YOUCAT Question n. 103 - Was Jesus really dead? Maybe he was able to rise again because he only appeared to have suffered death.
(Youcat
answer) Jesus really died on the Cross; his body was buried. All the sources
testify to this.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 627)
Christ's death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human
existence. But because of the union which the person of the Son retained with
his body, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for “it was not possible for
death to hold him” (Acts 2:24) and therefore “divine power preserved Christ's
body from corruption” (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh
III, 51, 3). Both of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut
off out of the land of the living" (Isa 53:8), and "My flesh will
dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One
see corruption" (Acts 2:26-27; cf. Ps 16:9-10). Jesus' Resurrection
"on the third day" was the sign of this, also because bodily decay
was held to begin on the fourth day after death (Cf. 1 Cor 15:4; Lk 24:46; Mt
12:40; Jon 2:1; Hos 6:2; cf. Jn 11:39).
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment)
In John 19:33ff., the
soldiers even make an explicit determination of death: They open the side of
Jesus’ dead body with a lance and see blood and water come out. Furthermore, it
says that the legs of the men crucified with him were broken—a step that hastened the dying
process; this was not required in Jesus’ case since his death had already
occurred.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 1009) Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus,
the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human
condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act
of complete and free submission to his Father's will (Cf. Mk 14:33-34; Heb
5:7-8). The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a
blessing (Cf. Rom 5:19-21). (CCC 1010) Because of Christ, Christian death has a
positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"
(Phil 1:21). "The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also
live with him (2 Tim 2:11). What is essentially new about Christian death is this:
through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ"
sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace,
physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and so completes
our incorporation into him in his redeeming act: It is better for me to die in
(eis) Christ Jesus than to reign over
the ends of the earth. Him it is I seek - who died for us. Him it is I desire -
who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth.... Let me receive pure
light; when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man (St. Ignatius of
Antioch, Ad Rom., 6, 1-2: Apostolic Fathers, II/2, 217-220).
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