A Further Proof of My Faith in the Resurrection

Moreover, to give a fuller proof of this point, I will add one thing more. It is the pressure of those who slander me that forces me to bring forward a singular and special mystery of my own church. It is this. All the churches hand down the sacrament of the creed in a form which, after the words “the forgiveness of sins,” adds “the resurrection of the flesh.” But the holy church of Aquileia, as though the Spirit of God had foreseen the slanders that would be spoken against us, puts in a particular word at the place where it delivers the resurrection of the dead: instead of saying, as others do, “the resurrection of the flesh,” we say “the resurrection of this flesh.” At this point, as the custom is at the close of the creed, we touch the forehead of this flesh with the sign of the cross, and with the mouth of this flesh, which we have so touched, we confess the resurrection; so that we may stop up every entrance through which the poisoned tongue might bring in its slanders against us. Can any confession be fuller than this? Can any statement of the truth be more perfect? Yet I see that this remarkable provision of the Holy Spirit has done us no good. Evil and busy tongues still find room for quibbling. Unless, he says, you name the members one by one, and expressly mention the head with its hair, the hands, the feet, the belly, and what is below the belly, you have denied the resurrection of the flesh. [a]