From: 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49
The Manner of the Resurrection of the Dead
[42] So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what
is raised is imperishable. [43] It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power. [44] It is sown a physical body, it is
raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
[45] Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam
became a life-giving spirit. [46] But it is not the spiritual which is first but the phy-
sical, and then the spiritual. [47] The first man was from the earth, a man of dust;
the second man is from heaven. [48] As was the man of dust, so are those who
are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
[49] Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the
image of the man of heaven. [50] I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
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Commentary:
35-38. Now that he has shown that the dead will rise, St Paul goes on to deal
with what form this resurrection will take. He postulates certain questions (v. 35)
and replies to them using comparisons taken from the vegetable, animal and mi-
neral worlds, to help explain what this resurrection involves (vv. 36-41). He goes
on to describe the qualities of the risen body (vv. 42-44), referring in particular to
one of those qualities, its spiritual nature or “subtility” (vv. 44-50). He then des-
cribes the circumstances in which the general resurrection will take place (vv.
51-53), and he ends with a hymn of joy and thanksgiving for all these wonders
of God (vv. 54-58).
36-41. The Apostle uses the analogy of a seed to explain what resurrection in-
volves: just as a seed has to corrupt in order to yield new life, the body has to
die in order to be raised up. In the process of becoming a new plant the seed
takes on a new form: the plant is something distinct from the original seed; si-
milarly, risen bodies will be endowed with new qualities which they did not have
during their mortal life (cf. note on vv. 42-44).
By referring to the difference in the flesh of different animals and to the way that
one star shines differently from another, St Paul is trying to explain that risen bo-
dies are also differentiated, the differences being a function of charity (cf. “St
Pius V Catechism”, I, 12, 13).
42-44. These verses are the basis of tile Church’s teaching about the qualities of
glorified bodies-impassibility or incorruptibility, glory or brightness, power or agi-
lity, subtility or spirituality. This is what the “St Pius V Catechism” has to say on
the subject: “The bodies of the risen saints will be distinguished by certain trans-
cendent endowments, which will ennoble them far beyond their former condition.
Among these endowments four are specially mentioned by the Fathers, which
they infer from the doctrine of St Paul and which are called ‘gifts’.
“The first endowment or gift is impassibility, which shall place them beyond the
reach of suffering anything disagreeable or of being affected by pain or inconve-
nience of any sort [...]. ‘What is sown’ says the Apostle, ‘is perishable, what is
raised is imperishable’ (1 Cor 15:42) [...]. The next quality is brightness, by which
the bodies of the saints shall shine like the sun [...]. This quality the Apostle
sometimes calls “glory”. [...] This brightness is a sort of radiance reflected on
the body from the supreme happiness of the soul. It is a participation in that bliss
which the soul enjoys, just as the soul itself is rendered happy by a participation
in the happiness of God. Unlike the gift of impassibility, this quality is not com-
mon to all in the same degree. All the bodies of the saints will be equally impas-
sible; but the brightness of all will not be the same, for, according to the Apostle,
‘there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory
of the stars, for star differs from star in glory’ (1 Cor 15:41-42).
“To the preceding quality is united that which is called agility, by which the body
will be freed from the heaviness that now presses it down, and will take on a ca-
pability of moving with the utmost ease and swiftness, wherever the soul pleases
[...]. Hence these words of the Apostle: ‘It is sown in weakness, it is raised in
glory’ (1 Cor 15:43). Another quality is that of subtility, which subjects the body
to the dominion of the soul, so that the body shall be subject to the soul and ever
ready to follow her desires. This quality we learn from these words of the Apostle:
‘It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:44)” (I, 12, 13).
The bodies of the reprobate do not have these qualities proper to glorified bodies
(cf. “St Pius X Catechism”, 246).
44-50. The Apostle develops what he has said about those who rise having spiri-
tual bodies—which might seem to be a self-contradictory notion. Through descent
from Adam, whose body was formed from the dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7), men
receive an earthly animal body which is destined to perish; Christ, the new Adam,
when he comes again will give his own a heavenly body, perfect and immortal: “It
is called a spiritual body,” St Augustine says, “not because it has become a spi-
rit but because it is in such a way subject to the spirit, to fit it for its heavenly
abode, that every kind of earthly weakness and imperfection is changed into a
heavenly permanence (”De Fide Et Symbolo”, chap. VI).
Even in this present life the Christian should strive to reflect this image of “the
man of heaven”, by reproducing in himself the life of Christ: having died to sin
through Baptism he has already been raised with Christ to a new life (cf. Col 3:
1-4). Christ’s resurrection, St Thomas Aquinas explains, “is an exemplary cause
with regard to the resurrection of souls, because even in our souls we must be
conformed with the risen Christ, the Apostle says (Rom 6:4-11): ‘Christ was rai-
sed from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we too might walk in newness
of life [...]. Christ being raised from the dead shall never die again [...] so you al-
so must consider yourselves dead to sin’, so that you ‘might live with him’ (1
Thess 5:10)” (”Summa Theologiae”, III, q. 56, a. 2).
45. Commenting on this verse, St John of Avila explains that “God created the
first man and blew into his face, he gave him the breath of life, and he became a
living being. “Et factus est primus Adam in animam viventem, novissimus Adam
in spiritum vivificantem” (1 Cor 15:45). The second Adam was made, Jesus Christ,
and not only was he given and did he have life for himself like the first Adam, but
he had it for many others. Christ has a living spirit, a life-giving spirit which raises
up those of us who desire to live. Let us go to Christ, let us seek Christ, who has
the breath of life. No matter how evil you be, how lost, how disorientated, if you
go to him, if you seek him, he will make you well, he will win you over and set
you right and heal you” (”Sermon on Pentecost Sunday”).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 8:4-15
Parable of the Sower. The Meaning of the Parables
[9] And when His disciples asked Him what this parable meant, [10] He said,
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God; but for
others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they
may not understand. [11] Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
[12] The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes
and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be
saved. [13] And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word,
receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for a while and in time of
temptation fall away. [14] And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those
who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches
and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. [15] And as for that in the
good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and
good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
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Commentary:
4-8. Our Lord explains this parable in verses 11-15. The seed is Jesus Himself
and His preaching; and the different kinds of ground it falls on reflect people’s
different attitudes to Jesus and His teaching. Our Lord sows the life of grace in
souls through the preaching of the Church and through an endless flow of actual
graces.
10-12. Jesus uses parables to teach people the mysteries of the supernatural
life and thereby lead them to salvation. However, He foresaw that, due to the bad
dispositions of some of His listeners, these parables would lead them to harden
their hearts and to reject grace. For a fuller explanation of the purpose of para-
bles see the notes on Matthew 13:10-13 and Mark 4:11-12.
12. Some people are so immersed in a life of sin that they are the patch on
which falls the seed “which suffers from two kinds of hazard: it is trodden on by
wayfarers and snatched by birds. The path, therefore, is the heart, which is trod-
den on by the frequent traffic of evil thoughts, and cannot take in the seed and
let it germinate because it is so dried up” (St. Bede, “In Lucae Evangelium Ex-
positio, in loc.”). Souls hardened by sin can become good soil and bear fruit
through sincere repentance and penance. We should note the effort the devil
makes to prevent souls from being converted.
13. “Many people are pleased by what they hear, and they resolve to do good;
but as soon as they experience difficulties they give up the good words they
started. Stony ground has not enough soil, which is why the shoots fail to pro-
duce fruit. There are many who, when they hear greed criticized, do conceive a
loathing for it and extol the scorning of it; but as soon as the soul sees some-
thing else that it desires, it forgets what it previously promised. There are also
others who when they hear talk against impurity not only desire not to be
stained by the filth of the flesh but are even ashamed of the stains that they
already bear; but as soon as bodily beauty presents itself to their eyes, their
heart is so drawn by desires that it is as if they had done or decided to do no-
thing against these desires, and they act in a manner deserving condemnation
and in a way which they themselves previously condemned when they reflec-
ted on their behavior. Very often we feel compunction for our faults and yet we
go back and commit them even after bemoaning them” (St. Gregory the Great,
“In Evangelia Homiliae”, 15).
14. This is the case of people who after receiving the divine seed, the Christian
calling, and having stayed on the right path for some time, begin to give up the
struggle. These souls run the risk of developing a distaste for the things of God
and of taking the easy, and wrong, way of seeking compensations suggested
to them by their disordered ambition for power and their desire for material
wealth and a comfortable life involving no suffering.
A person in this situation begins to be lukewarm and tries to serve two masters:
“It is wrong to have two candles lighted—one to St. Michael and another to the
devil. We must snuff out the devil’s candle; we must spend our lives completely
in the service of the Lord. If our desire for holiness is sincere, if we are docile
enough to place ourselves in God’s hands, everything will go well. For He is
always ready to give us His grace” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 59).
15. Jesus tells us that the good soil has three features—listening to God’s de-
mands with the good disposition of a generous heart; striving to ensure that one
does not water down these demands as time goes by; and, finally, beginning
and beginning again and not being disheartened if the fruit is slow to appear.
“You cannot ‘rise’. It’s not surprising: that fall!
“Persevere and you will ‘rise’. Remember what a spiritual writer has said: your
poor soul is like a bird whose wings are caked with mud.
“Suns of heaven are needed and personal efforts, small and constant, to shake
off those inclinations, those vain fancies, that depression: that mud clinging to
your wings.
“And you will see yourself free. If you persevere, you will ‘rise’” (St. J. Escriva,
“The Way”, 991).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.