Friday, June 24, 2016
Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 153 – Part II.
(Youcat
answer - repeated) In Jesus Christ, God himself took on “flesh” (Incarnation)
in order to redeem mankind. The biblical word “flesh” characterizes man in his
weakness and mortality. Nevertheless, God does not regard human flesh as
something inferior. God does not redeem man’s spirit only; he redeems him
entirely, body and soul.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 995)
To be a witness to Christ is to be a "witness to his Resurrection,"
to "[have eaten and drunk] with him after he rose from the dead"
(Acts 1:22; 10:41; cf. 4:33). Encounters with the risen Christ characterize the
Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ, with him, and
through him. (CCC 996) From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection
has met with incomprehension and opposition (Cf. Acts 17:32; 12Cor 15:12-13).
"On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on
the resurrection of the body"(St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 88, 5: PL 37, 1134). It is very commonly accepted that
the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But
how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting
life? (CCC 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.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment)
God created us with a
body (flesh) and a soul. At the end of the world he does not drop the “flesh”
like an old toy. On the “Last Day” he will remake all creation and raise us up
in the flesh—this
means that we will be transformed but still experience ourselves in our
element. For Jesus, too, being in the flesh was not just a phase. When the
risen Lord showed himself, the disciples saw the wounds on his body.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 1000)
This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is
accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives
us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies: Just as bread that
comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon 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 (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4, 18, 4-5: PG 7/1,
1028-1029).
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