The Flesh And Rest

Oportet autem cognosci quidem quomodo in requiem, quam impii non adibunt, pii et Deo subjecti poterunt introire: necesse est enim spem, quae malis negata est, bonis relinqui. Sed si Christus Dei requies est, ergo hi qui in Christo erunt, erunt in Dei requie. In Christo autem velle esse se Apostlous clamat, dicens, Sequor autem si apprehendam, in quo et apprehensus sum: et rursum, Omnia autem detrimenta esse duxi, et arbitror stercora, ut Christum lucrifaciam: et rursum, Benedictus Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui benedixit nos in omni benedictione spiritali in coelestibus in Christo, in quo elegit nos ante mundi constitutione in ipso, ut simus sancti et immaculati in consepectu ejus in charitate: qui ante praedestinavit nos in adoptionem per christum in ipso; quia Verbum caro factum est; quia cum aliquando essemus alienati et inimici sensus ejus in factis malis, nunc autem reconciliati sumus corpore carnis ejus. Ergo per conjunctionem carnis assumptae sumus in Christo: et hoc est sacramentum Dei absconditum a saeculis et generationibus in Deo, quod nunc revelatum est sanctis ejus, esse nos cohaeredes et concorporales et comparticipes pollicitationis ejus in Christo. Patet ergo universis aditus in Christo per conjunctionem carnis, si exuant veteram hominem, et cruci ejus affigant, et ab his, quae ante gesserunt, in baptismo ejus consepeliantur ad vitam; et ut in consortium Christi carnis introeant, carnem cum vitiis et concupiscentiis affigant. Istius modi enim corpora configurabit in transformatione corporis sui, et horum humilitatem in gloriam carnis suae transferet, qui contundentes omnes cupiditatum aculeos, et voluptatum sordes abluentes per novae nativitatis sacramentum, meminerinsse non suam carnem habere, sed Christi. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis,Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum XCI Migne PL 9.499

It should be known how into rest, into which the impious does not enter, the pious, subject to God, can enter. Hope is necessary, by which evils have been refused, goods left behind. But if the Divine Christ is rest, then they shall go into Christ who go into the rest of God. In Christ indeed the Apostle wished to be who cries out, saying, 'I follow that I might understand in the way that I have been understood.' 1 and again, 'I have lost everything, and I judge it trash, that I might profit Christ.' 2 and again, 'Blessed the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ, by which He chose us before the establishment of the world in Himself, that we be holy and immaculate in His sight in love, He who has predestined us for adoption through Christ in Himself; 3 whence the Word was made flesh because we were alienated and enemies of His understanding by evil deeds, and are now reconciled in his flesh. Therefore by the joining of flesh we are taken up in Christ, and this is the mystery of God hidden from the ages and generations in God, which has now been revealed to His holy ones, we who are coheirs and the fellow-bodied and fellow participants of His promise in Christ. The way is open, therefore, to everyone who has come into Christ through the conjunction of flesh, if they slough off the old man, 4 and are fixed to His cross, 5 and from those things which before they bore, in His baptism are buried with Him to life; even that into the fellowship of the flesh of Christ they may enter, the vices and the desires of flesh transfixed. In this manner the body is configured into the transformation into His body, all the dirt of pleasures washed away by the sacrament of new birth, mindful that he does not have his own flesh, but Christ's. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 91 1 Phil 3.12 2 Phil 3.8 3 Ephes 1.3-5 4 Ephes 4.22, Col 3.9 5 Galat 2.20