Do we become just souls after we die?

[LDSiqueira]

Hi! I always tought about this, but yesterday I was reading the cathecism and I finally decided to ask someone here about this subject. Considering that:

1. The Catholic Church states that each one of us, human persons, are not just body or soul and that we also are not just a agglutination of both, but an unity that is formed by the mix of the two;
2. The Catholic Church also states that, after we die, our soul is separeted from the body;

Then:

1. What happens to us after we die? Do we live as just souls until the Final Judgment, when we will finaly get a new body?
2. If we cannot say that we, as human persons, are just a soul or just body, as catholics, how could we say that, after death, once separated from the body, we would still be human? Do we lose our humanity at death, i.e., if this is correct, until we ressurect, will we be only partialy human? I mean, if being human is to be an unity of body and soul, how could we still be humans once separated from our bodies?

I hope I was clear in my question. And if I comited a mistake in my exposition of catholic belief, please correct me.

Thanks!

 

[Amac1]

Interesting questions. I hope someone here can enlighten us with their thoughts.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

In virtually every approved private revelation where someone saw souls after death in Heaven, Hell or Purgatory, the soul was in some type of body that looked like the person did on earth (although sometimes older, younger, in a more distressed state, or in a less distressed state than the person was last seen looking on earth).

I think from that we can presume that God will give us whatever type of body we need in the afterlife until our glorified human body is restored.

I realize one does not have to believe approved private revelations, but we are limited in ways to gain knowledge about this subject, so to me it’s as good a source as any.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Not only do our souls continue after death, but we are judged individually, and undergo damnation, purification or bliss. Our bodies do not join us until the final judgment. That is as much as we know.

 

[Beryllos]

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, wrote that if we have become members of the Body of Christ, then our souls are safely held after death within this body, there to await the final resurrection.

This seems to suggest that the Body of Christ is Jesus’ own, personal, human and yet glorified body. I’m not sure how that fits with the usual teaching that the Body of Christ is all the faithful members of the Church, together with Christ.

 

[LDSiqueira]

Thanks for your answer! But it wouldn’t be a body in intself, or at least not something we would normally call a body, since it would not be material. Do you think it would be just an appearence of a body? We would yet be justs soul, right? With no organs or metabolism.

 

[LDSiqueira]

Yes, I’ve already tought about that, but I also can’t understand what it would be like or how does it conciliates itself with the idea that being human means to be an soul-body unity. Without an individual body of our own, would us have our private consciousness? Or would we be conscious of ourselves in the same way we are in our body?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I have no idea what the body would or would not contain, except Jesus said it does not engage in sexual relations.

Other than that, you’ll just have to wait till after you pass away to find out the answer

 

[Richca]

Our human souls are immortal spirits. After we die in the body, our soul or spirit lives on. The human soul separated from the body lives as a spirit similar to the angels and God who are pure spirits. Separated human souls are conscious or have awareness as they possess the spiritual powers of intellect and will through which we are principally made in the image and likeness of God. Without the body, human souls are not complete human beings because it is the nature of human beings to have a soul or spirit in a body.