Published in the bulletin of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, TN, on the 6th Sunday of Easter.
My dear Parishioners,
Peace! The eleventh article of the Apostle’s Creed is “I believe in the resurrection of the body.” There are five (5) In Brief passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding this article of the Creed. The following is a reflection on article 1017.
Our saving faith in Jesus Christ includes our faith in our own true resurrection on the last day. We believe that Jesus Christ truly rose on the first Easter Sunday. We look forward to our own true resurrection at the end of time.
During His earthly ministry Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead (cf. John 11:1–45). This is better called a ‘resuscitation’ than a resurrection, insofar as following the resurrection of the dead one dies no more. The Greek words anistemi/anastasis/anistemi mean literally to stand up, arise, lift up, raise up (again). We believe in the Author of the resurrection, the risen Lord Jesus as well as in the moral sense recovering of spiritual grace and truth. But our faith in the resurrection of the body is corporeal.
We believe that this body that we now possess will rise on the last day, reunited with our soul. While the soul immediately faces the particular judgment and goes forth accordingly our body with which we are called to glorify God (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:20) will rejoin the soul on the day of the general judgment.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP, Priest and Doctor of the Church, provides ample reflection on the resurrection of the body in the Supplement to the Summa Theologiae (Q. 69–99). In our risen life we will maintain our identity (cf. Job 19:26–27) and be restored to bodily integrity in conformity with all that is proper to our true human nature (cf. Luke 21:18). Because the Lord Jesus teaches that ‘in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married’ (Matthew 22:30) St. Thomas understands only those powers proper to human beings specifically will be present in our risen bodies, but not those with which we share with the animal kingdom at large, such as generative and nutritive powers, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, begetting and the like. Among the qualities of our risen bodies, St. Thomas highlights four (4) for the saints, namely: Impassibilty (inability to suffer); Subtlety (which is to say at once spiritual and exalted and entirely subject to the soul); Agility (able to move about with grace and at will); and Clarity (whereby the glory of the soul is made known through the body) (cf. Matthew 13:34; 1 Corinthians 15:43; Job 28:17).
While St. Thomas Aquinas died en route to the Ecumenical Council of Lyon II (AD 1274), his teachings nevertheless are found enshrined there. Our faith and belief in the resurrection of the body is summed up so well by Saint Paul inspired by God: What is sown in the tomb is a corruptible body; what rises is an incorruptible body, a spiritual body (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:42–44).
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr