We do Believe in the Resurrection of the Dead

By Christine J. Murray
©Catholic Online 2004

One day Joshua's sixth-grade religious education class was reviewing the articles of the Apostles' Creed. The teacher talked about the implications of each article. Joshua started showing interest when the teacher started explaining about the resurrection of the body. One would think that few of the students had ever heard the details of this basic belief of the Catholic faith, but Joshua was particularly intrigued.

He asked numerous questions about how this would work itself out. When he learned that the resurrection of our bodies would occur after Christ's Second Coming at the end of the world, he asked whether heaven would be just like earth. His teacher explained that there would be no pain and no sin in heaven, but infinite pain in hell, whose inhabitants would also receive their bodies.

Likewise, Amy was born after the Second Vatican Council ended to a family that attended Mass every week. She, like Joshua, recited the Nicene Creed during Mass every Sunday. She recited that she believed in the resurrection of the dead. However, she now says she didn't really understand about the resurrection of the body until years later, after she became more committed to her faith and started theology at the master's level at a school devoted to marriage and family studies. She thought our souls would be disembodied in heaven forever.

Many Catholics today think they know everything they need to about the faith, but upon further questioning, it's discovered they don't understand the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Most Christians say they believe in the Nicene Creed, as well they should, because this prayer contains the minimum of believe required to be one.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings," (991). Sometimes this gets lost in trying to help people get through the grief of the death of a loved one. At times, even in books that are designed to help people deal with death, the impression is given that it's all right that the person is dead - the person doesn't need their body anymore. This can be articulated by Christians, Catholic or not. But this belief is not Christian.

There are currently many disembodied souls in heaven, but two people who currently have their souls enfleshed with their bodies - Jesus and Mary. Catholics believe that Jesus ascended into heaven in bodily form and Mary was assumed into heaven, also in bodily form. And as St. Paul states in 1 Cor 15:12-14, we believe in the resurrection of the body precisely because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. "Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." This makes this question more than a mere technicality. This doctrine is central to our belief as Christians.

This belief did not begin with the Incarnation of Christ. David looked forwarded to seeing his son again after his death (cf. 2 Sam 12:23). Ezekiel 37:11-14 speaks of the dead rising up from their graves, a prophecy that is fulfilled after Jesus' Crucifixion (cf. Mt 27:52-53). So those who reach heaven can look forward to seeing their loved ones their, in flesh and in spirit.

Just as Jesus rose from the dead, we hope that as a member of the Mystical Body of Christ, we will live in heaven with the risen Lord and He will rise the bodies of each of the faithful on the last day.

____________________________

Christine J. Murray writes from Sterling Heights, Michigan.

Contact

Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org MI, US
Christine J. Murray - writer, 586 5665505

Email

cjmstmary@catholic.org

Keywords

death, resurrection, glorified bodies

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