The Subtlety of Risen Bodies

The risen body will be, in all organic action,perfectly subject to the soul, and instantly responsive to the will, needing withal no material sustenance. This spirit-like quality of the risen body is called subtlety or subtility.

The subtlety of a glorified body will not enable it to occupy the same place with another body, unless this be done by a miracle.

Now, there is no contradiction in the thought of two bodies being in the same place simultaneously, even though there is nothing in the nature of a body capable of producing this effect. What keeps bodies from compenetration is their external extension,and this is not of the essence or nature of bodies, but is an effect of quantity, which, in turn, is only a proper accidental of bodies and not their essence. Hence, there is no conflict or contradiction in the notion of compenetration of bodies; therefore,since the thing is conceivable, it might be done by a miracle.

However, the subtlety of the glorified body does not make this compenetration possible without a miracle. Besides, in heaven, distinctness of bodily being will be a perfection; if several bodies were to occupy the same place, this distinctness ofbeing would be obscured.

The glorified body, just as the natural body on earth,will occupy space, and will be in a place according to its dimensions.

There will be nothing ghostlike in the risen body. Itwill be a true body. But it will have spiritual or spirit-like qualities. It will be something that can be touched and felt. When our Lord in his risen and glorified body came in, through closed doors, to his disciples, he told them he was not a spirit or ghost,and said (Luke 24:39): “Handle and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.”