Mid Eastertide Reflection on the Resurrection

Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered the chains of death. For forty days we fasted and prayed during Lent and now we partake of the fifty days of celebration for Easter. The Alleluia from the 1962 Roman Missal so beautifully sings of the hope and victory still deserving to be proclaimed on the mountaintops: “Alleluia, Alleluia. The Lord hath sent redemption to His people. Alleluia. It behooved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the death, and so to enter into His glory. Alleluia.”

What is truly profound is that Jesus Christ really and physically rose from the dead! It is a historical reality.

This event is likewise recounted in the private revelations of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich as recorded in "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ." In her visions of the Lord, at the instance of His death on the Cross, He descended to the Limbo of the Fathers.  In the Limbo of the Fathers, He preached to the patriarchs, prophets, and holy people that had died before Heaven was opened by His death (cf. 1 Peter 4:6). Included among these souls was Adam and Eve. In her visions, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich also saw that our Divine Lord commanded nearly one hundred of the holy people in the Limbo of the Fathers to re-enter their bodies temporarily. He then commanded them to visit their relatives and preach the truth of His sacrificial death, which the Scriptures further substantiate in Matthew 27:52-53. Yet, the souls of those who rose from the graves in their bodies did not look like Jesus' glorified bodies. They merely re-entered their bodies temporarily to fulfill the command of Jesus. Afterwards, their souls again left their bodies and returned to Limbo. Upon our Lord's Ascension into Heaven, the souls of the Just at last entered into Heaven and on that day,  Limbo was closed forever.

Concerning Jesus, the Scripture attests, "He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:12). With His glorified Body, He is no longer bound by the limitations of time, space, or physics. As we believe as part of the Faith also that the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. They remain the only two people to have a glorified body.

But we too shall follow! That is our hope! The very same Body we have now will be raised again at Judgment and perfected. For we, unlike Mary (e.g. Immaculate Conception) and Jesus, are sinners, so our Resurrection is yet to come. At the time of Judgment, all people will be united with their bodies. At that time, the prophets, patriarchs, saints, etc will all receive a glorified body. The souls who enter Heaven will enjoy perpetual happiness in body and soul, and the souls of the damned in Hell will suffer not only emotionally and mentally but also physically in their own bodies for all eternity.