The Divine Chrysostom answers the perplexity of those who say: "Why should the body rot and decay in order for its renewal to take place? This could happen without the destruction of bodies; let them remain untouched and thus undergo transformation" – as follows: "If the bodies did not decay, then, first, pride would take possession of many – the greatest evil of all evils. If even now, when the body is subject to decay and full of worms, many wanted to be worshipped as gods, what would not happen when the body remained incorruptible? Secondly, they would not believe that the body was taken from the earth. If even now, in spite of the fact that the very end clearly testifies, some doubt it, why would they not think if they did not see this end? Thirdly, then bodies would be excessively loved, and the majority of people would become even more carnal and coarse... Fourthly, we would not be very committed to the future. Fifthly, those who assert that the world is eternal would be even more firmly established in this idea and would not recognize God as the Creator of the world. Sixthly, they would not be sure of the dignity of the soul, nor of how closely the soul is connected with the body. Seventhly, many who have lost their relatives, having left the cities, would live in tombs and, like madmen, would constantly begin to talk to their dead. If even today, people, since they are not able to hold the body itself (and it is impossible, because it smoulders and disappears against their will), when drawing portraits, stick to the boards, then what absurdities would not be invented then?.. Many would have erected temples in honor of their beloved bodies, and those who practice sorcery would have tried to convince them that by means of them the demons give answers, especially since even now those who have the audacity to engage in summoning the dead do many absurdities. What innumerable forms of idolatry would not arise from this? Thus, God, taking away everything that can serve as a pretext for such absurdities and teaching us to renounce all earthly things, smites the bodies with decay before our eyes... If the bodies did not decay, then a great disorder would occur: none of the commoners would take care of their souls, would not accept the teachings of immortality" [1015].

However, how will the body be resurrected after its incorruption?

{p. 460}

Resurrection of Dead Bodies

Today, of course, unbelievers do not recognize the resurrection of the dead. The same thing, as we have already said, happened in the first centuries of Christianity with pagan philosophers. During the persecution under Marcus Aurelius, idolaters burned the bodies of Christian martyrs thrown on the roads, scattered their ashes along the Rhone and mockingly said: "Let us see if they will be resurrected and whether their God will be able to help them" (1016). But Christians had a firm belief in the resurrection of the dead, no matter how incomprehensible it may seem to the human mind. For both the Lord and the holy Apostles taught this truth. In addition, "the whole Christian and the sacraments of the Christian are based on faith." True faith, on the other hand, is an "incurious agreement" with what God has revealed to us in the inspired Scriptures. If we try to revise the words and commandments of the Divine Scriptures, then "we perish and fall into the abyss of unbelief." And if we allow Satan to sow "thoughts of unbelief" in our souls, then he will not hesitate to sow similar thoughts about God Himself. Therefore, let us accept "and the word about the resurrection of the dead" with faith [1017].

So, the dead will be resurrected. This is what we learn from the following.

1. The resurrection of the dead is confirmed by the three-day Resurrection of our Lord, for He is the firstfruits of those who slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). His light-bearing Resurrection is the pledge of the resurrection of our bodies as well, and He foreshadowed this already in the Old Testament by the example of the prophet Jonah, who was swallowed up by a whale and vomited up again three days later alive and unharmed. The Lord also assured the Jews of His Resurrection. He said to them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days," calling the temple not the temple of Solomon, but the most holy temple of His immaculate body. The disciples were fully convinced of this when He had already risen from the dead (John 2:19-22).

This truth constitutes the central teaching of the apostolic preaching. It is also the source of the inexpressible joy that the Christian soul experiences when it remembers the great miracle of the three-day Resurrection of the Savior. That is why she sings: "My Saviour, Thou didst resurrect the all-begotten Adam, Thou didst rise from the grave" [1018]. The fruit of Thy life-giving Resurrection, O Lord, is the Universal Resurrection of the human race. It has opened to us the gates of paradise, closed by the transgression of the primordial ones.

2. There is no doubt about the resurrection of the bodies for another reason: since by the death on the cross and the Resurrection of the Lord our resurrection from eternal death, that is, from sin, then why should not the resurrection of the bodies also take place? Spiritual and bodily death owe its origin to sin: "the body fell because it sinned." If sin is the beginning of the fall, then the beginning of the resurrection is liberation from sin. But although in Holy Baptism, thanks to the Sacrifice of the Saviour, we were resurrected spiritually, "resurrected by a greater resurrection, casting off the debilitating death of sin, and cast off the old garment," let us not deny the "lesser," that is, the resurrection of the body. that is, in the abolition of bodily death [1019].

3. The resurrection of the dead will take place because nothing is impossible for the all-powerful wisdom of the Creator and the all-wise power of the Creator. "With God all things are not difficult" [1020], as He Himself assures us (Mark 10:27). Everything can be done by Divine omnipotence. And let the unbelievers know what God really cannot do. God "cannot deceive" [1021]. Everything that He said, what He promised, what He taught through His evangelists, the Apostles, will be fulfilled exactly. In addition, there are many amazing events that His almighty will has accomplished. Why should He not also bring about the resurrection of the bodies, of which He spoke to us directly? He told us that the hour is coming, and this hour is the end of the world, in which all the dead who will hitherto be in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, commanding them to rise again. And they will all rise again, and come out of the grave, to be judged (John 5:28-29).

4. Both the Lord and the Apostle Paul used the image of seed sown in the ground for the resurrection of bodies. The Lord said of His death and Resurrection: "... If a grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and die, it will remain alone; but if he dies, he will bear much fruit" (John 12:24). "In the same way, if I die, according to the decree of God my Father, I will rise again and bring forth the fruit of the resurrection and salvation of men."

The inspired Paul considers the resurrection from the dead to be as easy and natural as the germination of seed. To the one who objects to this, he answers: {p. 463} "Foolish! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies. And when you sow, you do not sow the body to come, but the bare grain that will happen, wheat or whatever it is; but God gives him a body as He wills, and to each seed his own body" (1 Corinthians 15:36-37). Here the characterization given by the Apostle to the unbeliever is also important. He calls it "reckless," that is, mad, stupid! The Apostle Paul, who is always very "meek and humble," uses the word of accusation in this case precisely to emphasize that the resurrection of the body is something quite natural, since all nature is full of manifestations of the resurrection from the dead. The unbeliever seems to be truly foolish, for he ignores what he himself does every day. Forgetting that he himself becomes the "creator of the resurrection" in sowing the seed, the unbeliever doubts God, that He can raise the dead. And the same thing that the unbeliever takes as an argument in favor of the non-resurrection of the dead, the Apostle puts forward as a proof of the possibility of resurrection. The unbeliever says, "The dead decay." "Yes," the Apostle answers, "and the seed decays and dies, but this becomes the cause of the resurrection" (1022).