Patristic Quote of the Day

If He took a body to Himself at all, and made it His own in pursuance of His purpose, as we have shown that He did, what was the Lord to do with it, and what was ultimately to become of that body upon which the Word descended? Mortal and offered to death on behalf of all as it was, it could not but die; indeed, it was for this very purpose that the Savior had prepared it for Himself. But on the other hand it could not remain dead, because it had become the very temple of Life. It therefore died, as mortal but lived again because of the Life within it; and its resurrection is made known through its works. --St. Athanasius, *On the Incarnation* par. 31