663 chapter 23: the immortality of the mystical temple antly by this hope of future resurrection, said: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin; and in my flesh I shall see my God. Whom I myself shall see and my eyes shall behold [...] this my hope is laid up in my bosom” (Job 19:25-27) [LV]. There is no place for doubt here, not at all. “We shall all indeed rise from the dead” (1 Cor 15:51) [LV]. All of us who are true Christians believe in the resurrection of the body. And quite rightly. “The whole management of this world,” (says Augustine) “is evidence of future resurrection. In winter we see the trees lose their fruits and leaves; but in spring they express the appearance of the resurrection in buds, flowers, leaves and fruits. I ask you,” (he continues) “who have doubts about the resurrection, where are the things that are produced at that time? Where do they hide? They are not seen anywhere; but God brings them forth with a secret power. So too the grass that lived before and dies, revives once more from seed! In like manner our body revives from dust.”219 Nothing is more consistent with reason than this perpetuity of our Mystical Temple. There is an example in caterpillars and butterflies. We see how they are born, die and revive. Lakes in winter hold fast the swallows immersed, but spring restores them once more to the air.220 Nature does these things; will God not do more noble things with my body, with His Temple? Whatever tomb our mortal limbs were allotted, they will emerge immortal from it by the Divine power, when “The trumpet, spreading a wondrous blast, from the tombs of the earth, will drive all before the throne.”221 219 The source of this quotation could not be located in the sermons of St. Augustine that discuss the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor could this text be found with the help of the Index of Words for the Works of St. Augustine under “resurrection of the body.” 220 In the Universal Encyclopedia of St. Orgelbrand (Warsaw 1883, vol. 6, p. 12) in the article on “Jaskelka (the Swallow),” the following popular opinion is recorded: “There is a strange opinion among our people that the swallows spend the winter in water.” 221 Stanza III of the hymn “Dies Irae” is quoted, with a sort of inversion of word order. Cf. Sequence of Masses for the Dead, p. 1503. The New Roman Missal, Fr. Laçance, Christian Book Club of America, Palmdale, CA.
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