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1 Corinthians 15:40 "There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another."

 

Paul is addressing the question of what a body raised from the dead will be like. While ultimately conceding that this is a mystery, he tells us we will be changed, and will be glorious and imperishable. 

 

Paul uses examples to explain this mystery. He points out that there are different kinds of related bodies, each with its own glory. Seeds are not the same at the plants that come from them, and must die in order for that plant to come forth (1 Corinthians 15:36-37). There are both celestial and terrestrial bodies, each with their own glory, as he says here. Our body now is a physical body, but what will be raised is a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44), and that spiritual body is imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42). Upon the resurrection "we shall be shall be changed in a moment" (1 Corinthians 15:51-52), our perishable nature will put on the imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:54).

 

But what will our perishable bodies be like? It is a reasonable question, one I've been asked several times in 4th grade PREP, but the answer, as Paul admits, is a mystery (1 Corinthians 15:51). Paul's examples don't tell us what our we will actually be like. We can't know that, not now, because we could not understand. In PREP I tell the kids to look to Jesus and Mary's glorified bodies for hints. People did not always recognize Jesus right away; He was able to enter locked rooms and disappear from sight; Mary often appears as a woman of the nation in which she is appearing, like Our Lady of Guadalupe. These differences from the way our earthly bodies behave are mysteries to us, but they serve to reinforce what Paul is saying: we will be changed when our mortal bodies put on immortality.

 

Taking on an immortal body will change us (of course it will!); we cannot fully understand how right now (of course we can't!). Yet we know it will happen and it will be glorious. We can accept that on faith while not being too fixated on it (Paul calls the ones asking about it "foolish" (1 Corinthians 15:35-36)). Rather, the promise of it should give us the hope and strength to "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58) while we continue our work in our mortal bodies.