Why our body must die?

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adrian1

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Why the body must die? Is a consequence of sin? How, why? If is a consequence why soul not die also?
 
Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But sorry, I don’t have deeper understanding why our souls don’t die.
 
Our soul is immortal and continues to be. Our body was always mortal and continues to be. Our original state in friendship with God provided the means (Grace) to maintain our mortal bodies united to our soul’s immortality. The unity of body and soul was maintained by Grace. With that Grace our mortal body enjoyed the immortality of the soul. Sin puts an obstacle between man and God, man and nature and the body and soul. Human nature is a composite of the spiritual and material. Heaven and the earth. Sin puts an obstacle between them all.
 
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adrian1 said:
Why the body must die? Is a consequence of sin? How, why? If is a consequence why soul not die also?
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The Church teaches that Adam & Eve received certain ‘preternatural gifts’, among them being (bodily) immortality. In other words, human nature never included bodily immortality as part of its characteristics. The body is physical, therefore it dies.

The soul, however, is not physical, and since we are made in God’s “image and likeness”, our soul is immortal.

The ‘death’ that our first human parents ‘earned’ for us was the death of separation from God. Having lost the gift of bodily immortality in their sin, they also were doomed to existing eternally without God… until Jesus saved them and all of us from the necessity of that fate!
 
Benadam said:
Our original state in friendship with God provided the means (Grace) to maintain our mortal bodies united to our soul’s immortality.
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Hmm. Don’t know if I’d call it ‘grace’, per se, since that seems to lead us in the direction of wondering whether that’s the kind of grace we receive in baptism or the other sacraments, or whether we receive that particular ‘grace’ in the eschaton.

(I’m with you that it was a gift from God, though.)

Moreover, we would say that even those who are condemned to hell receive glorified bodies in the eschaton, wouldn’t we? If that’s the case, then what you’re saying is that the damned in hell possess ‘grace’. Can’t say that I’d agree with that, either. 🤷‍♂️
 
There is the belief in the duality of the body and soul. It was not always thus in Judaism (which was at first monistic) until later in its development, but in Christianity the soul has always been considered immortal. The soul returns to G-d, awaiting the resurrection of the glorified body to which it is eventually joined.

Why must the body die in the first place? I suppose this has something to do with original sin.
 
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Gorgias said:
Moreover, we would say that even those who are condemned to hell receive glorified bodies in the eschaton, wouldn’t we? If that’s the case, then what you’re saying is that the damned in hell possess ‘grace’. Can’t say that I’d agree with that, either. 🤷‍♂️
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no grace in hell for sure.

Can’t see the bodies of the damned are glorified. Satan’s glory? I do believe their souls receive bodily extension.
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
Why must the body die in the first place? I suppose this has something to do with original sin.
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The mortal body was enjoying the immortality of the soul. Not because of the soul but because of a proper relationship with God. That relationship was broken when they rejected the good of God and accepted the good of the serpent.
 
I should add, like gorgias posted they do get it back so that means to me that they sinned in the body so they spend eternal seperation from God body and soul
 
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In scientific terms apparently our body does not have to. Our bodies die due to our biology, our genetics.

Some creatures have existed for thousands of years before dying.

And flat worms from a biological standpoint are immortal.
 
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Benadam said:
Can’t see the bodies of the damned are glorified.

I do believe their souls receive bodily extension.
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Aren’t these two equivalent? Isn’t “souls that receive bodily extension” – eternally and incorruptibly – the definition of “glorified bodies”?
 
Obviously everything material wears out.
May as well ask why rivers run to the sea and gravity exists.

Perhaps the more weighty issue is why does it matter to you?
 
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Gorgias said:
Aren’t these two equivalent? Isn’t “souls that receive bodily extension” – eternally and incorruptibly – the definition of “glorified bodies”?
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This is how I’ve come to think of glorified bodies. And bodies in hell. When a person glorifies God with a good deed it is returning God’s love to Him and God loves them again. Glory is an exchange of love that was supposed to end in being assumed to heaven and the beatific vision. An exchange of love and God’s Glory lifting the person up to end in eternal glory.

The resurrection of the dead, the twinkling of an eye event that Paul spoke of, in my opinion, is a kind of all encompassing transubstantiation of all humanity event Christ’s humanity is the Eucharist. When He is lifted up he will draw all men (and women) to Himself. But in the final end, the substance is separated by the substance of Christ’s body and soul. That determines the state of their transubstantiated soul and body. The soul then will extend a body transfigured into the state that is proper to their eternal will. This is just me talking.so I don’t mind some picking apart. Now I’ll go look to see what St. Thomas say’s 😅
 
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Benadam said:
Now I’ll go look to see what St. Thomas say’s
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LOL! That was gonna be my response!

Aquinas talks about these things in the supplement to the Summa. Take a look there, beginning around question 86 or so. He discusses the notion of the resurrection of the body, both in terms of the saints in glory and the damned in hell. He affirms that the bodies of the damned will be incorruptible.

But, I think that if you mean “transubstantiation” in terms what it means, strictly speaking, as opposed to an analogy to the Eucharist, then my intuition is that I might disagree. If God’s desire was that humans be body-soul composites, then our existence in the eschaton will be the fulfillment of His will. It’s just that some humans, having rejected God, will have this perfection of who they were created to be … but without the presence of God. Part of the ‘punishment’ of hell is the realization of what they could have been but chose not to be. Not in their bodies… but in their relationship with their Creator.
 
In a sense our souls do die.

Before baptism, we are spiritually dead. After baptism, when we mortally sin, we are spiritually dead. Of course, death does not mean a cease to its functions and a deterioration to its rudimentary parts. It means judgement.
 
It is my faith that God has better things in store for us than merely repeating this manner of existence eternally. Without death, we could never move forward in God’s plan.
 
Well, it does say in the bible that God will create a new earth. Perhaps we will aid in the creation of new realities. I would like to think that.
 
Thanks Gorgias, now I won’t have to search. I’m not sure if I’m thinking as an analogy. I was considering the entire creation renewed in a great Eucharistic ontological change of substance. Not even sure if accidents exist or the mode of knowing and such. 🤔
 
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