Moralia in Job 700

Same place.—'And in the last day I shall rise up from the earth.' 68. Christ died that we might not fear to die; He rose again that we might trust that we can rise again.—Namely, because the resurrection which He showed in Himself we too shall at some time accomplish in ourselves. For the resurrection which He showed in Himself He promised to us, because the members follow the glory of their Head. Our Redeemer, therefore, took upon Himself death, that we might not fear to die. He showed forth resurrection, that we might trust that we can rise again. Whence He willed that same death to be no more than of three days, lest, if in Him the resurrection were deferred, in us it should be utterly despaired of. Which is well said of Him by the prophet:

'He shall drink of the torrent in the way, therefore shall He lift up the head' (Ps. cix, 7). For, as it were, He deigned to drink of a certain river of our passion, not in an abiding place, but in the way; because He touched death transitorily, that is, for three days, and in that death which He touched He by no means remained, as we do, unto the end of the age. (Recentior XXVIII.) When, therefore, He rose on the third day, He showed what should follow in His body, that is, the Church. For by an example He showed that which He promised in reward, that as the faithful acknowledged Him to have risen, so in themselves at the end of the world they might hope for the rewards of resurrection.

Behold, we, through the death of the flesh, remain in the dust unto the end of the world; but He on the third day grew green again from the dryness of death, that He might show us the power of His divinity by that very renewal of His flesh. Which is well shown by Moses, when the twelve rods were placed in the tabernacle (Num. xvii, 2). For when the priesthood of Aaron, who was of the tribe of Levi, was despised, and the tribe was not believed worthy of the holocausts it should offer, twelve rods, according to the twelve tribes, were commanded to be placed in the tabernacle; and behold, the rod of Levi grew green, and showed what of virtue it had in the gift of Aaron (ibid., 8).

By which sign what is intimated, but that all we who lie in death unto the end of the world remain, as it were the remaining rods, in dryness? But while all the rods remain in dryness, the rod of Levi returns to flower, because the body of the Lord, namely of our true priest, placed in the dryness of death, burst forth into the flower of resurrection. By which flower Aaron is rightly known to be priest, because by this glory of resurrection our Redeemer, who sprang from the tribe of Judah and of Levi, is shown to be an intercessor for us. Behold, therefore, now the rod of Aaron flowers after dryness;

but the rods of the twelve tribes remain in dryness, because now indeed the body of the Lord lives after death, but our bodies are as yet, unto the end of the world, deferred from the glory of resurrection. Whence in verse he brought in this same delay, saying: 'And in the last day I shall rise up from the earth.' (Vetus XXX.) 69. The resurrection of many dead ones strengthens our confidence.—We have, therefore, the hope of our resurrection, having considered the glory of our Head.

But lest anyone should perhaps say, even in silent thought, that He therefore rose from death because, being one and the same God and man, He overcame by divinity the death which He suffered from humanity, but we, who are mere men, cannot rise from the condemnation of death—rightly, at the time of His resurrection, the bodies also of many saints rose again, that He might both show us in Himself an example, and strengthen us by the resurrection of others who were like us through pure humanity; so that, when a man might despair of receiving what God-man had shown in Himself, he might presume that this could be done in himself, which he knew to have been done in those whom he did not doubt to have been pure men. 70.

The faith of the resurrection is built up. — There are indeed some who, considering that the spirit is loosed from the flesh, that the flesh turns into rottenness, that the rottenness is reduced to dust, and that the dust is so dissolved into its elements that it can in no way be seen by human eyes, despair that a resurrection can take place; and while they look upon dry bones, they distrust that these can be clothed again with flesh and grow green once more unto life. Yet if they do not hold the faith of the resurrection out of obedience, they ought at least to have held it out of reason. For what does the world daily do, in its own elements, but imitate our resurrection?

For through the daily passing of moments the temporal light itself, as it were, dies, when, as the darkness of night comes on, that which was beheld is withdrawn; and it rises again, as it were, daily, when the light, taken from our eyes, is restored once the night that suppressed it is past. Through the passing seasons too we behold the shrubs lose the greenness of their leaves and cease from bringing forth fruit; and lo, suddenly, as though from a withering wood, by a kind of resurrection coming upon it, we see the leaves burst forth, the fruits swell, and the whole tree clothed with reviving beauty. Ceaselessly we behold the tiny seeds of trees entrusted to the moisture of the earth, from which, not long after, we see great shrubs rise up and bring forth leaves and fruits.

Let us therefore consider the tiny seed of any tree, which is cast into the earth that a tree may be produced from it, and let us grasp, if we can, where in so great a smallness of the seed lay hidden the so immense a tree that came forth from it — where the wood, where the bark, where the greenness of the leaves, where the abundance of the fruits. Was any such thing discerned in the seed when it was cast into the earth? And yet, since the hidden Maker of all things wondrously orders all, both in the softness of the seed lay hidden the roughness of the bark, and in its tenderness was concealed the strength of hard timber, and in its dryness the abundance of fruit-bearing.

What wonder then, if He who from the tiniest seeds restores immense shrubs, should, when He wills, reform into a man the finest dust that has been reduced before our eyes into its elements? Because, then, we were created rational beings, we ought to gather the hope of our resurrection from the very appearance and contemplation of things. But because the sense of reason has grown numb within us, the grace of the Redeemer came in as an example. For our Creator came, took upon Himself death, and displayed the resurrection, so that we who were unwilling to hold the hope of the resurrection out of reason, might hold it by His help and example. Let blessed Job therefore say: I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise from the earth.

And whosoever despairs that the power of resurrection can be wrought in himself, let him blush at the words of a faithful man placed among the heathen; and let him consider with how great a weight of punishment he is to be struck, if he still does not believe in his own resurrection, who now knows that the resurrection of the Lord has already come to pass — since even that man believed in his own, who was yet only hoping that the Lord Jesus's was to be accomplished. [Old div. XXXI.] 1. The quality of bodies after the resurrection. — But behold, I hear of the resurrection, yet I inquire into the effect of that same resurrection. For I believe that I shall rise again, but I wish to hear of what sort. For it must be known by me whether I shall rise in some other, perhaps subtle or aerial body, or in that body in which I shall die. But if I rise in an aerial body, then it will not be I who rise.

For how is it a true resurrection, if the flesh cannot be true? Plain reason therefore suggests that if the flesh be not true, without doubt the resurrection will not be true. Nor indeed can that rightly be called a resurrection where what fell does not rise again. But do thou, blessed Job, take away from us these clouds of doubt; and since, by the grace of the Holy Spirit received, thou hast begun to speak to us of the hope of our resurrection, declare plainly whether our flesh truly rises again. It follows: