At death, the soul remains separate from the body. It is reunited with an incorruptible body only at the end of the world. However, not all bodies will be glorified.

Dear Father Angelo,

To summarize briefly and to clarify things, please tell me if I’m wrong: when we die, the soul separates from the body and we receive a spiritual body, as St. Paul says. And with this, we live in paradise. At the moment of the parousia, we receive a carnal body (resurrection of the bodies), which is our transfigured and glorified body.

Is this correct?

Thank you so much.

Lorenzo

Priest’s Response

Dear Lorenzo,

What you wrote is not entirely accurate.

1. It is true that at death the soul separates from the body.

And since it is immortal by nature, it subsists alone as a separate soul.

2. It is helpful to remember that the faculties of intelligence and will are rooted in the soul.

This means that our soul continues to know and love.

How it continues to know and love can be deduced from its state: whether in damnation, purgatory, or paradise.

3. Only at the end of the world, at Christ’s return to earth, at the moment of the parousia, will the soul be reunited with the body.

As Scripture recalls, the body, at the command of an angel, will be resurrected (cf. 1 Cor 15:22).

This body will be resurrected incorruptible and no longer carnal, that is, subject to the demands of this present life.

All, even the damned, will receive incorruptibility.

This is what the sacred text says: “The dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality”. (1 Cor 15:52-53).

4. According to St. Thomas, all are resurrected incorruptible, but only the elect will receive a glorious, spiritual body, conforming to that of the risen Christ.

He states that the resurrection of the dead has a twofold effect: the first is common to all, the second only to the elect, the saved.

5. Regarding the first effect, he writes: “One is common, because the dead will be raised imperishable, i.e., renewed without any diminution of their members. That indeed is common to all, because in the resurrection the reparation of nature pertains to all, because all have communion with Christ in nature. And although Augustine leaves open a doubt whether deformities will remain among the damned, I believe that whatever pertains to the reparation of nature is conferred entirely on them; but what pertains to grace is conferred only on the elect. And therefore all will rise incorruptible, i.e., renewed, even the damned. Therefore, all will be resurrected incorrupt, that is, whole, even the damned” (Commentary on 1 Cor 15:52). 

And this is in accordance with what St. Paul says: “hen this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality” (1 Cor 15:54).

6. “The second effect is proper to the elect because ‘we will be transformed’; and not only will we be incorrupt, but we will also be transformed, that is, from the state of wretchedness to the state of glory, since we are sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body” (ibid.). T-N

7. To conclude: with death, the soul survives immortal, and the body goes into corruption.

Only at the end of the world will all souls be reunited with their bodies, which will be rendered incorruptible.

However, only the bodies of those who will be in heaven will be glorious, transfigured, spiritual.

Here the term spiritual is understood in the Pauline sense, that is, a body made to participate in the grace, glory, and life of God.

With the hope of being resurrected not only incorrupt but also transformed, I bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo

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