RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. - The Catholic Church believes that, at the end of the world, all the dead, good and wicked, will rise again to be judged by Jesus Christ and to receive eternal reward or punishment. This dogma is commonly stated with the expression "carnis resurrectio" to indicate that the lower part of the human composite, by divine power, will be reunited with the immortal soul.
I. TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
1. Scripture
In the Old Testament the revelation of this truth was progressive, in harmony with slow divine preparations (Yahweh, God of life: Gen. 5:24; Deut. 32:39; I Kings 17; II Kings 2:3, 11-12; 4:33-36; 13:21; Ps. 9:2; Wis. 2:24; 16:13) and with deep aspirations of the human heart (permanent familiarity with God: Gen. 3:8; Is. 38:18; Ps. 6:5-6; 73:25; otherworldly justice as the work of Yahweh: Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18). The first hint appears in the 8th century B.C., under the veil of symbolism in Hos. 6:1-2: "Come, let us return to God, for it is he who has wounded us and will heal us: he has struck us and will restore us to health; after two days he will revive us and on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his presence" (cf. Hos. 13:14). The spiritual resurrection of the chosen people is promised to Ezekiel (37:1-10) under the grandiose image of an ossuary (arida ossa), which at the breath of the spirit of God becomes a living army "grandis nimis valde." Isaiah announces the definitive disappearance of death (25:8) and the triumphant restoration of the chosen people, as it were returning from exile as from the tomb, in terms that spontaneously evoke the concept of the resurrection of bodies (26:19; cf. F. Notscher, Altorientalischer und alttestamentlicher Auferstehungsglauben, Würzburg 1926, p. 159). The celebrated text of Job (19:23-27) is today strongly disputed; the version of the Vulgate, of which the Church makes ample use in the liturgy of the dead, clearly expresses faith in the resurrection: "Scio enim quod Redemptor meus vivit et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum et rursus circumdabor pelle mea et in carne mea videbo Deum. Quem visurus sum ego ipse et oculi mei conspecturi sunt et non alius"; the Masoretic text is less explicit and in some places probably corrupt. The author, who wrote in a period of persecutions, announces the individual resurrection of the good and the wicked with a view to judgment, as warnings to the impious subject to an otherworldly justice. The seven Maccabean brothers, martyred one by one, made a solemn profession of faith in the future resurrection: "You, O wretch, take us out of this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws" (II Macc. 7:9; cf. 7:14, 17; 12:43-45 [offering for the dead: v. PURGATORY]; 14:46 [episode of Razis]).
This doctrine, accepted only by the more elevated souls of Israel and rejected by the entire Sadducean sect (cf. Mt. 22:23; Lk. 22:27; Acts 4:1-2; 23:8), became universal teaching in Christianity. Jesus, having refuted the error of the Sadducees (Mt. 22:23-33), amply confirmed the teaching of the Pharisees (cf. IV Esd. 7:32) and of the best Israelites (Mt. 10:28; 14:2; Lk. 9:8; 14:14), above all in the conversation with Martha: "Your brother will rise again. Martha answered: I know that he will rise again at the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live" (Jn. 11:23-25). Previously Christ had affirmed his own divinity by appealing to his power, common with the Father, to raise the dead: "... Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live..." (Jn. 5:21, 25, 28-29). In the discourse given in the Synagogue of Capernaum Jesus established an intimate relationship between his Eucharistic flesh and somatic resurrection (ibid. 6:39-40) and again attributed to himself the divine power to raise the dead (ibid. 6:55). These categorical affirmations of Jesus had the dazzling proof of facts, above all in his Resurrection (v. GESÙ CRISTO).
Apostolic preaching is concentrated on this fact. St. Peter and St. John "annunciabant in Iesu resurrectionem ex mortuis" (Acts 4:2; cf. Rev. 20:11 ff.) and St. Paul professed his faith in this truth, disputing with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in the Areopagus (ibid. 17:32), before the priests and Sadducees of Jerusalem (ibid. 23:6), before the Roman governor Felix (ibid. 24:15), before Agrippa (ibid. 26:8, 23); he vindicated its somatic meaning against Hymenaeus and Philetus (II Tim. 2:18); he used it as an indisputable truth to console the Thessalonians saddened by the death of their loved ones (I Thess. 4:13); he demonstrated its credibility from the Resurrection of Jesus (I Cor. 15:12-19).
from the solidarity of the members with the head (ibid. 15, 20-22), from Baptism "for the dead" (ibid. 15, 29), from the heroism of the apostolate (ibid. 15, 30-32), from the perfect victory of Christ over death (ibid. 15, 53-57), from the desire placed by God in the human heart for a perfect reintegration of the human composite (Rom. 8, 22-23), from the character and the gift of the Holy Spirit as a divine pledge (Eph. 1, 13-14; 4, 30; II Cor. 5, 4-5), from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8, 11); he illustrated its possibility from the analogy of the seed (I Cor. 15, 36). In the letter to the Hebrews (6, 1-2) he placed among the fundamental doctrines (βενέλων) of Christianity that of the r. of the dead (cf. L. Simeoni, Doctrina resurr. iustorum in ep. s. Pauli, Rome 1938, pp. 86-123; L. Cerfaux, La résurr. des morts dans la vie et la pensée de St Paul, in Lumière et vie, 1 [1952], pp. 61-82).
2. Tradition
From the very beginning of the Church the r. of the dead was strongly attacked by the pagans (cf. St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps., 88, 2: PL 37, 1134), therefore the first apologists were particularly solicitous in defending it. After the testimonies of the Didaché (16, 6), of Ps. Barnabas (5, 6; 21, 1), of I Clem. 24, 1-5 (Pauline idea of the seed) and 25-26 (the legend of the Arabian phoenix), of St. Justin (I Apol., 18-19: PG 6, 356-57: comparison of the seed), of Tatian (Adv. Graecos, 6: PG 6, 817-20: God can recompose the body despite the most disparate transformations), there appeared the first treatise De resurr. carnis by Athenagoras (PG 6, 973-1024) in which he demonstrates the possibility (he who created the body can make it rise again, even in the hypothesis of anthropophagy) and the necessity of this eschatological event (destiny, nature, end of man, justice of God). After the counterattack of St. Irenaeus against the denial of the Gnostics (Adv. Haeres., IV, 18, 5; V, 2, 2; V, 3, 2: PG 7, 1027-29; 1123-30), Tertullian gathered all the elements of Scripture and Tradition in the De resurrectione carnis (PL 2, 791-886), of which the arguments of fitness are famous, drawn from the mutations of creation (ch. 12: ibid., 810; cf. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 34: PL 3, 347), from the dignity of the human flesh (ch. 9, ibid. 2, 807), from divine justice (ch. 8: ibid. 806), from the perfection of salvation (ch. 34: ibid. 842; cf. H. I. Marrou, La résurr. des morts et les Apologistes des prem. siècles, in Lumière et vie, 1 [1952], pp. 83-91). Origen in the De principiis, II, 3, 7 and III, 54 seems to cast doubt on whether the elect will have the body in the other life, but this is not his exact or definitive thought, since elsewhere he openly condemns the Gnostics, who admitted the salvation of the soul only; cf. F. Prat, Origène, Paris 1907, pp. 88-89; he denied only the material identity of the risen body (cf. St. Jerome, Ep. ad Pammachium: PG 11, 95-96), attempting however to preserve the essential identity with the use of Aristotelian concepts (cf. A. Michel, art. cit. in bibl., coll. 2530-31).
Justinian (Ep. ad patriarcham Menam: Mansi, IX, 516 and 533) attributed to Origen the idea that bodies will rise again in spherical form, but of this no trace is found in the surviving works. Origen, misinterpreted, gave occasion for a polemic, in which the manner of the r. of the dead was variously discussed and the truth ever more asserted (St. Methodius of Olympus, De resurrectione, 32: PG 18, 317 ff.; St. Epiphanius, Haeres., 64: PG 51, 1188). In the 4th and 5th centuries tradition followed its normal course through the writings of the great Syrian Fathers (Aphraates, Demostr., 7: St. Ephrem, Sermo in II dom. Adv., ed. Assemani, II, Rome 1743, p. 213), Greek Fathers (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech., 18: PG 33, 1040; St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in resurr. mort., 7: PG 50, 429; St. Basil, In Ps., 44, 1: PG 29, 388; St. Gregory of Nyssa, De hominis opificio, 27: PG 44, 225-28) and Latin Fathers (St. Hilary, In Ps., 2, 9: PL 9, 285; St. Ambrose, De excessu fratris Satyri, II, 60-64: PL 16, 1332-33; St. Jerome, Ep., 108, 31: PL 22, 902; St. Augustine, Serm., 361 and 362: PL 39, 1599, 1611; Enchiridion, chs. 84-92: PL 50, 272-75; De Civitate Dei, XXII, 21-22: PL 41, 782-83). Scholasticism occupied itself above all with the speculative problems that this truth raises (cf. St. Thomas, Contra Gentes, IV, 80-89).
3. Doctrine of the Church
The magisterium from the beginning expressed the revealed doctrine in an article later inserted into the various professions of faith: "Credo... carnis resurrectionem" (Apostles' Creed, Denz-U, 2, 6, 8); "Exspectamus resurrectionem mortuorum" (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, ibid., 86); cf. Creed of St. Epiphanius (ibid., 14); Fides Damasi (ibid., 16), Athanasian Creed (ibid., 40), Council of Braga (of 561; ibid., 242), Creed of Leo IX of 1053 (ibid., 347), Profession of Michael Palaeologus of 1247 (ibid., 464), bull Benedictus Deus, of Bene-
discourse XII of 1336 (ibid., 532). Profession of faith of Pius IV (ibid., 994).
II. THE IDENTITY OF THE RISEN BODIES
It is explicitly revealed in I Cor. 15:53 "Oportet enim corruptibile hoc (τοῦτο) induere immortalitatem," and expressed by Tertullian: "Resurget caro et quidem omnis, et quidem ipsa, et quidem integra" (De resurrectione carnis, 63: PL 2, 933); by St. Jerome (Contra Johannem Hieros., 30: PL 23, 398), by St. Augustine (Sermo, 264, 6: PL 38, 1217; "ista caro resurget, ista ipsa quae sepeltitur, quae moritur"), and by Theodoret (In I Cor., 15, 53: PG 82, 367), and it is solemnly defined in the Symbol of Leo IX: "Credo etiam veram resurrectionem eiusdem carnis quam nunc gesto" (Denz-U, 347) and in the ecumenical councils Lateran IV (ibid., 429) and Lyons II (ibid., 464).
When one asks how a human body that has become dust, mingled with the most disparate cosmic elements, can be recomposed in its numerical identity, one must confess that one is faced with the mystery common to all aspects of the economy of salvation (cf. L. Billot, De novissimis, Rome 1938, p. 154). This explains the divergences among theologians in the way they conceive the identity of the risen bodies. Passing over the disputed opinion of Charles Bonnet (d. 1799: he held that a spiritual body, like a germ, would remain adhering to the soul, from which the body would then develop naturally; he was thoroughly refuted by A. Muzzarelli, Il buon uso della logica, Foligno 1788, chaps. 1 and 4), one must recall the attempt of Durandus, according to whom, in order to have the identity of the risen body, the identity of the form (the soul) is sufficient, whatever the matter may be to which it will be united by divine power (IV Sent., d. 44, q. 1). Although this explanation pleased Billot (De novissimis, Rome 1838, pp. 154-62, followed by Hugueny, Michel, Feuling), it does not however appear acceptable, especially because it does not seem to preserve perfectly what the documents of the faith require for the numerical identity of the risen body. Therefore the doctrine of St. Thomas is to be preferred on this point as well; namely that "ex coniunctione eiusdem animae numero ad eamdem materiam numero homo unus numero reparabitur" (Contra Gent., IV, 81; cf. Compendium theologiae, chap. 153; Sum. Theol., suppl., q. 79, a. 1, ad 3); a principle applied with great moderation, whereby it is not required that all the matter successively informed by the soul in the course of human life be taken up again, but "praecipue illud resumendum videtur, quod perfectius fuit sub forma et specie humanitatis consistens" (Contra Gent., IV, 81). Thus he rejects the difficulty of anthropophagy (ibid.), which had surfaced from the earliest times of Christianity.
III. PROPERTIES AND DOCTRINE OF THE RISEN BODIES
The bodies of those who will rise again will enjoy natural and preternatural prerogatives, called proprietates: a) immortality (a preternatural prerogative), explicitly asserted in 1 Cor. 15:53; Lk. 20:35; Rev. 21:4; also for the bodies of the damned; b) integrity (a natural prerogative), which implies the restoration of the members (cf. Denz-U, 207), the distinction of the sexes (cf. St. Jerome, Epitaphium Paulae, 22: PL 22, 900; St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XXII, 17: PL 41, 778) and the perfection of the sexes (cf. L. Lessius, De summo bono, I, III, ch. 8); c) beauty and physical comeliness (a natural property), of which St. Augustine treats at length: « Nihil tunc vitii in corporibus existet » (De Civitate Dei, XXII, 19: PL 41, 781).
The glorious bodies will furthermore have four totally supernatural gifts, called dotes, of which St. Paul speaks in 1 Cor. 15:42-44; a) impassibility or incorruptibility (ἀφθαρσία) derived from the perfect subjection of the body to the soul (cf. St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., suppl., q. 82, a. 1), whereby they will be preserved from every pain (cf. Is. 25:8; 49:10; Rev. 7:16-17; 21:4); b) clarity (δόξα), which will reflect upon the bodies of the Saints the interior splendor of the soul (Sum. Theol., suppl., q. 85, a. 1), making them conformable, even in the body, to the Incarnate Word: (Phil. 3:21) whence « tunc fulgebunt iusti sicut sol in regno Patris mei » (Mt. 13:43; cf. Wis. 3:7; Dan. 12:3); c) agility (δῶσις), whereby the bodies, freed from natural heaviness, will be able to move rapidly from one point to another (cf. Is. 40:31; St. Augustine, Serm., 242, 3: PL 38, 1140): this will come about through the complete subjection of the body to the soul not as form but as mover (Sum. Theol., suppl., q. 84, a. 3); d) subtlety (σῶμα πνευματικόν), which, understood differently, St. Thomas (ibid., q. 83, aa. 1 and 6; Contra Gent., IV, 86) holds to be that gift whereby the body serves perfectly as the instrument of any action; it is commonly interpreted today as the power of glorious bodies to penetrate, without difficulty and without mutual injury, the other bodies of the universe. St. Thomas, moreover, grants to the bodies of the elect also this prerogative (IV Sent., d. 49, q. 4, a. 2, qc. 6, sol. 2; Sum. Theol., suppl., q. 83, a. 2); cf. A. Lépicier, De novissimis, Rome 1921, pp. 463-65).