Our own story

The early Christians were reputed to engage in cannibalism by eating the flesh of their Lord and drinking his blood. Moreover, they were despised for holding to and teaching the resurrection of the body.

Beginning with the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, Christians proclaimed the resurrection of the body (1 Corinthians 15:37):

And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

Unless we are seized by the love of Christ, which opens our hearts to faith, we cannot enter into the mystery of the resurrection. When we do, our perspective is transformed. Death is no longer the end; hope beckons, and our bodies temples of the Holy Spirit await a real and glorious transformation (1 Corinthians 6:19).

This is not a matter of molecular science; rather, it is a transformation that goes beyond what we can see or fully comprehend. We can only bow down before this great mystery. Yet, in making the assent of faith, we are assured that our personal histories are not lost and that our lives will continue - transformed, yet truly our own. Here is what the Catechism says (#997):

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.

In The Brothers Karamazov, the great literary writer Dostoevsky quotes Alyosha:

Certainly we shall all rise again, certainly we shall see each other and shall tell each other with joy and gladness all that has happened.

We are truly blessed to live in the light of the resurrection and to taste eternal life in the sacrament of the Eucharist - the Body and Blood of Christ, truly present among us.