corruptible one. It must rise like the body of Jesus Christ, who,
"rising again from the dead, dies no more; death shall no more have
dominion over Him."* According to the beautiful and forcible words of
the Apostle: "This corruptible must put on incorruption; and this
mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal hath put on
immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O
death, where is thy sting?"+

* Rom. 'vi. 9. + 1 Cor. xv. 53.

These, then, are some of the supernatural gifts wherewith God will
clothe the bodies of the just on the last day. They are so great in
themselves, that it would almost seem they should be worth working
for even if there were no Beatific Vision. Yet, if taken separately,
they are, so to speak, the mere external ornaments and finish of the
happiness which heart of man cannot conceive. These glorious
attributes of the risen body perfect and complete the happiness of
man. As the soul and body reunited in glory form one human creature,
so the happiness of the soul and body is one. After the resurrection,
the beatitude of heaven can no longer be separated into the happiness
of the soul in the Beatific Vision, and then the pleasures of the
body through the glorified senses, as if there were two distinct
beatitudes, or as if the soul and body were two distinct individuals.
Whatever happiness comes from the union of the soul with God in the
Beatific Vision, and whatever pleasures may reach the soul through
the glorified senses, or from our communion with the saints, or the
contemplation of the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ, the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and other saints, it is all one happiness enjoyed by our
human nature, which is one.

CHAPTER VIII.

SEVERAL ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED IN OUR MEDITATIONS ON HEAVEN.

Now that the soul is again clothed in her body, glorified after the
likeness of Christ's body, other pleasures and joys, besides those we
have already contemplated in the Beatific Vision, claim our
attention. They are the pleasures of the glorified senses, which,
along with the Beatific Vision, are to gratify every rational
appetite and craving of our human nature. And thus the whole man, in
soul and body, will enjoy the complete happiness of heaven. But, in
order to form a correct idea of these additional pleasures of the
glorified senses, or rather of the integral happiness of heaven, we
mu