Mark Mallett

 
"The Tomb of Jesus", photo by T. Childers

 

 

THE purification of the world from evil will also, according to the Early Church Fathers, usher in an Era of Peace when Satan will be chained for a "thousand years." This will coincide also with a Resurrection of the saints and martyrs, according to the Apostle John:

They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection. (Rev 20:4-5)

 

THE PASSION OF THE CHURCH

I have written elsewhere that I believe the Body of Christ is entering into its own Passion, following in the footsteps of its Head, Jesus Christ. If that be the case, then the Body of Christ will likewise participate in the Resurrection.

I believe there will come a time when the visible head of the Church, the Holy Father, will be "struck" and the sheep will be scattered. This will precipitate a more formal persecution of the Church as she will be systematically stripped, scourged, and mocked before the world. This will culminate in her crucifixion, when some souls will be martyred for the sake of the Gospel, while others will remain hidden until after the merciful purification of the world from evil and godlessness. Both the remnant and the martyrs will be hidden in the safe refuge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary—that is, their salvation will be safeguarded within the Ark, covered as it were, by the Mercy Seat, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

THE FIRST RESURRECTION

Those who have died in Christ during this time of tribulation will experience what John calls the "first resurrection."  Those who,

…had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection. (Rev 20:4)

This is indeed a tremendous hope! Though we cannot know for certain the exact nature of this resurrection, Christ’s own Resurrection may give us some insight:

This authentic, real body [of the risen Jesus] possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’s humanity can no longer be confined to earth and belongs henceforth only to the Father’s divine realm.  —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 645

It is possible that the resurrected martyrs will participate in the reigning temporal Kingdom of the surviving remnant Church inasmuch as the risen saints will not be "confined to earth" nor necessarily be ever-present, as Christ only appeared at times during the 40 days before His Ascension.

Christ’s Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jairus’ daughter, the young man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the persons miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 645

Since the risen saints will have experienced the "first" resurrection, they may be in a state such as the Blessed Virgin Mary, able to appear on earth, while also enjoying the beatific vision of Heaven. The purpose of this grace to be bestowed upon the martyrs would be two-fold: to honor them as "priests of God and of Christ" (Rev 20:6), and to help prepare the remnant Church of the new Era, who are confined still to time and space, for the Final return of Jesus in glory:

For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith. —CCC, n. 645

The first resurrection will also coincide with a "new Pentecost," a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit begun earlier in part, through an "illumination of conscience" or "the warning" (see The Coming Pentecost).

At Jesus’ Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is "the man of heaven."—CCC, n. 645

 

OF THE FLESH?

All this said, the Church has ruled out the reign of Christ in the flesh on earth during an Era of Peace. This is known as the heresy of millenarianism. However, the nature of the "first resurrection" is more ambiguous. As "Christ’s resurrection was not a return to earthly life," neither will the resurrected saints return to "rule on earth." But the question also remains as to whether or not the first resurrection is spiritual only. In this regard, there is not an abundance of teaching. Beginning with Scripture, we do see a bodily resurrection of the saints before the end of time:

The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. (Matt 27:51-53)

However, St. Augustine (in remarks which confuse other statements he has made) says that the first resurrection is spiritual only:

Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with Him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies. —The City of God, Book XX, Ch.9

More importantly, the Catechism teaches that Christ will raise us up…

When? Definitively "at the last day," "at the end of the world." —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1001

But as I’ve written elsewhere, the "last day" should not necessarily be interpreted as a single day, as in 24 hours. But a day which is a period which begins in darkness, then dawn, noon, night, and then, everlasting light (see Two More Days.) Within this period, St. John seems to indicate that there is a first resurrection which culminates in a second resurrection of the dead for the Final Judgment "at the end of the world." Indeed, that is the "definitive" Judgment and thus the "definitive" Resurrection.

And so, once again, the nature of the "first resurrection" is unclear. What is certain is that it will be the Church Militant, those who have not died, but remain on earth or are born during the Era of Peace, who will reign through the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth. The saints in Heaven with Christ will reign spiritually with the Church on earth. Just exactly what the "first resurrection" will look like, what physical, metaphysical, or spiritual proportions it will take, and to whom it will be limited, remains the domain of theological speculation.

 

THE VOICE OF SACRED TRADITION

I believe it is no coincidence that these mysteries have been hidden for a time beneath the veil; but I believe this veil is lifting so that, just as the Church is realizing the necessary purification which lies before her, she will also recognize the ineffable hope which awaits her beyond these days of darkness and sorrow.

And I say "hidden," because the voice of the Early Church in these matters is fairly unaminous, even though that voice has been obscured in recent centuries by an incomplete and sometimes erroneous theological discussion of these matters, and an improper understanding of the genuine forms of the millenarianist heresy.

Let the Church Fathers and Doctors speak for themselves of this coming Resurrection:

So, the blessing foretold undoubtedly refers to the time of His Kingdom, when the just will rule on rising from the dead; when creation, reborn and freed from bondage, will yield an abundance of foods of all kinds from the heaven’s dew and the fertility of the earth, just as the seniors recall. Those who saw John, the Lord’s disciple , [tell us] that they heard from him how the Lord taught and spoke about these times… —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Church Father (140–202 A.D.); Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus of Lyons, V.33.3.4, The Fathers of the Church, CIMA Publishing Co.; (St. Irenaeus was a student of St. Polycarp, who knew and learned from the Apostle John and was later consecrated bishop of Smyrna by John.)

I and every other orthodox Christian feel certain that there will be a resurrection of the flesh followed by a thousand years in a rebuilt, embellished, and enlarged city of Jerusalem, as was announced by the Prophets Ezekiel, Isaias and others… A man among us named John, one of Christ’s Apostles, received and foretold that the followers of Christ would dwell in Jerusalem for a thousand years, and that afterwards the universal and, in short, everlasting resurrection and judgment would take place. —St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Ch. 81, The Fathers of the Church, Christian Heritage

We do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem… We say that this city has been provided by God for receiving the saints on their resurrection, and refreshing them with the abundance of all really spiritual blessings, as a recompense for those which we have either despised or lost… —Tertullian (155–240 A.D.), Nicene Church Father; Adversus Marcion, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Henrickson Publishers, 1995, Vol. 3, pp. 342-343)

Since God, having finished His works, rested on the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years… —Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (250-317 A.D.; Ecclesiastical writer), The Divine Institutes, Vol 7.

Those who on the strength of this passage [Rev 20:1-6] , have suspected that the first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved, among other things, specially by the number of a thousand years, as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy leisure after the labors of six thousand years since man was created… (and) there should follow on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years… And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints, in that Sabbath, shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God…  —St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.; Church Doctor), De Civitate Dei, Bk. XX, Ch. 7 (Catholic University of America Press)

 

FURTHER READING:

For a more indepth scholarly, but highly readable study of the orthodox teaching on the Era of Peace, see the following works by Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi:

• The Triumph of God’s Kingdom in the Millennium and End Times, St. John the Evangelist Press, Havertown, PA

• The Splendor of Creation, St. Andrew’s Productions, McKees Rocks, PA