CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:

• Penance (Continued)
• Extreme Unction
• Order (Holy Orders)
• Matrimony
• The General Resurrection
  • 69. The Place of Departed Souls
  • 70. Quality of a Separated Soul
  • 71. Suffrages for the Dead
  • 72. Prayers to the Saints
  • 73. Signs Preceding General Resurrection and Judgement
  • 74. The Fire of Judgment Day
  • 75. The Resurrection of the Body
  • 76. The Cause of the Resurrection of the Body
  • 77. Time and Manner of the Resurrection of the Body
  • 78. The Starting Point of the Bodily Resurrection
  • 79. The Risen Body
  • 80. The Integrity of the Risen Body
  • 81. The Quality of Those Risen from the Dead
  • 82. The Impassibility of Risen Bodies
  • 83. The Subtlety of Risen Bodies
  • 84. The Agility of Risen Bodies
  • 85. The Clarity of Risen Bodies
  • 86. The Risen Bodies of the Damned
• The Last Things
• Appendix I (The Innocents in Limbo)
• Appendix II (Two Notes on Purgatory)

83. The Subtlety of Risen Bodies

1. The risen body will be, in all organic action,perfectly subject to the soul, and instantly responsive to thewill, needing withal no material sustenance. This spirit-likequality of the risen body is called subtlety orsubtility.

2. The subtlety of a glorified body will not enable it tooccupy the same place with another body, unless this be done by amiracle.

3. Now, there is no contradiction in the thought of twobodies being in the same place simultaneously, even though there isnothing in the nature of a body capable of producing this effect.What keeps bodies from compenetration is their external extension,and this is not of the essence or nature of bodies, but is aneffect of quantity, which, in turn, is only a proper accidental ofbodies and not their essence. Hence, there is no conflict orcontradiction in the notion of compenetration of bodies; therefore,since the thing is conceivable, it might be done by a miracle.

4. However, the subtlety of the glorified body does notmake this compenetration possible without a miracle. Besides, inheaven, distinctness of bodily being will be a perfection; ifseveral bodies were to occupy the same place, this distinctness ofbeing would be obscured.

5. The glorified body, just as the natural body on earth,will occupy space, and will be in a place according to itsdimensions.

6. There will be nothing ghostlike in the risen body. Itwill be a true body. But it will have spiritual or spirit-likequalities. It will be something that can be touched and felt. Whenour Lord in his risen and glorified body came in, through closeddoors, to his disciples, he told them he was not a spirit or ghost,and said (Luke 24:39): "Handle and see: for a spirit hath notflesh and bones, as you see me to have."

"Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts."
St Philip Neri

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"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life."
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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"God commands not impossibilities, but by commanding he suggests to you to do what you can, to ask for what is beyond your strength; and he helps you, that you may be able."
St Augustine

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