There was a time, some twenty years ago, when the zombie apocalypse captured the popular imagination. The Walking Dead, World War Z, Resident Evil, The Last of Us, and plenty of other media across movies, television, and video games dominated the pop-culture landscape, all following in the wake of George Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. Many of us were so enamored with the concept of a zombie apocalypse that we would mentally plan and prepare for such an event: keeping tabs on which neighborhood would make the best stronghold, determining whether weapons or medicine should take priority, deciding which of our colleagues we would want in our squad, and so on.
As fascinating as the zombie is, however, it is ultimately a cynical parody of the Christian dogma of the resurrection of the dead. Many people, even atheists, accept some form of spiritual continuation of the human person, whether in the form of an afterlife or a return of the human psyche back into the universe. But as the Catechism quotes St. Augustine, “On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body” (CCC 996). Everything about the zombie genre attempts to present this opposition.
In the Flesh
In the first season of The Walking Dead, when the zombie outbreak begins, the characters are shown grappling with the reality of killing the zombified versions of their loved ones. In order to fight back and survive, they must internalize the idea that the being in front of them is merely a vessel of flesh; their “real” loved one is gone. And as the audience grew with these characters, we were eventually forced to make that same distinction whenever one of our favorite characters was killed off. (RIP Herschel.)
This, however, pushes us toward a notion of the human person as something found only in the soul. Zombie corpses are shown not only functioning independently of the rational soul, but reduced even further to mindless, somehow animated shells. What remains is little more than grotesque, decaying flesh made dangerous precisely because the bodily or sensitive appetites dominate. These appetites are manifested especially in hunger and violence.
Christian anthropology rejects this view of the human person. “The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual” (CCC 362). This means that the entirety of the human person, body and soul, was made in the image of God.
So often, as Christians, we think that the image of God is found only in the soul. But by His Incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ showed that the image of God is found also in the human body. He Himself said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Expounding on this, St. Paul describes Christ as “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
Of course, the Incarnation also tells us something about the destiny of our own bodies. Our bodies were not meant for death and decay. “It is the whole human person [body and soul] that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit” (CCC 364; 1 Cor 6:19–20). And by using our bodies to become dwelling places for His Spirit, God desires to bring about His Presence on Earth through our very bodies. The Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes states that, because our bodies sum up all the elements of the material world, God brings about the perfection of the universe through humanity (GS 14.1; CCC 364).
And we do not need to wait until the end of time to experience something of this perfection. We can experience this joy even now.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
When are zombies supposed to appear and dominate the earth? Supposedly, zombies signal the end times, hence the phrase “zombie apocalypse.” And ever since the circulation of St. John’s Apocalypse—now more commonly called the Book of Revelation—we have been fascinated with the end times.
This, however, fundamentally misunderstands what an apocalypse is.
The word apocalypse comes from the Greek verb meaning “to unveil.” This is why modern Bibles have largely replaced the title “Apocalypse” with “Revelation.” In its strictest sense, an apocalypse is a revelation.
One might conclude, therefore, that St. John’s purpose in the final biblical book is simply to reveal the end times. But Revelation is addressed to the seven major churches of Asia Minor, all of which are undergoing persecution. Its purpose is to provide these Christians with hope: while they endure persecution on earth, St. John describes the victories already being won in Heaven.
The Catechism itself identifies a liturgical interpretation of St. John’s Apocalypse. In the section describing the heavenly liturgy, the Catechism quotes Revelation as revealing to us the heavenly sanctuary, the throne of God and of the Lamb, the river of the water of life—the Holy Spirit—a multitude of angels, and all the tribes and peoples of the earth worshipping God and the Lamb (CCC 1137–1138). It ultimately concludes that “it is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to participate whenever we celebrate the mystery of salvation in the sacraments” (CCC 1139).
This means that, as Catholics, we need not be afraid of the apocalypse precisely because we enter into it—and enter into Heaven—every single time we participate in Holy Mass.
The Return of the Living Dead
The final Resurrection of the Dead remains one of Christianity’s most mysterious dogmas. But while the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the “crowning truth of our faith” (CCC 638), the general resurrection of all the dead on the last day is the culmination of the entire Christian Creed (CCC 988).
Why?
Precisely because Christ Himself rose from the dead, not as a ghost or as pure spirit, but with His own body.
And what would be the point of His rising from the dead if, first, our bodies simply ended up as soulless bags of flesh, and second, our souls ultimately existed as bodiless entities?
There is, however, one thing that zombie movies get right: the rising of the dead is for everyone. Christians often think of the Resurrection as something only for the just, but in fact all will rise, including the unrighteous (CCC 998). And on that day of final judgment, everyone’s sins will be publicly revealed, much like Fr. Gabriel’s cowardice and selfishness were revealed at the beginning of the zombie outbreak in The Walking Dead.
The righteous and unrighteous, however, will experience their respective states in a new way. For now, whatever pain or blessedness each group experiences is experienced directly in the soul. But this is not how human beings were meant to experience reality. As bodily creatures, we properly experience things through our bodies.
This is why it is Good News for St. Paul to say that we will one day fully see God face to face (1 Cor 13:12).
But the opposite is also Bad News.
The “wailing and grinding of teeth” will not merely be metaphorical. It will be experienced bodily as well.
In that sense, zombie movies get something else right: the zombie apocalypse is something to prepare for.
But our preparation is not for the sake of future survival. Rather, it is preparation to avoid the reality that zombie fiction depicts so vividly—because what it presents, in a twisted way, truly is Hell on Earth.
Kingdom (of Heaven)
But thanks be to God for the love and mercy of the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.
As the ancient theologian Tertullian said, “The flesh is the hinge of salvation.” As the Catechism further says, “We believe in God who is creator of the flesh; we believe in the Word made flesh in order to redeem the flesh; we believe in the resurrection of the flesh, the fulfillment of both the creation and the redemption of the flesh” (CCC 1015).
And none of these are merely abstract, future realities. They are true even here and now.
As mentioned above, we experience God’s Apocalypse at every Mass. But this is not simply because we enter Heaven through the liturgy. Everything that will happen on the last day is already anticipated in every Eucharist.
“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” (CCC 1000; citing St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies).
We do not need to fear death. We do not need to fear Hell. We do not need to fear the utter violence and destruction of our bodies if, here and now, we taste the Body of the Risen and Glorified Christ.
And wherever Christ dwells, there is the Kingdom of Heaven.
So let us not wander around town scouting out places from which to survive the zombie apocalypse. As we approach Advent and Christmas, let us instead prepare the Bethlehem of our hearts to make room for Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
