Daily Retreat 06/07/06

2006 Jun 7 Wed: Ordinary Weekday

2 Tm 1: 1-3. 6-12/ Ps 122(123): 1b-2ab. 2cdef/ Mk 12: 18-27

From today’s readings: "For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.... To You, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.... Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?"

Resurrection

Even though, at the center of our Christian hope, there stands the Resurrection of Christ and His promise that His faithful disciples would share in His Resurrection, it is unfortunate that many Christians are critically confused about just what "resurrection" is.

Human beings are creatures of God composed of body and soul. Human death is thus defined as the separation of body and soul, when the physical aspect (body) is no longer animated by the spiritual facet (soul).

Most people, Christians and non-Christians, believe in the immortality of the soul, viz., that the spiritual "core" of each person does not cease to exist with the person’s physical demise. But Christian faith goes much further, for the Christian dogma about resurrection is not just about the soul. Clearly, the immortal soul does not need to rise again, so "resurrection,"in fact, always refers to the body!

To quote §997 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "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."

God who created us body and soul, redeemed us body and soul, ultimately calls us to enjoy the fullness of life with Him, body and soul! Modern dualism, however, insidiously tries to reduce Christian faith by limiting discussion of the aspect of afterlife to merely the spiritual realm. But the unfortunate consequence of that mistaken view is that a person’s body is then treated merely as a thing, as a disposable vessel for the person’s soul, and that attitude leads to a speedy decay of Christian bodily ethics.

Like the Sadducees, all those who deny, dismiss, or downplay the resurrection of the body stand in need of Christ’s vital correction: "Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?... He is not God of the dead, but of the living! You are greatly mistaken."