Everybody’s Free (to wear sunscreen)

Roman Catholics once believed that some people avoided decomposition after death because of their holiness. Those who did were deemed ‘incorruptible’ and often turned into saints with their bodies displayed in churches.

Eschatology explores a vast array of questions regarding the end times, including what happens to the body after death. The primary question asked by the church fathers then is individual-focused, not communal, as they find concern with the individual body and its physical matter.

Augustine, specifically, seems focused on Luke 21:18: “But not a head of your hair will perish.” Though in context, Jesus’ words here are in reference to persecution, Augustine highlights this sentence to explore what the resurrected body might resemble. He seems particularly concerned with bodies that have been mutilated (such as by sharks), aborted, cannibalized, and even those which have deteriorated through the aging process.

Our group brought our own opinions and questions to the table, and agreed that at the resurrection, characteristics from the fall (i.e., weakness, disability, etc.) will no longer be seen. The human body will become what it was intended to be: essentially, the healthiest version of self.

The question is then asked, what of trauma? As we’ve learned how the body holds trauma, would trauma also play a role in the resurrection? No, we determined. As we become the healthiest version of ourselves at the resurrection, trauma then is redeemed, not raised.

Other questions include: What will be our state of doing? Will we live at peace, receive our reward of faith, be perfected as predicated by Paul, and gain a clearer vision of God’s gifts? How will our resurrected bodies see God’s body? Will gender, marriage, and relationships be removed? Or will we instead be granted intimacy in all resurrected relationships? We believe and hope that all social constructs will be removed, providing instead a perfect state of being in relationship with one another and with God.

In exploring these questions and discovering inconclusive answers, it is clear that many of our eschatological claims require hope — hope in what could be and hope in the knowledge and power of God to redeem and restore all things. Ultimately until that day, we are reminded of Baz Luhrman’s 1997 commencement speech, exhorting graduates to realize what matters in life, be mindful of relationships, and above all else, care for the body and wear sunscreen.
(This speech was a radio hit in the late ’90s, and you can watch/listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI)