The answer
“Observe, this is the reason why He speaks beforehand with reference to this dowry; He warranted to me in the dowry the resurrection of the body — immortality. For immortality does not always follow resurrection, but the two are distinct. For many have risen, and been again laid low, like Lazarus and the bodies of the saints. But in this case it is not so, but the promise is of resurrection, immortality, a place in the joyful company of angels, the meeting of the Son of Man in the clouds, and the fulfillment of the saying so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17), the release from death, the freedom from sin, the complete overthrow of destruction.
“Why do you not give me the dowry here? It will be given when you have come to my Father, when you have entered the royal palace. Did you come to me! No, I (Jesus) came to you. I came not that you should abide here but that I might take you and return. Seek not the dowry here: all depends on hope, and faith.
“And do you give me nothing in this world? He answers. Receive an earnest that you may trust me concerning that which is to come: receive pledges and betrothal gifts. Therefore Paul says, ‘I have betrothed you’ (2 Cor. 11:2). As gifts of betrothal God has given us present blessings: they are an earnest of the future; but the full dowry abides in the other world.”1018
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
1018 St. John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Eutropius (NPNF I/9:261).