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THIRD ARTICLE [III, Q. 54, Art. 3]

Whether Christ's Body Rose Again Entire?

Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's body did not rise entire.
For flesh and blood belong to the integrity of the body: whereas
Christ seems not to have had both, for it is written (1 Cor. 15:50):
"Flesh and blood can not possess the kingdom of God." But Christ rose
in the glory of the kingdom of God. Therefore it seems that He did
not have flesh and blood.

Obj. 2: Further, blood is one of the four humors. Consequently, if
Christ had blood, with equal reason He also had the other humors,
from which corruption is caused in animal bodies. It would follow,
then, that Christ's body was corruptible, which is unseemly.
Therefore Christ did not have flesh and blood.

Obj. 3: Further, the body of Christ which rose, ascended to heaven.
But some of His blood is kept as relics in various churches.
Therefore Christ's body did not rise with the integrity of all its
parts.

_On the contrary,_ our Lord said (Luke 24:39) while addressing His
disciples after the Resurrection: "A spirit hath not flesh and bones
as you see Me to have."

_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 2), Christ's body in the
Resurrection was "of the same nature, but differed in glory."
Accordingly, whatever goes with the nature of a human body, was
entirely in the body of Christ when He rose again. Now it is clear
that flesh, bones, blood, and other such things, are of the very
nature of the human body. Consequently, all these things were in
Christ's body when He rose again; and this also integrally, without
any diminution; otherwise it would not have been a complete
resurrection, if whatever was lost by death had not been restored.
Hence our Lord assured His faithful ones by saying (Matt. 10:30):
"The very hairs of your head are all numbered": and (Luke 21:18): "A
hair of your head shall not perish."

But to say that Christ's body had neither flesh, nor bones, nor the
other natural parts of a human body, belongs to the error of
Eutyches, Bishop of Constantinople, who maintained that "our body in
that glory of the resurrection will be impalpable, and more subtle
than wind and air: and that our Lord, after the hearts of the
disciples who handled Him were confirmed, brought back to subtlety
whatever could be handled in Him" [*St. Gregory, Moral. in Job
14:56]. Now Gregory condemns this in the same book, because Christ's
bo