“Our belief in the resurrection of the
body is not the same as bringing a
dead corpse back to life.”
himself”(Phil 3:20).
Paul’s most developed
teaching on the resurrection
appears in his first letter to the
Corinthians, where he devotes
an entire chapter to this topic
(chapter fifteen). Paul is clear: if we
deny the resurrection of the dead, then
Christ himself can’t have risen from the
dead. But if Christ didn’t rise from the
dead, then we have not been redeemed
and we are still in our sins.
What Will Our Bodies Be Like?
We should be clear: our belief in the
resurrection of the body is not the same
as bringing a dead corpse back to this
earthly life. When Jesus raised Lazarus
from the dead (Jn 11), Lazarus returned
to normal life in this world and he
ultimately had to die again. But when
Jesus rose from the dead, he entered
into an entirely new bodily state and he
will never die again.
This is why Paul calls Christ’s
resurrection the “firstfruits” of the new
creation. Christ has already been raised;
we who believe in him and die in his
grace will also rise anew to the same
kind of life.
What will this new body be like?
We do not fully know. But we have
one example, and that is Jesus himself.
From the stories of his appearances
after his resurrection we can glean
certain insights about the resurrected
body. First, Jesus had a real body—the
resurrection appearances go out of
their way to make clear that he was
not a phantom, nor a ghost, nor just
an appearance in the sky. His closest
followers touched him, they put their
fingers in his side, and they ate a meal
with him on the beach!
Nonetheless, Jesus’ glorified body did
not have the same characteristics of his
pre-resurrected body. For one thing, his
disciples and followers did not recognize
him unless he made himself known
(e.g., Mary Magdalene and the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus). For
another, Jesus could walk through walls
and appear suddenly in a room—and
then vanish from sight (see Lk 24:3651). Clearly his resurrected body had
new properties.
Paul explains that the mortal body
that we now have is different in quality
from the one that will be raised (see 1
Cor 15:42-49). Exactly what the new
body will be like has not yet been
revealed. As John says, “Beloved, we
are God’s children now; it does not
yet appear what we shall be, but we
know that when he appears we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he
is” (1 Jn 3:2). But we can be sure that
our new bodies will be imperishable,
as Paul says: “For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable nature must put
on the imperishable, and this mortal
nature must put on immortality” (1 Cor
15:52-53). As the Catechism confirms,
how the resurrection of our bodies
will happen “exceeds our imagination
and understanding; it is accessible
only to faith” (no. 1000). But we can
be confident that the very power that
raised Jesus from the dead will also see
to the renewal and transformation of
our bodies on the last day.
The Point of the Resurrection?
Let’s return now to our original
question: Why have a body at all?
Why should we want to hope for the
resurrection of our bodies?
The answer is found in the original
purpose of God: he created us as human
beings composed of body and soul.
And as we learn from
Genesis, he looked upon the
man and woman he had made
and saw that “it was very good”
(Gn 1:31). Our bodies are not
evil—they do not represent a
flaw in