The Risen Christ

Christ retained his own true body in and after the Resurrection. Had this not been a true body, or had it not been thebody in which Christ suffered, the Resurrection would not have beenreal but only apparent.

The body of Christ was glorified in itsrising. The saints shall rise in bodily glory; Christ’s Resurrection is the cause and the exemplar of their rising; hence,his body is much greater in glory thantheirs; our Lordmerited this glory by his Passion. Our Lord possessed in his soulthe glory of the beatific vision from the first moment of hisexistence as man; yet the glory of the beatific vision was divinelyprevented from overflowing into the body of Christ until after Hehad endured the Passion and Death for our salvation. But once thatwork for us was done, the glory of his soul inundated his body.

Flesh, blood, bones, and all the other constituents ofa human body were in the body of Christ as he rose in glory. It wasa complete and perfect body. Our Lord, speaking after his Resurrection to the disciples who thought he was a phantom, said:“A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me to have”(Luke 24:39).

Our Lord kept in his glorified body the marks of hiswounds: (a) as an everlasting testimony of his victory; (b) as aproof that he is the same Christ who suffered and was crucified;(c) as a constant and concrete plea on our behalf to the Eternal Father; (d) as a means of upbraiding the reprobates on the lastday, showing them what he did for them, thus reminding them of whatthey had wickedly despised and rejected.