Homilies on First Corinthians

“Behold, I tell you a mystery.”

It is something awful and ineffable and which all know not, which he is about to speak of: which also indicates the greatness of the honor he confers on them; I mean, his speaking mysteries to them. But what is this?

“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” He means as follows: “we shall not all die, 'but we shall all be changed,'” even those who die not. For they too are mortal. “Do not thou therefore because you die, on this account fear,” says he, “as if you should not rise again: for there are, there are some who shall even escape this, and yet this suffices them not for that resurrection, but even those bodies which die not must be changed and be transformed into incorruption.”