Church was good today, as it always is, and I preached on the bodily resurrection. When was the last time you heard a sermon on that? On the reality of the resurrection, sure, but its bodily aspect? Not so much, I'll wager.
Preachers scare shy of it, I think, for two reasons. Firstly, they take it for granted and secondly, it's a hard doctrine. That a body should rise from the dead? Outrageous. But that's what we believe and Scripture's clear, so is tradition. But why is it so important.
Long story short, because anything less than a bodily resurrection isn't really a resurrection at all, leaving us with a ghost or an immaterial shade. And that's fine except that it isn't fully you because we're composite beings, made up of body and spirit. For the real person, you, to rise from the dead, there has to be a bodily rising or you're left with nothing more than a ghost.
To put it another way. The body which decays and dies is the proper subject of resurrection, unlike the soul which is immaterial. If the former doesn't rise then the latter's left free-floating and resurrection hasn't occurred, just the given continuance of the soul.
Speaking of which, it's long past time for a range day. Fill the truck up with guns, get out in the country and blast away.
Proven medicine for mind, body and spirit.
Gun rights and MAGA,
LSP
8 comments:
Wonderful sermon, Parson.
But I think you meant to say the soul is "immortal", and not "immaterial".
Or perhaps you meant one of the more obscure meanings of "immaterial"?
Well said, drjim.
And you're right, immortal it is. But the soul's immaterial, spirit, it has no matter. So it can't decay in the same way as the body and it continues after death.
My point is that the soul doesn't die and therefore isn't the subject of resurrection -- but the body is.
Sorry for being oblique.
At first I thought it was perhaps a spell check error, but then I thought about the many meanings of the word, and yes, it can mean "not made of material", which obviously (to me, anyway) fits the soul. It's quite a novel way of expressing it.
Not oblique at all, just different enough to catch my attention and make me think about your sermon...always a good thing!
I used to love teaching on the four last things (with judgement being my #1 favorite) and the resurrection of the body in RCIA classes. You did a lovely job of explaining it. That's why you get the big pay and I worked for free. 1 Cor. 15:13–18
I've put in a request for a slightly slimmer model - that is, if I even make it to Purgatory.
Glad it was helpful, drjim!
Adrienne, you deserve a great reward for teaching RCIA!
The soul was made for the body and the body was made for the soul.
A body you have prepared for me. For one to be without the other is not natural. But the soul will be forced to flee when we die.
Fortunately they will be reunited at the end. For better or worse depending on the person.
Well said, Infidel.
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