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Jesus could nevertheless talk with Moses and Elijah on Mt. Tabor --- Peter, James, and John heard and saw them --- and Jesus refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "living."

Jesus is God. He can talk to whomever He wishes. That doesn't set the model for us.

Also, with respect to Elijah, he was caught up into heaven without dying, IIRC. We also know there was a supernatural squabble over the body of Moses. It is conceivable there was a resurrection involved here. Again, too speculative for my tastes, but of all the men chosen to be in a vision, these two are definitely outliers from the normal human death experience. Enoch would be another.

And as I have stated previously, when Jesus refers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "living," it is understood as looking forward to the resurrection, not any intermediate state. I respect you greatly, but I do not think you've made out a winning case for some mode of human living that does not involve either our natural body or our resurrected body. In which case, it is still proper, as Paul said, to speak of the dead in Christ, which must include Mary, barring any God-breathed confirmation of exceptional circumstances.

Peace,

SR

Jesus refers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "living," but He actually converses with Moses and Elijah at Mt. Tabor, which the Apostles both saw and heard.

Why do you say Jesus "doesn't set the model for us"? I've actually never heard a Christian say such a thing before.

I surely agree that it is an unnatural thing for a human being, created by God as a composite creature with both spiritual and physical components, to exist like a bodiless entity, and such a situation could only be temporary. But so it is, until the resurrection of the body.