319. The organs in the resurrection body
319. THE ORGANS IN THE RESURRECTION BODY
Will the resurrection body have all its organs? Will it have sex organs? If not, will it lose its feminine or masculine identity? If so, what will they be for if there’s no more biological reproduction in Heaven?
Whether all the members of the human body will rise again?
The works of God are perfect (Deut 32:4). But the resurrection will be the work of God. Therefore man will be remade perfect in all his members.
Objection 1. It would seem that not all the members of the human body will rise again. For if the end be done away, it is useless to repair the means. Now the end of each member (organ) is its act. Since, then, nothing useless is done in divine works, and since the use of certain members is not fitting to man after the resurrection, especially the use of the genital members, for then they shall neither marry nor be married (Mt 22:30), it would seem that not all the members shall rise again.
Reply to Objection 1. The members may be considered in two ways in relation to the soul: either according to the relation of matter to form, or according to the relation of instrument to agent. . . . If, then, the members be considered in the light of the first relationship (matter to form), their end is not operation but rather the perfect being of the species, and this is also required after the resurrection. (Therefore the resurrection body will be perfectly complete in its sexual identity or form.) But if they be considered in the light of the second relationship (instrument to the agent that uses the instrument), then their end is operation. (The end of “the reproductive system” is . . . reproduction!) And yet it does not follow that when the operation fails (no reproduction in Heaven) the instrument is useless, because an instrument serves not only to accomplish the operation of the agent, but also to show its virtue (i.e., its goodness; it is for beauty and not just utility). Hence it will be necessary for the virtue of the soul’s powers to be shown in their bodily instruments, even though they never proceed to action, so that the wisdom of God be thereby glorified. (“See me! I am a woman. I am beautiful.” This remains, even when “See what I am useful for: I am a future baby-maker” does not remain. But perhaps “I am a past baby-maker” does remain.)
Objection 2. Further, the entrails (bowels, intestines) are members; and yet they will not rise again. For they can neither rise full, since thus they contain impurities (“dung”!), nor empty, since nothing is empty in (perfect) nature. Therefore the members shall not all rise again.
Reply to Objection 2. The entrails will rise again in the body even as the other members, and they will be filled not with vile superfluities but with goodly humours (S80,1).
St. Thomas is very careful to distinguish what we know from what we don’t. (1) We know that our bodies will be perfect, because they will be God’s work, and all God’s works are perfect. (2) We do not know the answer to our question about sex organs. Which of these two is more important? Would we prefer to know all about sex in Heaven but not know, and doubt, that God’s works are all perfect?
Even the body’s lowest and grossest members, the intestines, will have a role in Heaven, though not the same role as on earth (the elimination of waste). What that role will be, and what its glory and beauty will be, we cannot know or imagine. “Goodly humours” is not only by modern standards very primitive chemistry but even for its own time is deliberately vague. We have enough knowledge of the future to motivate us but not enough to distract us from our present tasks.
A baby in the womb does not have to know how its nose will look, or what it will be used for, once it is born. We do not have to know what we do not need to know about Heaven. It should be our goal but not our distraction. If the shortstop takes his eyes off the ground ball that is being hit to him, and looks instead at the first baseman’s glove, where he will eventually throw the ball, he will misplay the grounder and fail to get the out. One step at a time. “One foot up and one foot down, that’s the way to London Town.”