Easter Sunday

Readings for Sunday: Acts, Colossians, John

The shocking truth: Jesus, in his humanity, rose bodily from the tomb. We live in a culture where people often think that a human is a soul in a body, as if the soul were merely driving the body like we drive our cars. And then, at death, the soul is free from the body to live forever without the body. However, that is not true. Jesus’ bodily resurrection, and he now lives forever, shows us the truth.

We as humans do not simply have bodies, like we have cars — we are bodily. We are the unity of body and soul. If someone were to punch you, your response would not be, “why did you hit my body?” but “why did you hit me?” Your body is an integral part of what you are as human. In Catholic thought we are soul-bodies, the unique combination of the physical and spiritual. In that way we are both like and unlike the other animals; in that way we are both like and unlike the angels.  Animals are merely physical creatures.  Angels are pure spirits. Humans sit at the threshold or boundary of both realms.

Death, then, is not natural to our design but a rupture. It is the tearing apart of what was meant to be united: body and soul. This is why both lifeless bodies and disembodied spirits unsettle us—they point to something fundamentally broken. More deeply, death also reflects a rupture between humanity and God, brought about by sin, which is a failure to love.
The resurrection of Jesus transforms this reality. In Him, the division caused by sin is healed. His resurrection was not the mere reunification of body and soul, but also the transformation of the soul-body in glory. Jesus is glorified and now lives forever, making it possible for humanity to live in relationship with God forever. It was not a return to Eden, but the beginning of divine adoption of men and women as sons and daughters of God, heirs of the kingdom.