Saints Light
The Last Things · Lesson 7 of 8

Will Our Bodies Really Rise?

At the end of time God will raise our own bodies, glorified like the risen Jesus, and make a new heaven and a new earth.

This is a summary of Lesson 7 of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. The full lesson takes about 3 minutes in the Saints Light app.

The Last Judgement, a painting by Fra Angelico
The Last Judgement, Fra Angelico, c. 1431

What this lesson teaches

  • At the end of time God will raise all the dead, reuniting body and soul.
  • We will rise in our own bodies, transformed and glorified like Christ's.
  • The whole universe will be renewed in a new heaven and a new earth.
  • Because our bodies will rise, how we treat them and the bodies of others matters now.

Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites

  • CCC 988
  • CCC 990
  • CCC 997-1001
  • CCC 1042-1047
  • CCC 1049

CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.

Scripture read in this lesson: 1 Corinthians 15:42-43; Apocalypse 21:4-5 (Revelation in most modern Bibles).

A sample question from this lesson

What does 'the resurrection of the body' in the Creed mean?

  1. Our souls will float forever without bodies
  2. We will be reborn as different people on earth
  3. God will raise our own bodies and reunite them with our souls at the end of time
  4. Only Jesus' body rose; ours will not
Show the answer

God will raise our own bodies and reunite them with our souls at the end of time. The Church teaches that at the end of time God will raise our own bodies and reunite them with our souls (CCC 997).

The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.

Words to know

Resurrection of the body
The dogma that at the end of time God will raise every human body and reunite it with its soul.
New creation
The renewal of the whole universe at the end of time, the new heaven and new earth.

More terms in the Catholic glossary. More passages in the Scripture index.

Read the full lesson in the app

"Will Our Bodies Really Rise?" is lesson 7 of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.

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