Today's News: What Was the Risen Body of Christ Made of?

On the third day after his death, Christ rose gloriously from the dead. But have you ever wondered what the resurrected body of Christ was? This is not a matter of unbelief, but of inflexible and childish trust that the risen body of Christ was real, not an invention of the imagination, not an aberration, not a ghost, but actually there, walking, talking, eating , appearing, and vanishing among the disciples exactly in the way Christ intended it. The saints and the Church have provided us with a guide that is just as relevant in terms of modern science as in antiquity.

The resurrected body is real
The reality of the risen body is a fundamental truth of Christianity. The eleventh Synod of Toledo (675 AD) claimed that Christ experienced "a true death in the flesh" (veram carnis mortem) and was restored to life by his own power (57).

Some argued that since Christ appeared through closed doors to his disciples (John 20:26), and vanished before their eyes (Luke 24:31), and appeared in different forms (Mark 16:12), that his body was alone an image . However, Christ himself faced these objections. When Christ appeared to the disciples and thought they saw a spirit, he told them to "handle and see" his body (Luke 24: 37-40). It was not only observable by the disciples, but also tangible and living. Scientifically speaking, there is no stronger proof of the existence of someone who is unable to touch the person and watch him live.

Hence the reason why the theologian Ludwig Ott notes that the resurrection of Christ is considered the strongest proof of the truth of Christ's teaching (Foundations of Catholic dogma). As St. Paul says, "If Christ does not rise, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is also in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:10). Christianity is not true if the resurrection of the body of Christ was only apparent.

The resurrected body is glorified
St. Thomas Aquinas examines this idea in the Summa Theologi ae (part III, question 54). The body of Christ, although real, was "glorified" (ie in a glorified condition). St. Thomas quotes St. Gregory saying that "the body of Christ is shown to be of the same nature, but of different glory, after the resurrection" (III, 54, article 2). What does it mean? It means that a glorified body is still a body, but it is not subject to corruption.

As we would say in modern scientific terminology, the glorified body is not subject to the forces and laws of physics and chemistry. Human bodies, made of the elements on the periodic table, belong to rational souls. Although our intellect powers and give us control over what our bodies do - we can smile, shake, wear our favorite color, or read a book - our bodies are still subject to natural order. For example, all the desires of the world cannot remove our wrinkles or make our children grow. Nor can the non-glorified body avoid death. Bodies are highly organized physical systems and, like all physical systems, they follow the laws of enthalpy and entropy. They need energy to stay alive, otherwise they will decompose, marching with the rest of the universe towards disorder.

This is not the case with glorified bodies. While we cannot take samples of a glorified body in the laboratory to perform a series of elemental analyzes, we can reason through the question. St. Thomas claims that all glorified bodies are still made up of the elements (sup, 82). This was obviously on pre-periodic table days, but nevertheless the element refers to matter and energy. St. Thomas wonders if the elements that make up a body remain the same? Do they do the same? How can they really remain the same substance if they don't act according to their nature? St. Thomas concludes that matter persists, maintains its properties, but becomes more perfected.

Because they say that the elements will therefore remain as a substance and yet that they will be deprived of their active and passive qualities. But this does not seem to be true: because the active and passive qualities belong to the perfection of the elements, so that if the elements were restored without them in the body of the rising man, they would be less perfect than now. (sup, 82, 1)

The same principle that creates elements and forms of bodies is the same principle that perfects them, that is, God. It makes sense that if real bodies are made of elements, then glorified bodies are also. It is possible that electrons and all other subatomic particles in glorified bodies are no longer governed by free energy, the energy that a thermodynamic system has available to do the job, the driving force for stability which explains why atoms and molecules organize the way they do it. In the risen body of Christ, the elements would be subject to the power of Christ, "that of the Word, which must be referred to the essence of God alone" (Synod of Toledo, 43). This fits the Gospel of Saint John: “In the beginning was the Word. . . . All things were made by him. . . . Life was in him “(John 1: 1-4).

All creation is possessed by God. Suffice it to say that a glorified body has living powers that an unglorified body does not have. Glorified bodies are incorruptible (incapable of decay) and impassive (incapable of suffering). They are stronger In the hierarchy of creation, says St. Thomas, the "stronger is not passive towards the weakest" (sup, 82, 1). We can, with St. Thomas, conclude that the elements retain their qualities but are perfected in a higher law. The glorified bodies and all that they contain will be "perfectly subject to the rational soul, even if the soul will be perfectly subject to God" (sup, 82, 1).

Faith, science and hope are united
Note that when we affirm the resurrection of the Lord, we combine faith, science and hope. The natural and supernatural realms come from God, and everything is subject to divine providence. Miracles, glorification and resurrection do not violate laws of physics. These events have the same formal cause that makes rocks fall on the earth, but they are beyond physics.

The resurrection has completed the work of redemption, and the glorified body of Christ is a model of the glorified bodies of the saints. Whatever we suffer, fear or endure during our life, the promise of Easter is the hope of unity with Christ in heaven.

St. Paul is explicit about this hope. He tells the Romans that we are co-heirs with Christ.

Yet if we suffer with him, we can also be glorified with him. For I believe that the sufferings of this time are not worthy of being compared to the glory that will come, which will be revealed in us. (Rom. 8: 18-19, Douai-Reims Bible)

He tells the Colossians that Christ is our life: "When Christ, who is our life, appears, you too will appear with him in glory" (Col 3: 4).

It assures the Corinthians of the promise: “What is mortal can be swallowed up by life. Now the one who does this for us, is God, who gave us the pledge of the Spirit "(2 Cor 5: 4-5, Bible of Douai-Reims).

And he is telling us. Christ is our life beyond suffering and death. When creation is redeemed, free from the tyranny of corruption down to every particle that includes the periodic table, we can hope to become what we were made to be. Hallelujah, he is risen.