Special pleading for baptism and Eucharist?

[WinterSunrise]

I am considering converting to Catholicism from atheism, but I have a difficulty as explained below.

The Church says Adam and Eve were created under sanctifying grace and lost it as they fell into original sin.

Then after the death and resurrection of Jesus his followers can be baptised and come out of the state of original sin and receive sanctifying grace. Then they can receive the Eucharist.

Now since they receive Jesus’ body, surely the human body would not die.

The double standard seems to be that the observable part, being death, is said to be lost at the resurrection of humankind. But surely baptism and the Eucharist would eliminate death for practicing Catholics who do not commit mortal sins?

 

[WinterSunrise]

Since posting the question I have come up with half an answer from 1 Corinthians 15:50-57:

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So to clarify where my problem now is, the Church teaches that Jesus had divine life before his death and resurrection and Catholics have that connection due to the Eucharist. I just want my mind to be changed since I’m thinking that the teaching of the Kingdom just seems like a convenient way to get out of the criticism of observable death.

 

[Thom18]

I’m not sure that I understand what you’re asking. Are you simply wondering why we still die a bodily death despite receiving the Eucharist?

 

[WinterSunrise]

If Catholics receive Jesus’ body in the Eucharist, after baptism removed all sin, why are their bodies not spiritual bodies?

 

[CRV]

the Church teaches that Jesus had divine life before his death and resurrection

His human Body still died. As do we - our human bodies. Our souls are immortal. Hence the body not being immortal in this world/life, must die, but will be resurrected on the last day for the final judgement.

 

[WinterSunrise]

But if baptism removed original sin and restores sanctifying grace, why don’t Catholics get the same immortality as Adam and Eve had in the beginning?

 

[CRV]

If Catholics receive Jesus’ body in the Eucharist, … why are their bodies not spiritual bodies?

The Eucharist is the way our Lord instituted for us to physically receive Him for all time until the last day.

baptism removed original sin

Yes, it removes the stain of original sin, but not the temporal consequence ie sickness and death etc.

restores sanctifying grace,

It does. Sanctifying grace is the life of God within the soul, the principle of supernatural life.

Nature of original sin "

 

[WinterSunrise]

If Catholics receive Jesus’ body in the Eucharist, … why are their bodies not spiritual bodies?

I’m having difficulty understanding this answer. How does physicality relate to a spiritual body?

 

[WinterSunrise]

Yes, it removes the stain of original sin, but not the temporal consequence ie sickness and death etc.

Once Mary started taking the Eucharist, did she gain a spiritual body?

 

[JimG]

Neither Baptism or Eucharist restores the preternatural gifts that Adam and Eve possessed in their pre-fallen state.

 

[CRV]

The size of the host = easy for us to eat His Body and drink His Blood.

So we consume the host which dissolves soon after receiving, thus we are united physically with Jesus and the graces He imparts operates on our souls.

Catholic Encyclopedia - The Blessed Sacrament

 

[CRV]

Once Mary started taking the Eucharist, did she gain a spiritual body?

I’m assuming you mean the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every person born, including Our Blessed Mother had a spiritual ‘body’ - that is the soul, and this soul is one with the human body at the time of conception.

ETA - Mary being preserved from the stain of original sin and its’ effects - Immaculate Conception, thus she was taken up to heaven body and soul at the end of her earthly life.

 

[Thom18]

If Catholics receive Jesus’ body in the Eucharist, after baptism removed all sin, why are their bodies not spiritual bodies?

Well, because we’re not angels, who are immaterial. We’re humans, who are a body-soul composite. We don’t “lose our body” after receiving the Blessed Sacrament.

 

[WinterSunrise]

If Catholics receive Jesus’ body in the Eucharist, after baptism removed all sin, why are their bodies not spiritual bodies?

But I thought Jesus’ body transformed into a spiritual body during his resurrection?

 

[WinterSunrise]

I’m assuming you mean the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every person born, including Our Blessed Mother had a spiritual ‘body’ - that is the soul, and this soul is one with the human body at the time of conception.

But I thought the spiritual body first became real during Jesus’ resurrection. I’m getting different responses from different people giving different definitions of what a spiritual body is.

 

[CRV]

But I thought Jesus’ body transformed into a spiritual body during his resurrection?

It was a glorified body. As it was prefigured at the Transfiguration on the Mount with His two disciples.

And as we know when Doubting Thomas placed his finger in Jesus’ side. Same physical body as was on the cross before His Resurrection.

 

[WinterSunrise]

But I thought Jesus’ body transformed into a spiritual body during his resurrection?

I was getting my information from 1 Corinthians 15:44-46

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

 

[CRV]

Spiritual body = soul.

All people are born with their soul. The physical body and soul are one at the time of conception.

In heaven (after the Last Judgement) we will have our glorified immortal bodies. On earth we have our temporal mortal bodies. The first never dies again, whereas the second does.

 

[CRV]

1 Corinthians 15:44-46

1 Corinthians Chapter 15 " * [15:42–44] The principles of qualitative difference before and after death (1 Cor 15:36–38) and of diversity on different levels of creation (1 Cor 15:39–41) are now applied to the human body. Before: a body animated by a lower, natural life-principle ( psychē ) and endowed with the properties of natural existence (corruptibility, lack of glory, weakness). After: a body animated by a higher life-principle ( pneuma ; cf. 1 Cor 15:45) and endowed with other qualities (incorruptibility, glory, power, spirituality), which are properties of God himself.

• [15:45] The analogy of the first man, Adam, is introduced by a citation from Gn 2:7. Paul alters the text slightly, adding the adjective first, and translating the Hebrew ’ādām twice, so as to give it its value both as a common noun (man) and as a proper name (Adam). 1 Cor 15:45b then specifies similarities and differences between the two Adams. The last Adam, Christ (cf. 1 Cor 15:21–22) has become a…spirit ( pneuma ), a life-principle transcendent with respect to the natural soul ( psychē ) of the first Adam (on the terminology here, cf. note on 1 Cor 3:1). Further, he is not just alive, but life-giving, a source of life for others."

 

[WinterSunrise]

I believe all my questions have been satisfied here. Thank you for your time, as well as that of everyone else.