Day 136: Questions of Resurrection

What is rising? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus' Resurrection. CCC 997

In today's reading, the Catechism tackles some questions about the resurrection of our bodies. When we die, our bodies and souls will be separated until the Parousia of Christ (1 Thess 4:16). The Catechism Compendium summarizes briefly what happens next:

Just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and now lives forever, so he himself will raise everyone on the last day with an incorruptible body: “Those who have done good will rise to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation” (Jn 5:29). (#204)

The "how" of our bodily resurrection "exceeds our imagination and understanding" and "is accessible only to faith." I do like how the Catechism quotes from St. Irenaeus of Lyons that "participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies":

Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so to our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection. (CCC 1000)

I also like how the Catechism Companion, Vol II tells us that:

Believers have already risen with Christ in a spiritual sense through Baptism. (p. 37)

Finally, Catechism Companion speaks about the bodies we will have in the afterlife:

Divine revelation does not provide us with any details about what our resurrected bodies will look like in heaven. But we do know that our resurrected state "exceeds" our imagination and understanding (see CCC 1000). Our glorified bodies will be free from illness, weakness, and pain, and they will radiate the light of Christ. As St. Paul tells us, "No eye has seen, nor ear hear, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9). (p. 37)

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo (1541) in the Sistine Chapel, Rome