Chapter VIII — On the joy of the senses of taste and touch

Concerning the sense of taste, the theologians write (see Denis the Carthusian on the fourth book of the Sentences, dist. 44, art. 4, who cites others; and Dominic de Soto, bk. 4, dist. 49, q. 4, art. 5) that the blessed will not make use of mortal food, yet will have some delight in that sense, lest it should seem superfluous — a delight, however, befitting the place and the state of the blessed and the immortal. Concerning the sense of touch, all agree that its use will not be wanting in heaven, since the bodies of the blessed can doubtless be touched, being true and living bodies — as the Lord says: "Handle, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see Me to have" (Luke 24). Yet all impure contact will be far removed from those bodies, which will have no concupiscence of generation; and, as the Lord Himself says, "in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married, but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22). But we will not dwell on these matters, which are daily disputed in the schools. This one thing we affirm: that the sense of touch will perceive no small pleasure from the perpetual and most excellent disposition of the body, by reason of the dower-gifts of the glorified body, of which the Apostle speaks in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "It is sown," he says, "in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15). Of these four dower-gifts or privileges of glorified bodies, that one — of glory, or of the splendor of the glorified body — pertains to the sense of sight, as we said in its place; the remaining three seem properly to pertain to the sense of touch. For just as, when the body is weighed down by diseases, blows, and wounds that lead to death, it is the sense of touch that suffers and grieves; so also, when the body is well and is sound and strong, the sense of touch rejoices. With great joy, therefore, will the sense of touch be affected in heaven, when after the resurrection the bodies of the blessed shall enjoy immortality and impassibility, and indeed the best of health, for all eternity. What would men not gladly give — princes especially — if throughout their whole life they could be freed from the pains of gout, of the head, of the stomach, or of the kidneys? What joy, then, will it be in heaven, from which not only death but every disease and every pain will be utterly exiled? Accordingly, those dower-gifts by which the corruptible body rises incorruptible, and the infirm body rises impassible, pertain to the joy of the sense of touch. In like manner, the dower-gifts of agility and subtlety, by which the natural body shall rise spiritual, seem to pertain to the same sense of touch. For the glorified body will be called — and will be — spiritual: not because it will not truly have flesh and bones, but because it will be so subject to the spirit that at the spirit's bidding it will move most swiftly, without difficulty or labor — ascend and descend, come and go, and penetrate all places whatsoever, as though it were not a body but a spirit. Therefore, just as the sense of touch fares ill and grieves when the heavy body is forced to ascend on high or to be moved swiftly from place to place, so on the contrary it rejoices and is glad when the body, without weariness or labor, either ascends on high or passes most swiftly from place to place. Behold, then, from how great a servitude of corruption the blessed shall be freed, when they shall no longer need horses, nor carriages, nor attendants, nor arms, nor anything else; but the blessed bodies, of themselves, shall run most swiftly whithersoever they will, and shall be everywhere most safe, even amid the ranks of armed men. Would that those who cannot taste spiritual delights, because they have an infected palate, would at least consider these greatest and perpetual bodily goods, and be moved by them and seek after them! For so it would come to pass that little by little they would ascend to higher things, and by these steps would at length, through God's gracious help, arrive at the everlasting joys.