The Resurrection of Our Bodies
by Christopher West
During this
Easter season it is fitting to reflect on the resurrection not
just of Jesus’ body, but of our own bodies at the end of time.
Many people have an erroneous “super-spiritual” view of eternal
life. Such people tend to see the body as a shell that they’re
anxious to get rid of, as if death were the moment in which our
souls were finally “liberated” from the “prison” of our bodies.
This was Plato’s idea, but it is not the Christian view of
things. In fact, the idea that the body is a prison or merely a
shell is based in heresy. Christians conclude their Creed with
the bold proclamation: “I believe in the resurrection of the
body and life everlasting. Amen.” The Catechism observes, “‘On
no point does the Christian faith meet with more opposition than
on the resurrection of the body.’ 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” (n. 996)? What a
mystery! In Christ “the mortal puts on immortality” (1 Co
15:54).
We often speak of the “souls” in heaven. When we buried my
grandmother, I saw her body go in the ground and I’m confident
that her soul is now enjoying some form of union with God. But
the souls currently in heaven (“currently,” of course, is a
time-bound word which doesn’t even apply to heaven) remain in an
“inhuman” state until the resurrection of their bodies. It can’t
be any other way for us as human beings. Since God created us as
a union of body and soul, the separation of the two at death is
entirely “unnatural.” Indeed, it’s a cosmic tragedy.
Our bodies will certainly be different in their resurrected
state. Recall that the disciples didn’t readily recognize Jesus
after the resurrection (see Lk 24:15-16). But at the end of
time, we will certainly have our bodies, as does Jesus. When he
appeared after his resurrection in the upper room, he said, “See
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see;
for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I
have” (Lk 24:39). And then, just to hammer the point home, he
ate some fish in their presence (see Lk 24:41-43).
The difference is that in the resurrection our bodies will be
perfectly “spiritualized” (see 1 Co 15:44). This means that our
bodies will be permeated entirely by the power of the spirit.
And because the “spirit” that will permeate our bodies is not
only our own human spirits, but the divine Holy Spirit, our
bodies will also be “divinized.” In a way totally inaccessible
to us now, we will participate, body and soul, “in the divine
nature” (2 Pt 1:4).
What is this “divine nature”? As the Catechism teaches, “God has
revealed his innermost secret. God himself is an eternal
exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has
destined us to share in that exchange” (n. 221). This is what we
mean by the “spiritualization” and “divinization” of the body.
To the degree that creatures can, we will share – body and soul
– in God’s eternal exchange of love. And this “great mystery” is
prefigured right from the beginning in our bodies as male and
female and the call of the two to participate here on earth in
an “exchange of love”: the two become “one flesh” (Gen 2:24).
So, many ask, will there be sex in heaven? It depends what we
mean by the term. Sex is not first what people do. It’s who
people are as male or female. Pope John Paul II insisted many
times in his reflections on the resurrection that we will be
raised as male and female. So, in this sense, yes, there will be
sex in heaven: we will be male and female. But Christ points us
to an entirely new dimension of human sexuality and our call to
union when he says that “in the resurrection they neither marry
nor are given in marriage” (Mt 22:30).
Marriage and the “one flesh” union exist from the beginning to
point us to the “marriage of the Lamb” (Rev 19:7), to the union
of Christ and the Church (see Eph 5:31-32). In the resurrection,
the sacrament will give way to the divine reality. In other
words, if God created the union of the sexes as a foreshadowing
of heaven, Christ is saying, “You no longer need a foreshadowing
to point you to heaven when you’re in heaven. You’re there. The
ultimate union has come.”
And this is the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: “Come, Lord
Jesus, come!” And the Lord responds, “Surely, I am coming soon”
(Rev 22:17-20). Let us pray that we are ready
Republished
with permission from:
http://www.christopherwest.com
original article:
http://www.theologyofthebody.com/04-28-06.asp
