49. The Resurrection of the Dead
32. The Truth of the Resurrection
When Christ comes to judge humans in all his power and majesty, their bodies will rise. Each man will recover his own body, and will remain in this situation for all eternity. What we said before about the immortality of the soul is especially relevant here: Only the bodies resurrect, joining their respective souls, which subsisted separately after death.1
Many passages of Sacred Scripture affirm the truth of the resurrection. References are more frequent in the New Testament, but the Old Testament is also quite explicit (cf. Is 26:19; Dn 12:2; Mt 24:31; Lk 14:14; Jn 5:29; 1 Cor 15:32; Rom 8:18–25; 1 Thes 4:13–17; Heb 6:2; Rv 20:12). We profess this truth in the Creed: “We believe in the resurrection of the body.”2 It is similarly expressed in all the symbols and in countless declarations of the solemn Magisterium of the Church. The Christian dogma affirms that the dead will resurrect, that is, that they will assume again the same bodies from which they were parted at death.3
33. The Resurrection of the Body
Sacred Tradition has always used the expression resurrection of the body, while resurrection of the dead is seldom found. There are very specific reasons for this. When a person dies, it is the whole subject that suffers death—the separation of body and soul. The body, deprived of its vital principle, decays. The soul, being spiritual, subsists. When resurrection is understood as applying to the whole subject, it means that the soul recovers its body, informing it again. Scripture, however, understands resurrection in the sense of restoration of the body: The souls are supposed to rejoin their bodies, which have already decomposed and, therefore, have to be restored in some way.
Recently, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recommended that the vernacular versions of the Creed retain the expression resurrection of the body. This is in order to prevent the mistaken notion that the soul will also resurrect.4
34. The Reality of the Resurrection
This perennial teaching of the Church is founded on Sacred Scripture, which clearly speaks of the resurrection at the end of time. St. Mark says, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Mk 12:26). In the Gospel of St. John, we read: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5:28–29; cf. Mt 22:23–33; Lk 20:27–38).
Chapter 15 of the first epistle to the Corinthians is especially relevant. There, on the basis of our Lord’s resurrection, St. Paul refutes those who deny the resurrection of the dead. St. Paul clearly sees—as anyone can—that the resurrection of our Lord is an apologetic argument of the first order. St. Peter uses it in the same way for his catechesis, especially in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 2:14–36; 3:11–26; 4:5–12). St. Paul, however, goes one step farther in his epistle. He shows that the resurrection of our Lord is the true cause of our resurrection: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:20–22). In his discourse in Capernaum, our Lord said several times that he would resurrect the dead on “the last day” (Jn 6:40, 44, 54). It is obvious that his preaching had spread the faith in the resurrection, as is shown in Martha’s statement before the resurrection of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11:23–26).
Sacred Tradition unanimously affirms this truth of faith. It is clear both from the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and from Christian archaeology—cemeteries, veneration of relics, and funeral liturgy.
Theology can explain the fittingness of the resurrection of the body with metaphysical and theological reasons. First, the spiritual and immortal soul subsists after death, but it continues to be ordained to the body as its substantial form. Thus, resurrection is in some way convenient for the soul.5
Moreover, death is a result of original sin. Christ’s triumph over sin is also a victory over its consequence, death. St. Paul already advanced this argument: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:26).
There is still a third argument, which is of a moral nature: The necessity of an adequate requital. A perfect remuneration, in accordance with the wisdom of God, has to affect the whole person, body and soul. This requires the resurrection of the body.6
35. Nature of the Resurrection
Christian dogma affirms the existence of the resurrection. It also states that we will resurrect precisely with our own body, “in the same flesh in which we now live … not … in a body of air or in any different kind of body (as some have foolishly thought); but we shall rise in this very body in which we now live and are and move … in this same flesh which we have and not any other.”7
St. Paul is quite specific: “‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.… So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.… We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable” (1 Cor 15:35–37, 42–44, 51–52).
Resurrection is described as the reunion of the souls with their bodies, a point emphasized by the most recent Magisterium.8
St. Thomas deals with this doctrine in different places, but he always insists that:
We cannot call it resurrection unless the soul return to the same body, since resurrection is a second rising, and the same thing rises that falls: wherefore resurrection regards the body, which after death falls, rather than the soul, which after death lives. And consequently if it be not the same body that the soul resumes, it will not be a resurrection, but rather the assuming of a new body.9
The risen body should be the same in which man served God with good works, or the devil with sins, so that it can also share in the reward or punishment of these deeds.10
Christian humanism emphasizes integral human fulfillment in Jesus. But fulfillment in Jesus is more than fulfillment in divine life. Since Jesus is not only God but man, and now man with a glorified, resurrected body; union with him also means fulfillment in human life and in human goods, including bodily resurrection life. As this authentic humanism emerges, Christian life comes to be seen more clearly as communal life. So, for instance, Pius XI, stressing the restoration of all things to God in Jesus, established the feast of Christ the King; the implication is that Christians are fellow citizens of his kingdom, which is already present (though imperfectly so) on earth. Similarly, the Church comes to be seen not simply as an institution providing spiritual services, but as the community of Christian faith and apostolic life. Pius XII presents it as the Mystical Body of Christ, Vatican II as the People of God. These are communal, corporate concepts; the Church is one bread, one body, one people.11
After the resurrection, there will no longer be any change. Every man will remain in his definitive state for all eternity. No further separation of body and soul is to be expected, because bodies will have been made incorruptible, and therefore, immortal. But resurrection will have a different meaning for the just and for the sinners: The former will be glorified and the latter will be condemned.
36. Qualities of the Resurrected Bodies
Divine revelation emphasizes that the resurrection—the transformation of the entire man—is the ultimate object of Christian hope. Our hope does not look forward to the eternal life of the soul alone, but to the eternal life of the whole human person, body and soul. There is an eternal life of salvation, as a participation of the entire man in the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And there is also an eternal life of damnation, in which the separation from God, which is effected by sin, will become eternal. This separation will also affect the bodies of the damned.
The resurrection implies a radical transformation of the condition of the body, far beyond the present mode of life. St. Paul mentions some qualities of the risen bodies.
· Incorruptibility means that the just will not suffer or die again. They will be impassible. The Book of Revelation says, “And death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rv 21:4). This quality is called impassibility, and is described as an “endowment or gift … that shall place them beyond the reach of suffering anything disagreeable or of being affected by pain or inconvenience of any sort. Neither the piercing severity of cold, nor the glowing intensity of heat, nor the impetuosity of waters can hurt them. ‘It is sown,’ says the Apostle, ‘in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption.’ This quality the Scholastics call impassibility, not incorruption, in order to distinguish it as a property peculiar to a glorified body. The bodies of the damned, though incorruptible, will not be impassible; they will be capable of experiencing heat and cold and of suffering various afflictions” (cf. 1 Cor 15:42–44).12
· Brightness or clarity is another property of the resurrected bodies. The bodies of the saints will share in the brightness of the glorious body of our Lord.
The bodies of the Saints shall shine like the sun, according to the words of our Lord recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “The just shall shine as the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43).
This brightness is a sort of radiance reflected on the body from the supreme happiness of the soul. It is a participation in that bliss which the soul enjoys, just as the soul itself is rendered happy by a participation in the happiness of God.
Unlike the gift of impassibility, this quality is not common to all in the same degree. All the bodies of the Saints will be equally impassible; but the brightness of all will not be the same, for, according the Apostle, “One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:41–42).13
· Power, strength, or agility is the third quality of the risen body. In this life, frailty and heaviness nag the body as a consequence of original sin. By virtue of its agility, “the body will be freed from the heaviness that now presses it down; and will take on a capability of moving with the utmost ease and swiftness, wherever the soul pleases.”14
· Spirituality or subtlety is the fourth quality of the risen body. St. Paul uses the term spiritual body. This quality “subjects the body to the dominion of the soul, so that the body shall be subject to the soul and ever ready to follow her desires (cf. 1 Cor 15:44).”15 The soul, in turn, is perfectly subject and docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.
It should be noted that the Pauline teaching on the qualities of the glorious body does not contradict the Magisterium’s doctrine of the identity between the resurrected and the mortal body. St. Paul himself affirms this identity, despite the differences between the two situations of the same body (cf. 1 Cor 15:35–44, 53–54).
Theologians do not agree as to the manner of this identity. Some think that it requires the presence of the same matter constituting the body at some stage of its life. Others believe that a formal identity is enough, since the body, regardless of its matter, will be the same body as long as it is informed by the same soul.
Nevertheless, the first opinion seems to be more in agreement with the Magisterium, which has repeatedly affirmed that the soul will return to its own body, or to its own flesh.
For the damned, the resurrection will not be an effect of grace, but a consequence of the personal unity of man. It is only just that the bodies that had been party in the commission of sin share in the punishment of their souls.
Sacred Tradition is not very explicit on the condition of the bodies of the damned. The only affirmation we can find is that, for the reprobates, resurrection will mean the raising of their bodies for eternal damnation, with all its consequences.
St. Thomas thinks that the bodies of the damned will probably rise without any deformity, but still with the defects that are proper to the material state. Besides, they will be incorruptible, since, being destined to hell for all eternity, they will have to endure forever the torment of fire without being consumed.16
Finally, St. Thomas also emphasizes the passible character of the bodies of the damned. They are destined to eternal torments, and if they were impassible, they would be invulnerable to pain (cf. Mt 25:46).17
Footnotes:
1. Cf. CCC, 988–1004, 1038.
2. DS 41.
3. Cf. DS 72; CCC, 998, 1001, 1038.
4. Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Recentiores Episcoporum Synodi.
5. Cf. ST, Suppl., q. 75, a. 1.
6. Cf. Ibid., q. 75, a. 1; St. Thomas Aquinas, In IV Sent. d. 43, q. 1, a. 1, sol. 1 ad 3.
7. DS 72; cf. DS 540, 797.
8. Cf. DS 76, 801, 859; Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 29.
9. ST, Suppl., q. 79, a. 1; cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles 4.80–81; Comp. Theol. 53.
10. Cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1.11.8.
11. G. Grisez and R. Shaw, Fulfillment in Christ, 396.
12. Cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1.11.13.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Cf. Ibid.
16. Cf. ST, Suppl., q. 86, a. 1.
17. Cf. Ibid., q. 86, a. 3.
When Christ comes to judge humans in all his power and majesty, their bodies will rise. Each man will recover his own body, and will remain in this situation for all eternity. What we said before about the immortality of the soul is especially relevant here: Only the bodies resurrect, joining their respective souls, which subsisted separately after death.1
Many passages of Sacred Scripture affirm the truth of the resurrection. References are more frequent in the New Testament, but the Old Testament is also quite explicit (cf. Is 26:19; Dn 12:2; Mt 24:31; Lk 14:14; Jn 5:29; 1 Cor 15:32; Rom 8:18–25; 1 Thes 4:13–17; Heb 6:2; Rv 20:12). We profess this truth in the Creed: “We believe in the resurrection of the body.”2 It is similarly expressed in all the symbols and in countless declarations of the solemn Magisterium of the Church. The Christian dogma affirms that the dead will resurrect, that is, that they will assume again the same bodies from which they were parted at death.3
33. The Resurrection of the Body
Sacred Tradition has always used the expression resurrection of the body, while resurrection of the dead is seldom found. There are very specific reasons for this. When a person dies, it is the whole subject that suffers death—the separation of body and soul. The body, deprived of its vital principle, decays. The soul, being spiritual, subsists. When resurrection is understood as applying to the whole subject, it means that the soul recovers its body, informing it again. Scripture, however, understands resurrection in the sense of restoration of the body: The souls are supposed to rejoin their bodies, which have already decomposed and, therefore, have to be restored in some way.
Recently, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recommended that the vernacular versions of the Creed retain the expression resurrection of the body. This is in order to prevent the mistaken notion that the soul will also resurrect.4
34. The Reality of the Resurrection
This perennial teaching of the Church is founded on Sacred Scripture, which clearly speaks of the resurrection at the end of time. St. Mark says, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Mk 12:26). In the Gospel of St. John, we read: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5:28–29; cf. Mt 22:23–33; Lk 20:27–38).
Chapter 15 of the first epistle to the Corinthians is especially relevant. There, on the basis of our Lord’s resurrection, St. Paul refutes those who deny the resurrection of the dead. St. Paul clearly sees—as anyone can—that the resurrection of our Lord is an apologetic argument of the first order. St. Peter uses it in the same way for his catechesis, especially in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 2:14–36; 3:11–26; 4:5–12). St. Paul, however, goes one step farther in his epistle. He shows that the resurrection of our Lord is the true cause of our resurrection: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:20–22). In his discourse in Capernaum, our Lord said several times that he would resurrect the dead on “the last day” (Jn 6:40, 44, 54). It is obvious that his preaching had spread the faith in the resurrection, as is shown in Martha’s statement before the resurrection of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11:23–26).
Sacred Tradition unanimously affirms this truth of faith. It is clear both from the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and from Christian archaeology—cemeteries, veneration of relics, and funeral liturgy.
Theology can explain the fittingness of the resurrection of the body with metaphysical and theological reasons. First, the spiritual and immortal soul subsists after death, but it continues to be ordained to the body as its substantial form. Thus, resurrection is in some way convenient for the soul.5
Moreover, death is a result of original sin. Christ’s triumph over sin is also a victory over its consequence, death. St. Paul already advanced this argument: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:26).
There is still a third argument, which is of a moral nature: The necessity of an adequate requital. A perfect remuneration, in accordance with the wisdom of God, has to affect the whole person, body and soul. This requires the resurrection of the body.6
35. Nature of the Resurrection
Christian dogma affirms the existence of the resurrection. It also states that we will resurrect precisely with our own body, “in the same flesh in which we now live … not … in a body of air or in any different kind of body (as some have foolishly thought); but we shall rise in this very body in which we now live and are and move … in this same flesh which we have and not any other.”7
St. Paul is quite specific: “‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.… So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.… We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable” (1 Cor 15:35–37, 42–44, 51–52).
Resurrection is described as the reunion of the souls with their bodies, a point emphasized by the most recent Magisterium.8
St. Thomas deals with this doctrine in different places, but he always insists that:
We cannot call it resurrection unless the soul return to the same body, since resurrection is a second rising, and the same thing rises that falls: wherefore resurrection regards the body, which after death falls, rather than the soul, which after death lives. And consequently if it be not the same body that the soul resumes, it will not be a resurrection, but rather the assuming of a new body.9
The risen body should be the same in which man served God with good works, or the devil with sins, so that it can also share in the reward or punishment of these deeds.10
Christian humanism emphasizes integral human fulfillment in Jesus. But fulfillment in Jesus is more than fulfillment in divine life. Since Jesus is not only God but man, and now man with a glorified, resurrected body; union with him also means fulfillment in human life and in human goods, including bodily resurrection life. As this authentic humanism emerges, Christian life comes to be seen more clearly as communal life. So, for instance, Pius XI, stressing the restoration of all things to God in Jesus, established the feast of Christ the King; the implication is that Christians are fellow citizens of his kingdom, which is already present (though imperfectly so) on earth. Similarly, the Church comes to be seen not simply as an institution providing spiritual services, but as the community of Christian faith and apostolic life. Pius XII presents it as the Mystical Body of Christ, Vatican II as the People of God. These are communal, corporate concepts; the Church is one bread, one body, one people.11
After the resurrection, there will no longer be any change. Every man will remain in his definitive state for all eternity. No further separation of body and soul is to be expected, because bodies will have been made incorruptible, and therefore, immortal. But resurrection will have a different meaning for the just and for the sinners: The former will be glorified and the latter will be condemned.
36. Qualities of the Resurrected Bodies
Divine revelation emphasizes that the resurrection—the transformation of the entire man—is the ultimate object of Christian hope. Our hope does not look forward to the eternal life of the soul alone, but to the eternal life of the whole human person, body and soul. There is an eternal life of salvation, as a participation of the entire man in the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And there is also an eternal life of damnation, in which the separation from God, which is effected by sin, will become eternal. This separation will also affect the bodies of the damned.
The resurrection implies a radical transformation of the condition of the body, far beyond the present mode of life. St. Paul mentions some qualities of the risen bodies.
· Incorruptibility means that the just will not suffer or die again. They will be impassible. The Book of Revelation says, “And death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rv 21:4). This quality is called impassibility, and is described as an “endowment or gift … that shall place them beyond the reach of suffering anything disagreeable or of being affected by pain or inconvenience of any sort. Neither the piercing severity of cold, nor the glowing intensity of heat, nor the impetuosity of waters can hurt them. ‘It is sown,’ says the Apostle, ‘in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption.’ This quality the Scholastics call impassibility, not incorruption, in order to distinguish it as a property peculiar to a glorified body. The bodies of the damned, though incorruptible, will not be impassible; they will be capable of experiencing heat and cold and of suffering various afflictions” (cf. 1 Cor 15:42–44).12
· Brightness or clarity is another property of the resurrected bodies. The bodies of the saints will share in the brightness of the glorious body of our Lord.
The bodies of the Saints shall shine like the sun, according to the words of our Lord recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “The just shall shine as the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:43).
This brightness is a sort of radiance reflected on the body from the supreme happiness of the soul. It is a participation in that bliss which the soul enjoys, just as the soul itself is rendered happy by a participation in the happiness of God.
Unlike the gift of impassibility, this quality is not common to all in the same degree. All the bodies of the Saints will be equally impassible; but the brightness of all will not be the same, for, according the Apostle, “One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:41–42).13
· Power, strength, or agility is the third quality of the risen body. In this life, frailty and heaviness nag the body as a consequence of original sin. By virtue of its agility, “the body will be freed from the heaviness that now presses it down; and will take on a capability of moving with the utmost ease and swiftness, wherever the soul pleases.”14
· Spirituality or subtlety is the fourth quality of the risen body. St. Paul uses the term spiritual body. This quality “subjects the body to the dominion of the soul, so that the body shall be subject to the soul and ever ready to follow her desires (cf. 1 Cor 15:44).”15 The soul, in turn, is perfectly subject and docile to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.
It should be noted that the Pauline teaching on the qualities of the glorious body does not contradict the Magisterium’s doctrine of the identity between the resurrected and the mortal body. St. Paul himself affirms this identity, despite the differences between the two situations of the same body (cf. 1 Cor 15:35–44, 53–54).
Theologians do not agree as to the manner of this identity. Some think that it requires the presence of the same matter constituting the body at some stage of its life. Others believe that a formal identity is enough, since the body, regardless of its matter, will be the same body as long as it is informed by the same soul.
Nevertheless, the first opinion seems to be more in agreement with the Magisterium, which has repeatedly affirmed that the soul will return to its own body, or to its own flesh.
For the damned, the resurrection will not be an effect of grace, but a consequence of the personal unity of man. It is only just that the bodies that had been party in the commission of sin share in the punishment of their souls.
Sacred Tradition is not very explicit on the condition of the bodies of the damned. The only affirmation we can find is that, for the reprobates, resurrection will mean the raising of their bodies for eternal damnation, with all its consequences.
St. Thomas thinks that the bodies of the damned will probably rise without any deformity, but still with the defects that are proper to the material state. Besides, they will be incorruptible, since, being destined to hell for all eternity, they will have to endure forever the torment of fire without being consumed.16
Finally, St. Thomas also emphasizes the passible character of the bodies of the damned. They are destined to eternal torments, and if they were impassible, they would be invulnerable to pain (cf. Mt 25:46).17
Footnotes:
1. Cf. CCC, 988–1004, 1038.
2. DS 41.
3. Cf. DS 72; CCC, 998, 1001, 1038.
4. Cf. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter Recentiores Episcoporum Synodi.
5. Cf. ST, Suppl., q. 75, a. 1.
6. Cf. Ibid., q. 75, a. 1; St. Thomas Aquinas, In IV Sent. d. 43, q. 1, a. 1, sol. 1 ad 3.
7. DS 72; cf. DS 540, 797.
8. Cf. DS 76, 801, 859; Paul VI, Creed of the People of God, 29.
9. ST, Suppl., q. 79, a. 1; cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles 4.80–81; Comp. Theol. 53.
10. Cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1.11.8.
11. G. Grisez and R. Shaw, Fulfillment in Christ, 396.
12. Cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1.11.13.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Cf. Ibid.
16. Cf. ST, Suppl., q. 86, a. 1.
17. Cf. Ibid., q. 86, a. 3.