The Three Phases of Human Existence
There are three phases of man’s existence :
Phase One refers to his earthly existence from conception to death of his body.
Phase Two is the period from his death to the resurrection of his body on the Last Day.
Phase Three refers to the infinite period that follows his resurrection.
Christ also shows these three phases in His life as man.
Phase One from His conception at the Annunciation to His death on the Cross :
Phase Two – lasting three days – from His death to his Resurrection.
Phase Three from His Resurrection into eternity.
Phase One:
In Phase One man is an embodied spirit. We all know in a very general sense how he functions during this phase. He is comprised of a body with many functions and a soul that contains the intellect with the ability to reason and free will with the ability to make decisions and to act.
His body’s physical functions can be grouped under the headings of digestion, circulation, locomotion, excretion, reproduction, vision, hearing, taste and touch. They are subordinate to the immaterial soul.
Phase Two:.
At the onset of Phase Two - at his physical death - man’s final fate will be decided in what is called the Particular (or individual) Judgment and he will be assigned to either Purgatory for a temporary period or to Heaven or Hell for ever.
St Faustina’s Diary (p 601) suggests the possibility that at this moment of death, there may be a dialog between God and the dying person where the ‘soul, illuminated by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last minute with sorrow for his sins and receives from Him forgiveness’
In this phase we are not concerned with the body because man has become a disembodied spirit. The human body is now totally devoid of life and is separated from the soul. The soul, of course, continues its immortal existence with intellect and will continuing to function though without any communication with the body.
Phase Two in the instance of Christ, lasted three days.
For man it lasts for a long, but unknowable, period depending upon when the Last Day - the time of the Second Coming - comes.
Adam and Eve, the Prophets, St Peter and the Apostles, the Saints and all those who have died - with the exceptions of Jesus and Mary - are in Phase Two and will remain in Phase Two until the second Coming. In the case of those still alive on the Last Day, Phase Two will be very short or non-existant.
Purgatory : If dis-embodied man is assigned to Purgatory from his immediate Particular Judgment, he is assured of his ultimate passage to Heaven when his Purgatory time has been served. This can be a short or long period.
His sufferings in Purgatory have to be spiritual in nature rather than physical, inasmuch as his body is separated and lifeless and unable to feel physical suffering.
Perhaps the delay in reaching the vision of God is responsible for most or all of his suffering. The Councils of Florence and Trent have stated that the final purification of the elect in Purgatory is entirely different from the punishment of the damned in Hell.
Heaven : If he gets to Heaven following his Particular Judgment, we know that dis-embodied man will enjoy the Beatific Vision. The just will be forever with God enjoying the Beatific Vision and will be in the company of the un-bodied Angels and the dis-embodied saints from all past generations.
“ Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered the mind of man to conceive the wonderful joys that God has in store for those who love Him”.
Hell : Unfortunately, there are dying persons who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn God’s final grace. Sometimes the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose Hell despite God’s efforts.
God predestines no one to go to hell : for this a wilful turning away from God by mortal sin is necessary and persistence in it till the end.
(Council of Trent).
If he goes to Hell following his Particular Judgment, if he chooses Hell, we know that dis-embodied man will be shut off for ever from the Beatific Vision.
“To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called Hell. The chief punishment of hell is this eternal separation from God.”
(Catechism. P.270).
In what dimension of existence does the soul in Purgatory, Heaven or Hell reside, now that it is not defined by its link with a physical body ?
In what way does the soul function, separated from the body upon which it depended so much in Phase One?.
Does the loss of the Beatific Vision in Phase Two differ from the loss of the Beatific Vision suffered in Phase Three?
Phase Three:
In Phase Three, after the Last Day, man will be re-embodied.
He will be again full and complete with his soul re-united with his body.
Re-embodied man will be in either Heaven or Hell for the rest of his now infinite life .
Risen persons will still be of the same human species and will still be the same individuals they were on earth but decay will no longer affect bodies that had formerly been subject to decay.
To what extent will the body of Phase Three show the bodily functions it possessed in Phase One?
Christ after the Resurrection gives us some examples of what the risen body will be capable. He appeared externally to be and to function as He did before His death. For example, His glorified body, after his Resurrection, consumed, as in Phase One, food given Him by the apostles.
Does this mean that the other - essentially supportive - functions of the body exercised in Phase One, such as circulation, excretion, tasting, touching, vision and locomotion, will once more be present in Phase Three?
We know that reproduction will not be a needed function then.
Heaven: The human body after its resurrection will have attained the full development of human life: it will be immortal and free from all limitations of space and time. The Council of Trent used four terms to identify the qualities of the risen human body. It will show
Impassibility - immunity from death and pain,
Subtility - freedom from restraint by matter: (Jesus was able to pass through closed doors following His resurrection).
Agility - obedience to spirit with relation to movement and space (able to move through space with the speed of light) and
Clarity - the refulgent beauty of the soul is manifested in the body (as when Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor).
“The just will reign with Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be ‘all in all’, in eternal life.
(Catechism page 1060).
For those in Heaven, the visible universe is destined to be transformed ‘so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the Just’.
(St Irenaeus).
Does this mean that the Just will populate a transformed Heaven on earth?
Hell : In Hell, man will suffer loss of the Beatific Vision for ever.
Will the risen bodies of the damned possess the same attributes as the glorified bodies of the Just?
Will they be immortal?
Will they feel pain?
Will they be able to pass through solid matter?
Will they be able to move with the speed of light?
Will they have clarity?
What will be man’s physical location in Phase Three?
Inasmuch as he will have a physical body it seems that he will occupy, at least in part, whether in Heaven or Hell, a physical dimension in which he will function much as he functioned in Phase One.
The condemned will presumably be in another physical dimension from the Just, cut off from God and from the Just, in the company of Satan, the other Fallen Angels and each other, for ever.
Phase One refers to his earthly existence from conception to death of his body.
Phase Two is the period from his death to the resurrection of his body on the Last Day.
Phase Three refers to the infinite period that follows his resurrection.
Christ also shows these three phases in His life as man.
Phase One from His conception at the Annunciation to His death on the Cross :
Phase Two – lasting three days – from His death to his Resurrection.
Phase Three from His Resurrection into eternity.
Phase One:
In Phase One man is an embodied spirit. We all know in a very general sense how he functions during this phase. He is comprised of a body with many functions and a soul that contains the intellect with the ability to reason and free will with the ability to make decisions and to act.
His body’s physical functions can be grouped under the headings of digestion, circulation, locomotion, excretion, reproduction, vision, hearing, taste and touch. They are subordinate to the immaterial soul.
Phase Two:.
At the onset of Phase Two - at his physical death - man’s final fate will be decided in what is called the Particular (or individual) Judgment and he will be assigned to either Purgatory for a temporary period or to Heaven or Hell for ever.
St Faustina’s Diary (p 601) suggests the possibility that at this moment of death, there may be a dialog between God and the dying person where the ‘soul, illuminated by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last minute with sorrow for his sins and receives from Him forgiveness’
In this phase we are not concerned with the body because man has become a disembodied spirit. The human body is now totally devoid of life and is separated from the soul. The soul, of course, continues its immortal existence with intellect and will continuing to function though without any communication with the body.
Phase Two in the instance of Christ, lasted three days.
For man it lasts for a long, but unknowable, period depending upon when the Last Day - the time of the Second Coming - comes.
Adam and Eve, the Prophets, St Peter and the Apostles, the Saints and all those who have died - with the exceptions of Jesus and Mary - are in Phase Two and will remain in Phase Two until the second Coming. In the case of those still alive on the Last Day, Phase Two will be very short or non-existant.
Purgatory : If dis-embodied man is assigned to Purgatory from his immediate Particular Judgment, he is assured of his ultimate passage to Heaven when his Purgatory time has been served. This can be a short or long period.
His sufferings in Purgatory have to be spiritual in nature rather than physical, inasmuch as his body is separated and lifeless and unable to feel physical suffering.
Perhaps the delay in reaching the vision of God is responsible for most or all of his suffering. The Councils of Florence and Trent have stated that the final purification of the elect in Purgatory is entirely different from the punishment of the damned in Hell.
Heaven : If he gets to Heaven following his Particular Judgment, we know that dis-embodied man will enjoy the Beatific Vision. The just will be forever with God enjoying the Beatific Vision and will be in the company of the un-bodied Angels and the dis-embodied saints from all past generations.
“ Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered the mind of man to conceive the wonderful joys that God has in store for those who love Him”.
Hell : Unfortunately, there are dying persons who voluntarily and consciously reject and scorn God’s final grace. Sometimes the obduracy in souls is so great that consciously they choose Hell despite God’s efforts.
God predestines no one to go to hell : for this a wilful turning away from God by mortal sin is necessary and persistence in it till the end.
(Council of Trent).
If he goes to Hell following his Particular Judgment, if he chooses Hell, we know that dis-embodied man will be shut off for ever from the Beatific Vision.
“To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called Hell. The chief punishment of hell is this eternal separation from God.”
(Catechism. P.270).
In what dimension of existence does the soul in Purgatory, Heaven or Hell reside, now that it is not defined by its link with a physical body ?
In what way does the soul function, separated from the body upon which it depended so much in Phase One?.
Does the loss of the Beatific Vision in Phase Two differ from the loss of the Beatific Vision suffered in Phase Three?
Phase Three:
In Phase Three, after the Last Day, man will be re-embodied.
He will be again full and complete with his soul re-united with his body.
Re-embodied man will be in either Heaven or Hell for the rest of his now infinite life .
Risen persons will still be of the same human species and will still be the same individuals they were on earth but decay will no longer affect bodies that had formerly been subject to decay.
To what extent will the body of Phase Three show the bodily functions it possessed in Phase One?
Christ after the Resurrection gives us some examples of what the risen body will be capable. He appeared externally to be and to function as He did before His death. For example, His glorified body, after his Resurrection, consumed, as in Phase One, food given Him by the apostles.
Does this mean that the other - essentially supportive - functions of the body exercised in Phase One, such as circulation, excretion, tasting, touching, vision and locomotion, will once more be present in Phase Three?
We know that reproduction will not be a needed function then.
Heaven: The human body after its resurrection will have attained the full development of human life: it will be immortal and free from all limitations of space and time. The Council of Trent used four terms to identify the qualities of the risen human body. It will show
Impassibility - immunity from death and pain,
Subtility - freedom from restraint by matter: (Jesus was able to pass through closed doors following His resurrection).
Agility - obedience to spirit with relation to movement and space (able to move through space with the speed of light) and
Clarity - the refulgent beauty of the soul is manifested in the body (as when Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor).
“The just will reign with Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be ‘all in all’, in eternal life.
(Catechism page 1060).
For those in Heaven, the visible universe is destined to be transformed ‘so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the Just’.
(St Irenaeus).
Does this mean that the Just will populate a transformed Heaven on earth?
Hell : In Hell, man will suffer loss of the Beatific Vision for ever.
Will the risen bodies of the damned possess the same attributes as the glorified bodies of the Just?
Will they be immortal?
Will they feel pain?
Will they be able to pass through solid matter?
Will they be able to move with the speed of light?
Will they have clarity?
What will be man’s physical location in Phase Three?
Inasmuch as he will have a physical body it seems that he will occupy, at least in part, whether in Heaven or Hell, a physical dimension in which he will function much as he functioned in Phase One.
The condemned will presumably be in another physical dimension from the Just, cut off from God and from the Just, in the company of Satan, the other Fallen Angels and each other, for ever.
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