2. You ask what is the meaning of what was said and how
should one read [the words] in the first epistle of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians:
“We shall all indeed sleep, but we shall not all be changed.” Or, according to
some copies: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” For both
readings are found in the Greek codices. In his brief commentary on the Apostle,
Theodore of Heraclea, a city that was formerly called Perinthus, said the
following on this passage: “’We shall not all indeed sleep, but we shall all be
changed.’ For having surmounted the necessity of death, Enoch and Elijah were
transferred, as just as they were, in their bodies, from an earthly abode to the
heavenly kingdom. Whence also the saints, who on the day of consummation and
judgment are to be found in their bodies, will be taken into the clouds to meet
Christ in the air with the other saints who are to rise again from the dead. They
will not taste death, and they will always be with the Lord, having trampled
upon the very burdensome necessity of death. This is why the Apostle says: ‘We
shall not all indeed sleep, but we shall all be changed.’ For those who rise
from the dead and are taken while still living into the clouds will pass into
incorruption, and they will exchange mortality with immortality; not in time,
nor even in a brief space of time, but instantly (atomo) and in point (puncto)
of time at which the twinkling of an eye can occur, at the last trumpet. For the
resurrection of the dead will happen with such great speed that the living,
whom the time of consummation will find in their own bodies, will not be able
to precede the dead who are rising from the underworld. Paul explains this very
clearly when he says: ‘For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise
incorruptible, and we will be changed. For it is necessary that this corruptible
put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.’ Thus, they are able
to remain forever in one of the two sides, either in punishment or in the
kingdom of heaven.” (Jerome, Epistle 19, in St. Jerome: Exegetical Epistles,
2 vols. [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; The Fathers of the Church 148; Washington,
D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2024], 2:99-101)
Now in the Gospel he himself tells us what this glory is:
“Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world
existed.” The glory of the Savior is the cross (patibulum) of the triumphant
one. He is crucified as a man; he is glorified as God. After all, the sun takes
flight; the moon is changed to blood; the earth trembles with unusual motion;
the lower world is opened; the dead walk; rocks are shattered. This is the
glory of which he spoke in the Psalm: “Arise, my glory; arise, lute and harp!”
And glory itself answers on its own behalf, and the dispensation of the flesh
he assumed says: “I will arise with the dawn.” (Jerome, Epistle 120, in St.
Jerome: Exegetical Epistles, 2 vols. [trans. Thomas P. Scheck; The Fathers
of the Church 148; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2024], 2:151-52)