At death, the soul leaves the body. While the long, slow process of decomposition begins in the body, the soul immediately experiences the first judgment, commonly called the "particular judgment" (cf. CCC 1022).
During the particular judgment, we discover the consequences of the choices for or against Christ that we made during our life. If we accepted the graces of salvation offered to us during our earthly pilgrimage, we learn that our eternal destiny is heaven. Our eternal destiny is God.
But if we rejected the graces offered to us, our eternal destiny is hell. Our eternal destiny is not God. At this stage, there is no longer any room for correction. The time for choosing between God and non-God ends when we leave this life.
The judgment rendered upon us is definitive. And it is a just judgment. Jesus Christ, the Divine Judge, sees and knows all. He knows every drop of grace offered to us at every moment of our life. He knows all the circumstances that may have prevented us from freely choosing grace. He also knows the deepest and truest desires of our hearts.
If we are condemned to hell at the end of our life, it is because hell is what we have chosen. Hell is what we desire. Those who choose hell go there immediately. They lose their final chance. They will never again be in the presence of God.
Those who say yes to the graces of salvation, those who choose God, find themselves in one of two places. Either they find themselves immediately in the presence of the blessed in heaven, or they undergo a process of purification—purgatory—which will ultimately allow them to fully share in the joy of heaven.
I repeat: our eternal destiny is sealed at death, during the particular judgment. But there is another judgment awaiting us: the final judgment. We know that at the end of time "all the dead will rise" (CCC 998), and that the hour is coming "when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28-29).
At the final judgment, everything we have done—good and evil—will be revealed to all humanity. Every hidden sin and every good deed done in secret will cease to be a secret. Everyone will see. Everyone will know.
Then, after all judgments have been rendered, the saved and the damned will regain their bodies. For the damned, this will only mean an intensification of sorrow and pain. For the blessed, however, the recovery of their body will mean even greater joy and the possibility of entering more fully into the glory of heaven. It is therefore time to speak a little about bodies after the resurrection.
What will our body be like in heaven?
In God's design, the human soul and body were never meant to be separated. God created the human person as a unity of soul and body, and if Adam had never sinned, this unity would have been preserved. The separation of soul and body, which occurs at death, is therefore a consequence of original sin.
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus opened the way for their reunion. Just as His soul and body were reunited when He was raised from the dead, transfigured and glorified, the bodies and souls of all the just will also be reunited when we, too, are raised from the dead, transfigured and glorified.
Also read | "Conscience and Truth" by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
The body with which your soul will be reunited will be your body—the same body that is reading these words—but it will also be different. How this is possible—in a technical sense—remains a mystery.
The saints and theologians have speculated on this subject over the past two millennia. How will this future body be connected to the body we have now? What will it look like? What will it do? How old will it be? Will children who died be resurrected in children's bodies, or will their resurrected bodies be those of adults?
This article was originally published by Niedziela (Article Link).