Resurrection Means a Glorious Existence

This question prompts me to think back when I was at Washington Irving Junior High School and a friend of mine showed me a religious magazine from her church which showed the end of the world and resurrection of the dead. In "comic book" form, the magazine depicted people coming out of graves and tombs — a rather frightening scene to say the least, especially from a seventh grade viewpoint. As time has passed and my theological understanding has improved, I now hope more that when I rise from the dead, God makes a few adjustments or improvements to this body of mine before I spend the rest of eternity with it.

We do firmly believe in the resurrection of the body. With out recent celebration of Easter, we recalled that our Lord Jesus rose body and soul from the dead. The tomb was empty. However, Jesus had undergone a "change" through the resurrection: Jesus appeared to two of the apostles "completely changed in appearance" (Mk 16:12). When He appeared, at times the apostles thought they were seeing a ghost (Lk 24:37) or did not recognize Him at first (Jn 21:1, ff) until He revealed Himself. Nevertheless, Our Lord could be touched: the women embrace his feet (Mt 28:9), Jesus invited Thomas to probe the nail marks in the hand and the wound at the side (Jn 20:24, ff), and He told the other apostles to touch Him to see that He had "flesh and bones" unlike a ghost (Lk 24:39). Jesus could eat a meal (Lk 24:30, 24:42-43; Jn 21:12, f). Yet, He also appeared suddenly to the apostles (Mk 16:14; Lk 24:13, f), even behind locked doors (Jn 20:19, f), and He would vanish suddenly (Lk 24:31).

In all, Jesus was not some resuscitated corpse. These resurrection scenes are not script material for "Night of the Living Dead." Rather, through the resurrection, Jesus had undergone a radical transformation of both body and soul. He entered into a glorious existence, perfectly "humanized" and "divinized." The Catechism (No. 645) states, "He invites them in this way to recognize that He is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which He appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of His passion. Yet, at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time, but able to be present how and when He wills; for Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm."

Beginning with our baptism, we share in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, and struggle to live life with Him as He wants it to be lived. Each time we receive Holy Communion, we remember the words of our Lord, "He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise Him up on the last day" (Jn 6:54). Saint Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians also reminds us, "Tell me, if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ Himself has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too" (I Cor 15:12-14). Therefore, we look forward to a body and soul existence with our Lord in Heaven.

Now to address some basic questions: What will this rising entail? When we die, we believe that our soul leaves the body and faces the particular judgment. The body is buried (or cremated). However, we as individuals are a union of body and soul. Therefore, at the end of time, the soul and body will be united again in a glorious, transformed and complete existence.

When is this "end of time"? This last day will be at the end of the world, when Christ comes again in glory.

What is this glorious body? Actually any answer lacks, since this matter exceeds not only our understanding, but also our imagination. Looking back to those resurrection scenes, the resurrected body will entail a glorified existence. Here the Scholastic theologians distinguished four gifts or properties of the resurrected body of the just: Impassibility (the incapability of suffering), meaning that we will no longer suffer physical evils such as sorrow, sickness or death; subtility, meaning that we will have a spiritualized nature in the sense of a spiritual body as did our Lord; agility, meaning that the body will obey the soul with the greatest ease and speed of movement; and clarity, meaning that this body will be free from any deformity and will be filled with beauty and radiance. These four gifts try to capture the glory which the soul enjoys in heaven and in which the body will now share.

St. Thomas Aquinas elaborated, "The soul which is enjoying God will cleave to Him most perfectly, and will in its own fashion share in His goodness to the highest degree; and thus will the body be perfectly within the soul's dominion and will share in what is the soul's very own characteristics so far as possible — in the perspicuity of sense knowledge, in the ordering of bodily appetite, and in the all-round perfection of nature; for a thing is the more perfect in nature the more its matter is dominated by its form… just as the soul of man will be elevated to the glory of heavenly spirits to see God in His essence…so also will his body be raised to the characteristics of heavenly bodies — it will be lightsome, incapable of suffering, without difficulty and labor in movement, and most perfectly perfected by its form. For this reason, the Apostle speaks of the bodies of the risen as heavenly, referring not to their nature, but to their glory" (Contra Gentiles, 4:86).

The resurrection of the body is a mystery of faith, something we limited human beings cannot fully grasp. However, this belief is bolstered through the assumption of our Blessed Mother. She, who fully lived the life of faith on this earth and in this time dimension, was taken body and soul into heaven at the end of her life. Therefore, may we look to her example and unite ourselves body and soul to the Lord in this life, looking to that glorious, transformed and complete life in the heavenly kingdom at the end of time.

Saunders, Rev. William. “Resurrection Means a Glorious Existence.” Arlington Catholic Herald.

Father William Saunders is dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College and pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish, both in Alexandria, Virginia. The above article is a "Straight Answers" column he wrote for the Arlington Catholic Herald. Father Saunders is also the author of Straight Answers, a book based on 100 of his columns and published by Cathedral Press in Baltimore.

One of my many problems with the faith or Faith (whichever mode I happen to be in) is that Catholic heaven doesn't sound very happy to me. This that you posted sounds pretty good generally, but being totally conformed to God's will, it doesn't sound like we'll have any freedom (not to do evil) and will have to do everything robotlike. That's the impression I get.

With some of the naturalistic ideas of protestant heaven, of perfect happiness with family and loved ones in beautiful surroundings (I'm not sure where Jesus and angels and saints fit in here), there are aspects of this sort of heaven that are more appealing.

I'm not meaning to be contentious; it's a real problem I have had trying to convert from protestant ideas of heaven to catholic ideas of heaven.

To make matters really agonizing for me, all my family members and almost all my ancestors for generations were not catholic. Mostly they were very decent people, but my parents died in what catholics would consider mortal sin. Loving my parents dearly and knowing they were better parents than many catholics would have been, I'm very torn over this.

Since I can't resolve these and other difficulties, I don't like to think about religion much any more and it does not comfort me like it does others. Actually it terrorizes me, fearing what may await me and my loved ones in the next life. I don't know any other souls who struggle with these things. Catholics seem very laid back about their place in heaven and protestants, no matter how combative, are assured of their salvation.

It leaves me feeling resentful of people who take their faith and assurance of a good place in the afterlife as a given. They may have worries but that doesn't seem to be one of them.

I don't think I have any words of comfort to offer you, but for what it's worth, I go through this, too. Some descriptions of heaven sound like a hive to me; when I'm in a grumbling mood, I'll say to myself, "If I wanted to be collectivized, I'd move to Cuba." When I get this way, I've learned to ask myself, what's going on in the relationship? Once I shift my focus back to the reasons I love Him, it becomes easy to see that I can count on Him to make heaven okay in the end, no matter how awful it sounds when people talk about it here in this life.

1Cor.15
[42] So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
[43] It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
[44] It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
[45] And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

I understand that there will be a spiritual body but not a physical one. Does this agree or disagree with the writter? He speaks of a glorious body. Is that the same as spiritual body?

don't think I have any words of comfort to offer you, but for what it's worth, I go through this, too.

The only words of comfort come from the bible. "Eye has not seen . . . what God has prepared for those who love Him." And the 23rd Psalm. And "I go to prepare a place for you." Those words are comforting if I haven't fallen out of favor because I don't love Him and my fellow man as I ought. And I feel no love for the church as I have experienced it. Catholics love their church. It gets so bad that I almost default to atheism where there is nothing to fear because you are just gone forever along with those who have gone before.

it becomes easy to see that I can count on Him to make heaven okay in the end,

It boils down to trust, doesn't it? I have a terrible time with trust. And my life. A flick of the heavenly button and my life here on earth could have been unendurable. It's been bad enough as it is, but there have been many comforts along the way.

The only time I was happy with religion was when I was little and naive and learned how Jesus healed people and the kind people who taught Sunday school and vacation bible school and happy times when people got together to socialize.

Sometimes I wish I had left well enough alone. You don't know how I wish sometimes I never converted to the catholic religion. I believe most of it which makes it even harder because I believe that protestants were wrong about several things. But unless you are born into the catholic church or don't think too deeply about things, you are in for trouble.

It's really hard to put it into words. Thank you for sharing that you sometimes wonder a little bit.

By the time we get to heaven, we will have been purified of all evil tendencies - either through our sufferings on earth or in Purgatory. Nothing (no one) unclean can enter heaven or be in the Father's presence. Now this will not mean we do not have free will, but that our wills will have been perfectly conformed to God's Will. And, in a sense, after seeing and knowing God we will not even consider sinning.

Also in heaven we will be completely fulfilled by the knowledge that we are loved, and fully capable of loving in return. There will be nothing lacking.

If heaven were going to be like earth where people can choose evil, then I don't want to go there... this is enough. Hope this helped - too tired to explain any better.

With regard to your parents... The Catholic Church also teaches that we cannot judge another's soul. That would include your parents. We can discern, yes, that they were in "mortal sin", but only God can weigh all factors (including their level of knowledge/understanding and/or any mitigating factors). God is also All-Merciful, and if at all possible He would have saved your parents as long as they had not completely rejected him. It is very likely they are in purgatory, and if so, they need your prayers!

On the other hand it is a grave error to say that one's Salvation "is assured". That is the sin of presumption (Catholic teaching) and goes squarely against Scripture on the matter (read St. Paul - he says quite the opposite). We have to "fight the good fight", because at any moment we can fall from God's grace by choosing evil over Him.

But please, trust in God's Mercy and commend your parents souls to Him. It is not Catholic teaching to say they are in hell. You might want to purchase a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to see exactly what is taught on these matters. It's actually quite comforting! ;)

**I'm not meaning to be contentious; it's a real problem I have had trying to convert from protestant ideas of heaven to catholic ideas of heaven.**

Where did you get this notion? I think, once we get to heaven, we will all bask in eternal happiness.

But remember, not even the Protestants (or the Catholics, for that matter) are assured of heaven.

**It leaves me feeling resentful of people who take their faith and assurance of a good place in the afterlife as a given. They may have worries but that doesn't seem to be one of them.**

"Trust in the Lord." You need not worry if you put your faith in Jesus Christ!

i am not the theologian here.

The Nicene Creed, ( the last part) however, states:

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostilic Church,
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.