337. What the resurrection body adds to Heavenly happiness
337. WHAT THE RESURRECTION BODY ADDS TO HEAVENLY HAPPINESS
Why will we need resurrected bodies in Heaven? Why isn’t the happiness in the soul enough?
The happiness of the saints will increase in extent after the resurrection, because their happiness will then be not only in the soul but also in the body. . . . For man’s body may be considered in two ways: first, as being dependent on the soul for its completion; secondly, as containing something that hampers the soul in its operations. . . . As regards the first way of considering the body, its union with the soul adds a certain perfection to the soul, since . . . the soul is more perfect in its natural being when it is in the whole—namely, man who results from the union of soul and body—than when it is a separated part. But as regards the second consideration, the union with the body hampers the perfection of the soul, wherefore it is written (Wis. 9:15) that the corruptible body is a load upon the soul. If, then, there be removed from the body all those things wherein it hampers the soul’s action, the soul will be simply more perfect while existing in such a body than when separated therefrom. Now the more perfect a thing is in being, the more perfectly is it able to operate; wherefore the operation of the soul united to such a body will be more perfect than the operation of the separated soul. But the glorified body will be a body of this description, being altogether subject to the spirit. . . . Now every imperfect thing desires its perfection. Hence the separated soul naturally desires reunion with the body (S93,1).
Thus St. Paul speaks of desiring not to be “un-clothed” but “re-clothed” (2 Cor 5:1-4). Our divinely designed and created human nature demands a body. We are not angels; that is why we should not be “spiritualists”. We are also not animals; that is why we should not be materialists. And since our nature includes a body, the perfection and happiness of that nature includes a body.
In this life the body does two things to the soul: augmentation and diminution, helping and hampering. On the one hand they are cooperating friends. Bodies give souls information and pleasure, through the senses; and souls give bodies life and vitality. But on the other hand they are squabbling enemies. (Think of the time you tried to make your body stay awake all night to study for an exam. Or lust: although it’s not just biological but also spiritual, yet the wild hormones certainly contribute.) One of the reasons why we are not perfectly happy is because we cannot do all that our souls want to do, and one of the reasons why we cannot do all that our souls want to do is because our bodies are recalcitrant, weak, or stupid. Body and soul often fight, like most married couples. We are fallen.
But we are wholly healed in Heaven. The positive half of the body—soul relationship—the ways in which our bodies help our souls—will be preserved and extended, in ways we cannot now imagine. St. Augustine says that the glory and joy of the purified soul will overflow into the resurrected body in a “voluptuous torrent” (torrens voluptatis).
Between death and the resurrection of the body, we will be separated souls, souls without bodies. That will not be a better condition than Heaven. It will be a time of waiting, of longing, of incompletion. For most of us it will probably be a Purgatory that will consist of a mixture of great pain (because we will fully know our own sins and all their ugliness and harm) and great joy (because Infinite Love will be there holding our hand and showing us these purifying truths). It will be like retraining a pilot (the soul) who used to fly a little single—engine prop plane (the body) that wore out after seventy years or so, in a big new flight simulator (Purgatory), so that he will be able to fly a jumbo jet (the resurrection body) that will last forever. He’s a pilot, and he needs a plane. He’s a more perfect pilot when he’s flying a plane than when he isn’t. That’s why we will long to be re-clothed (with a body) rather than un—clothed (free from bodies). Purgatory is not Heaven.
But we need Purgatory to prepare us for our new bodies. Human souls need bodies and bodies need souls.