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Death is Not the End / Resurrection
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Death (Topic Page)
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"You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body. Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for human beings, another kind of flesh for animals, another kind of flesh for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the brightness of the heavenly is one kind and that of the earthly another. The brightness of the sun is one kind, the brightness of the moon another, and the brightness of the stars another. For star differs from star in brightness.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written,
'The first man, Adam, became a living being,' the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly one." (1 Cor. 15:36-49)
"This I declare, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, 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.
And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
(1 Cor. 15:50-58)
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no
more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them (as their God). He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed
away.' The one who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things
new.' Then he said, 'Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and
true.'"
(Rv. 21:1-5)
"Life goes on even after the body
dies"
"[W]hat has died
[shall] be made to live again" (St. Ambrose, Doctor of
the Church)
"[You
are] going to a place where you will never die"
"I am not dying; I am
entering life." (St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the
Church)
"But it is flesh that dies; the soul is
immortal." (St. Epiphanius of Salamis, c. 374 A.D.)
"Have the courage to believe the Good News
about life which Jesus teaches in the Gospel." (Pope John
Paul II)
"For the life of thy faithful, O Lord, is
altered, not taken away" (Preface)
"When you awake in that world, you will
find that nothing could tempt you to return to this!" (St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton)
"Physical death can well be called a new
birth, because of the release from an onerous body and because one
enters unencumbered into eternal blessedness." (Bl. Henry
Suso)
"If earth and heaven are renewed, why
should be doubt that man can be renewed, when it is on his account
that earth and heaven were made?" (St. Ambrose of Milan,
Doctor of the Church, 378
A.D.)
"A Christian ought in no way doubt that the
flesh of all men who have been born and who will be born, and who
have died and who will die, will rise again." (St. Augustine,
Doctor of the Church, c. 421 A.D.)
"[W]e are compelled to assent to the
resurrection of the dead, which God will bring about at its
appointed time, when in His works He will make good His own
promises." (St. Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century A.D.)
"Death itself is anything but an event
without hope. It is the door which opens wide on eternity and, for
those who live in Christ, an experience of participation in the
mystery of his Death and Resurrection." (Pope John Paul II, 1995)
"The souls of the just are in the hands of
God, and the torment of malice shall not touch them: in the sight
of the unwise they seemed to die, but they are in peace,
alleluia." (Offertory)
"Faith in the resurrection of Christ never
misleads us, and hope in our own resurrection never deceives us,
because God the Father both restored our Lord to life and will
restore us to life too by virtue of his power." (St. Bede the
Venerable, Doctor of the Church)
"What I pray you is dying? Just what it is
to put off a garment. For the body is about the soul as a garment;
and after laying this aside for a short time by means of death, we
shall resume it again with more splendor." (St. John
Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, 4th century A.D.)
"Death will be eternal when the soul will
not be able to possess God and live, nor to die and escape the
pains of the body. The first death drives the soul from the body
against her will; the second death holds the soul in the body
against her will." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 420 A.D.)
"And in regard to the corrupting and
wasting of the body, you ought to be instructed by the figure of
the seed; for the seed, when it falls to the ground, decays and is
corrupted, and from its own decaying it grows and blooms and bears
fruit." (St. Aphraates,
c. 336-345 A.D.)
"Just as I had no being before I was born...[I]
was
then born and have obtained through birth the certainty of my own
existence: in just the same way, having been born and then through
death existing no longer, and seen no longer, I shall exist again
- just as formerly I was not, but was afterwards born." [Tatian ("early Christian apologist who eventually apostatized"), 2nd century A.D.]
"And our death, too: when the moment comes
for us to undergo that sentence which even Thou didst submit to,
we will accept it with resignation. Terrible as that last hour is
to nature, our faith tells us that Thy death has merited for it
graces rich enough to make it sweet. Thy death, dearest Jesus! Has
made our death become but a passing into life" (Gueranger)
"...death, which tears us away from all
other friends, will unite me to you forever. All the humiliations
attached to old age, or to loss of honor, will never detach me
from you. On the contrary, I shall never enjoy you more fully, and
you will never be closer to me than when everything seems to
conspire against me, to overwhelm me and to cast me down."
(St. Claude de la Colombiere)
"And the body is moved to what is proper to
it in accord with its nature, and undergoes the changes allotted to
it; and among the other changes of age, appearance and
size, is the resurrection. For the resurrection is a species of change, the last of all, and a change for the better
in those things which remain at that time." [Athenagoras of Athens (early Christian apologist), 2nd century A.D.]
"The word of the priest enters the soul and
brings light and power; the voice of the priest rises calmly above
the storms of passion, fearlessly to proclaim the truth, and
exhort to the good; that truth which elucidates and solves the
gravest problems of human life; that good which no misfortune can
take from us, which death but secures and renders immortal."
(Pope Pius XI, "Ad Catholici Sacerdotii", 1935)
"The great truth which we learn from nature
herself is also the grand Christian dogma on which religion rests
as on its foundation - that, when we have given up this present
life, then shall we really begin to live. God has not created us
for the perishable and transitory things of earth, but for things
heavenly and everlasting; He has given us this world as a place of
exile, and not as our abiding place." (Pope Leo XIII, "Rerum
Novarum", 1891)
"If you are willing to listen to the Lord
of the angels, my soul, you will have no reason to envy the angels
their lofty place or how they move at tremendous speeds without
tiring. For you will not only be equal to the angels when you are
freed from the body, but also, when you return to the body that
Christ 'has made like to the body of glory' (Phil. 3:21), you will
possess together with your body heaven as your own home." (St.
Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church)
"Just as seed, existing formlessly in the
beginning, is shaped into a design and increases in bulk, prepared
as it is by the indescribable skill of God, so too it is not at
all absurd but entirely consistent that the material enclosed in
tombs and which once was possessed of shape should be restored
anew to its ancient structure, and dust become man again in the
same way that man originally took his birth from dust." (St.
Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century A.D.)
"Since, however, we know that God is
present both night and day to what we think and what we say, and
that He, bring light to all things, sees what is in our hearts, we
are persuaded that when we are removed from this present life we
shall live another life, better than the present one, and not
earthly but heavenly. Then we shall abide near God and with God,
changeless and free from suffering in the soul, not as flesh, but
as a heavenly spirit - or, if we fall with the rest, a worse one
and in fire" [Athenagoras of Athens (early Christian apologist),
c. 177 A.D.]
"[H]old fast to [faith] even now. It is
certain that what provided you with such great blessings will not
deceive you about the things that are to come. Since it found you
dead and ruined and a prisoner and an enemy, and made you a friend
and a son and a freedman and righteous and a joint-heir, and
provided such great benefits as no man ever expected how, after
such liberal generosity and establishment of friendship, could it
disappoint you in the future?" (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor
of the Church, c.
392 A.D.)
"If a staid and praiseworthy man should
promise you something you would have faith in his promise, and you
would not believe that you would be cheated or deceived by one
whom you knew to be steadfast in his words and deeds. God is
speaking to you, and do you waiver faithlessly with your
unbelieving mind? God promises that when you leave this world you
shall have immortality in life eternal, and do you doubt? This is
to know God not at all. This is to offend Christ, the Teacher of
belief by the sin of disbelief." (St. Cyprian of Carthage, c. 252 A.D.)
"Indeed, God calls even to the body to
resurrection, and promises it everlasting life. When He promises
to save the man, He thereby makes His promise to the flesh: for
what is man but a rational living being composed of body and
soul? Is the soul by itself a man? No, it is but the soul of a
man. Can the body be called a man? No, it can but be called the
body of a man. If, then, neither of these is by itself a man, but
that which is composed of the two together is called man, and God
has called man to life and resurrection, He has not called a part,
but the whole, which is the soul and body." (The
Resurrection, 2nd century A.D., quoted by St. John Damascene,
Doctor of the Church)
"But you do not believe the dead will be
raised. When it happens, then you will believe, whether you want
to or not; but unless you believe now, your faith then will be
reckoned as unbelief. And why do you not believe? Do you not know
that faith is foremost in all matters? For what farmer is able to
reap, unless first he have faith, and trust the seed to the earth?
Or who is able to journey across the sea, unless first he have
faith to trust himself to the ship and to the pilot? What sick
person is able to be cured unless first he have faith to trust himself to the physician? Who is able to learn
either an art or a science, unless first he devote himself
faithfully to the teacher? If, then, the farmer believes in the
earth, and the sailor believes in the ship, and the sick man
believes in the physician, will you not yourself wish to believe
in God, when you have so many pledges from Him?" (St.
Theophilus of Antioch, c. 181 A.D.)
"This body shall be raised, not remaining
weak as it is now; it this same body shall be raised. By putting
on incorruption it shall be altered, as iron bending with fire
becomes fire - or rather, as the Lord who raises us knows. However
it be, this body shall be raised, but it shall not remain such as
it is; rather, it shall abide as an eternal body. It shall no
longer require for its life such nourishment as now, nor shall it
require a ladder for its ascent; for it shall be made a spiritual
body, a marvelous thing, such as we have not the ability to
describe. 'Then shall the just,' it is said, 'shine forth like the
sun and the moon, and like the spender of the firmament.' And
knowing beforehand the disbelief of man, God has caused little
worms in the summer to emit beams of light from their bodies, so
that from the things seen that which is awaited might be believed.
He that gives the part is able also to give the whole; and He that
made the worm radiant with light will much more be able to make
radiant a righteous man." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of
the Church, c. 350
A.D.)
Also
See: Death
& Those We Love | Fear
of Death | Acceptance
of Death | Death
Becomes Evil Only By the Retribution Which Follows | A
Happy Death is Our Principal Concern In Life | How
One Dies is How One Remains Forever | Preparing
For Death | The
Moment of Death | Our
Deaths & The Blessed Virgin | Sickness
/ Illness | Suffering
| Prayer
For the Dead | Death
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