153. Our resurrection, like Jesus’ own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity.

Our resurrection, like Jesus’ own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 153

Ave Maria series

153  Why do we believe in the resurrection of the “body”?

In Jesus Christ, God himself took on “flesh” (incarnation) in order to redeem mankind.  The biblical word “flesh” characterizes man in his weakness and mortality.  Nevertheless, God does not regard human flesh as something inferior.  God does not redeem man’s spirit only; he redeems him entirely, body and soul.  [988-991, 997-1001, 1015]

Resurrection of the Flesh (c. 1500) by Luca Signorelli - based on 1 Corinthians 15: 52: "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto. …153

God created us with a body (flesh) and a soul.  At the end of the world he does not drop the “flesh” like an old toy.  On the “Last Day” he will remake all creation and raise us up in the flesh—this means that we will be transformed but still experience ourselves in our element.  For Jesus, too, being in the flesh was not just a phase.  When the risen Lord showed himself, the disciples saw the wounds on his body.

And the Word (of God) became flesh and dwelt among us.  John 1:14a

Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.  Romans 8:21

[988-991, 997-1001, 1015]

"I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY"

988 The Christian Creed - the profession of our faith in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in God's creative, saving, and sanctifying action - culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead on the last day and in life everlasting. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

989 We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day.(compare John 6:39-40)⁵³⁴ Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity: –CCC

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.(Romans 8:11; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Philippians 3:10-11)⁵³⁵  –CCC

990 The term "flesh" refers to man in his state of weakness and mortality. (compare Genesis 6:3; Psalm 56:5; Isaiah 40:6)⁵³⁶  The "resurrection of the flesh" (the literal formulation of the Apostles' Creed) means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our "mortal body" will come to life again.(Romans 8:11)⁵³⁷ –CCC

991 Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. "The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead; believing this we live."(Tertullian, De res. 1,1:Patrologia Latina 2,841)⁵³⁸ –CCC

How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. . . . But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.(1 Corinthians 15:12-14)⁵³⁹ --CCC

How do the dead rise?

997 What is "rising"? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus' Resurrection. --CCC

998 Who will rise? All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."( John 5:29; compare Daniel 12:2)⁵⁵² –CCC

999 How? Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself";(Luke 24:39)⁵⁵³  but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, "all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body"(Lateran Council IV (1215): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 801; Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:44)⁵⁵⁴  –CCC

But someone will ask, "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. . . . What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. . . . The dead will be raised imperishable. . . . For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.( 1 Corinthians 15:35-37,42,52,53)⁵⁵⁵ --CCC

1000 This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies: --CCC

Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection. (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,18,4-5:Patrologia Graeca 7/1,1028-1029)⁵⁵⁶ –CCC

1001 When? Definitively "at the last day," "at the end of the world."( John 6: 39-40,44,54; 11:24; Lumen gentium 48 § 3)⁵⁵⁷ Indeed, the resurrection of the dead is closely associated with Christ's Parousia: --CCC

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.( 1 Thessalonians 4:16)⁵⁵⁸ --CCC

IN BRIEF

1015 "The flesh is the hinge of salvation" (Tertullian, De res. 8, 2:Patrologia Latina 2, 852). We believe in God who is creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh. –CCC

Resurrection of the flesh