Any tips to help explain the Resurrection of the Body to high schoolers?

[vish1990]

Hello, I’m a new Youth Minister at my Parish and I’m going through some core beliefs classes…next week we’re covering the Resurrection of the Body.

So I understand the biblical process of No Heaven—>Preparing for heaven—>Jesus gains us Heaven. I understand that we are supposed to return to our perfect bodily forms when Jesus returns.

Does anyone have some insight as to getting this across to kids?

 

[SMHW]

I don’t know that the Church teaches exactly what form our bodies will take when we are resurrected.

There are plenty of saints who have expressed their opinions and we can gain insight from the Scriptures. I would think a Google search and some examination of the resources of Catholic Answers would help you in that area.

 

[markhiggins01]

The only example of a Resurrected Body, that is a glorified body, so far is that of Our Divine Lord and Saviour.

St. Thomas Aquinas looks at the qualities exhibited by Our Lord after His resurrection and so draws out some idea of how our risen bodies will be. For example, we will be able to move them to any location instantly at an act of the will (as our Lord suddenly appeared in the upper room while the doors were locked)

It is always worth reminding the teens that the damned get their bodies back too and they undergo the pains of hell through them- we commit sins as composite, body and soul beings, and so we endure the consequences of these sins as both body and soul.

The Apostolic preaching of the Early Church centred much more on what we have escaped from through the sacrifice of Christ (eternal torments of hell) rather than the specifics of the reward, what we know is, if we persevere to the end in God’s friendship we will experience complete fulfillment which clearly for a human will involve the delight of both soul and body.