You have asked me, in the third place,
about what the Apostle says, that at the coming of the Lord and Savior some who
are still alive will be caught up to meet him in the clouds, in such a way that
they will not be preceded by those who have fallen asleep in Christ. And you
want to know whether they would meet him in their bodies, and would not die
before this, since even our Lord died, and Enoch and Elijah, according to the
Apocalypse of John, are said to be going to die. That is to say, [you think that]
there should not be anyone who does not taste death. The answer to this
question can be known from the contents of the passage itself. For the saints
who will be found in their bodies at the advent of the Savior will meet him in
the same bodies, yet in such a way that what is unglorified, corruptible, and
mortal is changed into glory, incorruption, and immortality. Thus, the prophets
of the resurrected bodies will belong to the substance into which all bodies
will be transformed, even the bodies of those who will still be alive at that
time. This is why the Apostle says in another place: “On this account we do not
want to be stripped, but to be clothed over, so that what is mortal may be
absorbed by life,” namely lest our soul abandon our body. But while this body
is always inhabited by its soul, what was previously lacking glory becomes
glorious. This is not the proper time to speak of Enoch and Elijah, who,
according to the Apocalypse, will come and die. For in our estimation that
entire book should be understood spiritually. Otherwise, if we follow the
fleshly interpretation, one would have to accept the fables of the Jews; thus
Jerusalem will be built again, sacrifices will be offered in the temple, and
our spiritual worship would be diminished and replaced by fleshly ceremonies. (Jerome,
“Epistle 59 to Marcella,” c. A.D. 395/396 in St. Jerome: Exegetical Epistles,
2 vols. [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; The Fathers of the Church 147; Washington,
D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023], 1:235-36)
