blood, with every organ and member glorified and made conformable
to the body of Jesus Christ. According to the teachings of St.
Thomas, our bodies shall rise of the same nature as they now are. For
glory does not change or destroy nature, but perfects it.* Evidently,
then, rising a spiritual body does not mean that our bodies are to be
changed into spirits. What then does it mean? It means that, while
retaining their essential material nature, they will be clothed with
properties which naturally belong only to spirits, and not to bodies.
These we shall now examine.

* Ponere enim corpus transire in spiritum est omnino impossibile. Non
enim transeunt invicem nisi quae in materia communicant. Spiritualium
autem et corporalium non potest esse communicatio in materia, cum
substantiae spirituales sint omnino immaterialia. Impossibile est
igitur quod corpus humanum transeat in substantiam spiritualem....
Similiter etiam impossibile est quod corpus hominis resurgentis sit
quasi aereum et ventis simile.--S. Thom., Cont. gent., lib. 4, c. 84.

1. In the first place, rising a spiritual body implies that the
glorified body will no longer need food, drink, and sleep, to sustain
life and strength, as it now does. The risen body will, therefore, in
this respect, become like a spirit, which needs neither food nor
drink. Eating is a necessity of the present life, and makes our
bodies animal. This necessity will no longer exist after the
resurrection. When we reflect upon this, it seems to us that nearly
one half of human life, and of its energies, are expended upon this
one thing of eating, providing, and preparing food. Fields must be
sown, and crops must be raised; grain must be ground; cattle must be
cared for almost as children; ships must cross and recross the ocean;
and all this to prepare food and raiment for our vile bodies. What a
slavery this is! The soul, that noble image of the living God,
instead of giving her time to the developing of her faculties and the
contemplating of God and His works, must provide and prepare food for
the body. Rising a spiritual body will forever emancipate us from
this slavery.

But although it is true that there shall be no more eating and
drinking in heaven, as we now understand these two actions, you must
not infer from this that the sense of taste shall not be gratified in
the blessed. It most certainly will be, as well as every other sense
of the human body, though not by the corruptible