1. "At the resurrection they
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in
heaven" (Mt 22:30; cf. Mk 12:25). "They are equal to angels and
are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection" (Lk 20:36).
Let us try to understand these words of Christ about the future
resurrection in order to draw a conclusion with regard to the
spiritualization of man, different from that of earthly life. We
could speak here also of a perfect system of forces in mutual
relations between what is spiritual in man and what is physical.
As a result of original sin, historical man experiences a
multiple imperfection in this system of forces, which is
expressed in St. Paul's well-known words: "I see in my members
another law at war with the law of my mind" (Rom 7:23).
Eschatological man will be free from that opposition. In the
resurrection the body will return to perfect unity and harmony
with the spirit. Man will no longer experience the opposition
between what is spiritual and what is physical in him.
Spiritualization means not only that the spirit will dominate
the body, but, I would say, that it will fully permeate the
body, and that the forces of the spirit will permeate the
energies of the body.
Perfect realization in life to come
2. In earthly life, the dominion of the spirit over the body—and
the simultaneous subordination of the body to the spirit—can, as
the result of persevering work on themselves, express a
personality that is spiritually mature. However, the fact that
the energies of the spirit succeed in dominating the forces of
the body does not remove the possibility of their mutual
opposition. The spiritualization to which the synoptic Gospels
refer in the texts analyzed here (cf. Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25; Lk
20:34-35), already lies beyond this possibility. It is therefore
a perfect spiritualization, in which the possibility that
"another law is at war with the law of...the mind" (cf. Rom
7:23) is completely eliminated. This state which—as is
evident—is differentiated essentially (and not only with regard
to degree) from what we experience in earthly life, does not
signify any disincarnation of the body nor, consequently, a
dehumanization of man. On the contrary, it signifies his perfect
realization. In fact, in the composite, psychosomatic being
which man is, perfection cannot consist in a mutual opposition
of spirit and body. But it consists in a deep harmony between
them, in safeguarding the primacy of the spirit. In the "other
world," this primacy will be realized and will be manifested in
a perfect spontaneity, without any opposition on the part of the
body. However, that must not be understood as a definitive
victory of the spirit over the body. The resurrection will
consist in the perfect participation of all that is physical in
man in what is spiritual in him. At the same time it will
consist in the perfect realization of what is personal in man.
A new spiritualization
3. The words of the synoptic Gospels testify that the state of
man in the other world will not only be a state of perfect
spiritualization, but also of fundamental divinization of his
humanity. The "sons of the resurrection"—as we read in Luke
20:36—are not only equal to angels, but are also sons of God.
The conclusion can be drawn that the degree of spiritualization
characteristic of eschatological man will have its source in the
degree of his divinization, incomparably superior to the one
that can be attained in earthly life. It must be added that here
it is a question not only of a different degree, but in a way,
of another kind of divinization. Participation in divine nature,
participation in the interior life of God himself, penetration
and permeation of what is essentially human by what is
essentially divine, will then reach its peak, so that the life
of the human spirit will arrive at such fullness which
previously had been absolutely inaccessible to it. This new
spiritualization will therefore be the fruit of grace, that is,
of the communication of God in his very divinity, not only to
man's soul, but to his whole psychosomatic subjectivity. We
speak here of subjectivity (and not only of "nature"), because
that divinization is to be understood not only as an interior
state of man (that is, of the subject) capable of seeing God
face to face, but also as a new formation of the whole personal
subjectivity of man in accordance with union with God in his
Trinitarian mystery and of intimacy with him in the perfect
communion of persons. This intimacy—with all its subjective
intensity—will not absorb man's personal subjectivity, but
rather will make it stand out to an incomparably greater and
fuller extent.
United with the vision of God
4. Divinization in the other world, as indicated by Christ's
words, will bring the human spirit such a range of experience of
truth and love such as man would never have been able to attain
in earthly life. When Christ speaks of the resurrection, he
proves at the same time that the human body will also take part,
in its way, in this eschatological experience of truth and love,
united with the vision of God face to face. When Christ says
that those who take part in the future resurrection "neither
marry nor are given in marriage" (Mk 12:25), his words—as has
already been pointed out—affirm not only the end of earthly
history, bound up with marriage and procreation, but also seem
to reveal the new meaning of the body. Is it possible, in this
case, at the level of biblical eschatology, to think of the
discovery of the nuptial meaning of the body, above all as the
virginal meaning of being male and female, as regards the body?
To answer this question, which emerges from the words reported
by the synoptic Gospels, we should penetrate more deeply into
the essence of what will be the beatific vision of the divine
Being, a vision of God face to face in the future life. It is
also necessary to let oneself be guided by that range of
experience of truth and love which goes beyond the limits of the
cognitive and spiritual possibilities of man in temporality, and
in which he will become a participant in the other world.
In the dimension of the "other world"
5. This eschatological experience of the living God will not
only concentrate in itself all man's spiritual energies, but, at
the same time, it will reveal to him, in a deep and experiential
way, the self-communication of God to the whole of creation and,
in particular, to man. This is the most personal self-giving by
God, in his very divinity, to man: to that being who, from the
beginning, bears within himself the image and likeness of God.
In this way, in the other world the object of the vision will be
that mystery hidden in the Father from eternity, a mystery which
in time was revealed in Christ, in order to be accomplished
incessantly through the Holy Spirit. That mystery will become,
if we may use the expression, the content of the eschatological
experience and the form of the entire human existence in the
dimension of the other world. Eternal life must be understood in
the eschatological sense, that is, as the full and perfect
experience of that grace (charis) of God, in which man becomes a
participant through faith during earthly life, and which, on the
contrary, will not only have to reveal itself in all its
penetrating depth to those who take part in the other world, but
also will have to be experienced in its beatifying reality.
We suspend here our reflection centered on Christ's words about
the future resurrection of the body. In this spiritualization
and divinization in which man will participate in the
resurrection, we discover—in an eschatological dimension—the
same characteristics that qualified the nuptial meaning of the
body. We discover them in the meeting with the mystery of the
living God, which is revealed through the vision of him face to
face.
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 14
December 1981, page 3
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