 | Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com. |
Religion
2009-06-01 10:29:00
Body and soul renunited?
Question: I have always been taught that at the end of time, the soul will be reunited with the body and each will be judged by our Lord. How is it in Matthew 17:2-7, Moses and Elijah appeared to Peter and James during the Transfiguration? How did their souls reunite with their bodies if the end of time has yet to come?
Answer: The idea of resurrection of the body (reunion of the soul with its proper body) is a matter of faith, and therefore impossible to explain scientifically or by human reason. Remember how the Creed concludes: “I believe . . . in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” While we attempt to explain each of the articles of the Creed and other matters of faith, we must be aware that faith and reason, while not opposed, are in different orders of being, e.g. such as earthworms and the stars. If we could understand an article of faith, then it would no longer be a matter of faith. I don’t BELIEVE that two plus two equals four; I KNOW that 2 + 2 = 4. Only God knows how the human soul can be reunited to its proper body.
What we do know is that it can and does happen, e.g. as in the resurrection of Jesus and that of Lazarus, and what the prophet Elisha did to the dead son of the generous Shunammite widow (cf 2 Kings 4:28-37). Also in St. Matthew (27:52-53) we read that at the death of Jesus: “the earth quaked, tombs opened; many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep, were raised. After Jesus’ resurrection they came forth from their tombs, and entered the holy city and appeared to many.” So the phenomenon, witnessed by the Apostles at the transfiguration, is not unique.
The Bible, in both Old and New Testaments, relates also that angels have appeared to human persons. Since an angel does not have its own proper body, the angel assumes an appearance of the human form, according to God’s permission. But Moses and Elijah appeared in their own proper bodies: the various parts, which had been dispersed after death and corruption, came together in an instant, according to God’s permission. After the event, for which they had anticipated their own resurrection, was completed, they died again and their remains returned to dust: to await the final resurrection at the end of the world.
To answer the “how” in your question is impossible. This “how” exceeds our imagination and understanding. We can discuss and speculate about what happened, but cannot explain how it occurred - apart from God working a miracle.
