Body's
Spiritualization Will Be Source of Its Power and Incorruptibility
General Audience, February 10, 1982
1. From Christ's words on the future resurrection of the body,
recorded by all three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), our
reflections have brought us to what St. Paul wrote on the subject in
the First Letter to the Corinthians (ch. 15). Our analysis is
centered above all on what might be called the anthropology of the
resurrection according to St. Paul. He contrasts the state of the
"earthly" man (i.e., historical) with the state of the risen man,
characterizing in a lapidary and at the same time penetrating
manner, the interior system of forces specific to each of these
states.
Radical transformation
2. That this interior system of forces should undergo a radical
transformation would seem to be indicated, first of all, by the
contrast between the weak body and the body full of power. Paul
writes: "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" (1 Cor 15:42-45). "Weak,"
therefore, is the description of the body which—in metaphysical
terms—rises from the temporal soil of humanity. The Pauline metaphor
corresponds likewise to the scientific terminology which defines
man's beginning as a body by the use of the same term (semen, seed).
If, in the Apostle's view, the human body which arises from earthly
seed is weak, this means not only that it is perishable, subject to
death, and to all that leads to it, but also that it is an animal
body.(1) The body full of power, however, which man will inherit
from the second Adam, Christ, in virtue of the future resurrection,
will be a spiritual body. It will be imperishable, no longer subject
to the threat of death. Thus the antinomy, weak—full of power,
refers explicitly not only to the body considered separately, but
also to the whole constitution of man considered in his corporeal
nature. Only within the framework of such a constitution can the
body become spiritual: and this spiritualization of the body will be
the source of its power and incorruptibility (or immortality).
3. This theme has its origin already in the first chapter of
Genesis. It can be said that St. Paul sees the reality of the future
resurrection as a certain restitutio in integrum, that is, as the
reintegration and at the same time as the attaining of the fullness
of humanity. It is not truly a restitution, because in that case the
resurrection would be, in a certain sense, a return to the state
which the soul enjoyed before sin, apart from the knowledge of good
and evil (cf. Gn 1-2). But such a return does not correspond to the
internal logic of the whole economy of salvation, to the most
profound meaning of the mystery of the redemption. Restitutio in
integrum, linked with the resurrection and the reality of the other
world, can only be an introduction to a new fullness. This will be a
fullness that presupposes the whole of human history, formed by the
drama of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (cf. Gn 3) and
at the same time permeated by the text of the First Letter to the
Corinthians.
Perfect harmonization
4. According to the text of First Corinthians, man, in whom
concupiscence prevails over the spiritual, that is, the "animal
body" (1 Cor 15:44), is condemned to death. He should rise, however,
as a spiritual body, man in whom the Spirit will achieve a just
supremacy over the body, spirituality over sensuality. It is easy to
understand that Paul is here thinking of sensuality as the sum total
of the factors limiting human spirituality, that is, as a force that
"ties down" the spirit (not necessarily in the Platonic sense) by
restricting its own faculty of knowing (seeing) the truth and also
the faculty to will freely and to love in truth. However, here it
cannot be a question of that fundamental function of the senses
which serves to liberate spirituality, that is to say, of the simple
faculty of knowing and willing proper to the psychosomatic
compositum of the human subject.
Just as one speaks of the resurrection of the body, that is, of man
in his true corporeal nature, consequently the spiritual body should
mean precisely the perfect sensitivity of the senses, their perfect
harmonization with the activity of the human spirit in truth and
liberty. The animal body, which is the earthly antithesis of the
spiritual body, indicates sensuality as a force prejudicial to man,
precisely because while living—"in the knowledge of good and
evil"—he is often attracted and impelled toward evil.
Influence of the Holy Spirit on man
5. It cannot be forgotten that here it is not so much a question of
anthropological dualism, but of a basic antinomy. Constituting it is
not only the body (as the Aristotelian hyle), but also the soul, or
man as a "living being" (cf. Gn 2:7). Its constituents are—on the
one hand, the whole man, the sum total of his psychosomatic
subjectivity, inasmuch as he remains under the influence of the
vivifying Spirit of Christ,—on the other hand, the same man inasmuch
as he resists and opposes this Spirit. In the second case man is an
animal body (and his works are works of the flesh). If, however, he
remains under the influence of the Holy Spirit, man is spiritual
(and produces the "fruit of the Spirit") (Gal 5:22).
6. Consequently, it can be said that we are dealing with the
anthropology of the resurrection not only in First Corinthians 15,
but that the whole of St. Paul's anthropology (and ethics) are
permeated with the mystery of the resurrection through which we have
definitively received the Holy Spirit. Chapter 15 of First
Corinthians constitutes the Pauline interpretation of the other
world and of man's state in that world. In it each one, together
with the resurrection of the body, will fully participate in the
gift of the vivifying Spirit, that is, in the fruit of Christ's
resurrection.
Christ's reply
7. Concluding the analysis of the anthropology of the resurrection
according to First Corinthians, it is fitting to turn our minds
again to Christ's words on the resurrection and on the other world
which the evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke quote. We recall that
in his reply to the Sadducees, Christ linked faith in the
resurrection with the entire revelation of the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, of Jacob and of Moses (Mt 22:32). At the same time, while
rejecting the objection proposed by those who questioned him, he
uttered these significant words: "When they rise from the dead, they
neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Mk 12:25). We devoted our
previous reflections to these words in their immediate context,
passing on then to the analysis of St. Paul's First Letter to the
Corinthians (1 Cor 15).
These reflections have a fundamental significance for the whole
theology of the body, for an understanding both of marriage and of
celibacy for the kingdom of heaven. Our further analyses will be
devoted to this latter subject.
NOTE
1. The original Greek uses the term psychikon. In St. Paul it is
found only in First Corinthians (2:14; 15:44; 15:46) and not
elsewhere, probably because of the pre-gnostic tendencies of the
Corinthians, and it has a pejorative connotation. As regards its
meaning, it corresponds to the term "carnal" (cf. 2 Cor 1:12; 10:4).
However, in the other Pauline letters, "psyche" and its derivatives
signify man in his manifestations, the individual's way of living,
and even the human person in a positive sense (e.g., to indicate the
ideal of life of the ecclesial community: miâ-i psychê-i = "in one
spirit—Phil 1:27; sympsychoi = "by being of the same mind"—Phil 2:2;
isópsychon "like him"—Phil 2:20; cf. R. Jewett, Paul's
Anthropological Terms. A Study of Their Use in Conflict Settings
[Leiden: Brill, 1971], pp. 2, 448-449).
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 15
February 1982, page 9.
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