According to Catholicism, how many times did Jesus "rise again"?

Question

According to Catholicism, God went to "Purgatory" after his death on the cross. As the Apostles Creed says:

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead/hell. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Catholic.com says:

It is no wonder, then, that those who deny the existence of purgatory tend to touch upon only briefly the history of the belief. They prefer to claim that the Bible speaks only of heaven and hell. Wrong. It speaks plainly of a third condition, commonly called the limbo of the Fathers, where the just who had died before the redemption were waiting for heaven to be opened to them. After his death and before his resurrection, Christ visited those experiencing the limbo of the Fathers and preached to them the good news that heaven would now be opened to them (1 Pet. 3:19). These people thus were not in heaven, but neither were they experiencing the torments of hell.

Some have speculated that the limbo of the Fathers is the same as purgatory. This may or may not be the case. However, even if the limbo of the Fathers is not purgatory, its existence shows that a temporary, intermediate state is not contrary to Scripture. Look at it this way. If the limbo of the Fathers was purgatory, then this one verse directly teaches the existence of purgatory. If the limbo of the Fathers was a different temporary state, then the Bible at least says such a state can exist. It proves there can be more than just heaven and hell.

Some Fundamentalists also charge, as though it actually proved something, "The word purgatory is nowhere found in Scripture." This is true, and yet it does not disprove the existence of purgatory or the fact that belief in it has always been part of Church teaching. The words Trinity and Incarnation aren’t in Scripture either, yet those doctrines are clearly taught in it. Likewise, Scripture teaches that purgatory exists, even if it doesn’t use that word and even if 1 Peter 3:19 refers to a place other than purgatory.

The article says the idea of Purgatory is based on 1 Peter 3:19:

18. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit.
19. In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
20. who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. (1 Peter 3:18-20 NASB translation)

Does this mean God eternally existed as a spirit, then God became a man for a few years, then God "rose again" as a spirit for a few days when he descended to Purgatory, then God "rose again" to eternally be a man?

Answer 1

The short answer is the Resurrection of Jesus occurred only once, and it will not occur again in the future. (We only say “rose again” to emphasize that Jesus really died as a result of the Crucifixion.)

However, some important clarifications are in order:

1. The Church does not teach that Jesus went to Purgatory. Purgatory exists in order for those who die in friendship with God to be purified of the effects of their sins, should that still be necessary, after death. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC] 1030-1032.) Jesus did not have any sins to purify.

   The Church does teach, however, that the righteous who died before the Resurrection of Christ awaited the Resurrection before they entered Heaven. Jesus visited them after his death on the Cross in order to release them and bring them to Heaven. (See CCC 631-637.)

2. God by nature is pure spirit. He is utterly unchanging, and so He is not affected even by the Incarnation. We are not to think, therefore, that by becoming incarnate, the Son “left Heaven” behind. Rather, the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, assumed a human nature at the Incarnation. As the Catechism puts it:

   At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine nature he has assumed human nature. (No. 479.)

3. By the Incarnation, the Son assumed a complete human nature: therefore, He has (in His human nature), a human body, a human soul, a human intellect, and a human will. It is important not to confuse Jesus’ human soul with his Divine Nature. Both are spiritual, but one is human and the other is Divine. (CCC 471-475.)

4. Only a human being can die, go to the abode of the dead, and rise. Therefore, when Jesus did these things, he did so in his human nature only. Nevertheless, actions are always ascribed to the person who performs them. Therefore, since Jesus is a a Divine Person, we can legitimately say that God died, went to the abode of the dead, and rose. However, I reiterate, he accomplished these things in his human nature, not his Divine Nature. (CCC 470.)

5. The Incarnation, by divine decree, is permanent. In the words of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, “his kingdom will have no end.” The Son has promised that will never annihilate His human nature (although He is, of course, capable of doing so.) So no, the Son did not become man “only for a few years.”

Answer 2

Commentating on 1 Peter 3:18, the Catholic Haydock Commentary says:

Ver. 18. Christ....being put to death indeed in the flesh, dying on the cross for our sins, but brought to life by the spirit. By the spirit here some understand Christ's divine spirit, and power of his divinity, by which he soon raised himself again from death to an immortal life by his glorious resurrection. But others by the spirit rather understand Christ's soul, by which he never died, which always remained united to his divine person, and which the third day he again reunited to his body. (Witham)

Thus, "spirit" is seen by some as being Christ's divinity, and for others "spirit" means His human soul.