When I was a kid, I used to love superheroes. I especially loved reading about and watching the X-Men, imagining what it would be like to have superpowers of my own. It seems that humans have an ingrained desire to be more than human, to be unrestrained by the limits of ordinary life.

As it turns out, Christians believe that we will one day have superhuman, glorified bodies. We believe not only that Jesus Christ rose gloriously from the grave, but that we ourselves will one day share in his Resurrection. We do not believe that we will be in a disembodied afterlife for all of eternity, but that our spiritual souls will be reunited with our glorified physical bodies at the end of time.

St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).

The Letter to the Romans makes a similar point when it says, “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

But what will the risen bodies of the righteous be like? The short answer is that they will be like the risen body of Jesus himself! The more in-depth answer, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, is that our resurrected bodies will have four basic qualities, or powers:

1. Impassibility – Like the Risen Lord, those who rise in him will be “impassible,” or incapable of suffering. Although our bodies are subject to aches, pains, decay, and death in this life, they will be free from all suffering and death in the life to come. St. Paul says of the risen body, “It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15:42).

2. Subtlety – After the Resurrection, Jesus could pass through the enclosed tomb and through the locked doors of the Upper Room, but he could also eat food and be touched by the Apostle Thomas (John 20:19 – 29; Luke 24:36 – 43). Our risen bodies will be the same kind of spiritualized matter as the body of Jesus.

3. Agility – The Risen Lord appeared and disappeared at will, seemingly unconstrained by the ordinary laws of nature (Luke 24:31, 36). In the same way, we can conclude that each glorified body will be under the complete control of the glorified soul.

4. Clarity – The risen body of Jesus is resplendent with the brightness, or clarity, of his glory. This glory was seen most obviously at the Transfiguration, when Jesus gave his disciples a brief glimpse of his radiant glory. In the same way, Jesus says, “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

Although we can draw some important conclusions about what our risen bodies will be like, based on the testimony of Scripture, a great deal of mystery remains. We can only imagine what life in such a glorified body will be like! We can say with certainty, though, that this glorious life will be greater than any superhero movie or comic.