We shall rise like Christ, with him, and through him.
YOUCAT Catechism +
Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 154
Ave Maria series
154 What happens to us when
we die?
In death body and soul are separated. The body decays, while the soul goes to meet
God and waits to be reunited with its risen body on the Last Day. [992-1004,
1016-1018]
A tulip farm. ….Wikipedia photo…..154
How the resurrection will take place is a mystery. An image can help us to accept it: When we look at a tulip bulb we cannot tell into what a marvelously beautiful flower it will develop in the dark earth. Similarly, we know nothing about the future appearance of our new body. Paul is nevertheless certain: “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory” (1 Corinthians 15:43a)
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, perhaps of wheat or of some other
grain. 1 Corinthians
15:35-37
[992-1004, 1016-1018]
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AND OURS
992 God revealed the resurrection of the dead to his people
progressively. Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself
as a consequence intrinsic to faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul
and body. The creator of heaven and earth is also the one who faithfully
maintains his covenant with Abraham and his posterity. It was in this double
perspective that faith in the resurrection came to be expressed. In their
trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed: –Catechism
of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
The King of the universe
will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for
his laws.( 2 Maccabees 7:9)540 One cannot but
choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of
being raised again by him.( 2 Maccabees 7:14;
compare 2 Macc 7:29; Daniel 12:1-13)541 –CCC
993 The Pharisees and many of
the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly.
To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, "Is not this why you are wrong,
that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?"(Mark 12:24;
compare John 11:24; Acts of the Apostles 23:6)542 Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in
God who "is not God of the dead, but of the living."(Mark 12:27)543 –CCC
994 But there is more. Jesus
links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection
and the life."(John 11:25)544 It is Jesus himself who on the last day will
raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his
blood.(compare John 5:24-25; Jn 6:40,Jn 6:54)545 Already now in this present life he gives a
sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life,(compare Mark 5:21-42; Luke 7:11-17; John 11)546 announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of
another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah,"(Matthew 12:39)547 the sign of the temple:
he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.(compare Mark 10:34; John 2:19-22)548 –CCC
995 To be a witness to Christ
is to be a "witness to his Resurrection," to "[have eaten and
drunk] with him after he rose from the dead."(Acts of the Apostles 1:22; Acts 10:41;
compare Acts 4:33)549 Encounters with the risen Christ characterize
the Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ, with him, and
through him.—CCC
996 From the beginning,
Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and
opposition.(compare Acts of the Apostles 17:32; 1 Corinthians 15:12-13)550 "On no point does the Christian faith encounter more
opposition than on the resurrection of the body."(St.
Augustine, En. in Psalm 88,5:Patrologia
Latina 37,1134)551 It is very commonly
accepted that the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion
after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could
rise to everlasting life?—CCC
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
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
Risen with Christ
1002 Christ will raise us up "on the last day"; but it is
also true that, in a certain way, we have already risen with Christ. For, by
virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian life is already now on earth a
participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ: –CCC
And you were buried with
him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the
working of God, who raised him from the dead . . . . If then you have
been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 2:12; Col 3:1)559 --CCC
1003 United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly
participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains
"hidden with Christ in God."( Colossians 3:3;
compare Philippians 3:20)560 The Father has already "raised us up with
him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."(
Ephesians 2:6)561 Nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we
already belong to the Body of Christ. When we rise on the last day we
"also will appear with him in glory."( Colossians 3:4)562 --CCC
1004 In expectation of that day, the believer's body and soul already
participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the
demand that he should treat with respect his own body, but also the body of
every other person, especially the suffering: –CCC
The body [is meant] for
the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also
raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of
Christ? . . . . You are not your own; . . . . So glorify
God in your body.( 1 Corinthians 6:13-15,19-20)563 --CCC
IN BRIEF
1016 By death the soul is
separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible
life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen
and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day.—CCC
1017 "We believe in
the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess" (Council of Lyons II:
Denzinger-Schönmetzer 854). We sow a corruptible body in the tomb, but he raises
up an incorruptible body, a "spiritual body" (compare 1 Corinthians 15:42-44).--CCC
1018 As a consequence of
original sin, man must suffer "bodily death, from which man would have
been immune had he not sinned" (Gaudium et spes § 18).—CCC
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