38. And may the God of all Himself, who spoke by the Holy Spirit through the prophets, and sent Him down here on the day of Pentecost upon the Apostles, may He Himself send Him down upon you even now, and by Him preserve us also, doing good to all of us in general, that He may always bring to us the fruits of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:2223) in Christ Jesus our Lord: through Him, and with Him be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Catechetical Instruction Eighteenth

To those who are preparing in Jerusalem for enlightenment, spoken without preparation, on the words: "And in one, the Holy Catholic Church, I believe in the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life." Also in response to the words of Ezekiel: "And the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me in the midst of the field: behold, it was full of human bones, and so forth."

1. The root of every good deed is the hope of resurrection. For the expectation of reward strengthens the soul in good work. For every laborer willingly endures labor when he foresees payment for labor; but for those who labor without pay, the soul also faints with the body before the time. A warrior in anticipation of a reward willingly goes against enemies; on the contrary, no soldier, being in the service of a foolish King, who does not pay soldiers for their labors, wants to die for him. In the same way, every soul that believes in the resurrection preserves itself as it should; but she who does not believe in the resurrection is set out to perdition. He who believes that the body will be resurrected keeps this garment, and does not defile the body with fornication: but he who does not believe in the resurrection gives himself over to fornication, not caring for his own body, as if it were someone else's. Thus, faith in the resurrection of the dead is an important instruction and teaching of the Holy Catholic Church, important and very necessary; and although many contradict it, nevertheless the truth confirms it. Contradiction is manifold, but truth is uniform.

2. The Greeks, together with the Samaritans, contradict us in the following way: a dead person goes to the ground and rots, all turns into worms, then the worms also die. The body is subjected to such rottenness and destruction: how then will it be resurrected? The drowned were devoured by fish, and they themselves were devoured. Bears and lions killed those who fought with the beasts, crushing the very bones. Kites and crows, having eaten the flesh of the lying dead, scattered all over the world. Where will the body come from? Of the birds that ate it; one will die in India, another in Persia, and another in the land of the Goths. Others who were burned in the fire, and the rain or the wind carried the ashes themselves. Where will the body come from?

3. For you, a man, a very limited and weak being, India is far from the land of the Goths, far from Spain; but for God, Who in a Handful contains the whole earth, all things are near. Therefore, because you are weak, do not imagine God to be weak, but rather pay attention to His power. The sun is not His great work, for by the mere striving of its rays it warms the whole world; and the air which God created embraces all things in the world; and God, the Creator of the sun and the air, is He far from the world? Let the various seeds of plants be mingled (to thee, who are weak in faith, I present weak examples); And these various seeds of plants shall be in one handful of thy handful: is it difficult for thee, a man, or on the contrary, easy to distinguish what is in thy handful, and to separate the seeds of each plant according to their quality, and to give them their own place to grow? Thus, you can discern and restore to its former state what is in your hand; and is it possible that God cannot discern and restore to its former state what is contained in His handful? Understand what I say, is it not impious to reject this?

4. Delve into the very law of justice, and turn to yourself. You have various slaves: some of them are good, others are bad: of course you honor the good, but you punish the bad. And if you are a judge, you praise the good and punish the transgressors. Thus, with you, a mortal man, justice is observed; but with God, the eternal King of all, has no just retribution? It is impious to deny this. Consider what I say: many murderers have died unpunished on their beds: where is the justice of God? Often the murderer is guilty of fifty murders; but they cut off his head alone; Where will he receive the punishment for forty-nine murders? If there is no judgment and retribution at the end of this world, then you will accuse God of injustice. However, do not be surprised at the slowness of the judgment. Every ascetic after accomplishing a podvig is crowned, or put to shame; and those who determine the reward for the ascetics never crown them during their asceticisms, but wait until all the ascetics perform them, so that after they have sorted everything out, they can give each one worthy rewards and crowns. In the same way, God, when the struggle is still going on in this world, although He helps as much as the righteous need, He gives them a perfect reward afterwards.

5. If, in your opinion, there will be no resurrection of the dead, then why do you accuse the Tikh who rob the dead? If the body is lost, and the resurrection cannot be hoped, then why will he who robs the dead be punished? Do you see that although you deny the resurrection with your lips, yet in your conscience the truth of it remains invincible?

6.

Wheat is sown, if it happens, or some other kind of seed: the seed that falls dies, rots, and becomes unfit for food. However, having rotted, it appears in the greenery, and having fallen in a small form, it now appears in a beautiful form: but the wheat was created for us. For the wheat and the seed is for our use, and not for their own use. Thus, what was created for us, having been put to death, comes to life; but we, for whom these things were created, having died, shall we not rise?

7. Wintertime is now, as you see; The trees stand as if dead: for where are the fig leaves? Where are the bunches of grapes? However, they are dead in winter, and green in spring; and when the time comes, then, as it were, the very deadness gives them life.

God, foreseeing your unbelief, manifests the effect of the resurrection in what you see every year, so that you, looking at what happens to soulless things, may believe it in relation to inspired, rational beings. Flies and bees, for the most part suffocated in water, are resurrected in due time, and some kinds of terrestrial animals, remaining motionless in winter, are resurrected during summer. Since your concepts are weak, I present to you examples that are in accordance with them. And so, He Who supernaturally imparts life to dumb and contemptible animals, does He not deign to bestow it upon us, for whom He created them?

8. However, the Greeks want to be even more clearly convinced of the resurrection of the dead; they say that although those animals come to life, they are not yet completely rotten. They clearly want to see an animal that is completely rotten and resurrected. God foresaw the unbelief of men, and for this purpose He created a bird called a phoenix [6]. She, as Clement writes, and many others, narrate, being in her own way alone, after five hundred years flying to the land of Egypt, shows the resurrection, not appearing in empty places, where the mystery that is happening would be unknown; but in the midst of the city, so that it may be possible to touch what is not believed. Having made for herself a nest of frankincense, myrrh, and other fragrant substances, and having sat down in it at the end of these years, she clearly dies and rots. Then a worm is born from the rotten flesh of the dead phoenix. When he grows up, he becomes a bird. (You must not but believe this, for you see that bees are formed in the same way from worms; you see that from the thinnest eggs, feathers and bones and compositions of birds are made.) Then the phoenix of which I have spoken, covered with feathers, and having become exactly the same as it was before, a phoenix, flies into the air in the form in which it died; and by this he very clearly shows people the resurrection of the dead. The phoenix bird is amazing, but it is a dumb bird that has never glorified God. It flies through the air, but does not know the Only-begotten Son of God. Thus, the dumb animal, who does not know the Creator of all mortals, is granted resurrection; Will not we, who glorify God and keep His commandments, be granted resurrection?

9. But because the phoenix, the sign of the resurrection, is remote from us and appears rarely, and they do not yet believe in its existence; then you have the proof of the resurrection in what you see every day.