On the Resurrection (continued) [19]

Plants, says Methodius, do not feed or grow from the earth. For," he says, "someone may ask how the earth, when changing, can enter into the composition of trees? If the earth beneath them were constantly rising by the roots into the whole composition of the tree, then the place on which the tree grew would have to be desolate. Consequently, such a reasoning of them (i.e., the Origenists) about transformation in bodies is unfounded. How can the earth, entering through the roots into the trunks of plants and being broken up through passages through all their branches, change into leaves and fruits? There are very tall trees, cedars, pines, spruces, and others, which annually produce many leaves and fruits; Obviously, they do not draw anything from the earth under them into the composition of their matter. For if the earth, rising by the roots, were really turned into a tree, then the whole place around them would be desolate; for dry matter cannot, like wet matter, constantly flow to the place of diminishing matter. Meanwhile, fig trees and other similar plants, as is known, often grow on monument buildings without drawing anything into themselves from the building. And if anyone wanted to calculate their fruits and leaves over the course of many years, he would see that their weight is several times greater than the earth on the monuments. Therefore it is very absurd to think that the earth that is drawn in turns into growing fruit and leaves, although everything happens through it, using it as a place and a seat. In the same way, bread is not produced without a millstone, and a place, and a time, and a fire; however, none of these will be eaten or become bread. It is the same with other innumerable things.

Saying: "For we know that when our earthly house of tabernacles is destroyed," etc. (2 Cor. 5:1), the Origenists refute the resurrection of the body, calling the body a tabernacle, and the spiritual garments they mention a house not made with hands in heaven. But, says St. Methodius, by an earthly house, in a figurative sense, we must understand this earthly, short-lived life, and not this tabernacle. For if you think that the Apostle calls the body a decaying earthly house, then tell me, what is a tabernacle whose house is destroyed? For the tabernacle is one thing, the house of the tabernacle is another, and we, to whom the tabernacle belongs, are another. For, he says, when our earthly house of the tabernacle is destroyed, that is, calling our souls us, the tabernacle the body, and the house of the tabernacle the use of the flesh in the present life, in a figurative sense. And so, when the present bodily life is destroyed, like a house, then we will have a house not made with hands in heaven; not made with hands, he says, in contrast to the present life, which is called man-made, because all the comforts and occupations of life are accomplished by human hands. The body, as the work of God, is not called man-made, because it is not made by human art. If they were to call it man-made because it was created by God, then the souls, the angels, and the spiritual garments in heaven would be made with hands; for they also are the works of God. And so, what is a house not made by hands? This is the very short-lived life, as I have said, which is built by human hands; for it is said, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread" (Gen. 3:19); — and after the destruction of which we have a future life not made with hands, as the Lord also explained, saying: "Make friends for yourselves with unrighteous riches, so that when you become poor, they may receive you into eternal abodes" (Luke 16:9). What the Lord called abodes here, the Apostle called garments there; what here (the Lord called) friends of iniquity, there the Apostle called them crumbling houses. Just as, at the end of the days of our present life, our souls will be received into the beautiful edifices of charity, which we have acquired in the midst of worldly unrighteousness, because the world lies in evil (1 John 5:19), so, after the destruction of the short-lived life, we, the souls, will have, before the resurrection, a dwelling place with God, until we receive for ourselves an unrenewable and indestructible home. For this reason we sigh, wishing not to throw off the body, but to put on another life in it (2 Cor. 5:2). For the heavenly dwelling place, in which we desire to put on (2 Cor. 5:4), is immortality, in which, when we put on, all that is weak and mortal in us will be destroyed, being swallowed up in eternal life.

For we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), i.e. we are still guided by faith, seeing the things there very dimly, and not so clearly as to behold them and enjoy them and be in them.

But this I say to you, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption does not inherit incorruption" (1 Cor. 15:50). He does not call the flesh the flesh itself, but the insane desire of the soul for shameful pleasures. Having said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he added: "And corruption does not inherit incorruption." Corruption is not the most corruptible, but corrupting. When death gains dominion, the body is inclined to decay, and when life is restored to it, it becomes indestructible. Since the flesh, being between incorruption and corruption, and being neither corruption nor incorruption, fell under the power of corruption through voluptuousness, then, although it was a creature and the acquisition of incorruption, therefore it itself was subjected to corruption. But after it had fallen into corruption and was put to death for punishment, God did not leave it to corruption, as if it were its inheritance after victory, but having again conquered death by resurrection, He restored it to incorruption, so that not corruption should have incorruption, but incorruptibility. For this reason the Apostle adds: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53). And the perishable and mortal, clothed in incorruptibility and immortality, what else can there be, except that which is sown in corruption and rises in incorruptibility (for the soul is not perishable and mortal, but this body is subject to death and corruption), so that, as we bore the image of the earthly, we may also bear the image of the heavenly? (1 Cor. 15:49) For the image of the earthly which we wore is contained in the words: "Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19); and the image of heaven is the resurrection from the dead and incorruption, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). And if anyone thinks to call the flesh itself a earthly image, and another spiritual body besides the flesh a heavenly image, let him think beforehand that Christ, the heavenly man, when He appeared, bore members of the same kind, the same image and the same flesh with ours, according to which He also became man, without being man, so that, as in Adam all die, so in Christ all may be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22). If He had not taken flesh for the liberation and resurrection of the flesh, why did He wear flesh in vain, which He did not intend to save or resurrect? But the Son of God does nothing in vain. Consequently, He did not take the form of a servant without benefit, but for resurrection and salvation. For He truly became man and died, and not illusory, in order to truly appear as the firstborn from the dead (Rev. 1:5), changing the earthly into the heavenly and the mortal into the immortal. Justin of Naples [21], a man not far removed from the Apostles both in time and in virtue, says that mortal things are inherited, but life inherits, and the flesh dies, and the kingdom of heaven lives. Thus, when Paul says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50), he declares this, he says, not in order to deny the existence of the flesh, but to teach that it is not the kingdom of God, which is eternal life, that is inherited by the body, but the body by life. For if the kingdom of God, which is life, were inherited by the body, it would be found that life is swallowed up by corruption. Meanwhile, life inherits the mortal, so that death may be victoriously swallowed up by life, and the corruptible may become the property of incorruption, freed from death and sin, and become a slave and subject to immortality, so that the body may be the property of incorruption, and not incorruption the property of the body.

Concerning the saying: "And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we shall remain alive" (Sol. 4:16), St. Methodius says: "These (the dead) are the very bodies; and we who remain alive are souls who receive the dead (i.e., bodies) raised from the ground, so that we, who are caught up together with them to meet the Lord, may solemnly celebrate before Him the radiant feast of the resurrection, because we will receive eternal abodes, which have no way to die or be destroyed.

If from such a drop, small and completely insignificant neither in moisture, nor in content and density, as if from nothing, comes man, then is it not more convenient for man to become man again from a man who has already existed? For it is not so difficult to rebuild what already existed and then collapsed, as it is to create from nothing what did not yet exist.

In the same way, what did the theologian Moses want when he instituted the mysterious feast of tabernacles (as it is said) in the book of Leviticus? (Lev. 23:39). Is it possible that we celebrate God as the Jews, who have a crude understanding of the Scriptures, interpret, as if God were pleased with these tabernacles of fruit and branches and leaves, which quickly dry up and lose their greenery? This cannot be said [22]. Why, tell me, was the building of tabernacles established? It is set up as a sign of this true tabernacle of ours, which fell into corruption through transgression and was destroyed by sin, which God promised, having formed again, to raise up indestructible, so that we might celebrate to Him in truth the great and most glorious feast of tabernacles in the resurrection, when our (bodily) tabernacles, having been formed and adorned with immortality and harmony, will arise from the earth incorruptible, when dry bones, according to true prophecy (Ezekiel 37:4), having been brought into their harmonious composition, they will hear the life-giving Creator and supreme artist, God, who again renews and binds the flesh no longer with the same bonds with which they were previously fastened, but with completely incorruptible and already indestructible. I saw on Olympus (a mountain in Lycia) a fire that rose of its own accord from below from the earth to the top of the mountain, and beside this fire stood a plant agnos, so blooming and green and shady, as if it were constantly growing by the water. Why then does this plant, if it belongs in its essence to the bodies that are perishable and destroyed by fire, and it is impossible for bodies that are essentially burned to remain incombustible, not only does it not burn, but becomes even more blooming and green, whereas it is essentially combustible, and moreover at its very roots the fire is kindled? I threw tree branches from the surrounding forest to the place from which the fire came, and they, enveloped in flames, immediately turned to ashes [23]. Tell me, then, why is this plant, which cannot endure even the heat of the sun, but dries up if it is not watered and irrigated, in the midst of such a hot flame it is not destroyed, but lives and flourishes? What does this wonder mean? God has set this up as a sign and a foretaste of the day to come, so that we may know more clearly that when all things are enveloped in fire that has descended (from heaven), the bodies adorned with virginity and righteousness will be led by Him through the fire, as through cool water, without suffering any harm. In truth, the most merciful and generous Lord, the creature, serving Thee, the Creator, strives to punish the wicked, and calms down for the benefit of those who believe in Thee (Wis. 16:24); according to Thy will, fire brings coolness, without causing any harm to those by whom Thou Thyself determines to be saved, and on the contrary, water burns more strongly than fire; and nothing resists Thy invincible power and Thy might. Thou hast created all things out of nothing; therefore Thou hast changed and transformed all things as Thy own, as one God, according to Thy will.

For this reason, the Apostle, leaving planting and watering to art, earth and water, assimilates return to God alone, when he says: "He who plants and waters is nothing, but God who grows all things" (1 Cor. 3:7). For he knew that she who gives birth to all things, the firstborn Wisdom of God and the Artist of all, produces everything in the world. The ancients called it nature and providence, because it produces and grows all things, constantly providing and providing care; for my Father (said the Lord) worketh hitherto, and I worketh (John 5:17). For this reason Solomon also called her the artist of all things (Wis. 7:21), since God lacks nothing, but can abundantly create, and create, and diversify, and grow.

Бог творящий все и о всем пекущийся и промышляющий, взяв персть от земли, образовал нашего внешнего человека.

Смотри, — говорит Св. Мефодий, — блаженный Иоанн, говоря: отдало море мертвых, бывших в нем, и смерть и ад отдали мертвых, которые были в них (Апок. 20:13), не указывает ли на возвращение частиц (умерших людей) стихиями, для восстановления каждого из них? Под морем разумеется влажная стихия, под адом — воздух, по причине его невидимости (άειδες), по причине незримости, как сказано и Оригеном; а под смертью — земля, потому что умирающий полагается в ней. Посему и в Псалмах она названа перстью смертною, когда Христос сказал, что Он низведен в персть смертную (Пс. 21:16).

Всякий состав, говорится (у св. Мефодия), состоящий из чистого воздуха и чистого огня и имеющий однородность с ангельскими существами, не может иметь свойств земли и воды; иначе он сам будет земляным. Таким и из таких (элементов состоящим) представлял Ориген имеющее воскреснуть тело человеческое, которое и назвал духовным.

Каков же, — говорит он, — будет вид воскресшего, если этот человеческий образ, как негодный, по мнению его (Оригена) исчезает, вид приятнейший из всех видов, какие свойственны живым существам, которого образ принимает и Божество, как изъяснил и премудрый Павел: муж не должен покрывать голову, потому что от есть образ и слава Божия (1 Кор. 11:7), в который облекались и духовные существа ангельские? Неужели кругообразный, или многоугольный, или кубический, или пирамидальный? Весьма много различных видов; но это не возможно. Что же это за определение, чтобы богоподобный вид, как нечто неблагообразное (ибо и он сам признает душу по виду подобною телу), отвергалось, а безногий и безрукий воскресал?

Изменение вида, — говорит он, — есть возвращение в бесстрастное и славное состояние. Ныне есть тело желания и уничижения (Фил. 3:21); посему и Даниил назван мужем желаний (Дан. 9:23); а тогда оно преобразится в тело бесстрастное, не чрез перемену устройства членов, но чрез освобождение от желания вещественных удовольствий.