The Resurrection of Our Bodies

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).