It is a fundamental article of the Catholic Faith that we believe in "the resurrection of the body." (See the Apostle’s Creed). The first body to be raised from the dead is that of Jesus. Easter, of course, celebrates his Resurrection; but we believe that we also will have our bodies raised from the dead in union with the Risen Lord.
What exactly is the resurrection of the body? First, it is not what we call the resuscitation of a dead body. Sometimes a person may be clinically dead and through medical technology might be quickly brought back to life. Nothing about such a resuscitated body would be changed: it would still be subject to decay, pain, wounds, illness, even death again. It would still be what we call "a mortal body." A risen body is not subject to any of the things a mortal body is subject to because a risen body is immortal.
St. Paul, in teaching about how the risen body is different from our earthly body writes: "For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:53)
Suppose, however, that a dead body could be brought back to life and by a supernatural act be preserved from further aging, decay, wounds and pain, illness, and death again? Would that be a risen body? Again the answer would be "no." This is because a risen body is a different kind of body than our present earthly body. There is a change that an earthly body undergoes in the resurrection. Again, St. Paul writes:
"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep [i.e., die], but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
In some ways, when we try to artistically portray the Risen body of Christ, it still looks like what we would expect a body to look like in this world. Thus, Alexander Ivanov's portait of the Risen Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, is typical:
But, I would say we would have to portray a Risen Body differently, but it is difficult to say how; perhaps like this:
The problem is that a risen body belongs not to this world but to "the life of the world to come" and is thus unable to be adequately pictured in terms of this world.
This leads us back to the original question, slightly modified: what is this changed risen body like? The various Gospel accounts about the appearances of Jesus after his Resurrection describe something mysterious about his physical manifestation. The Catechism describes what is titled "The condition of Christ's risen humanity":
"By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm. For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith." (#645)
"Christ's Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jairus' daughter, the young man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the persons miraculously raised returned by Jesus' power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. Christ's Resurrection is essentially different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus' Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is ‘the man of heaven’." (#646)
So Christ has a glorious body, which exists in a state of life beyond space and time, possessing properties our body does not have in this present earthly state. St. Paul calls this "a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:44) He doesn’t mean, however, that the risen body has no physical component; otherwise, we could just say that the soul survives death and the physical body doesn’t. Human beings are a unity of soul and body, and the Catholic Christian teaching is that this unity will survive death in the resurrection of the body.
What we need is a term to describe a physical state which transcends this present earthly existence in which we live. A physicality beyond space and time, immortal and glorious. It would be both spiritual and physical; if in this present existence of ours, our bodies seem to be more physical, in the Resurrection they will seem to be more spiritual. Yet, both physical and spiritual will be transformed in the risen body. Thus, one term suggested is that a body is "transphysical." "Trans-" as a prefix can mean "beyond" or "changed" and the physicality of a risen body would be beyond the present earthly and mortal state of our body: it would be a new creation, a changed kind of matter or materiality.
That Christ is the first-fruits of this Risen life and body (see 1 Corinthians 15:23) has a number of implications of how we share in his body and risen life, as the next several teachings will examine.
