21 April 2024

What Type of Body Did Jesus Have When He Rose From the Dead?

I've never worried much about what sort of body Our Lord had after the Resurrection but it's comforting to know that others have and their thoughts are in the Catechism.



From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

Jesus rose from the dead with a body that was the same as before, but it had additional qualities that were not there during his earthly life.

A belief in Jesus’ resurrection includes a belief that Jesus rose from the dead with a physical body.

Jesus did not simply appear to have a body, but had a body that took up space in the natural world.

The Gospel of John goes to great lengths to affirm that Jesus ate food after he rose from the dead:

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. John 21:9-14

Furthermore, Jesus challenged “Doubting Thomas” to touch his wounds:

Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” John 20:26-27

Glorified body

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that Jesus had a real body after his resurrection, but that it also had glorified qualities:

Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’s humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father’s divine realm.

For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith. CCC 645

Jesus certainly had a real, physical body, but it was no longer restricted to the laws of this world.

It is a foretaste of what our own glorified bodies will be like in Heaven after the general resurrection of the dead.

We will have bodies, but they will be different, no longer subject to corruption and able to move about freely in a miraculous way.

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