Cornelius a Lapide

In a moment We shall rise in an instant, in a point of time, so short as to be indivisible, as S. Jerome says. In the twinkling of an eye. The word for “twinkling” is derived from the hurling of a thunderbolt or a javelin. Others, with S. Jerome ( Ep . ad Menerium) y read another word, which denotes the instant fall of the balance when a heavier weight is placed in one scale. Cf. Wisd. xi. 23. Theodoret, (Ecumenius, Anselm, Gregory of Nyssa ( Oral '. de Resurr .), S. Jerome (in the passage just quoted), Augustine (Ep. 49, c. 1) gather from this that the resurrection will take place, not in a very short space of time, but instantaneously. This may be true of the formation, organisation, and re-vivification of the body when it rises, and indeed the Apostle says as much when he writes “ in a moment,” but it is very doubtful whether it refers to local motion, as to the coming together of the different parts of the body from different places. S. Augustine maintains, and Suarez (part iii. qu. 53, disp. 44, sect. 4) shows that it is possible that by the power of God these different parts of the body can pass from point to point without travelling over the intermediate space, and that so all can at once come to the same place, in a moment of time. But, as was pointed out at ver. 44, the nature of space and of motion does not seem to allow of that, but rather to force us to admit that nothing THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY 399 can pass from one place to another without crossing over the space between. Hence it seems to others more likely that by the power of God motion may take place in an instant from one point to another by a passage over the intervening space, as the sun uniformly pours his light in every direction over half the world in a single instant Why should it not be said that the body can in the same way, by the power of God, dart itself from one place to another? If one is instantaneous, why may not the other be ? But it may plausibly be answered that there is a great difference between the nature of light and of material bodies ; for though the mode of travelling of both may seem the same, yet in the case of light it is not the same point of light that is carried continuously onward, but point succeeding point ; but in the case of a body it is the same identical body that in one instant has to leave one Space and pass through the next, and in the self-same instant leave that and pass through a third, and a fourth, fifth, and sixth, and so on, through all the intermediate spaces to the end. But this seems impossible; for if so, in the same instant the same body would be crossing through and leaving the same space, would be in this space and not be in it, nay, would be in all the intervening spaces and would not be in them. Hence S. Thomas and others are better advised in denying that this transference of the parts of the body to the same place will take place instantaneously, especially since it will be brought about by the ministry of angels, who move bodies, not instantaneously, but in a very brief space of time. The Apostle then is speaking here of the resurrection alone, not of the transference of the risen bodies, when he says that it will take place in the twinkling of an eye, even in a moment. At the last trump . From Rev. viii. and ix. it appears that, at the end of the world, the seven angels to whom the care of man has been wholly given will sound with seven trumpets, to announce the last calamities and punishments which are coming on the world, and as it were to call them forth and to bring them to pass. After them there will follow this last trumpet, calling 4C0 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE out, “Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment” See notes to i Thess. iv. 1 6