The Irish standard., 1905-05-06
IN LIFE ETERNAL,
Shall We Know Our Own in
Heaven?

Keaven7
1t Is an extraordinary thing that
men should doubt the resurrection of
Christ, or the resurrection of all men
at the last. So explicitly and so
strongly, however, does the Catholic
Church hold to this belief that in her
Greed she says emphatically, not II
believe the resurrection of the dead"
alone, but II believe the resurrection
of the body" And how should we not
believe? Testimony has come down
to us, from the time of Christ, that
His most dear and intimate disciples
and friends saw their Lord alive, after
they had seen him dead and buried in
the tomb; that they talked with Him.
walked with Him, saw Him go up from
them into heaven. AS He rose from
the dead, SO we shall rise, is st. Pauls
ringing asseveration. But, leaving
aside all of this, what cause have we
to doubt our resurrection, even though
we should be drowned in the sea, or
burned in some destructive fire, or
buried by earthquake shock, or laid
peacefully in our own chosen quiet
graves? What matters all this?
Just as surely as the year comes
round, the farmer goes regularly forth
to SOW his field, with not a doubt
haunting his hard practical mind
whether these little brown seeds he
sows have any inherent chance of be-
coming the sheaf of waving corn, the
harvest of new-mown hay, the useful
vegetable, the flower, the fruit. Yet,
had he never seen anything of the
sort before, would he not laugh at the
bare thought of any such wee, inert,
dead thing as that dull brown seed
springing into luxuriant life and
health-giving capacity? He surely
would. And what does st. Paul claim
in his emphatic words? Il Corinthi.
ans XIV, 35-3S.) "Some man will say:
How do the dead rise again? or with
what manner of body shall they
come?
"Senseless man, that which thou
sowest is not quickened, except it die
first.
"And that which thou sowest, thou
sowest not the body that shall be; but
bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of
the rest.
But God giveth it a body as He will;
and to every seed its proper body"
All! the doubter will reply: "But
shall we know each other then? Even
if we do rise again, shall we know our
loved and lost ones?"
Know them! Know then again those
who have just risen to life and love
again, in God, without fear of loss
again, forever? How should we help
but know them?
God giveth it body as He will,"-
yes; "but to every seed it's proper
body" We are made up of body and
soul and the soul is the nobler part,
the vital thing. On the last day, the
Christians body and soul shall meet
in glory; and surely face to face we
shall know our loved ones, when our
spiritual eyes behold their beautiful
souls. No longer, indeed, shall we
know them by their irritating, battling,
disheartening qualities. that try and
pain us now Oh, no! All that will
have passed away. But we shall know
them by all that was noblest, highest
in them, and which will have bios
somed out, not only in TRANSPORTED
soul, but into the souls proper body"
"a body, true twin to the immortal,
loving, lovely and holy soul; a body
weak no longer, sinful no longer, but
perfectly strong, beautiful and good.
That body and that soul together will
be the mother, the friend, the child we
loved. We shall know our own, in the
Vision of Gods Face, with no shadow
Of a cloud between us and them,
through an endless eternity of joy and
peace and love.-Sacred Heart Re-
view,