Five Amazing Qualities of a Resurrected Body

‘We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come’. The word ‘dead’ here is plural. This credal statement of faith which we Catholics give our assent to every Sunday focuses our thoughts on what we will be like in the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev 21).  John, the Evangelist, wrote about the dead after the end of time and after the Final Judgment. His apocalyptic vision includes hyper-real people with glorified, spiritual and luminescent bodies capable of amazing powers.

The 'resurrection of the dead' began with Christ. He is the ‘first fruits’ of this new life and the first to enter this new world showing us the way and leaving hints regarding how amazing it is. His mother followed after him. She enjoyed the privilege of being assumed body and soul into heaven and this is why she now embodies our desire and longing for the resurrection. She gives us hope that we too can experience this new glorfied bodily life. 

What are these amazing powers that both Jesus and Mary have hinted at in the resurrection narratives found in the Gospels and the Marian apparitions over the centuries? We should want to know because by the grace of God we will be reunited with our resurrected bodies at the end of time. 

Here are five attributes of a resurrected body in no particular order:

1. Luminescence:

Christ’s ability to emit light from within was on full display at the Transfiguration event on Mount Tabor. This may be related to something called biophotons. All humans have an electrical charge within our bodies but the light that we emit is too small to notice. For Jesus, it became a dazzling white radiant light. At his resurrection we believe that there was a burst of radiation that left the body image on the Shroud of Turin much like an x-ray. This is why there are skeletal features apparent on the Shroud. How do we get that kind of light energy out of a corpse? The only reasonable answer is that his resurrection caused it. The resurrected body began with a burst of light coming out of his body. As far as Mary, almost all of the visionaries and seers have described her as luminescent. Her light is seen as an extension of her beauty and her clothing is seen as glowing or as light itself. This is consistent with Mary described as being ‘clothed with the sun’ (Rev 12). 

2. Sudden Appearance and Sudden Disappearance:

Both Jesus and Mary when appearing to people have had to begin with the words, ‘do not be afraid’. The suddenness of their appearance caught the people off guard. Jesus appeared in the upper room, seemingly passing through the walls on Easter night. He vanished after the breaking of the bread in Emmaus.  In the Marian apparitions, Mary appears to certain people, usually gives a message, and then disappears. The resurrected Jesus appears and disappears but he is seen by all the people at the time and place and he demonstrates on certain occasions that his body is solid and not just spiritual. 

3. Material Body and Able to Pass through Matter:

One of the ways Jesus demonstrates that he is not merely a ghost is that he has the apostles touch him. They clung to him in the case of Mary Magdalene and Thomas put his fingers into his still wounded side. Jesus also ate fish in front of them. Ghosts don’t eat. Mary never made herself touchable or ate food but she did have an impact on the physical world. She expressed herself in a physical way to all 70,000 witnesses to the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. The ground and their clothing became dry. In addition, she left behind a physical imprint of her body in the Tilma of Jaun Diego. The many people who have been healed at the sites of her apparition such as Lourdes is also a physical manifestation of Mary's presence The seers have always reported her appearance as real, not as a ghost. So, like Jesus, her heavenly, incorruptible body is glorified but not detached from material reality. 

4. Bilocation and Multilocation:

The type of body Jesus and Mary have now is not bound by space or time. Consequently, there is no aging or growth. When Mary or Jesus have appeared through the ages they look roughly the same age. As far as location, Jesus could appear in two places at the same time if we consider that his real presence in the Eucharist at Emmaus remained after his resurrected bodily appearance vanished. Jesus appeared in multiple locations at multiple times during the forty day time period leading up to the ascension. In the story of Our Lady of the Pillar which has been approved by the Church as a legitimate apparition, Mary appeared to the Apostle James in Spain to give him encouragement. The amazing thing is that Mary was still ‘alive’ in her earthly body back in the Holy Land when this apparition occurred. Not bound by space or time, both Mary and Jesus have appeared all over the world and throughout the ages. 

5. Change of Appearance:

The resurrected Jesus was not recognized by Mary Magdalene until he called her by name. She at first thought he was a gardener. He was not recognizable to the disciples at Emmaus until the 'breaking of the Bread' when he gave them Holy Communion. Mary’s appearances have always been similar but unique in how she appeared. She seems to have an inexhaustible wardrobe in heaven. She wears a different set of clothing with different colors. She usually appears in the cultural dress and/or in the racial or ethnic way of the people in a particular location. Our Lady of Mount Carmel was dressed in tan and brown. She looked different from Our Lady of Guadalupe where she wore the dress of a native, tinted red and a star-spangled mantle. Our Lady of Lourdes appeared as a woman wearing white and blue with roses on her feet. She looked different from Our Lady of Kibeho also in white and blue but she manifested as a native Rwandan.