CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:

• Penance (Continued)
• Extreme Unction
• Order (Holy Orders)
• Matrimony
• The General Resurrection
  • 69. The Place of Departed Souls
  • 70. Quality of a Separated Soul
  • 71. Suffrages for the Dead
  • 72. Prayers to the Saints
  • 73. Signs Preceding General Resurrection and Judgement
  • 74. The Fire of Judgment Day
  • 75. The Resurrection of the Body
  • 76. The Cause of the Resurrection of the Body
  • 77. Time and Manner of the Resurrection of the Body
  • 78. The Starting Point of the Bodily Resurrection
  • 79. The Risen Body
  • 80. The Integrity of the Risen Body
  • 81. The Quality of Those Risen from the Dead
  • 82. The Impassibility of Risen Bodies
  • 83. The Subtlety of Risen Bodies
  • 84. The Agility of Risen Bodies
  • 85. The Clarity of Risen Bodies
  • 86. The Risen Bodies of the Damned
• The Last Things
• Appendix I (The Innocents in Limbo)
• Appendix II (Two Notes on Purgatory)

78. The Starting Point of the Bodily Resurrection

1. Every movement has its starting point and its goal, and themovement itself consists in the transit or "going over"from the first of these to the second. Now, the movement of thebodies of men to life in the final resurrection, has its beginningor starting point in the state of death. Therefore, all men mustdie. Those who are alive on earth when the last day comes will die,and then rise in the general resurrection.

2. All human beings shall rise from the dust and ashes towhich death and decay (or the final fire) reduces them. Scripturesays (Gen. 3:19): "Dust thou art, and into dust thou shaltreturn."

3. There is, in the dust and ashes to which bodies arereduced, no tendency towards reconstruction as human bodies. Thedivine plan and the divine power bring about the resurrection,uniting each soul with the dust and ashes which, by reason of theunion, is constituted as the proper body of the vivifying soul.

"A tree that is cultivated and guarded through the care of its owner produces its fruit at the expected time. "
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

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"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life."
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri

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