Kevin Vost is a Catholic author, clinical psychologist, and speaker known for making the teachings of Thomas Aquinas clear and accessible to modern readers. With a background that combines theology and psychology, Vost has a gift for presenting deep philosophical and doctrinal truths in a way that is both understandable and spiritually enriching.
In his book Aquinas on the Four Last Things, he explores the traditional Catholic teachings on the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell, drawing heavily from Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. The work is both informative and devotional, guiding readers to better understand what awaits the soul and body after death, especially the nature of the resurrection.
In explaining what our bodies will be like at the resurrection, Vost echoes Aquinas in addressing the question of age: how old will we be when our bodies are reunited with our souls? The answer is that we will not rise at the age we died, whether as children or in old age, but rather in a state of perfect human maturity. Aquinas teaches that both childhood and old age involve a kind of imperfection—children have not yet reached their full physical development, while the elderly have already declined from it.
Therefore, neither stage reflects the fullness of human nature. Instead, all will rise in the most perfect stage of bodily life, a youthful maturity traditionally understood to be around the age of thirty, which is also associated with the risen Christ. This is the point at which growth has reached completion and decline has not yet begun.
At the same time, this restoration does not erase individuality. Each person retains his or her unique nature, including natural features and proportions, even though the body is perfected. Moreover, Aquinas emphasizes that the honor given to those who lived long lives is not lost, because such reverence is rooted not in the aging body but in the wisdom of the soul. Thus, even though all will possess bodies in youthful perfection, the spiritual maturity and merits gained in life remain. In this way, the resurrection restores not only human life, but human nature in its fullness—perfected, complete, and as God originally intended.
In Vost’s words:
Thomas elaborates that we will arise without any defects, and human nature, as it is now, possesses a “twofold defect.” Children possess a defect in that they have not yet attained their ultimate physical perfection, and the aged possess a defect in that they have declined from their ultimate perfection. Therefore, the perfected body of the resurrection will be of a youthful condition of ultimate perfection, the point at which growth has ended and decline has not yet occurred.
Thomas notes as well that the aged are rightly revered, not on account of their bodies, but on account of the soul’s wisdom. Therefore, even when resurrected in youthful bodies, those who attained old age will still be revered “on account of the fulness of Divine wisdom which will be in them, but the defect of old age will not be in them.” As for children, while their bodies do possess the greatest powers of growth, they have not yet attained the ultimate perfection found in youthful maturity, which is the age at which all will arise.
[Aquinas on the Four Last Things: Everything You Need to Know about Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell, Chapter 17]
Church’s Official Teaching
Catechism 997: What is “rising”? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection.
Catechism 998: Who will rise? All the dead will rise, “those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” (Jn 5:29; cf. Dan 12:2)
Catechism 999: How? Christ is raised with his own body: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself”; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, “all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,” but Christ “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,” into a “spiritual body”:
But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel. … What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. … The dead will be raised imperishable. … For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. (Lk 24:39)
Catechism 1000: This “how” exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ’s transfiguration of our bodies:
Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God’s blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection. (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4,18,4-5:PG 7/1,1028-1029)
Catechism 1001: When? Definitively “at the last day,” “at the end of the world.” Indeed, the resurrection of the dead is closely associated with Christ’s Parousia:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thes 4:16)
In the end, the teaching presented by Kevin Vost, drawing faithfully from Thomas Aquinas and confirmed by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, offers a deeply hopeful and coherent vision of the resurrection. Our bodies will not simply be restored as they were at death, but perfected—freed from every defect, raised in incorruption, and brought to the fullness of human nature as God intended from the beginning. This youthful maturity does not diminish who we are, but rather completes us, preserving both our identity and the spiritual fruits of our earthly life.
In this light, the resurrection is not merely a return to life, but a transformation into a state of wholeness, where body and soul are reunited in harmony, prepared either for eternal glory or judgment, according to the justice and mercy of God.
Buy the featured book Aquinas on the Four Last Things: Everything You Need to Know about Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell (2021) by Kevin Vost on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4efXKRU.
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