from then on and has believed, so you too, having received the guarantee—I mean the gifts of the Spirit—no longer doubt about the good things laid up for you. For the one who raises the dead, who heals the blind, who drives out demons, who cleanses lepers, who sets diseases right, who looses death, who can do such great things in a perishable and mortal body—what pardon will you obtain if you doubt about the resurrection? For if the time of recompense has not yet come, but the wrestling matches are still standing, and God has already rewarded us with so many crowns, consider how many good things he will give you at the time of the prizes. But if someone says: “We do not see these signs happening now, and we do not have such power,” I would say this: it makes no difference whether these things happened now or before.

14That these things happened before through the apostles is witnessed by the churches everywhere in the world, and by peoples, cities, and nations who ran to laymen and fishermen. For unlettered and poor and needy and lowly men would never have prevailed over the world if they had not had the help of signs. But neither have you been left without the grace of the Spirit. Even now many symbols of that gift remain, far greater and more wonderful than the ones just listed. For it is not the same thing to raise a body that has died and to deliver a soul that has been killed by sins from that destruction—which happens through baptism. It is not the same thing to drive out diseases of the flesh and to put off the burden of sins. It is not the same thing to restore a blinded eye and to illuminate a darkened soul with light. For if there were not a guarantee of the Spirit even now, baptism would not have been established, forgiveness of sins would not have come to be, righteousness and holiness would not have come, we would not have received adoption as sons, we would not have enjoyed the mysteries. For the mystical body and blood could never have come to be without the grace of the Spirit. We would not have had priests, for these ordinations cannot happen without that visitation. And one could name many other symbols of the grace of the Spirit. So you too have the guarantee of the Spirit, and you have put off the death of the soul, the maiming of your thoughts, and you have stripped off the unclean life. Let us not be distressed about the things to come, since we have received such pledges. Instead, let us gather from every side the argument for the resurrection, and let us show a life worthy of these doctrines, so that we may also obtain the immovable good things that surpass every word and human mind. May we all obtain them, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.