rise spiritual bodies, entirely under the control of the soul.

Subtilty means that our risen bodies will be endowed with the power of penetrating all things, even the hardest substances, as easily as the sun's rays penetrate a clear crystal. This is the power which our Blessed Lord possessed and exercised when He arose from the dead, without removing the stone that covered the mouth of the sepulchre. He simply passed through it with His glorified Body. Again, after eight days, when the Apostles were gathered together, "Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be to you." This is a supernatural gift with which we shall be clothed, because we must rise conformable to the glorious Body of Jesus Christ.

These, then, are some of the attributes of a spiritual body. They are evidently the natural properties of spirits. But God will clothe the bodies of His children with them, as a reward for their love of Him and the holy lives they have led in this world.

*St. John xx. 26.

E

CHAPTER VII.

THE IMPASSIBILITY AND IMMORTALITY OF THE RISEN BODY.

BESIDES the attributes which immediately flow from the fact that our animal bodies will rise spiritualised, there are two more qualities, which we shall now consider, namely, the impassibility and immortality of our risen bodies.

1. Impassibility implies the total loss of the power of suffering. What an enormous capacity we have for suffering! The power of receiving pleasure through our senses is only as a drop in the ocean, when compared with our manifold capacities for suffering, in every faculty of the soul, in every organ, member, and nerve of our frame. Every one of them is susceptible of tortures, which, while endured, make the enjoyment of life and its pleasures impossible. A violent headache or a burning fever drives a man almost to distraction, and destroys any pleasure he might otherwise experience. What consolation, therefore, to think that this body of suffering shall rise impassible ! No more disease, no more pain or pang, no more suffering either of mind or body, for we shall enter a new world from which

suffering is for ever banished. St. John had a glimpse of this new world when he said, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were gone. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He shall dwell with them. . . . And God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away.

...

It was the thought of rising in glory, with a body free from suffering, that gave comfort to the holy man Job when the storm of adversity had burst upon him. Listen to his beautiful words: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God. Whom I myself shall see, and not another. This my hope is laid up in my bosom."+ Lay up that hope in your bosom as he did, and when the storm of adversity bursts upon you, the thought of rising in a glorified, impassible body, and in a new world, will give you patience and resignation.

But rising with the gift of impassibility does not mean that our bodies will be unfeeling as marble statues. It only means that they shall be free from the power of suffering; but that does not exclude the + Job xix. 25.

*

Apoc. xxi. 1-4.

power of receiving pleasure. Glory does not destroy nature, but perfects it. The bodies of the Blessed will remain sensible to impressions from suitable objects, and, according to St. Thomas, the Blessed will use their senses for enjoyment in all that is not repugnant to a state of incorruption.*

2. We now come to consider the crowning glory of all the glorious supernatural attributes wherewith God will clothe our bodies on the last day. I say it is the crowning glory. For the splendour of form, the vigour of youth, and the complete perfection of our human nature-which are all included in the promise of rising comformable to the glorified Body of Jesus Christ -would scarcely be worth working for or possessing, unless they were accompanied with the promise of incorruptibility. Indeed, of what use would be the rising with the bloom of youth and health on our cheek, and in perfect beauty of form, if time could again destroy them-as in this world? But there is no danger that the destroyer will

*

"Et corpus igitur perfectum per animam proportionabiliter animæ, immune erit ab omni malo, et quantum ad actum, et quantum ad potentiam : quantum ad actum quidem, quia nulla erit in eis corruptio, nulla deformitas, nullus defectus: quantum ad potentiam vero, quia non poterunt aliquid pati quod sit eis molestum, et propter hoc impassibilia erunt; quæ tamen impassibilitas non excludit ab eis passionem quæ est de ratione sensus; utentur enim sensibus ad delectationem secundum illa quæ statui incorruptionis non repugnant" (St. Thomas, Cont. Gent. lib. iv. cap. lxxxvi.).

ever enter our heavenly home. Listen to St. Paul. Speaking again of the body, he says: "It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption." ""*

Our bodies, as now constituted, are corruptible by their very nature. The elements of matter which compose them are held together by the laws of life, and not by their natural affinities. Hence, from the very first moment of our existence to our death, there is a continual struggle between the laws of life and those that govern inorganic matter. For a time, vigorous young life claims the supremacy, and the body grows to its degree of beauty and strength attainable in this world. But full soon the laws of decay and corruption begin to assert their empire. Beauty of feature and form gradually fade away; elasticity of limb gives way to the decrepitude of old age, and finally the whole frame becomes a burden under which nature groans and totters, until it falls into the gloomy grave, where corruption destroys every remaining vestige of beauty, and even of the human form. On the resurrection day, we not only shall rise in splendour and perfection of form, but we shall also be transferred to another world, whose laws are in perfect harmony with the laws of life, and into which corruption shall never enter.

In the present world, we already see things which, as far as we know nature's laws, are

* I Cor XV. 42.