The Church Triumphant Now and the Resurrection Later

[preyoflove]

Our brothers and sisters in the Church Triumphant are with God in heaven, eternally happy, although their bodies remain here until the Resurrection. At the Resurrection, when their bodies will be reunited with their souls (and hopefully all of us would be counted among them), will this reunification bring a greater change to their state? Will they be more happy?

Peace, so be it.

 

[beng]

preyoflove:

Our brothers and sisters in the Church Triumphant are with God in heaven, eternally happy, although their bodies remain here until the Resurrection. At the Resurrection, when their bodies will be reunited with their souls (and hopefully all of us would be counted among them), will this reunification bring a greater change to their state? Will they be more happy?

Peace, so be it.

The reunification of the body with the soul will bring more pleasure (this is not a dirty word people) for the triumphants and will bring more torment to the deaths.

 

[patricius]

I’m of the opinion that the experience of Heaven, being eternal in nature, cannot undergo any significant qualitiative change.

Seems to me that this idea of “waiting” to get your body back makes sense only if you’re looking at the question from the perspective of earthly time. Of course, the Church Triumphant has a much better perspective: eternity! In my opinion, this means that their experience is of possessing a glorified body immediately on “entering” Heaven. I haven’t checked this out thoroughly against the Church’s teaching, so if it’s wrong, I apologize.