IN BRIEF

1015 ‘Thefiesh is the hinge of salvation’ (Tertullian, De res. 8, 2: PL 2, 852). We believe in God who is creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfilment of both the creation and the redemption oftheflesh. ioi6 By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul.Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day. 1017 ‘We believe in the true resurrection of this flesh that we now possess’ (Council ofLyons II: DS 854). We sow a corruptible body in the tomb, but he raises up an incorruptible body, a ‘spiritual body’ (cf i Cor 1542—44).


1018 As a consequence of original sin, man must suffer ‘bodily death,from which man would have been immune had he not sinned’ (CS i8 §2).

1019 Jesus, the Son of God,freely suffered death for us in complete and free submission to the will of God, his Father. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men.


Article 12

‘I BELIEVE IN LIFE EVERLASTING’


1020 The Christian who unites his own death to that of Jesus views it as a step towards him and an entrance into everlasting life.

1523—1525

When the Church for the last time speaks Christ’s words of pardon

and absolution over the dying Christian, seals him for the last time with a strengthening anointing and gives him Christ in viaticum as nourishment for the journey, she speaks with gentle assurance: Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father, who created you, in the name ofJesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who suffered for you, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon you. Go forth, faithful Christian!

May you live in peace this day, may your home be with God in Zion, with Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints... May you return to [your Creator] who formed you from the dust of the earth.