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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.