F
Faith1960
Guest
What does it mean, exactly, that Jesus ascended into Heaven with a glorified body? I’m having trouble with that concept, as I am with us eventually being raised from the dead. 
- Status
B
Bookcat
Guest
From the CatechismWhat does it mean, exactly, that Jesus ascended into Heaven with a glorified body? I’m having trouble with that concept, as I am with us eventually being raised from the dead.
The condition of Christ’s risen humanity
645 By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion.508 Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’s humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father’s divine realm.509 For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith.510
646 Christ’s Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jairus’ daughter, the young man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the persons miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. Christ’s Resurrection is essentially different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus’ Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is “the man of heaven”.511
How do the dead rise?
997 What is “rising”? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection.
998 Who will rise? All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."552
999 How? Christ is raised with his own body: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself”;553 but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, “all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,” but Christ “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,” into a “spiritual body”:554
Code:
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel. . . . What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. . . . The dead will be raised imperishable. . . . For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.555
Code:
Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.556
Code:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.5581002 Christ will raise us up “on the last day”; but it is also true that, in a certain way, we have already risen with Christ. For, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ:
Code:
And you were buried with him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead . . . . If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.5591004 In expectation of that day, the believer’s body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person, especially the suffering:
Code:
The body [is meant] for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? . . . . You are not your own; . . . . So glorify God in your body.563vatican.va/archive/catechism/p122a5p2.htm
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a11.htm#I
vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm#VI
G
GEddie
Guest
When JESUS awakened from being dead, his Body was not simply brought back alive; it had a neew sort of life, Life Eternal. Unlike our Natural Body, which is powered by chemical reactions in slowly deteriorating materials (and therefore is trapped by death) the Resurrectional Body (called “spiritual body” by Saint Paul) is alive with Heavenly life and is completely immune to deterioration, corruption, or death. “Christ…having risen from the dead, is never to die again.”What does it mean, exactly, that Jesus ascended into Heaven with a glorified body? I’m having trouble with that concept, as I am with us eventually being raised from the dead.
When we are awakened from being dead, we too will have a body; Human life is impossible without a body. You need eyes for seeing; limbs for movement; a head for knowing; in fact, because we are human beings, living beings, we need life to be, and it is our bodies that hold and express life. So we will have a resurrectional body like our LORD’s. Although our dead bodies will not, unlike HIS, normally remain intact for resurrection, that is no problem because resurrection takes place outside of time: *“If our earthly…tabernacle [dwelling place i.e. BODY] were dissolved [bascially what happens to dead flesh], we have a building [body] from GOD…eternal in the heavens.” (2Co5:1) * HE will take all the time-images of our human self and use them to build our Spiritual Body on the outside of time, and there will be no experienced time of being dead; it will be like awakening from dream-mind to conscious mind.
Our natural bodies continuously fight corruption and decay, remaining alive by expelling such matter from our being. We die because that doesn’t work efficiently. But “what is sown in corruption is raised in incorruption.” 1 Co 15. Our new bodies will have no such struggle as we draw life and substance from eternal Heaven. And the weakness of our earthen self will be exchanged for the power of a heavenly one. “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
So resurrection is no unsolvable paradox, it is an upgrade from the physique of nature to one of Eternity. JESUS showed us how it is done. And HE will fit us with our spiritual body.
ICXC NIKA!
S
Spencerian
Guest
Hi, Faith.What does it mean, exactly, that Jesus ascended into Heaven with a glorified body? I’m having trouble with that concept, as I am with us eventually being raised from the dead.
Bookcat’s information from the CCC can be hard to digest, although it is correct. Let me see if I can simplify it.
Humans are (unlike purely spiritual beings such as angels and demons) both physical and spiritual beings (as Christ was fully God and fully man). God did not want us to choose sin, which brought death to our physical selves and ruin to our souls, making them unfit to reunite with Him at our death.
So, the righteous of us could not return to God before his Son’s Passion. The wicked would go to hell, with no return, while the righteous dead would be in a holding pattern, in “Abraham’s Bosom,” also known as the “Limbo of the Fathers.”
A human soul without a body is an unnatural state. A soul yearns to be unified with the body, but death makes the corruption of the body inevitable…
But Christ killed death in his Sacrifice, opening the way for the righteous dead to enter heaven and left for His new followers an opportunity to be resurrected, to be reunited eventually with their bodies (no matter when, where or how they died) in a pure form–a glorified body: The body God wanted us to have, with a pure soul clean of sin and a pure body clean of sin as well.
As illustrated by the resurrected Christ in many passages in the Gospel, Christ’s glorified body had four special abilities that we Catholics expect to have as well in the General Resurrection:
- Impassibility. A glorified body no longer suffers pain or suffering and does not age or become sick.
- Brightness or glory. As Christ did, our bodies will have a luminous appearance.
- Agility. As an angel can move at will, anywhere and as fast, through locked doors (as Christ did), so will our glorified bodies.
- Subtility. Our perfected souls through Christ will have complete power over the body. Earthly desires can no longer tempt or affect a glorified body. The new body itself can behave as a spirit does, at will.
B
Bookcat
Guest
From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ and represents along with his cross an essential part of the Paschal Mystery.
656-657
Along with the essential sign of the empty tomb, the Resurrection of Jesus is witnessed to by the women who first encountered Christ and proclaimed him to the apostles. Jesus then “appeared to Cephas (Peter) and then to the Twelve. Following that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brethren at one time” (1 Corinthians 15:5-6) and to others as well. The apostles could not have invented the story of the resurrection since it seemed impossible to them. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself upbraided them for their unbelief.
656-657
While being an historical event, verifiable and attested by signs and testimonies, the Resurrection, insofar as it is the entrance of Christ’s humanity into the glory of God, transcends and surpasses history as a mystery of faith. For this reason the risen Christ did not manifest himself to the world but to his disciples, making them his witnesses to the people.
The Resurrection of Christ was not a return to earthly life. His risen body is that which was crucified and bears the marks of his passion. However it also participates in the divine life, with the characteristics of a glorified body. Because of this the risen Jesus was utterly free to appear to his disciples how and where he wished and under various aspects.
“I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY”
1015
The resurrection of the flesh is the literal formulation in the Apostles Creed for the resurrection of the body. The term “flesh” refers to humanity in its state of weakness and mortality. “The flesh is the hinge of salvation” (Tertullian). We believe in God the Creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem flesh; and we believe in the resurrection of flesh which is the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh.
This means that the definitive state of man will not be one in which his spiritual soul is separated from his body. Even our mortal bodies will one day come to life again.
1002-1003
Just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and now lives forever, so he himself will raise everyone on the last day with an incorruptible body: “Those who have done good will rise to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29).
1016-1018
After death, which is the separation of the body and the soul, the body becomes corrupt while the soul, which is immortal, goes to meet the judgment of God and awaits its reunion with the body when it will rise transformed at the time of the return of the Lord. How the resurrection of the body will come about exceeds the possibilities of our imagination and understanding.
1019
Dying in Christ Jesus means to die in the state of God’s grace without any mortal sin. A believer in Christ, following his example, is thus able to transform his own death into an act of obedience and love for the Father. “This saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him” (2 Timothy 2:11).
1060
After the final judgment the universe itself, freed from its bondage to decay, will share in the glory of Christ with the beginning of “the new heavens” and a “new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). Thus, the fullness of the Kingdom of God will come about, that is to say, the definitive realization of the salvific plan of God to “unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). God will then be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28) in eternal life.
- What place does the Resurrection of Christ occupy in our faith?
The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ and represents along with his cross an essential part of the Paschal Mystery.
- What are the signs that bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus?
656-657
Along with the essential sign of the empty tomb, the Resurrection of Jesus is witnessed to by the women who first encountered Christ and proclaimed him to the apostles. Jesus then “appeared to Cephas (Peter) and then to the Twelve. Following that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brethren at one time” (1 Corinthians 15:5-6) and to others as well. The apostles could not have invented the story of the resurrection since it seemed impossible to them. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself upbraided them for their unbelief.
- Why is the Resurrection at the same time a transcendent occurrence?
656-657
While being an historical event, verifiable and attested by signs and testimonies, the Resurrection, insofar as it is the entrance of Christ’s humanity into the glory of God, transcends and surpasses history as a mystery of faith. For this reason the risen Christ did not manifest himself to the world but to his disciples, making them his witnesses to the people.
- What is the condition of the risen body of Jesus?
The Resurrection of Christ was not a return to earthly life. His risen body is that which was crucified and bears the marks of his passion. However it also participates in the divine life, with the characteristics of a glorified body. Because of this the risen Jesus was utterly free to appear to his disciples how and where he wished and under various aspects.
“I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY”
- What is the meaning of the term “body” (or “flesh”) and what importance does it have?
1015
The resurrection of the flesh is the literal formulation in the Apostles Creed for the resurrection of the body. The term “flesh” refers to humanity in its state of weakness and mortality. “The flesh is the hinge of salvation” (Tertullian). We believe in God the Creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem flesh; and we believe in the resurrection of flesh which is the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh.
- What is meant by the “resurrection of the body”?
This means that the definitive state of man will not be one in which his spiritual soul is separated from his body. Even our mortal bodies will one day come to life again.
- What is the relationship between the Resurrection of Christ and our resurrection?
1002-1003
Just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and now lives forever, so he himself will raise everyone on the last day with an incorruptible body: “Those who have done good will rise to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29).
- What happens to our body and our soul after death?
1016-1018
After death, which is the separation of the body and the soul, the body becomes corrupt while the soul, which is immortal, goes to meet the judgment of God and awaits its reunion with the body when it will rise transformed at the time of the return of the Lord. How the resurrection of the body will come about exceeds the possibilities of our imagination and understanding.
- What does it mean to die in Christ Jesus?
1019
Dying in Christ Jesus means to die in the state of God’s grace without any mortal sin. A believer in Christ, following his example, is thus able to transform his own death into an act of obedience and love for the Father. “This saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him” (2 Timothy 2:11).
- What is the hope of the new heavens and the new earth?
1060
After the final judgment the universe itself, freed from its bondage to decay, will share in the glory of Christ with the beginning of “the new heavens” and a “new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). Thus, the fullness of the Kingdom of God will come about, that is to say, the definitive realization of the salvific plan of God to “unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). God will then be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28) in eternal life.
B
Bookcat
Guest
- Status