Catechism of the Catholic Church

992 God revealed the resurrection of the dead to his people progressively. Hope in the bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body. The creator of heaven and earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his covenant with Abraham and his posterity. It was in this double perspective that faith in the resurrection came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed:

The King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws. ⁵⁴⁰ One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. ⁵⁴¹

993 The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the Sadducees who deny it he answers, "Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?" ⁵⁴² Faith in the resurrection rests on faith in God who "is not God of the dead, but of the living." ⁵⁴³

994 But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." ⁵⁴⁴ It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. ⁵⁴⁵ Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, ⁵⁴⁶ announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," ⁵⁴⁷ the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day. ⁵⁴⁸

995 To be a witness to Christ is to be a "witness to his Resurrection," to "[have eaten and drunk] with him after he rose from the dead." ⁵⁴⁹ Encounters with the risen Christ characterize the Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ, with him, and through him.

996 From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and opposition. ⁵⁵⁰ "On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body." ⁵⁵¹ It is very commonly accepted that the life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting life?