Reflection on February 10, 1982

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb71.htm

St. Paul talks about the fallen body, more or less, as a seed of what we are to become after the Resurrection. What we are now is unique to us, just as a seed is to a plant, but totally different than what it will become. Many do not think about looking at a seed and then looking at the plant it will become and thinking about how much change has occurred, yet they are still connected in a unique way. We are planted here to develop and die so that we can grow into what we were made for after the Resurrection.

We also see the idea that we have touched on before. St. Paul may be pointing back to the beginning, before the fall, as something like what we will be after the Resurrection, but it will be different, grander, than that. SJPII labeled before the fall an authentic subjectivity and after the Resurrection a perfect subjectivity. St. Paul seems to be seeing the same type of distinction in what we were before the fall and what we will be after the Resurrection. With that in mind, I thought about what would have happened if there were no fall? Adam and Eve, having not fallen, would have still been glorified in a new way to be more closely unified with God for all eternity.

This idea of the seed and plant imagery, I think, is also important when reflecting on the idea and understanding that after the Resurrection, we will be both body and spirit still. We will not be pure Spirit like the angels, but our bodies will be fully joined, spiritualized, “spiritual bodies”. We have no earthly example or understanding about what this might look like except to know that it is more than the fully united bodies of Adam and Eve. Imagine the first person to ever look at a seed and if they had to picture what it would look like after it was planted. Imagine if they have no concept of plants at all, but simple are handed a seed and told to plant it in the ground. That is where we are in our understanding of what it will be like after the Resurrection. Now imagine the awe as they watch what a seed was, sprout, grow, bloom, etc. That is the awe we should have in the hope of what will be after the Resurrection.