During the Easter season, we rightly celebrate Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. Moreover, every Sunday, we proclaim in the Creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the body.”
But how often do we pause to reflect on what His resurrection means for our own future bodies?
In a culture obsessed with youth, health, and superhuman perfection, this promise should set our hearts ablaze! From anti-aging treatments to gym memberships and Marvel superheroes, we long to be stronger, freer, better. The resurrection says: You will be.
Frank Sheed once called mystery “an endless gallery into which we can advance ever deeper” (Map of Life, 82). So step into the gallery with me. Hanging on the walls of eternity are seven portraits of your future self (if, God willing, you get into heaven)—painted in the light of Scripture and brought into focus by the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.
1. A Mirror of Identity
“Identity” — The Self Transfigured
The first painting is simple and striking: a mirror. But as you stand before it, something astonishing happens—it reflects your glorified self. This isn’t a stranger or an idealized you. It’s still you: your height, your features, your very body. Only now it radiates with glory.
Aquinas teaches, “Resurrection regards the body which after death falls” (Suppl. Q.79.1). You don’t receive a new model. You receive your body back—renewed, not replaced. Just as Jesus said, “Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).
Think of a moment in the prime of your life when you felt fully alive. That moment becomes a window—fulfilled, not frozen. Like a seed becomes a flower, your earthly body will bloom into something unimaginably glorious (cf. Job 19:26–27). This is the real you, finally revealed.
2. A Scan of Integrity
“Integrity” — Whole, Complete, Healed
The second portrait resembles a radiant body scan—but not the cold, clinical kind. This is a sacred unveiling in the light of heaven. Here stands a body entirely healed. Nothing missing. Nothing shamed or erased.
Christ, risen from the dead, ate fish before His disciples (Luke 24:43). Not because He needed to—but to show that the whole body rises. No detail is discarded. No part is unworthy.
Aquinas says the soul is the form of the body—it animates every part (Suppl. Q.80.1). Which means your trembled hand, your limping step, your dimming eye—will all be made new. Not replaced, but transfigured.
This image offers profound consolation for anyone who suffers illness, disability, or disfigurement. Resurrection is not a reboot. It is your own flesh and history—healed, glorified, embraced.
3. A Youthful Portrait
“Quality” — The Perfect Age
This third canvas glows with vitality—not fleeting youth, but perfected maturity. Not the awkwardness of childhood or the decline of old age, but the fullness of strength, wisdom, and joy.
Aquinas believed all would rise at the prime of life, as Christ did—around age 33 (Suppl. Q.81.1). Not a cosmetic ideal, but the harmony of a soul in full bloom.
And your unique features? They remain. Only now they shine. Revelation speaks of the glorified Christ with hair like wool and eyes like fire (Rev 1:14–15). So too will we radiate with divine fire—not bound by cultural standards, but transfigured by God’s love.
This is not nostalgia. It’s promise. You will not be less yourself in glory. You will be more yourself than you’ve ever been.
4. The Shield of Impassibility
“Impassibility” — Immune to Pain and Death
This fourth portrait radiates serene invincibility. The figure stands unshakable—not untouched by suffering, but victorious over it. This is impassibility: the glorified body’s freedom from pain, sickness, and death.
“The dead will be raised imperishable… and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:52–53). No more hospitals. No more grief. No more waiting rooms or tombstones. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 21:4).
For all who live with chronic pain or carry invisible wounds, this portrait is a shield. Suffering will not have the last word. The body will no longer be a battlefield. It will be peace itself.
5. The Cloak of Subtlety
“Subtlety” — Beyond Physical Boundaries
Here, we see a figure moving through walls—not as a ghost, but as one whose body is perfectly obedient to the soul. This is subtlety. It recalls the moment Jesus entered a locked room without a sound (John 20:19).
Aquinas explains that subtlety means perfect subjection of the body to the soul. Jesus said, “Touch me and see” (Luke 24:39). He was no phantom. He was the future in flesh.
In our age of superheroes, subtlety feels like a superpower—like passing through walls. Vision from the Avengers comes close. But this is no digital trick. It’s spiritual fulfillment.
You will be where love calls you, instantly, effortlessly. This isn’t escapism. It’s what happens when the spirit fully commands the body, and God fully commands the soul.
6. The Wings of Agility
“Agility” — Speed at the Speed of Spirit
This painting pulses with motion—like a dancer caught mid-leap, free of gravity and time. This is agility: the glorified body’s freedom to move at the speed of the soul.
Jesus vanished from Emmaus and appeared in Jerusalem instantly (Luke 24:31; John 20:19). He didn’t teleport—He moved as one fully alive.
St. Paul says, “It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power” (1 Cor 15:43). Today, we spend fortunes chasing speed—faster travel, faster tech. But this is freedom beyond velocity. It’s love in motion.
Agility means no more fatigue, no more barriers, no more “I wish I could be there.” In heaven, your body will never lag behind your spirit.
7. The Light of Clarity
“Clarity” — Radiant with Glory
The final portrait glows from within. The figure doesn’t just reflect light—it radiates it. This is clarity: the glorified body shining with the glory of the soul. No more hiding our holiness. Only radiant glory!
Jesus said, “The just shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt 13:43). In Aquinas’ words, clarity is the outward expression of inner grace. The body, made luminous by God, becomes a living icon of divine love.
This isn’t airbrushed beauty. It’s beauty as holiness. In a world of filtered images and fleeting standards, clarity offers something real: a face lit by grace, a body transfigured by love.
In this light, all the other portraits take on deeper meaning. Identity, integrity, youth, strength, motion—they shine because they reflect Him.
Conclusion: The Promise of the Gallery
We don’t talk enough about the resurrection of the body. To modern ears, it may sound like an ancient myth. But to Jesus and the Apostles, it was everything.
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14). But He has been raised. And so shall we be.
After the final judgment, all the just in heaven will live as glorified men and women. Fully alive. Fully embodied. Fully redeemed.
In the meantime, in Jesus, the New Adam, and Mary, the New Eve, we see our future. They are not exceptions. They are firstfruits, glorified resurrected bodies radiant with the holiness of God.
The resurrection gallery we’ve walked through is not fantasy. It is your future. Your body—whole, radiant, transfigured. Your soul—fully alive in God. Your scars—now trophies of glory.
As Paul says, “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come” (Rom 8:18).
This is Easter’s promise: Christ is risen. And so shall we be. Alleluia.
Prodigal Catholic 
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