OT § 172

The hope of resurrection is the root of every kind of good work, for the expectation of reward braces the soul to productive toil. And whereas every worker is ready to sustain his toil if he can look forward to being repaid for his labors, where toil has no recompense the soul is soon discouraged and the body flags with it. A soldier who expects his share of the spoils is ready for war. But no one is prepared to die serving a king so undiscerning that he does not provide rewards for labors. In the same way, any soul that believes in resurrection takes care for itself, as is right, but any soul that disbelieves the resurrection abandons itself to destruction. A person who believes that the body survives to rise again is careful of this garment and does not soil it by fornicating. But a person who does not believe in the resurrection gives himself up to fornication, abusing his own body as if it were nothing to him. A mighty message and teaching of the holy Catholic church is belief about the resurrection of the dead; mighty and most indispensable. While many deny it, the truth claims credence for it. Greeks deny it, Samaritans disbelieve, while heretics tear away the half. Truth never appears but in one shape, while contradiction assumes a hundred.

Ezekiel, with prophetic spirit, has surpassed all time and space and with his power of prediction has stood at the very moment of the resurrection. Seeing the future as already present, he has brought it before our eyes in his description.

The vision is a famous one and is celebrated by being read in all the churches of Christ.

(Chapter 37, verses 1 onwards) The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. And He led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, you know.' Then He said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.' And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the noise came, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again. And I prophesied as He commanded me, and the spirit entered into them and they came to life: a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say: Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord; I have spoken and I will do it, declares the Lord God. LXX: And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the plain, and it was full of human bones, and he led me round about them, on every side: and behold there were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were very dry. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live? And I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he commanded me: and the voice came to pass, while I prophesied, that behold a commotion, and the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw, and behold sinews came upon them, and flesh grew and skin covered them above, but there was no spirit in them. And he said to me: Prophesy, son of man, prophesy upon the spirit, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. And I prophesied as I had been commanded, and the spirit entered into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, a very great assembly. Then the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are completely cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord God. The vision is famous and celebrated by the reading of all the Church of Christ: for this reason, I have included both editions in their entirety, lest any slander against us be made by the Hebrews, if at least in words there may be some discrepancy. For they are accustomed to laugh at us, raise their eyebrows, and belch forth their knowledge of the Scriptures, if I may not say the disagreement of meanings (which, if it exists, is rightly condemned), if they can demonstrate any dissonance of words in our codices. Therefore, those who believe in the resurrection, which is believed by both Jews and Christians to be the word of God, often say the following: 'The hand of the Lord has come upon the prophet,' meaning the Lord, who is also the Savior, through whom the Father has done all things. For everything was made by him, and without him was made nothing that was made.' And he said, 'The spirit of the Lord took me, and the hand of the Lord was upon me.' And he was taken in the spirit, not in the body, but outside the body, and he was placed, or sent, in the midst of a field that was full of human bones. And he did not have rest there, but he caused all the bones, which were not covered by the earth but were lying on the field, to circle around. And there were not only many bones, but many bones excessively dry and parched due to the old age of time, and they did not have any moisture in them. And when the divine speaker asked him whether he thought these bones could live, he responded: Lord God, you know, who have full knowledge of the future. And the Lord said to him: Prophesy over the bones, whether over these bones, and you shall say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. It is remarkable how he spoke to dry bones, which before nerves, flesh, and skin, and the life-giving spirit of God, could hear his word. And first, the bones are bound together with the ligaments of the nerves, then they are filled with flesh, and the skin is stretched over them for beauty, which covers the ugliness of the exposed flesh; and then they receive breath, which makes them alive, and after they have lived, then they know that He is the Lord. So, as the prophet had commanded, there was immediately a commotion, and the bones were joined together in their proper framework, bound with nerves, filled with flesh, covered with skin: and there lay human bodies without breath. Therefore, the prophet prophesies to the spirit, and says: Thus says the Lord God: Come, O spirit, from the four winds; come, that is, from the four corners of the world, so that just as in the first creation of man God breathed into his face and he became a living soul (Genesis 2:7), so in the second creation, that is, the resurrection of the dead, being breathed upon by the spirit, they may be brought to life again; for when the spirit entered the human bodies, immediately they lived, and stood upon their feet. Therefore, the resurrection of the dead is also called a gathering, or the Church, many (Psalms CIII, 30), and as it is said in Hebrew, a great army; and it is fulfilled at a certain time: 'Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.' But when it is said: 'And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel,' it seems to raise a question, because it is not speaking of the general resurrection, but specifically of the resurrection of the house of Israel, which says: 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off from our own land,' or we have completely despaired. In response to those saying these things, Ezekiel is compelled to prophesy for the third time, and he says to the dry bones: 'Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves.' In which it is asked: If he opens the tombs, how did he say above: There were indeed very many on the face of the plain, and very dry. And I will bring you up from your tombs, my people, according to that which is written in the Gospel: The hour is coming; when those who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have done good will come forth unto the resurrection of life (John 5:28-29). And again: Those who hear will live (ibid.). And if, as some think, the divine discourse speaks of the general resurrection, why was it necessary to say specifically: And I will bring you into the land of Israel, when the dead in every corner of the earth must rise from the places where they were buried? And when, he says, I shall bring you out of your graves and give you my spirit, and you shall live, then I will make you rest upon your own land, so that after you have rested in the land of Israel, then you may know that I am the Lord, who has fulfilled my promises with deeds. Therefore, when they understand these things about the general resurrection, that which seems to raise the question: 'These bones are the whole house of Israel,' they refer to the resurrection of the saints, about which the Apostle John also speaks in the Apocalypse: 'Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection; over such the second death has no power' (Rev. 20:6): that is to say, there is a different resurrection for the saints and for the sinners. And in the first Psalm it says: The wicked will not rise in judgment, nor sinners in the council of the righteous. But the land of Israel, which the Lord promises to those who rise, they confirm to be the same, as it is written: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:4) And: I will please the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 116:9) These things are spoken by those who think that Ezekiel wrote about the general resurrection, as we have said. But those who interpret them in this way should not envy us, because by interpreting this passage differently, we seem to deny the resurrection. For we know that much stronger testimonies, in which there is no doubt, are found in the holy Scriptures, such as that of Job: 'You will raise up my flesh, which supports these things' (Job 19). And in Daniel: 'Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt' (Dan. 12:2). And in the Gospel: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). And the Apostle Paul: But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11), and many others. From which it is clear that we do not deny the resurrection, but we do not contend for these unwritten things about the resurrection. And through the parable of the resurrection, it is prophesied about the restoration of Israel, which was captive in Babylon at that time. We will not immediately give occasion to the heretics if we deny that these things are understood about the common resurrection. For the likeness of the resurrection would never be set forth to signify the restoration of the Israelite people unless the resurrection itself stood, and the future was believed: because no one confirms uncertain things about things that do not exist. And our whole assertion tends toward that, which seems incredulous, that a future resurrection is promised to dry bones and those worn down by much antiquity; and yet what is promised will indeed happen; in the same way, the restoration of the Israelite people, who were led into captivity and dispersed throughout the whole world, seems indeed incredible to those who do not know the power of God, but it is, however, future: for I, says the Lord, have spoken, and I will do as I have promised. And in the previous prophecy, in which the ancient state of the mountains of Israel is promised, the Lord says to them: And I will turn to you, and you shall be plowed and sown, and you shall receive seed, and I will multiply men in you, and all the house of Israel (above verse 9, 10); and again, that the house of Israel will dwell in their own land, which was once uncultivated, and will become like a garden of delight, and the deserted and destitute cities will be fortified; and the house of Israel will multiply in them, like a flock of sheep, and the other things that follow pertain to the same meaning, which is now expressed figuratively and metaphorically as dry bones, having no moisture of life, with the fulfillment of what is written in the Gospel: The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). But all these things confirm the Jews, either under Zerubbabel, as I said before, when a great commotion took place; and the kingdom of the Chaldeans was translated into the Medes and the Persians: or at the coming of their Christ, whom they suppose is to come. But we spiritually commemorate the completion after the cross of the Lord and Savior; and this happens daily, especially to those who, like Lazarus, bound by the bands of their sins, are raised up at the voice of the Lord (John 11); and truly they are the house of Israel, once desolate and without hope of salvation: but as the spirit of grace enters into them and the Lord stretches out his hand, they are liberated from the depths of Hell: and those who previously said, 'Lord God, you know these things,' afterwards hear, being freed: 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' (Matthew 14:31).

There were at all events many wonderful and great prophets among ourselves who spoke many things about the future, and they in no way used to bid those who asked them to dig up the bones of the departed. Ezekiel standing near the bones themselves was not only not hindered by [the bones] but added flesh, and nerves and skin to them and brought them back to life again.

The mystery of the resurrection is great and difficult for many of us to understand. It is mentioned also in many other passages of the Scriptures and is proclaimed no less through these words in Ezekiel.

If there is some excellent glory in the eye, it is particularly in this: that either it is the leader of the body or it is not abandoned by the functions of the other members. I think this is what is taught to us through that vision of the prophet Ezekiel.

Again this is the spirit of contemplation; he did not see these bodies that were shown to him with his eyes, but he had them revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.

It is wonderful how he addresses the dry bones, bones that were able to hear the Word of God before they had nerves, flesh, skin and life-giving breath.

In minute detail the holy prophet Ezekiel teaches and describes how strength will be restored to our dry bones, feeling return and motion added; how, with the return of sinews, the whole structure of the human body will grow strong, and how the driest bones will be clothed with restored flesh and the openings of the veins and the streams of the blood will be concealed by a veil of skin drawn tautly over them. At the very words of the prophet, as we read, the crop of human bodies seems to rise up again to life, and one may see the wide expanses of the fields sprouting with a novel kind of growth.

Note how the prophet shows that there was hearing and movement in the bones before the Spirit of life was poured on them. For, above, both the dry bones are bidden to hear, as if they had the sense of hearing, and that on this each of them came to its own joint is pointed out by the words of the prophet.…Great is the lovingkindness of the Lord, that the prophet is taken as a witness of the future resurrection, that we, too, might see it with his eyes. For all could not be taken as witnesses, but in that one all we are witnesses, for neither does lying come on a holy person or error on so great a prophet.

There should … be certain bones of the inner person in which the bond of union and harmony of spiritual powers is collected. Just as the bones by their own firmness protect the tenderness of the flesh, so also in the church there are some who through their own constancy are able to carry the infirmities of the weak. And as the bones are joined to each other through articulations by sinews and fastenings that have grown on them, so also would be the bond of charity and peace, which achieves a certain natural junction and union of the spiritual bones in the church of God.

This is the resurrection of the dead, the Spirit breathing in, giving life that has entered the human bodies, and immediately they live and stand on their feet, which means the resurrection of the dead.

But why, my beloved, was it that those dead did not rise because of the one word [spoken] through Ezekiel, and why was not their resurrection, both of bones and spirit, accomplished [through that one word]? For look! By one word the bones were fitted together, and by another the Spirit came. It was in order that full perfection might be left for our Lord Jesus Christ, who with one utterance and one word will raise up at the last day every human body. For it was not the word that was insufficient but its bearer was inferior.

Of course I could do nothing—I could not last out one hour—without continual conscious recourse to what I called Spirit. But the fine, philosophical distinction between this and what ordinary people call "prayer to God" breaks down as soon as you start doing it in earnest. Idealism can be talked, and even felt; it cannot be lived. It became patently absurd to go on thinking of "Spirit" as either ignorant of, or passive to, my approaches. Even if my own philosophy were true, how could the initiative lie on my side? My own analogy, as I now first perceived, suggested the opposite: if Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare's doing. Hamlet could initiate nothing. Perhaps, even now, my Absolute Spirit still differed in some way from the God of religion. The real issue was not, or not yet, there. The real terror was that if you seriously believed in even such a "God" or "Spirit" as I admitted, a wholly new situation developed. As the dry bones shook and came together in that dreadful valley of Ezekiel's, so now a philosophical theorem, cerebrally entertained, began to stir and heave and throw off its gravecloths, and stood upright and became a living presence. I was to be allowed to play at philosophy no longer.

For the prophets have proclaimed two advents of His: the one, that which is already past, when He came as a dishonoured and suffering Man; but the second, when, according to prophecy, He shall come from heaven with glory, accompanied by His angelic host, when also He shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived, and shall clothe those of the worthy with immortality, and shall send those of the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with the wicked devils. And that these things also have been foretold as yet to be, we will prove. By Ezekiel the prophet it was said: "Joint shall be joined to joint, and bone to bone, and flesh shall grow again; and every knee shall bow to the Lord, and every tongue shall confess Him." And in what kind of sensation and punishment the wicked are to be, hear from what was said in like manner with reference to this; it is as follows: "Their worm shall not rest, and their fire shall not be quenched;" and then shall they repent, when it profits them not.

If you are skeptical that ashes can be reassembled into bodies and souls restored to their vessels, Ezekiel will be your witness, for long ago the whole process of resurrection was revealed to him by the Lord. In his pages you will behold the dusty remains of people of old come to life over the entire region, bones scattered far and wide over the broad plain spontaneously hastening to fuse together when bidden, sprouting sinews from the innermost marrow and then drawing the skin over the flesh that had grown on them. Then the limbs are perfectly ordered more quickly than words can tell, and from the ancient dust stand forth people made new.

The proclamation, he says is made by me, by divine command. The bodies that were bound together came back to life, and they experienced a resurrection, and the multitude of those who rose again was not small.

He will contemplate truly admirable souls that have been brought back from the grave to reanimate completely consumed bodies.

It is a prerogative of God to raise the dead.

We notice here how the operations of the Spirit of life are again resumed; we know in what way the dead are raised from the opening tombs. And is it in truth a matter of wonder that the sepulchers of the dead are opened at the bidding of the Lord, when the whole earth from its utmost limits is shaken by one thunderclap, the sea overflows its bounds and again checks the course of its waves?

We ourselves make the spiritual memorial that is fulfilled as a result of the cross of the Lord and Savior.