665 chapter 23: the immortality of the mystical temple immortality of souls is so certain that we hold most firmly that as soon as they have departed from the body they fly out either to glory or punishment, which is either temporary or everlasting. For the Holy Spirit has taught us this in many places of Holy Scripture, especially in the Book of Wisdom, where for the first time you may hear reprobates groaning due to the anguish of spirit, and saying among themselves: “We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and we walked through hard ways: but the way of the Lord we have not known. What has pride profited us? Or what advantage has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things passed away like a shadow, and like a post that runs on. And as a ship that passes through the waves: whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the path of its keel in the waters. Or as when a bird flies through the air. Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark. So we also being born, forthwith ceased to be, and have been able to show no mark of virtue: but are consumed in our wickedness. But the just shall live for evermore; and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most High. Therefore shall they receive a kingdom of glory and a crown of beauty, at the hand of the Lord for with His right hand He will cover them, and with His holy arm He will defend them” (Wis 5:7-17) [LV]. “But the souls of the just are in the hand of God: and the torment of death shall not touch them” (Wis 3:1) [LV]. “But the wicked shall be punished according to their own devices” (Wis 3:10) [LV]. And so, from these most firm testimonies of the heavenly oracles and the teachings of our Faith, the Immortality of the Mystical Temple is revealed very clearly to us, whether we consider the Body or the Soul. It remains for us to consider closely and almost to fix in our minds that which St. Paul once wrote to the Corinthians as he urged them on to the hope of immortality and at the same time to a pattern of holiness: “We shall all indeed rise from the dead, but we shall not all be changed” (1 Cor 15:51) [LV]. Why so? For those who imitated Christ in life, will attain the glory of Christ; but those who confessed Him with their lips, yet denied Him in their heart, who preached Him
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