What does it mean to be “caught up”?

St. John Chrysostom says, “But in saying ‘we,’ he [i.e., St. Paul] does not speak of himself, for he was not about to remain until the Resurrection, but he speaks of the faithful.”¹²⁴² The term ‘we’ is a sign of the unity of the Church — the apostle Paul considers whatever will happen to those of her children who shall be alive at that time to happen to him also.

St. John Chrysostom wonders, “If He is about to descend, on what account shall we be caught up? For the sake of honor. For when a king drives into a city, those who are in honor go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within. And upon the coming of an affectionate father, his children indeed, and those who are worthy to be his children, are taken out in a chariot, that they may see and kiss him; but those of the domestics who have offended remain within. We are carried upon the chariot of our Father. For He received Him up in the clouds, and ‘we shall be caught up in the clouds’ (Acts 1:9) Do you see how great is the honor? And as He descends, we go forth to meet Him, and, what is more blessed than all, so we shall be with Him.”¹²⁴³

In St. Gregory of Nyssa’s view, the faithful being caught up to the clouds to meet the Lord coming to them and to be with Him forever is a sign the transformation that will befall our bodies. The corruption that was like a heaviness dragging us down to the earth will be transformed into incorruption, and the body will be lifted up lightly to the clouds to meet the Lord: “But only when the trumpet of the resurrection sounds, which awakens the dead, and transforms those who are left in life, after the likeness of those who have undergone the resurrection change, at once to incorruptibility; so that the weight of the flesh is no longer heavy, nor does its burden hold them down to earth, but they rise aloft through the air.”¹²⁴⁴