Catholic Apologetics Online

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Resurrection of the body

977. Christians say, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." What does that mean?

It means that eventually, when God wills it, all human bodies will come forth from the graves, being re-formed, and occupied once more by the souls which previously animated them. Thus in John V., 28, Jesus says, "The hour cometh wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of God. And they that have done good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." This general resurrection will take place at the end of the world when Christ comes to judge mankind.

978. By the resurrection, do you mean that a person will come out alive with a new body from the grave in which his dead body was placed?

Not all dead bodies have been placed in graves. Some have been buried at sea; others have been cremated. By the resurrection I mean that the bodies of the dead will be restored, in whatever way they were disposed of. They will be not so much new bodies, as renewed bodies, endowed with spiritualizing characteristics unknown to them in this life. As St. Paul says, "It is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual body .... Behold I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again; we shall be changed, yet not wholly changed. This mortal must put on immortality." When you ask whether I believe this, I say yes. For God has revealed that it will occur. And no difficulty presents itself. The God who can create, can certainly restore. And it is no more remarkable that man should be restored, body and soul, to a renewed existence than that he should have come in the first place from complete non-existence. If we are going to talk of the incredible, it is more incredible that your body should exist now whereas once it did not exist, than that it should re-exist after having existed as a matter of fact. The question, "Can it be?" does not really arise. The one question is, "Will it be?" And God says that it will be. I am certainly prepared to accept God's word for it.

979. As the atoms composing the human body constantly change, how can a soul attain the particular body it had on earth?

As my soul animates this body of mine, so the very idea of resurrection demands that the same soul will re-animate this body once more. Now it is true, as you say, that when a man dies the atoms and chemical elements composing his body are dissipated, and re-combined in new vegetable and animal forms. However, my repossession of my earthly material body does not demand that it resumes the whole of the same identical matter which it employed during the whole course of its earthly life. If the resurrection did demand this, it would be impossible. What is necessary is that something of the matter possessed by my body at some time during life be reassembled. After all, I have spoken consistently of my body for over forty years. The increase of the quantity of matter as I grew from boyhood to manhood in no way affected identity. Through all biological variations of matter I have ever retained my identical body. And in the resurrection I shall have that identical body in at least the same sense as that in which I have retained it during the constant biological and chemical changes of life in this world. Let us not forget, concerning the resurrection of the body, that it is in the order of supernatural mysteries even as the intimate life of God which is faintly indicated to us by the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The resurrection, therefore, involves much above the powers of natural human reason, though it in no way violates reason. Any apparent conflict with reason will be due to extravagant claims in no way derived from the actual texts of Scripture.

980. How is a resurrection possible when bodies have been cremated and their ashes scattered to the wind? And what of those that have been eaten by wild animals?

The possibility of the resurrection of the body is no more staggering than the possibility of its coming into being in the first place. Is it easier to get being, or to get it back? Custom makes the first seem easy; lack of present experience makes the other seem impossible. The objection from cremation, or the devouring of human bodies by animals is too superficial to merit much discussion. The matter necessary for the reconstitution of the body in an eternal life need not be wholly identical with the atoms of matter constantly changing in us now. In any case, no one knows just what matter is. Scientists, if anything, are tending to dematerialize it. One thing is certain. We can safely leave the management of all this to God.

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Resurrection of the body

977. Christians say, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." What does that mean?

978. By the resurrection, do you mean that a person will come out alive with a new body from the grave in which his dead body was placed?

979. As the atoms composing the human body constantly change, how can a soul attain the particular body it had on earth?

980. How is a resurrection possible when bodies have been cremated and their ashes scattered to the wind? And what of those that have been eaten by wild animals?

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