Luke 20:27-38
The Resurrection of the Body by Rev. Paul
Scalia
Reprinted with permission of "The Arlington Catholic
Herald"
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Luke writes to explain that
Christ came to save everyone.
Some
Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put
this question to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's
brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and
raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the
first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third
married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman
also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "The children
of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the
coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in
marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are
the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead
will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called
out 'Lord', the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and his
is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
During His last
days in Jerusalem, Our Lord encounters several traps set for Him by the scribes,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In most instances - example, regarding
authority (Lk 20:1-8), divorce (Mt 19:3-9) and taxes (Lk 20:21-25) - the
questioners want Our Lord to commit to one school of thought or the other.
They want to ensnare Him in their theological battles. But He avoids their
traps with answers that transcend their quarrels and thus do not answer
directly.
When the
Sadducees ask about the resurrection of the dead, however, the situation is
different. As the Gospels make clear, He responds not only directly but
also forcefully. He cites the authority of Moses: "That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bust". (Lk 20:37) And
He accuses the scholars of Scripture of error: "You are misled because you do
not know the scriptures or the power of God." (Mt 22:29) "You are greatly
misled." (Mk 12:27) Thus does Our Lord strongly confirm what we profess
every Sunday: the resurrection of the dead.
Now, this has
always been a difficult teaching. Centuries ago, St. Augustine observed,
"On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the
resurrection of the body." So also today, although people may oppose other
teachings more, they certainly do not understand or appreciate the resurrection
of the body.
By "resurrection"
we mean a physical one, of course. It is not just that we will rise again
in the sense of living on in people's memories or in monuments of stone.
Our bodies - the same body by which you are reading this . . . or dozing off -
those bodies will be raised. And this is only just. The body is not
a mere instrument through which the soul functions. It is rather, part of
who we are and therefore will be part of again in eternity. Since our
bodies have participated with our souls in doing good or in doing evil, they
deserve to receive also either reward or punishment on the last day.
But let's focus
on the rewards - God's desire for us. The body raised and reunited with
our souls in heaven will be a glorified body. There will be no defect or
flaw. Our bodies will be made perfect with the beauty that God intends for
each of us. The body is destined for eternal glory. It is only by
deliberate rejection of God that it would receive suffering instead.
From the teaching
on the body's eternal end arise several requirements for life now. After
all, we should always live in light of our final goal. Our resurrection
calls to mind the respect - indeed, reverence - with which we should treat the
body (ours and others') here and now. What God has destined for glory
ought not be neglected, abused or treated as a plaything - which is precisely
how our culture treats the body.
On the contrary,
we invest our bodies in our faith and worship; we reverence the body even in
death. We fast and feast and kneel and genuflect and make the sign of the
cross. Cardinal Ratzinger once referred to such practices as "training for
the resurrection." A good way for us to think of the body - and indeed the
entirety of the Catholic life.
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