Letter 394

To Kyriakos the Monk. "Our Lord Jesus Christ," he says, "will transform the body of our lowliness, making it conformed to the body of his glory" [Philippians 3:21]. For now, indeed, it perhaps happens that the human body passes its existence in cheapness and dishonor, being assailed by the assaults of the demons and often by the very slackness of the soul, falling into certain bruises and stains, and at times being reduced to slavery, brought exceedingly low by sin; and in the very act of dying and being laid in the grave, dragged along the ground in contempt and dishonor, and buried in great cheapness. "For it is sown," he says, "in dishonor; it is raised in glory" [1 Corinthians 15:43]. But at the time of the resurrection of all human beings, having shaken off both corruption and lowliness, our body rises up adorned with the glory and magnificence of Christ the Savior, no longer thereafter to be turned toward sin and corruption, no longer to be brought low by mortality and vanity and miseries, but, together with that which endures forever, in incorruptibility without end.

Ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς μετασχηματίσει, φησί, τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν, σύμμορφον τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. Νῦν μὲν γὰρ εὐτελείᾳ, καὶ ἀτιμίᾳ διαγίνεσθαι τάχα συμβαίνει τὸ ἀνθρώπινον σῶμα, ἐπηρεαζόμενον τε ταῖς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐφόδοις, καὶ ταῖς αὐτῆς πολλάκις τῆς ψυχῆς νωχελείαις, μώλοις τισὶ, καὶ σπίλοις περιπῖπτον, ἐξανδραποδιζόμενόν τε ἔσθ’ ὅτε, ἄγαν ταπεινούμενον ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ θνήσκειν, καὶ ἐνταφιάζεσθαι, ἐν ἐξουθενώσει, καὶ ἀτιμίᾳ συρόμενον ἐν τῇ γῇ, καὶ θαπτόμενον ἐν εὐτελείᾳ πολλῇ. Σπείρεται γὰρ, φησίν, ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ, ἐγείρεται ἐν δόξῃ. Ἐν δὲ τῷ καιρῷ τῆς πάντων ἀνθρώπων ἐγέρσεως, τὴν τε φθορὰν, καὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν ἀποτιναξάμενον, ἀνίσταται τὸ σῶμα ἡμῶν κατακεκοσμημένον τῇ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Σωτῆρος δόξῃ, καὶ μεγαλοπρεπείᾳ, μηκέτι λοιπὸν τραπῃσόμενον εἰς ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ φθορὰν, μηκέτι ταπεινωθησόμενον τῇ θνητότητι, καὶ τῇ ματαιότητι, καὶ ταῖς ταλαιπωρίαις, ἀλλὰ σὺν διαιωνίζοντι, καὶ ἀφθαρσίᾳ ἀπέραντα.