Raise The Dead

Brothers and sisters: Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?” You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one. (1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49)

Have we “raised the dead” recently?  I don’t mean playing loud music on a summer night to wake the neighborhood raising people from death-like sleep?  I don’t mean forgiving someone so they raise from a spiritual, death-like existence of pain, guilt, and regret (perhaps I do).  Raising the dead is not an easy concept to understand, and what kind of body in which we return surely is debatable although Paul tells us it will be as spiritual body, not a physical one.

Making his point he speaks of a bare kernel of wheat (as our body that will die) to transform into something glorious.  A tall stalk of wheat and what it produces is a far cry from a simple kernel or seed.  Such is the case with most plants.  Tall oak trees from little acorns grow.

Paul tells us that right now we are earthly bodies.  We eventually will be spiritual ones in heaven, like Jesus.  That will be our resurrection from death when we become incorruptible, glorious and powerful.  It’s hard to imagine, but it will be our fate – spiritual bodies that will bear the image of the heavenly one.  And why not?  We all were born in the image and likeness of God, were we not?

None of us really understands what that implies.  Nevertheless, we accept it through faith.  Specifically, our Catechism ends with an useful analogy from second century Father of the Church, Saint Irenaeus who said: “Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God’s blessing has been invoked upon it, it is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection (ccc 1000).”  This all exceeds our imagination and understanding.

Deacon David Pierce