Easter of Unending Joy
In one of my favorite Lenten hymns, the congregation sings “O Lord, with us abide.” The final verse, then, prays “Abide with us so when this life of suffering is past, an Easter of unending joy we may attain at last.” That unending, joyful Easter is what we all aim for at the end of this life. We have to spend eternity one way or another, and with and in Christ is definitely better than the fiery, dismal alternative.
Hopefully, we all know what the key to the gate of heaven is: we must live and die in love. We believe in Jesus Christ and follow His command to love God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves. That faith in Christ and in His promises, and our sacramental engagement with Christ in His Church, is what gives us the weapons to strive against the enemy of Christ and His people. It is what gives us the hope that when we take our last breath on this world, we will breath in the very Spirit of God in His kingdom forevermore.
The transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor give us some hints that can help us anticipate our life in heaven, because Christ’s transfigured body is the template for our own, just as His resurrected body is. God can transform us any way He desires, because He only wants our good and I can’t imagine anything better than He can. Fortunately, we have Thomas Aquinas to look at the Resurrection and give us some ideas.
Much of these ideas come right from the Scriptures, either the Old or New Testaments. For instance, Christ walked on the waters of a stormy sea, something you and I cannot do now. He came from the womb of the Blessed Virgin but did not violate her virginity. He escaped from the hands of the Nazareth mob when they wanted to murder Him by throwing Him over a cliff. And He appeared in the Transfiguration almost like a celestial star. By looking at Jesus in these moments, we can learn much about our own resurrected existence.
Traditionally, the four characteristics of a glorified body are listed as “impassibility, agility, subtlety and clarity.” In His transfigured body, Jesus showed clarity. That is, the glory of His divine nature was no longer obscured by His human nature. His divinity, His reality as a divine Person, shone through to the five witnesses, namely Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John. That was temporary on that day, to give His apostolic leaders a hint of what was to come after His death when He rose from the dead. He is now risen from death, and so He appears glorified in heaven and if He appears on earth. This is the kind of clarity our souls will impart to our glorified body in the presence of God after we fall asleep for the last time.
Perhaps the most salient characteristic of this mortal life is that we suffer. We suffer pain, loss, mental confusion, troubled relationships and alienation, especially after the age of reason. Much of our economic activity is tied up with relieving suffering or avoiding it. Physicians, nurses, therapists and licensed psychologists spend most of their time in this endeavor. Thus, impassibility, which is the inability to suffer, sounds like the best part of our glorified life in God, at least when we are near the dunghill Job sat on.
The glorified trait of subtlety may be the most misunderstood of all these characteristics. In common speech and writing, to be subtle is to be the opposite of obvious or artless. A subtle statement might be crafty, scheming, or backhanded. But that is not what is meant about subtlety as a property of our heavenly existence. St. Paul tells us that when we are buried, our family is sowing a corruptible body, but God will raise up a pneumatic, or spiritual body. Aquinas tells us that our glorified bodies will be subtle on account of the most complete perfection of that body. Freed from sin, it will be in total control of our souls, which will be in complete harmony with the will of God. It will occupy a place of its own, and it will be palpable, and so can be touched, just as Christ’s risen body could be touched by Mary Magdalene and the apostles.
The little child in us will be delighted with the trait of agility afforded to our glorified bodies. Children love to move around, and the faster the better. Our bodies in glory will be perfectly attuned to our spiritual souls. Aquinas tells us that by the gift of agility the body is subject to the soul as its mover, so the movements of the soul affect the movements of the body. Christ’s risen body, for instance, just appeared to the apostles in the upper room, as if by magic. But that’s because He willed to be with them, and so He was with them instantly. And He was with the two disciples at Emmaus, several kilometers away, without being seen moving between there and the upper room.
Perhaps it’s clear from this short talk that much of what we know about our future with and in the Risen Christ is a list of “nots.” Our inner glory will not be obscured; our risen bodies will not suffer, and so on. But the reality will be so much bigger than can be summarized with negatives. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and it has never been imagined how wonderful will be our life in perfect union with Our Lord. To Him give all the glory and honor forever, Amen.
