From the: CATHOLIC DICTIONARY The Catholic Press, Inc. CHICAGO: ILLINOIS Imprimatur + Samuel Cardinal Stritch Archbishop of Chicago Chicago, August 5, 1950

Resurrection of Christ.    The greatest of all Christ's miracles and the proof of His divine mission. For although He worked many other wonders, yet without His Resurrection, as Saint Paul states (1 Cor. 15:17), our faith would be vain and we would still be in our sins. The reason for this is that resurrection from the dead was the sign which Christ Himself promised as the proof of His divine mission (Matt. 12:38 - 41; John 2:19), and had He failed to return to life on the third day He would have been convicted of being an imposter. His enemies, the priests and Pharisees, understood full well the importance of this sign, and therefore took precautions to seal the tomb and post guards (Matt. 27:62 - 66). Since these arrangements excluded the possibility of fraud, they thereby increased for posterity the certainty of the miracle. The Resurrection was not an apparent return or a mere hallucination of the Apostles, but resumption by Christ of His human body. It is a historical fact attested by witnesses who could neither deceive, wish to deceive, nor be deceived. Those whom the Bible mentions as having seen the Risen Christ include: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome; the Apostles; Cleophas and another disciple at Emmaus; Saint Paul; more than 500 disciples. Of the fact of Christ's Resurrection, therefore, there can be no doubt (Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20). The Apostles bore witness to it constantly; in fact, it formed the basis of their entire preaching (e.g., Acts 2:24-32; 2 Cor. 5:15; 2 Tim. 2:8). Not only is it the foundation of our faith; it is also the pledge and example of our own resurrection. Easter Sunday is the Feast of the Resurrection. Resurrection of the Body. The doctrine that the souls of all men, both good and bad, will be reunited to their bodies at the second coming of Christ. Just as the body shares in the good acts or in the sins of the soul in this life, so it will share in its reward or in its punishment in eternity. Each soul will be reunited, by the power of God, to identically the same body which it inhabited in this life. The risen body, will be without any defect of human nature and will be invested with the special qualities of the glorified body. This doctrine is the 11th article of the Creed, and one of the principal doctrines of our Faith. This consoling truth was known to the orthodox Jєωs of the Old Testament (2 Mach. 7:9-11) and was more clearly and emphatically taught by Our Lord on various occasions (Matt. 22:23-32; John 5: 28-29). Indeed, by Himself rising from the dead, Christ gave us a pattern and a pledge of our own resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23; 1 Thess. 4:13); for at His command on the last day our bodies will be restored to us in a condition like to His own glorified body: subject to our souls, and immune from decay, suffering, and death (1 Cor. 15:42-44).

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1Cor:15:
12 ¶ Now if Christ be preached, that he arose again from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again.
14  And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain: and your faith is also vain.
15  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we have given testimony against God, that he hath raised up Christ, whom he hath not raised up, if the dead rise not again.
16  For if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again.
17  And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain: for you are yet in your sins.
18  Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 ¶ But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep:
21  For by a man came death: and by a man the resurrection of the dead.
22  And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
23  But every one in his own order: the firstfruits, Christ: then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming. (DRV)

Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and is raised up in body to the right hand of God and will return and raise and judge all men. This was the basis of St. Paul’s preaching. St. Peter said:

2Pt:3:
1 ¶ Behold this second epistle I write to you, my dearly beloved, in which, I stir up by way of admonition your sincere mind:
2  That you may be mindful of those words which I told you before from the holy prophet and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and Saviour.
3 ¶ Knowing this first: That in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4  Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5  For this they are wilfully ignorant of: That the heavens were before, and the earth out of water and through water, consisting by the word of God:
6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
7  But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men.
8 ¶ But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 ¶ The Lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance,
10  But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence and the elements shall be melted with heat and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up.
11 ¶ Seeing then that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness?
12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat?
13  But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, in which justice dwelleth.
14  Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace.
15  And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation: as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you:
16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.
17  You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness.
18  But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity, Amen.
(DRV)

Notice that there is no question with St. Peter about literal creation and the flood and the literal second coming of Christ.