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The Resurrection of the Body

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The Resurrection of the Body

While our children were playing together, my wife and I glanced at each other with a smile in our eyes, expressing with one look our joy in the fabulous, joyful individuals we had brought into the world. Without the love we showered on each other, the children would not exist. We had created wonderful new human beings, who now experienced the wonders of life on their own. Without us, these stimulating vibrant individuals would not be enjoying and enhancing the world.

Similarly, just as our children were totally depended on the love between my wife and me for their existence, so also all Christians are depended on Christ’s love for them; a love exhibited during his life and death on earth and on his Resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is the basis for belief in man’s own resurrection. As been said many times by many different people, “The Christian faith stands or falls with the truth of the testimony that Christ is risen from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation for the Christian belief in the resurrection of Christian bodies. All Christians are emphatically tied to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As demonstrated in his twelve appearances after his resurrection, Jesus possessed a new, transformed body, unencumbered by time or space; a body type man will assume when man enters heaven, signifying a new relationship between God and man….a heavenly minded relationship.

Man was created by God with both a body and a soul, any resurrection of the body must include both the body and the soul in order to return man to the original state in which God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, prior to their Original Sin. The undivided unity of man – body and soul- is a fundamental statement of the fate of man. The salvation of man is viewed as possessing both the body and soul – unseparated man. The Resurrection of dead as expressed in the Apostles’ Creed speaks of the one creation “man’; the person. It is the Christ, as lover of all mankind, whose own resurrection sets the example for man’s resurrection. “All love wants eternity; and God’s love not only wants it but effects it and is it.” (Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, pg.350)  The beginning of the resurrected life actually begins when we form a relationship with Christ on earth; a relationship that outlasts death. There is continuity with Christ from an earthly life through death and into heaven.

The issue confronting man is man’s willingness to form a loving, lasting relationship with Jesus Christ. Will man choose Jesus and the gift of an everlasting, loving life or will he choose only himself and face an eternal existence of sorrow and rejection?  This is the fundamental decision facing each person. Choose well!

The subject of the Resurrection of Jesus is so critical to Christian beliefs that it is demands some review and study. There are numerous books and articles which discuss both the Resurrection of Jesus and man’s resurrection. Listed below is a small sample of these writings.

“The life of Christ” by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Kindle edition, Chapter 62

“Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Kindle edition, Chapter 8. The chapter examines in some detail the arguments for and against the Resurrection of Jesus and man’s resurrection.

“Jesus of Nazareth, From the Entrance to Jerusalem to the Resurrection”, by Pope Benedict XVI, published by Ignatius Press, Chapter Nine.

“Credo”, by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, published by Ignatius Press, Chapter XI.

“Introduction to Christianity”, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, published by Ignatius Press, Part Two, Section C, part 3.

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Part One, Article Eleven, “I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body”  

The Holy Catholic Church

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The Holy Catholic Church

The soccer scouts were admiring the many talents of the young player; one who every scout knew had the potential to be a star in the professional leagues. He possessed advanced skills in dribbling the ball, he could shoot accurately with either foot; in essence, he possessed every skill required of a highly rated player. All but one that is; he was not adroit at passing the ball. Similarly, a business man, who possessed every attribute needed to lead a major company but one, is admired and thought capable of being a leader, is indeed promoted to an important leadership position. All humans, no matter their extensive capabilities, have flaws or limitations, but these flaws and limitations do not prevent them from realizing their true destinies.

A Catholic professes, “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.” Yet Catholics recognize that the Church consists of flawed, sinful human beings. Then how can a catholic profess a belief in the “Holy Catholic Church”? The reason for this belief is simple and true. The Catholic Church is Holy because its founder, Jesus Christ, is holy; its holiness is sustained by the presence and protection of the Holy Spirit. John Hardon in his book, “The Catholic Catechism” commented, “Needless to say, the Church is holy by reason of her founder, Christ the Lord, and we should expect what he established to be holy too. Yet immediately we must recall that he was holy because he was God, whereas the Church can be holy only because of her relationship or attachment to God. Her sanctity derives from him, or leads to him, or is the effect of his divine presence in those who possess him.” (John Hardon, Catholic Catechism, Kindle location 4067-407).

Clearly, all of the members of the Church are not holy; all, including the clergy and the laity are sinners. They are seeking to attain holiness through following the actions and words of Christ in His Church and through the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit. These operations are seen in baptism, penance, and Eucharist, which are the true mode of existence and content of the Church. Joseph Ratzinger in his book, “Introduction to Christianity”, noted “the word holy does not apply in the first place to the holiness to human persons but refers to the divine gift that bestows holiness in the midst of human unholiness.” In spite of human sinfulness, God confers holiness and the power of sanctification through His Church.  Jesus Christ confers holiness on his Church and through the Church on all those who are willing to cooperate with it. “It is the holiness as the holiness of Christ from the midst of the Church’s sinfulness.”

The term Catholic refers to the universal nature of the Church; the teachings of Jesus are to be announced and carried faithfully to the entire world, not to just individual ethnicities or groups. It is even more vital to understand that Catholic mean orthodox, that is, an adherence to the teachings of the Church as preached by the apostles and their successors. The Catholic Church is the guardian of the deposit of faith bequeath to it by Jesus Christ.

What other church has God (Jesus Christ) as its founder and guarantor of its fidelity to Him?

Suggested Readings:

“Credo” by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, published by Ignatius Press, Chapter IX

“Introduction to Christianity” by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, published by Ignatius Press, Chapter 2 of Part Three.

“The Catholic Catechism”, by John Hardon, S. J. Kindle edition, Part VII