Physical body in heaven???

[AugustineH354]

For a number of years now, I tried to come up with a good reason why redeemed mankind receives a resurrected physical body in the future.

Man is made in the image of God, and according to Catholic dogma, since God is not physical, this image is not physical, but rather, spiritual.

Further, the Bible, and the Church Fathers teach that redeemed mankind will become like God, some going as far as to say that “God became man that might become God” (St. Athanasius); and our last Pope stated:

This is the central truth of all Christian soteriology that finds an organic unity with the revealed reality of the God-Man. God became man that man could truly participate in the life of God—so that, indeed, in a certain sense, he could become God. The Fathers of the Church had a clear consciousness of this fact. It is sufficient to recall St. Irenaeus who, in his exhortations to imitate Christ, the only sure teacher, declared: “Through the immense love he bore, he became what we are, thereby affording us the opportunity of becoming what he is.” (John Paul II, Jesus, Son and Savior, 1996, p. 215 - General audience address September 2, 1987.)>>

So, if the ultimate goal is to become like God, and God is spirit only, why the need of a physical body in heaven?

Grace and peace,

Aug

 

[YinYangMom]

Man is made in the image of God, and according to Catholic dogma, since God is not physical, this image is not physical, but rather, spiritual.

Yeah, but He chose a ‘form’ for us which was physical.
And it’s a perfect form. So why leave it behind if it perfectly images Him? For some reason He wants us with Him in some form…the form He designed for us. I have no problem believing He delights in each and every one of us - our physical uniqueness from each other…why wouldn’t He want His unique creations - each one an image of Him living with Him for eternity? It was the original plan in the first place, remember?

We get a resurrected ‘glorified’ body.
No one really knows what that is.
We do know it will be from the body we were born into on earth, though. It’ll look the same and yet be different as it will be glorified. We won’t need to maintain it like we do now, no food, no drink, no sex, no rock’n’roll.

And we don’t really know who/what God is anyway…
He certainly is glorified…
and we will be glorified…
so who knows what that looks like?

God is all things.
The angels are angels, they are not God
Man is man, we are not God.
But we have been promised to be glorified in the end with God.
I heard on the radio the other day that this part was kind of the straw that broke Lucifer’s back…being told man would rise to a higher state of existence than his own…'thought that was an interesting comment.

Just because we get glorified I don’t get the impression from the New Testament that we become one with the Trinity. It seemed to me that Jesus invites us to His table, to live in the Kingdom of God, our Father. That has the ring of co-existence to it, not one of co-mingling (I’m sure there’s a better word for what I’m trying to convey, it’s just not coming to me at the moment). Most certainly it will be a wonderful state of existence for us, but who’s to say God is spirit only?

I was of the understanding God is not Spirit, nor angel, nor any other ‘classification’. He Is. The Spirit Is. Christ Is. The three are One, and we are invited to share the Kingdom with Him. You quote: “Through the immense love he bore, he became what we are, thereby affording us the opportunity of becoming what he* is***.” Perhaps that is the glorified Christ…the one which ascended into heaven, which we know was not in the same form as ‘just’ human “Jesus” before his resurrection, as the resurrected Christ was able to reveal Himself to the apostles after walking and talking beside them for a while without their recognizing His body, His face, or His voice, and He was able to enter rooms without opening doors, and yet Thomas was still able to feel the wounds himself. Even though Christ is much more than ‘just’ glorified…maybe we’re invited to share in the glorified aspect of his being human, not necessarily the God aspect???

Just a thought…

 

[ForeverAdam]

“So, if the ultimate goal is to become like God, and God is spirit only, why the need of a physical body in heaven?”

I think it is important to frame this within the context of the Incarnation of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. While it is correct to say that God (the Father) doesn’t have a physical body (cf. John 4:24, Luke 24:39), it is also true that since Jesus Christ, the pre-existent Son of God, as member of the Holy Trinity, has became flesh, that God does now possess a body (through the Incarnation). And since this was the eternal will of God, our creation was meant to mirror this.

Also, if Christ is the “firstfruits” of the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:23), then our resurrection must be in like manner viz. physical, for the Resurrection of Christ was physical and not spiritual, per se .

In Christ,

Adam

 

[Tmaque]

AugustineH354:

For a number of years now, I tried to come up with a good reason why redeemed mankind receives a resurrected physical body in the future.

Man is made in the image of God, and according to Catholic dogma, since God is not physical, this image is not physical, but rather, spiritual.

Further, the Bible, and the Church Fathers teach that redeemed mankind will become like God, some going as far as to say that “God became man that might become God” (St. Athanasius); and our last Pope stated:

This is the central truth of all Christian soteriology that finds an organic unity with the revealed reality of the God-Man. God became man that man could truly participate in the life of God—so that, indeed, in a certain sense, he could become God. The Fathers of the Church had a clear consciousness of this fact. It is sufficient to recall St. Irenaeus who, in his exhortations to imitate Christ, the only sure teacher, declared: “Through the immense love he bore, he became what we are, thereby affording us the opportunity of becoming what he is.” (John Paul II, Jesus, Son and Savior, 1996, p. 215 - General audience address September 2, 1987.)>>

So, if the ultimate goal is to become like God, and God is spirit only, why the need of a physical body in heaven?

Grace and peace,

Aug

God created us as physical beings. Why would he want to destroy that creation? There is no NEED for us to have physical bodies, except that to have them we would be as He intended. The resurrection of our bodies is the glorification of God’s creation in the physical. It makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Brad_Haas]

Aug, have you read John Paul II’s Theology of the Body? I’m reading it now, and I haven’t gotten to Eschatological Man, and something in there would probably shed light on the subject.

I’ll try for now, though it may not be worth much. Borrowing from what I have read so far, I would say that though God is not material, He made us material and made us to image Him even in our physical existence. You ask why we “need” bodies in Heaven, but the truth is, we don’t really need them now, either; God could have made us spirit-only, like the angels. But we are what He made us, and we will be what He meant us to be in the beginning, which includes having a body. Our bodies were no less damaged than our spirits from the Fall, and they will be no less gloriously restored and brought to life in Him.

Did that make any sense?

 

[JimG]

Having both a body and soul (spirit) is part of our very nature. It’s what we are. It’s the way God made us.

Death itself is nothing more than the forced separation of those two components–the ripping apart of body and soul.

It is only fitting that we will have our bodies back, in heaven–our glorified bodies rejoined to our souls, which are indeed made in the image and likeness of God. We will have the fullness of our human nature.

And in being joined spiritually to God by means of the Beatific Vision, we do become like God, but with our bodies and souls combined.