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Question 202

Why does the church believe in bodily resurrection? I mean, after death, the body decomposes...

 

Answer to Question 202

 

Man was created as a psychosomatic creature consisting of both body and soul. On separation of the soul at death the soul lives on in eternity but the body dies and decomposes. At the General Resurrection of the Dead, our soul will be reunited with our body, but our bodies will not be as they are now, they will be immortal without the possibility of decay and death. 

 

The Christian message is that man is a unified psychosomatic being, and that both the soul and the body are needed for man to be complete. Can we say that the soul by itself is man? No. Can we then perhaps say that the body itself is man? No… Man is that which is made up of both”. Of course one may ask: since our body will one day be eaten by the worms, how can it then be given back to us, how can all those memories be ours again? We cannot come up with a scientific explanation. All we can do is remind ourselves that God is almighty, and in any case, to resurrect our body is not as difficult as bringing us into being out of nothingness.