Soul and body: form a single nature or seperated at death?

[Steadfast_love]

I don’t understand Catechism 365-366. How can the union of soul and body “form a single nature” if the soul seperates from the body at death?

365 The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body:234 i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.

366 The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not “produced” by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.235

Thanks in advance!

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Steadfast,

I suppose its one reason why human death seems so “wrong”.

Often the soul is spoken of as an “incomplete” substance – meaning that its integrity is found in conjunction with the body.

The point is that a soul without a body, or a body without a soul, cannot properly said to be a man. Maybe you can think of it (only analogously) like a molecule of water, which is hydrogen and oxygen. If you take one of its constituents away, or break it apart, you don’t have water anymore.

I’ve heard (although not verified) that St. Thomas Aquinas would pray to “the soul of St. so and so” since, until the general resurrection, the saints are not wholly themselves.

What do you think?
VC

 

[Deacon_Ed_B]

Here is my response, recognizing and admitting that I last had metaphysics almost 50 years ago.

The human soul is the principle of life for a human being. With out the soul, we could not be living, rational beings. The soul is created and infused by God at the moment of conception. This is why we as Catholics believe that at the moment of conception there is a total complete human consisting of body and soul. It is the principle of life and the only difference between this and a person in their 90’s is the extent of development and aging of the body. Death comes when the soul is separated from the body. The body is mortal. The soul is immortal. and rational. It continues to exist. A dead body is not a human, but was the body of a human. Many saints have referred to a dead body as discarded old clothes. It is our soul that gives us humanness. In heaven, we will, after the last judgment, receive a glorified body. Each of us will have one and at that time will again be complete.
Prayers & blessings
Deacon Ed B

 

[CassiusLonginus]

Man only has one nature. Christ had two, a human nature from his mother, and his divine nature.

Man only has one nature, even though he is made up of two parts, i.e. physical and spiritual. Humans aren’t simply spirit, the way angels are, nor are they simply flesh the way animals are. That is our nature.