In one of the Eucharistic prayers in the Roman Missal, shortly after the words of consecration,

the priest says, remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope

of the resurrection, and all who died in your mercy, welcome them into the light of your face.

So in this relatively brief prayer,

we see the two main aspects of the Christian hope

according to the Western tradition, at least.

You have hope for the resurrection

and hope for the vision of God.

And both of these aspects of the Christian hope

are pretty well attested in scripture.

The resurrection is also pretty well laid out in the creeds.

Think, for example, the Nicene Creed, I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

The hope for the vision of God is also pretty well ensconced in the Christian tradition,

especially in figures like St. Augustine and St. Thomas and numerous others, but they're two

of the giants who've talked about this. What's not always clear, though, is how these two different

aspects of the Christian hope fit together. And the problem becomes particularly acute if you consider how St. Thomas

speaks about the beatific vision, because St. Thomas says that the beatific vision is purely an act of

the intellect, and it's an act of knowing God, and it's an act that doesn't technically require

your body. And the beatific vision

satisfies every human desire. And so the question is, why do we need our bodies? Why the resurrection?

And so what I want to do in this talk is to offer you one answer to that question, a somewhat

speculative one, but I hope an interesting one.

...