Father Angelo,

I would like to take advantage of your time for a question I’ve been pondering. I shall get straight to the point: we know that only through Christ can we be resurrected, and that the final resurrection of all men will be a resurrection in Christ. But then what does the resurrection of all, even the damned, mean? When Jesus in the Gospels says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” and then continues, “Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die,” isn’t He implying that the resurrection will concern only His own, those who on that day will be found in Him and with Him? Doesn’t the Church teach that only by conforming ourselves as closely as possible to Christ can we share His same post-mortem destiny?

So the questions are these: 1) Where did the Church derive the dogma of the resurrection of all men at the end of time? and 2) Has theology reflected on this topic? What explanations does it offer?

Thank you in advance for your attention and answer.

Federico

The Priest’s answer

Dear,

1. The Church received the truth concerning the resurrection of the dead from the very mouth of Our Lord when He said: “Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation” (Jn 5:28–29).

To tell all the truth, the prophet Daniel had already spoken of the resurrection of the dead:

“At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.” (Dan 12:1–2). Jesus specifies that this resurrection will come about through His power, because all shall hear His voice.

2. It must be observed that the Lord speaks of the resurrection of those who are in the tombs, that is to say, of the resurrection of the bodies. Indeed, souls have already received judgment immediately after separation from the body. Some souls are already united to the risen Christ, whereas others are already eternally separated from Him. This means that the final resurrection will take place through Christ, and not in Christ. It will be a resurrection through Christ and in Christ solely for the bodies whose souls are already in heaven. It will be a resurrection through Christ, but not in Christ, for the bodies whose souls are already in hell. 

3. Clearly, the Church has embraced this announcement from the very beginning, as St. Paul writes in the Letter to the Philippians: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself” (Phil 3:20–21).

4. Also to be noted is what the Lord added: “those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Jesus said this so that nobody would believe that faith alone, without good works, is sufficient for salvation. Protestants, on the other hand, will assert that one is saved by faith alone, without works. Hence Luther concluded in a letter to Melanchthon: “Sin boldly, but believe even more boldly.”

The least that can be said is that this statement is not according to the logic of the Gospel.

5. You ask what the explanation of the Church is.

Well, this explanation is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church through two statements.

The first: “The resurrection of all the dead, “of both the just and the unjust,” (Acts 24:15) will precede the Last Judgment. This will be “the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” (Jn 5:28–29). Then Christ will come “in his glory, and all the angels with him …. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left…. and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life’ (Mt 25:31; Mt 25:32; Mt 25:46)” (CCC 1038).

6. The second: “In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare.624 The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life” (CCC 1039).

7. At this point, the Catechism of the Catholic Church reports what St. Augustine wrote: “All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know. When “our God comes, he does not keep silence” (Ps 50,3) … he will turn towards those at his left hand: . . . “I placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as their head was seated in heaven at the right hand of my Father – but on earth my members were suffering, my members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would that you had known that my little ones were in need when I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence” (Sermons, 18,4).

Wishing that your entire life may be a good deed continuously performed and that it may be inscribed in your favor in the book of life (cf. Rev 21:27), I bless you.

Father Angelo

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