Person: body and soul

[VeryTas]

In the wake of our Lady's assumption to heaven, body and soul, how are we to understand the state of the (other) saints there? Without their bodies yet, isn't their personhood in heaven incomplete? Their joy in heaven is not complete for one additional reason -- that they await also the Church Suffering and the Church Militant, in order to be the whole of Christ's body.

I'm not calling Christ's bodily depiction of heaven (or Sheol) into question, where Lazarus might have been able to (bodily) touch his wet finger to the rich man's tongue if there weren't that great chasm. Is it like my dreams at night? The events in my dreams include my body, even though an observer in the awake world won't see my body doing much of interest till it wakes up.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

They are indeed incomplete in Heaven. It's not clear to me how literally Our Lord meant us to take the details of the story of Lazarus.

[Doom]

Surely, it cannot be a coincidence that the only named character in any parable, specifically one that involves someone dead whom it is explicitly suggested in the parable could come back to life, is someone who actually did die and is brought back. It is especially unlikely, given the apparent close literary connection between Luke and Johh, which is something I am sure you must have noticed at some point, as there are more than a dozen features that John and Luke have in common but which do not appear in any other gospel.

[anawim]

The parable of Lazarus in ch. 16 was before he got to Jericho in ch. 19. Jesus was in Jerusalem in Jn. 8 & 10, So when he goes back to Bethany to raise Lazarus in ch. 11, those events likely occurred after the parable.

[VeryTas]

Surely, it cannot be a coincidence that the only named character in any parable, specifically one that involves someone dead whom it is explicitly suggested in the parable could come back to life, is someone who actually did die and is brought back. It is especially unlikely, given the apparent close literary connection between Luke and Johh, which is something I am sure you must have noticed at some point, as there are more than a dozen features that John and Luke have in common but which do not appear in any other gospel.

Yes, and the sister of Lazarus who sat at his feet in Bethany in Luke is easily the Mary in John (and Mt 28:9 ) whom he knew would want to touch or hold him (Magdalene) and the woman in Bethany in Matthew (26:6) who did.

But maybe Zeno would say we're getting off topic...

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Your thread, your topic, I'd think.

[Doom]

I don’t think it is offf topic and I don’t know how literally the parable should be read, but it seems unlikely that the Lazarus of the parable and the Lazarus whom Jesus raises from the dead in John 11 are completely unrelated.

I’m also not sure the rich man is in hell, he might be in purgatory because he shows concern for others still alive, but those in hell have absolutely no charity. But again, how literally should we take these details?

[peregrinator]

I’m also not sure the rich man is in hell, he might be in purgatory because he shows concern for others still alive, but those in hell have absolutely no charity. But again, how literally should we take these details?

I don't think we should take that particular detail literally