Breviloquium

Concerning the resurrection of bodies, this must be held: all human bodies will rise in the general resurrection, with no difference among them as to the order of time, but with a great difference as to the order of dignity. — For the wicked will rise with their deformities and punishments, miseries and defects, which they had in the state of pilgrimage. But in the good « nature will be preserved, and vices will be removed »,¹ and all will rise with an entire body, full age, and the due measure of their members, so that all the saints may come to a perfect man, to the measure of the fullness of Christ's age. — They will rise, moreover, both among the good and among the wicked, with the numerically same bodies as before, constituted from the same parts, with the whole truth of nature preserved—not only with respect to the principal members and radical moisture, but also with the hair,² and the other members that contribute to the body's comeliness; so that « into whatever airs or recesses of nature the dust of a human body may fall, it will return to that soul which first animated it so that it might live and grow ».

The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: the first principle, precisely because it is first and supreme, is most universal and most sufficient, and thus is the principle of natures, graces, and rewards, and also the most powerful, most merciful, and most just principle; and although according to a certain appropriation³ it is most powerful in the constitution of natures, most merciful in the bestowal of graces, and most just in the retribution of stipends, nevertheless each is present in each, because supreme power, mercy, and justice can in no way be separated from one another. Therefore, in the work of retribution it is necessary that it be carried out according to what the rectitude of justice, the reformation of grace, and the completion of nature demand. Since, then, justice necessarily requires that the person who merited or demerited—not in the soul alone, nor in the body alone, but in soul and body together—be punished or rewarded in both; and the reformation of grace requires that the whole body be conformed to Christ the head, whose dead body necessarily had to rise, since it was inseparably united to the Divinity; while the completion of nature requires that a person consist at once of body and soul as of matter and form, which have a mutual appetite and mutual inclination:⁴ it is necessary that the resurrection be future, as required by the constitution of nature, the infusion of grace, and the retribution of justice, according to which the whole universe is governed. And therefore, from these three, all things cry out that man must be raised, so that every excuse may be removed from those who deafen themselves against this truth of faith, and rightly the whole earthly world may fight against such people.⁵

First, then, since the resurrection ought to be according to the requirement of the order of divine justice; and divine justice renders to each person what is his, according to place and time; and every soul, once⁶ and for a point in time united to a body, either has guilt in it or grace: it is necessary that all rise. — And because the state of retribution ought to be distinct from the state of pilgrimage, and resurrection pertains to the state of retribution—so that the order of the universe may not be confused, so that faith may have merit, since it believes what it does not see, so that the equity of divine justice may appear more certainly and clearly, and so that consummation and final retribution may take place together in angels and human beings—divine justice requires that all rise together, insofar as the common law is concerned. I say this on account of Christ and his most blessed mother, the glorious Virgin Mary. — But since punishment and misery are due to the wicked, and glory to the good, although they rise together in time, they will nevertheless be very unlike in condition. For since the resurrection of the wicked is not unto life but unto punishment;⁷ it is necessary that they be raised with infirmities, deformities, and defects.

Again, since the resurrection ought to be according to the requirement of the consummation of grace; and perfect grace makes us conformed to Christ, our head, in whom there was no defect of members, but perfect age, due stature, and a beautiful form, it is fitting that the good be raised in the best conditions; and hence it is necessary that their vices be removed and their nature preserved. — It is fitting also that, if some member was missing, it be supplied; if there was some superfluity, it be removed; if there was some disorder among the members, it be corrected; if someone was a child, by divine power he be brought to the measure of Christ's age, which he had at the resurrection, although « not in bulk⁸ », if decrepit, he be restored to the same age; if a giant, or if a dwarf, he be limited to a fitting measure, so that all may thus come, whole and perfect, to a perfect man, to the measure of the fullness of Christ's age.

Finally, since the resurrection ought to be according to the requirement of the perfection of nature; and the nature of the rational spirit requires that it vivify its own body, because « its proper act must take place in its proper matter⁹ »: it is necessary that the numerically same body rise; otherwise it would not be a true resurrection. The nature of the rational and immortal soul also requires that, just as it has perpetual existence, so it have a body into which it may perpetually pour life; and consequently the body united to the soul, from the union itself, has an ordering toward perpetual incorruption, yet in such a way that what constitutes the substance of the whole body—such as the principal members, radical moisture, and flesh according to species—has an ordering of necessity; whereas the other things, namely flesh according to matter,¹⁰ and the parts that belong to the body's well-being, have an ordering of fittingness. Therefore the former parts are ordered to the resurrection according to the order of necessity, while all the others are ordered according to the order of fittingness. Since God impressed this order upon nature, and nature cannot bring it to completion because it cannot raise the dead, and divine providence itself ought to do nothing in vain,¹¹ it is necessary that by his power the numerically same body be restored, immortal and constituted from all its parts, with the whole truth of nature preserved. But since nature does not have this in its power, but only in its appetite, because it can neither restore the numerically same destroyed body, since it cannot extend to the whole substance of the thing, nor produce an immortal body, since everything generable by nature is corruptible,¹² nor gather what has been dispersed, it is necessary that the resurrection be attributed not to seminal or natural causes, but to primordial causes, so that it may occur according to the wondrous and supernatural course and command of the divine will.