With regards to the Resurrection of the Body: Heaven or Earth?

[Timawa]

I’ve been reading this doctrine about the Resurrection of the Body, and quite honestly, I was surprised that the Church has a very detailed teaching with regards to this. This particular doctrine wasn’t really taught to us during my basic education years; I just know it because it’s part of the Apostle’s Creed which we pray during Mass. So for short, the doctrine is considerably new to me.

For those who are just as clueless as I were, start here: General Resurrection

Now, my question is: Where are we going to reside when we’re resurrected: In Heaven or on earth?

My hypothetical answer is: On Earth (i.e. the material universe)

Reasons:

1. All people will be resurrected and immortal at the end of time. But while others are glorified, others are condemned. The glorified shall acquire the quality called impassibility which makes pain, including those by nature like cold and heat, impossible, while the condemned will and will endure the pains for eternity since they cannot die anymore.** The acknowledgement of the material infliction of pain and suffering onto some people implies (not proves) that we will reside in this world**
2. The qualities, agility and subtility needs to acknowledge spatial and material dimensions for it to be, or at least reasonable for people to have. Heaven is in eternity which means it’s not bound by space and time. You cannot pass through walls in heaven because there is no (physical/material) wall to pass through, same goes to going place to place.These premises also imply that we will reside in this world.
3. In the beginning, the reason God made another spiritual being is to take care of the world (material universe) which He created beforehand. Who then will fill the role if we are to leave from here? I mean, I believe God included the universe in His plan of salvation (Jn. 3:16), He surely won’t abandon it.

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Question 2: Assuming that it is here, on earth, where we will reside, does that mean that people who are in heaven and hell will go back to the world to be resurrected?

That question above is the one that confuses me with regards to the place. Because somehow, the idea that souls from Heaven will go back to earth seems very, uhm, “weird” to me, at least for now.

Please give some insights, I want to know more about this doctrine. Corrections to my statements are very, very much welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!

 

[tonyrey]

Now, my question is: Where are we going to reside when we’re resurrected: In Heaven or on earth?

 

[Timawa]

The misery of hell is not the result of physical causes but a sense of isolation from God and those who love Him.

Yeah that’s what I thought, and indeed, it’s the experience that one has to suffer in Hell. But the Catholic Encyclopedia says:

All shall rise from the dead in their own, in their entire, and in immortal bodies; but the good shall rise to the resurrection of life, the wicked to the resurrection of Judgment… while the just shall enjoy an endless felicity in the entirety of their restored members, the wicked “shall seek death, and shall not find it, shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them” (Revelation 9:6).

Even the wicked shall rise, but from and to where? To Hell? But they’re already in hell. I don’t believe that the Catholic Encyclopedia is being symbolic about this since they are trying to explain the doctrine.

Your statement leads me to another question: the souls in Hell are to suffer the sense of the absolute love of God for eternity. Now, would it be possible that they (souls) will bring with them that particular consequence when they are resurrected?

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Tonyrey, how would you explain my second and third point in my previous post? I enumerated three, you only responded to one. Or maybe you could share how you understand this doctrine?

It is weird and unnecessary!

Weird, it is! So much so that it’s because of this “weirdness” that makes me confused on the many aspects of the doctrine. Some even think it’s not gonna happen, and St. Augustine, as quoted by the Catholic Encyclopedia, acknowledged that reality:

“No doctrine of the Christian Faith”, says St. Augustine, “is so vehemently and so obstinately opposed as the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh” (In Ps. lxxxviii, sermo ii, n. 5).

But unnecessary? I don’t know. Can someone shed some light with regards to this phenomenon’s necessity?

For us to discuss within the same context, please go here: General Resurrection

Still, my question is yet to be answered.** Where will we reside when we are resurrected: Heven or Earth (Material Universe)? Why? How so?**

Just as before, insights and corrections are very, very much welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!