Sect. 280The Resurrection of the BodyThe Resurrection of the Body

The Fourth Lateran Council has defined that all men, whether elect or reprobate, “will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear about with them (cum suis propriis resurgent corporibus quæ nunc gestant)” (c. Firmiter That is to say, at the Last Day the bodies of all mankind will be raised up again from the dead, and once more united to their souls, which of course have never ceased to live since their separation from the body. This doctrine of the resurrection of the body (resurrectio carnis, resurrectio mortuorum, ἀνάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν) is found expressed in numberless creeds and professions of faith from the earliest days of Christianity: e.g. in St. Irenæus (Adv. Hæres., i. 10); Tertullian (De Præscr., 13); Origen (Periarch. præf., 5); in the Apostolic Constitutions (vii. 41); in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; in the Creed of the Eleventh Council of Toledo (Denzinger, Enchir., xxvi.); in the Creed of Leo IX., subscribed by Bishop Peter—still used at the consecration of bishops; the profession of faith subscribed by Michael Palæologus in the Second Council of Lyons (Denzinger, l.c., lix.); and, finally, in the Creed of Pius IV.

I. 1. The Old Testament, as we should expect from its imperfect and preparatory character, speaks at first only vaguely, but afterwards with increasing definiteness, of the resurrection of the body. A Redeemer is to come Who will undo all the evil effects of Adam’s sin; Who will bestow upon men bodily immortality, and will restore to them the full enjoyment of the happiness lost in Paradise. “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth; and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; this hope is laid up in my bosom” (Job 19:25–27). Isaias foretells that the Lord of Hosts “shall cast death down headlong for ever” (25:8); “Thy dead men shall live, My slain shall rise again; awake and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light. And the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin [Heb., the earth shall cast forth the dead, or the shades] … the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more” (26:19–21). Ezechiel’s vision of the resurrection of the dry bones (37) refers, of course, in the first instance to the restoration of Israel; but the selection of such a figure is a proof of belief in a literal resurrection. “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach to see it always” (Dan. 12:2; cf. 12; Apoc. 6:3; Ps. 15:10). In the Second Book of Machabees, the martyr brothers comfort themselves amidst their torments with the hope and belief that those very members which they were losing for God’s sake will be again restored to them by Him. The third “quickly put forth his tongue, and courageously stretched out his hands, and said with confidence, These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them, because I hope to receive them again from Him” (7:11; cf. 9, 14). This shows the belief prevalent among the people at that time; and Martha’s words, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24), prove the same for a later period. It should be mentioned that the resurrection of the dead is the thirteenth article of the Jewish Creed.

2. The doctrine of the resurrection was not only confirmed by our Lord (John 5:28 sqq.; 6:39 sqq.; 11:25; Luke 14:14), but expressly defended by Him against the Sadducees, whose unbelief He attributed to their ignorance of the Scriptures and the power of God (Matt. 22:29; Luke 20:37). It was preached by the Apostles as one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; e.g. by St. Paul at Athens (Acts 17:18, 31, 32), at Jerusalem (23:6), before Felix (24:15), before Agrippa (26:8); it is taught at great length in the Epistles (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:12 sqq.; 2 Cor. 4:14; 5:1 sqq.; Phil. 3:21; 1 Thess. 4:12–16; 2 Tim. 2:11; Heb. 6:2), and also in the Apocalypse (20:12 sqq.). Here we can quote only one of these passages: “If Christ be preached that He rose again from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again; and if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.… For by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead; and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.… Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:12 sqq.).

3. Where the teaching of Scripture is so abundant and so clear on a matter so repugnant to the prevailing pagan beliefs, we are not surprised to find it one of the commonest topics treated of by the Fathers. They had to defend it not only against those who denied immortality of any sort, but also against those who (like Plato), while firmly believing in the immortality of the soul, held that the body was nothing but the prison of the soul, and death was an escape from the bondage of matter. When certain philosophers of the Epicureans and Stoics heard of the resurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked” (Acts 17:32). “No doctrine of the Christian faith,” says St. Augustine, “is so vehemently and so obstinately opposed as the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh” (In Ps., lxxxviii., Serm., ii. n. 5). The various sects of Gnostics and Manichæans, who looked upon all matter as evil, naturally denied the resurrection. So, too, did their followers, the Priscillianists, the Cathari, and Albigenses. We need hardly add that in our day the Rationalists, Materialists, and Pantheists are also opposed to the doctrine. See Justin Martyr, Dial. cum Tryph., 80; Tatian, Græc., 6; Origen, In Levit., Hom. v. n. 10; Tertullian, De Resurr. Carn., c. 1; St. Basil, Ep. cclxxi. n. 3; St. Ephræm, De Resurr. Mort.; St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xx. 20; Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., i. 4, etc.

4. No real proof from reason can be adduced in favour of the resurrection; it is from revelation alone that we can prove the doctrine. Nevertheless, the Fathers commonly argue that man’s position in the universe as linking together spirit and matter, his desire for complete and perfect happiness, the share which the body takes both in our good and evil deeds—that all of these, if they do not absolutely prove the resurrection, at least point to its fittingness. And they appeal to certain analogies found in revelation and in nature itself; e.g. Jonas in the whale’s belly; the three children in the fiery furnace; Daniel in the lions’ den; the carrying away of Henoch and Elias; the raising of the dead; the blossoming of Aaron’s rod; the preservation of the garments of the Israelites in the desert; the grain of seed dying and springing up again; the egg; the seasons of the year; day succeeding day; and the mythical Phœnix. These form the subject of countless pictures in early Christian art. See Kraus, Encycl. Archäol., art. AUFERSTEHUNG; Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea.

II. “Christ’s resurrection,” says St. Thomas, “is the cause and model of our resurrection (causa efficiens et exemplaris)” (3, q. 56, a. 1, ad. 3). “Christ is risen from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep; for by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20, 21).

1. The work of redemption was to undo the evil wrought by Adam’s sin, and to restore the gifts originally bestowed upon mankind (Rom. 5). By sin death was brought into the world (Gen. 3:19); but Christ has triumphed over sin and death (1 Cor. 15:54–57). “He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). “I am the Resurrection, and the Life,” He said; “he that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live; and every one that liveth and believeth in Me shall not die for ever” (John 11:25, 26). “Our bodies are the members of Christ” (1 Cor. 6:15); “We are members of His body, of His flesh, of His bones” (Eph. 5:30). We have already pointed out that the preternatural gifts were not immediately restored to man by redemption; they are, however, kept in store for us, and are to be enjoyed by us in our resurrection.

2. “Christ will reform (μετασχηματίσει) the body of our lowness (ταπεινώσεως), made like to the body of His glory (σύμμορφον τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ)” (Phil. 3:21). “If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:5). In accordance with the doctrine of 1 Cor. 15 and other passages of Holy Scripture, theologians teach that the risen bodies of the just, like Christ’s risen body, will be endowed with four principal qualities (dotes):

(a) Impassibility, including incorruptibility and immortality. Just as “Christ rising from the dead dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him” (Rom. 6:9); so “they that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead … neither can they die any more” (Luke 20:35, 36); “It is sown in corruption (ἐν φθορᾷ), it shall rise in incorruption (ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ) (1 Cor. 15:42); “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more” (Apoc. 21:4).

(b) Brightness (claritas). As the face of Jesus at His Transfiguration shone like the sun, so “shall the just shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43; cf. Dan. 12:3; Wisd. 3:7); for the body “is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory (ἐν δόξῃ)” (1 Cor. 15:43). According to the merits of each will be the brightness of each: “One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars, for star differeth from star in glory (δόξῃ)” (ibid. 41).

(c) Agility, i.e. the power of moving from place to place, so as to be immediately anywhere that we wish. Our Lord’s risen body appeared and disappeared at His will, and ascended into heaven when it pleased Him.

(d) Spirituality (subtilitas), by means of which the body becomes so completely subject to the soul, and participates to such an extent in the soul’s more perfect and purer life, that it becomes itself like to a spirit. “It is sown a natural body (σῶμα ψυχικόν), it shall rise a spiritual body (σῶμα πνευματικόν)” (1 Cor. 15:44). This quality is generally explained in the special sense of subtilty or penetrability, that is, of being able to pass through material objects, just as our Lord’s risen body did. See St. Thomas, Suppl., qq. 83–85.

III. The great difficulty against the resurrection of the body is as to how its identity is to be preserved. That we shall all rise again with the same bodies is of the very essence of the doctrine (Job 19:25 sqq.; 2 Mach. 7:11; Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:53; Tertullian, Contr. Marcion, v. 9; Origen, Princip., ii. 10, 1; St. Ambrose. Fid. Resurr., 87; St. Jerome, Contr. Joan. Hieros., 33; St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xxii. cc. 19, 20; Serm. ccxiv. 12; ccxxxv. 4; ccxliii. 3; cclvi. 2, etc.). Nevertheless, the particles of the body are continually passing away, and being replaced by others; and the particles of one human body may enter into the composition of other human bodies. We must not, therefore, press too far the material identity of the earthly and the risen body. Some theologians, following St. Augustine, have thought it sufficient if any of the particles which at any time formed part of the earthly body are preserved. Others have not required even so much as this. We cannot here enter into the discussion. See Jungmann, De Novissimis, c. iii. a. 2; Atzberger, op. cit., p. 916.