Our Lord has risen!! Happy Easter!! Rejoice!!Alleluia !!!
my annual Layman's humble perspective on Resurrections.
Its a given thing, Our Resurrection or else there is no Christianity!!
And I always drew inspiration from great doctor of the Church, St Augustine Of Hippo
He contends we'll rise in bodily perfection and beauty, We'll shed our extra pounds, regain lost hair, Regain Our fallen tooth or teeth, or lost limbs in accident or battles, Cause "every hair on our head has been counted": We cannot and will not be an eyesore to the heavenly hosts
With regards to Skin color or pigmentation. We know now, through science that color is just an illusion. It is the measure of degree our skin melanin absorbs or reflects light. Black surface absorbs all the light and white reflects all. The skin in itself has no color. St. Augustine highlights this passage in the Gospel, The Righteous in heaven do not reflect or absorb lights. They give out or emit Light. Mathew 13:43 ... "Then the righteous in heaven will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Whoever has ears, let them hear".
Oh!! vanities of vanities, On Judgement day, we worry about looks!!. Instead, We should worry about Heaven or fires of Hell and into Hell you go,
St. Augustine In City Of God :in his unsurpassed eloquence:
" THAT ALL BODILY BLEMISHES WHICH MAR HUMAN BEAUTY IN THIS LIFE SHALL BE REMOVED IN THE
RESURRECTION, THE NATURAL SUBSTANCE OF THE BODY REMAINING, BUT THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF IT BEING ALTERED SO AS TO PRODUCE BEAUTY.
What am I to say now about the hair and nails? Once it is understood that no part of the body shall so perish as to produce deformity in the body, it is at the same time understood that such things as would
have produced a deformity by their excessive proportions shall be added to the total bulk of the body, not to parts in which the beauty of the proportion would thus be marred. Just as if, after making a
vessel of clay, one wished to make it over again of the same clay, it would not be necessary that the same portion of the clay which had formed the handle should again form the new handle, or that what
had formed the bottom should again do so, but only that the whole clay should go to make up the whole new vessel, and that no part of it should be left unused.
Wherefore, if the hair that has been cropped and the nails that have been cut would cause
a deformity were they to be restored to their places, they shall not be restored; and yet no
one will lose these parts at the resurrection, for they shall be changed into the same flesh, their substance being so altered as to preserve the proportion of the various parts of the body.
However, what our Lord said, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," might more suitably be interpreted of the number, and not of the length of the hairs, as He elsewhere says, "The hairs of your head are all numbered." Nor would I say this because I suppose that any part naturally belonging to the body can perish, but that whatever deformity was in it, and served to exhibit the penal condition in
which we mortals are, should be restored in such a way that, while the substance is entirely preserved, the deformity shall perish.
For if even a human workman, who has, for some reason, made a deformed statue, can recast it and make it very beautiful, and this without suffering any part of that substance, but only the deformity to
be lost, if he can, for example, remove some unbecoming or disproportionate part, not by cutting off and separating this part from the whole, but by so breaking down and mixing up the whole as to
get rid of the blemish without diminishing the quantity of his material, shall we not think as highly of the almighty Worker? Shall He not be able to remove and abolish all deformities of the human
body, whether common ones or rare and monstrous, which, though in keeping with this miserable life, are yet not to be thought of in connection with that future blessedness; and shall He not be able so
to remove them that, while the natural but unseemly blemishes are put an end to, the natural substance shall suffer no diminution?
And consequently overgrown and emaciated persons need not fear that they shall be in heaven of such a figure as they would not be even in this world if they could help it. For all bodily beauty consists
in the proportion of the parts, together with a certain agreeableness of color. Where there is no proportion, the eye is offended, either because there is something a wanting, or too small, or too large. And thus there shall be no deformity resulting from want of proportion in that state in which all that is wrong is corrected, and all that is defective supplied from resources the Creator wots (knows) of, and all that is excessive removed without destroying the integrity of the substance.
And as for the pleasant color, how conspicuous shall it be where "the just shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father!" This brightness we must rather believe to have been concealed from
the eyes of the disciples when Christ rose, than to have been a wanting. For weak human eyesight could not bear it, and it was necessary that they should so look upon Him as to be able to
recognize Him. For this purpose also He allowed them to touch the marks of His wounds, and also ate and drank, not because He needed nourishment, but because He could take it if He wished.
Now, when an object, though present, is invisible to persons who see other things which are present, as we say that that brightness was present but invisible by those who saw other things, this is
called in Greek aorasia; and our Latin translators, for want of a better word, have rendered this caecitas (blindness) in the book of Genesis. This blindness the men of Sodom suffered when they
sought the just Lot's gate and could not find it. But if it had been blindness, that is to say, if they could see nothing, then they would not have asked for the gate by which they might enter the house, but
for guides who might lead them away.
But the love we bear to the blessed martyrs causes us, I know not how, to desire to see in the heavenly kingdom the marks of the wounds which they received for the name of Christ, and possibly we
shall see them. For this will not be a deformity, but a mark of honor, and will add lustre to their appearance, and a spiritual, if not a bodily beauty. And yet we need not believe that they to whom it has been said, "Not a hair of your head shall perish," shall, in the resurrection, want such of their members as they have been deprived of in their martyrdom.
But if it will be seemly in that new kingdom to have some marks of these wounds still visible in that immortal flesh, the places where they have been wounded or mutilated shall retain the scars
without any of the members being lost. While, therefore, it is quite true that no blemishes which the body has sustained shall appear in the resurrection, yet we are not to reckon or name these marks of
virtue blemishes.
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