Catholic Apologetics Online

Questions and answers on Catholicism and Protestantism

Given from the Catholic Broadcasting Station 2SM Sydney Australia

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The resurrection of the body

877. What is the sense of the doctrine that our bodies will rise from the dead? Where will be the need for a material body in heaven?

The sense and the need of the human body in heaven follow from the necessity of the survival of man. Man is not his soul only. He is a composite being, consisting of both body and soul, and must survive in his complete nature. Even though the soul attains happiness before its reunion with the body, it will be in an abnormal and unnatural state, its full powers lacking their operations. Then, too, the death of the body is a punishment of sin, and the full reparation of sin demands that the body be restored to life once more, even as Christ's own body rose from the grave.

878. A spiritual religion should not be bothered with a future for the body.

The Christian religion is at once spiritual and human. It is a spiritual religion adapted to the needs and demands of our complete nature. It is founded on the Incarnation of the spiritual God, the Eternal Son taking flesh to lift flesh to His own spiritual heights. The visible and social character of the Church, and the tangible Sacraments show the consideration for man's bodily nature which is in perfect harmony with the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

879. Will the body united to the soul on the day of the resurrection be a physical body?

It will be a physical body, but not subject to its present conditions. It will have undergone a vast change, adapting it to altogether new circumstances. St. Paul tells us that the body will be transfigured and spiritualized, and that we will no longer have an animal body living and dying by the senses.

880. Will it require food and clothing, assuming of course that one goes to heaven?

Not being subject to the conditions of this life, it will not need the nourishment necessary in a material world, nor protection against unfavorable elements. The spirit will give its own life to the body which will not need to be ever repairing a constantly failing vitality. Therefore, even for the body there will be a complete change of state, the glorified soul infusing new powers into it of which we can form no adequate idea now.

881. Bodies are subject to constant evolutions and fluctuations. It is impossible to imagine a body in an eternally fixed condition. Will it be mummified?

The body will not be in any eternally fixed condition of stagnation; nor will it be mummified. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy. I grant that the vital functions of the body will not be as we know them now. But the body will experience its own activities and pleasures, not in the Mahometan sense, but according to the new conditions of heaven. Life in this world is a perpetual struggle against decay and death. The sequence of abstinence from food and of taking food is a dying and a being reborn daily. In its immortal state our body will not be subject to evolutions and fluctuations. The spirit will give its own mode of life to the flesh, and food will not be necessary. This will not mean the destruction of our human nature. It will mean a change of state.

882. Will their resurrected bodies add to the happiness of souls already in heaven?

They will not add to the essential happiness of souls which have attained already to the beatific Vision of God. But they will mean a further extension of that happiness, and add a new secondary happiness. The possession of their essential happiness, of course, forbids our applying any notion of unhappiness to souls already in heaven.

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