We shall narrate these matters according to what all the Evangelists describe. The Apostles also, as is said in Acts, “with great power gave testimony,” namely by preaching the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The patriarch Jacob foretold it when he said in the penultimate chapter of Genesis: “You have gone up to the prey, my son.” You have ascended from hell, taking away from the devil the prey of the souls who were in limbo. “Resting, you have lain down like a lion and as a lioness; who shall rouse him?” It is as though he said: No one shall rouse him by assistance, because he shall rise by the proper power of his divinity. Just as a lion never closes its eyes when it sleeps, so although Christ underwent the sleep of death, he did not close the eyes of his providence; rather, his soul, continuously by the light of its understanding, beheld God and all things in him.
Saint David also prophesied concerning the Resurrection, saying in Christ’s person: “I slept,” namely through death, “and took my rest,” as though taking a long sleep, because, as is said, he remained dead for a space of forty hours. When he expired at the ninth hour on Friday, six hours of that day remained. The following night together with the Sabbath amounted to twenty-four hours. Ten hours of the Lord’s night followed, because he arose at dawn.
The Psalmist adds: “And I arose because the Lord received me,” which Augustine, in Book 18 of The City of God, says was fulfilled in Christ’s Resurrection.
The prophecy of Hosea expressly named the day of his Resurrection from death, saying: “He shall revive us after two days, and on the third day he shall raise us up.” For in him, who assumed our mortal nature, our final resurrection began, since his Resurrection occurred on the third day. Thus he himself had foretold it to the disciples, saying: “The Son of Man shall be handed over to the chief priests,” and so forth; “they shall kill him, and on the third day he shall rise.”
Joseph also figured the Resurrection when, led out of prison—namely, from limbo—with his head shaven, that is, clothed in mortal conditions, he manifested his wisdom in the royal garment of bodily glory, became lord of Egypt, and was called savior.
Samson also figured it when, shut in the city while his Philistine enemies thought they held him captive, he rose in the depth of night, took its gates and bars upon his shoulders and, unharmed, carried them onto the mountain. And just as by his death Samson killed very many Philistines, so by his death Christ laid the demons low.
Passing over innumerable other testimonies, Christ’s Resurrection to immortal life was celebrated on the Lord’s day, which was the seventeenth day of the moon and the twenty-seventh day of March. For his Passion and death occurred on Friday, the twenty-fifth day of March, namely on that day on which he had also been incarnate of the Virgin, thirty-three years having afterward revolved since his Incarnation.
For this reason, out of reverence for the Lord’s Resurrection, every Lord’s day throughout the year is commanded to be celebrated. This is in De consecratione, Distinction 3, canon Pronuntiandum. As Pope Leo says: “Whatever notable deed was performed by the Lord is found to have been done on this day. For the world received its beginning, death its end, and life its beginning.” This is in Distinction 75, canon Quod die.
When Christ is said to have risen on the third day, or to have remained dead for three days, a part is taken for the whole by a general manner of speech, through synecdoche. The space of time from the ninth hour, when he expired, until night is taken for one day. The following night of the Sabbath together with its artificial day was the second complete natural day, namely twenty-four hours. The space of the following night until midnight—or, as is more commonly said, until dawn, when Christ arose—is taken for the third day.
A natural day is the space of twenty-four hours in which the sun completes its course through the whole circuit of heaven, namely through our hemisphere and that which lies beneath us, returning to the east. An artificial day is the space in which the sun passes from east to west through our hemisphere.
As Bede says, in the Resurrection itself the order of days was changed with respect to their beginning. From the beginning of the world until the Resurrection, a day began at sunrise and ended at the close of the following night, as is clear in Genesis 1. Thus the artificial day preceded and the night followed, to signify that man would fall from the light of grace into the night of guilt. But after Christ arose, the natural day begins at night and ends in the evening of the following artificial day, to signify that through Christ’s Resurrection we pass from the night of guilt to the light of grace.
Athanasius says: He could have raised his body from the dead sooner, but someone would have said that he had not died at all or that death had not fully taken hold of him. Perhaps, too, if the Resurrection had been delayed, the honor of incorruption would have lain hidden. Therefore, so that Christ’s body might be shown to have died, he allowed the interval of one day and on the third day displayed his body incorrupt.
Bede and Gregory say: He also lay in the tomb for one day and two nights because he joined the light of his single death to the darkness of our double death, namely of soul and body. As the Church sings: “By dying he destroyed our death, and by rising he restored life.”
Christ therefore arose from the dead at dawn on the Lord’s day, according to the Church’s words in the hymn: “The dawn glows red with light; heaven resounds with praises,” and so forth. Christ’s soul then departed from limbo, leading all the souls out of it, and returned to his body, which was enclosed in the tomb. Christ, raised to life, came out of the tomb while it remained closed and sealed, just as, when made mortal in his Nativity, he came out of the Virgin’s womb with the virginal seal intact.
When he arose, a great earthquake occurred. The guards of the tomb were terrified by it and became like dead men, as Matthew says. An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled the stone away from the tomb’s entrance.
When the guards recovered, they saw the stone rolled away, looked inside, and did not find Jesus’s body. They returned to the city and told the chief priests and scribes what had happened. To conceal the mystery of the Resurrection, the latter gave the guards a large sum of money, as Matthew reports, so that they would spread among the people this lie: that during the night, while they slept, his disciples came and stole his body. If Pilate wished to punish them for neglecting their guard, the priests would secure their safety by excusing them. Thus it was done: this great lie was made known among the people, and the Jews remain in this error to the present day.
The Evangelists identify the day on which he arose by different forms of speech. Mark says: “Very early on the first of the sabbaths”; and John: “On the first of the sabbaths.” Matthew, however, says: “In the evening of the Sabbath, which dawns toward the first of the Sabbath,” which is more obscure.
It must be known that among the Hebrews the week ended on the Sabbath, which was their principal and festive day. Hence they named or numbered all the days of the week from it, saying that the first day after the Sabbath was “the first of the Sabbath” or “one of the Sabbath,” the second day “the second of the Sabbath,” and so with the others. “One of the sabbaths” therefore means the first day of the week whose days are named or numbered from the Sabbath. This is the Lord’s day.
When Matthew says, “In the evening of the Sabbath,” he speaks of the evening—that is, the late part—not of the day, but of the night following the Sabbath. Hence, explaining himself, he says, “which dawns toward the first of the Sabbath,” that is, the evening hour which tends toward the light of the first day after the Sabbath. This is the Lord’s day, at its dawn.
“Mary Magdalene came to the tomb,” John says, naming her alone because, as Augustine says, she was more fervent than the others in seeking the Lord. Nevertheless, she did not come alone, but, as Mark reports, with Mary the mother of James the Less and Salome, the mother of James the Greater and John, both of whom were sisters of the Virgin Mary. She came to anoint Jesus’s body with the spices which they had bought on Friday evening and from which they had made ointments that would preserve it from corruption.
According to Mark, they came when the sun had already risen, that is, when signs of the sun’s impending rise appeared and the air was already growing white. Thus he does not disagree with John, who says that it was still dark, because the day was not yet bright.
There was certainly spiritual darkness in the minds of these women. They believed that Christ had been a mere man, though a most holy one, and out of devotion toward him they intended to perform this pious work.
When they approached the place, they began to say among themselves: “Who will roll the stone away for us from the tomb’s entrance?” For, as Mark says, it was exceedingly large. Looking up, they saw the stone rolled away from the tomb and an angel clothed in a white robe sitting upon it. Matthew adds that his appearance—that is, his face—was like lightning and his garments like snow.
Mark and Matthew narrate that the Marys saw only one angel, but Luke and John speak of two. Augustine reconciles them by saying that in the space outside the rocky tomb, which was like a cave, they saw the one angel reported by Matthew and Mark; afterward, looking inside the rocky tomb, they saw two angels, according to Luke and John.
They were stupefied with great fear, but the angel comforted them, saying: “Do not be afraid. I know that you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. Come and see the place where the Lord was laid. Go quickly and tell all his disciples, and Peter, that he has risen. He shall go before you into Galilee, appearing there as he foretold you.”
He named Peter especially because Peter was in great grief over the sin of his denial, and therefore the angel wished to console him in a more particular way.
The Marys therefore went to the place where they knew the Apostles were living together and announced these things. Mary Magdalene, being more fervent, arrived more quickly than the others. Hence John reports concerning Mary alone, yet does not exclude the others. But, as Luke says, these things appeared to them like delirious tales.
Peter and John, however, more fervent than the others, heard these things and went to the tomb, running together. Although John, because he was younger, reached the tomb more quickly, he did not dare enter the cave, which contained the tomb like a little house. Peter, coming afterward, entered, and they looked into the tomb and saw the linen cloths in which Jesus’s body had been wrapped lying there, together with the face-cloth that had been placed over his face. They did not find the body.
As Luke reports, Peter, to whom the message had first been given, ran; and because Peter was before John, Luke therefore speaks of Peter alone, saying that he arrived, stooped down, saw the linen cloths, and withdrew a little. When John, who had run after him, came up, Peter entered the tomb, and after him John, as John himself reports.
Bede says according to the mystical understanding: The women’s coming to the tomb very early gives us an example that, once the darkness of vices has been dispersed, we should approach the Lord’s body. That tomb also bore the figure of the Lord’s altar. Upon it the mysteries of Christ’s body must be consecrated not in silk or dyed cloth, but in pure linen, like the shroud in which Joseph wrapped him. Thus, just as Christ offered true earthly substance to death for us, so in commemoration of him we should place upon the altar linen that is pure, white from the earth’s growth, and chastened as though by a kind of mortification.
The spices which the women carry signify the fragrance of virtues and the sweetness of prayers, with which we ought to approach. The rolling away of the stone signifies the revelation of the sacraments which were hidden under the veil of the letter of the Law written on stone. When that covering is removed, a dead body is not found, but a living one is proclaimed by the Gospel.
Just as angels stood beside Christ’s tomb, so they now stand beside the mystery of Christ’s body and blood. Following the example of the holy women, whenever we stand beside Christ’s mysteries, let us bow our faces with all humility because of the presence of the angels or of the Lord, recognizing that we are dust and earth.
§ I: On the appearances of the risen Christ made to the disciples, of which the Evangelists narrate
Although it is not contained in the Gospel, it is nevertheless believed that before all others Christ first appeared to his mother. Since she grieved more than all, she would more quickly and more greatly be consoled by seeing him; and she merited this more because, when all others failed in faith in his divinity and Resurrection, she alone remained firm in faith.
This may be the reason why she did not go to the tomb with the other Marys: not only because she was greatly weakened by grief at her Son’s death, according to Bernard, but because she was certain that his Resurrection would take place that day. Hence she did not wish to seek the living among the dead. Ambrose also expressly says that he first appeared to his mother. The Church likewise appears to hold this, because on that morning the pope celebrates in Saint Mary Major.
The Evangelists did not take care to relate this either because they judged it to be presupposed and believed by everyone, or because, when describing witnesses of the Resurrection, they did not wish the mother’s testimony concerning her Son to be held suspect because of natural affection. They therefore indicated not her, but the others to whom he appeared.
Mark says that he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons, that is, vices. John, however, describes the manner of this appearance more fully.
After the Marys returned from the tomb, while the others remained around the place, Magdalene stood weeping at the tomb. Gregory says: Mary Magdalene, who had been a sinner in the city, had loved the truth and washed away her crimes with tears. The great force of love had inflamed her mind, and she did not depart from the tomb when the disciples departed. For one sight is not enough for one who loves, because the force of love multiplies the intention of the search. She who first sought and did not find persevered in seeking; hence it happened that she found.
Some, however, such as Jerome and Theophilus, appear to say that this Mary to whom Christ appeared was not the woman who had been the sinner in the city.
Looking in, she saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been laid, one at the head and the other at the feet. It may be that these were the angels whom she had previously seen with the other Marys. The other Evangelists, when narrating concerning one angel, put the singular for the plural because the angels appeared for a single purpose. Or first one angel appeared, and afterward these two angels appeared to Magdalene and the other Marys.
They questioned her, saying: “Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek?” It is as though they said: Do not weep. She answered, indicating the cause of her grief: “They have taken away my Lord,” that is, the Lord’s body, “and I do not know where they have laid him.” In these words she showed a defect of faith, because if she had believed him to be God, she certainly would not have thought him taken away. Yet she also indicated her intense love for him, saying: “I do not know where they have laid him,” as though to say: I do not know where to seek him.
Because she burned more than the others with desire to see him, she merited first to possess the joys of seeing his Resurrection. This also occurred to give confidence to truly penitent sinners, because where sin abounded, grace also superabounds, if the sinner is truly converted. Moreover, because a woman in paradise was the first messenger of death to the man, it was fitting that a woman should be the first messenger of the life begun in Christ’s Resurrection.
“Mary turned,” the Evangelist says, “and saw Jesus standing, but did not know that it was Jesus.” Chrysostom assigns the following cause for this turning. When Mary answered, she was turned toward the angels. When Jesus appeared behind her, the angels showed by the expression and movement of their gaze that the Lord was present, displaying reverence. Mary therefore turned backward to see what was there.
Jesus said to her: “Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek?” Gregory says: The cause of her grief is asked so that the seeker’s desire may be increased, and so that, when she named the one she sought, she might burn more ardently with love for him.
She thought that he was the gardener. Gregory says: Perhaps this woman did not err even in erring when she thought him the gardener, namely with respect to the signification. Was he not spiritually a gardener to her, since by the force of his love he planted flourishing seeds of virtues in her breast?
She therefore said: “Lord, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I shall take him.” But why, before she had expressed what she sought, did she say to him, “Lord, if you have taken him,” and so forth? Because the force of love is accustomed to act in this way in the lover’s soul: the person upon whom the lover is always thinking, the lover believes no one else can fail to know.
“Tell me where you have laid him.” Theophilus says that she feared lest the Jews rage even against the lifeless body if it were found, and therefore she wished to carry it to another, unknown place.
“I shall take him.” Great indeed was the woman’s boldness born of love. For what, Origen says, if he had been placed in the house of Caiaphas or of Annas, his enemies? “I shall certainly take him,” fearing neither death nor threats.
Jesus then called her by name, saying: “Mary,” as though to say: Recognize him by whom you are recognized. Mary, turning toward him, said: “Rabboni,” which is interpreted “Master.”
But how did she turn toward him, since she had already been facing him when she said, “Lord, if you have taken him away,” and so forth? Chrysostom answers: It seems that after Mary had spoken those words to the gardener, she immediately turned her face again toward those angels to ask why they had been stupefied, namely at the gardener’s appearance.
Or, according to Augustine, previously turning in body she supposed him to be what he was not; now, turning in heart, she recognized what he was.
Although the Evangelist does not say what the woman then did, what she attempted is nevertheless indicated by what she heard. For Jesus said to her: “Do not touch me.” Gregory says that these words show that Mary wished to embrace the feet of the one she recognized.
But why was she not permitted to touch him? The cause is added: “For I have not yet ascended to my Father.” Chrysostom says: This woman wished to be with Christ as she had been before the Passion and, because of her great joy, she thought of nothing great, although Christ’s flesh had been made much better by rising. Therefore, drawing her away from this understanding, he said: “Do not touch me,” so that she might speak to him with great reverence. Hence, when appearing to the disciples, he no longer conversed with them continually as before, but only from time to time, so that they might attend to him more reverently.
“For I have not yet ascended to my Father.” He showed that he was hastening and hurrying there and that she therefore ought not to look upon him with the same mind as before.
Or, according to Augustine, this was said so that in that woman might be figured the Church from the Gentiles, which did not believe in Christ until after he ascended to the Father. Or Jesus wished himself to be believed in this way—that is, to be touched spiritually in this way: that he and the Father are one. For he ascends in a certain manner to the Father within a person’s inmost senses when that person has so advanced in him as to recognize him as equal to the Father. This woman did not believe in him in this way, for she mourned him carnally as a man.
Touch makes, as it were, the limit of knowledge. Therefore, he did not wish the intention of her heart toward him to end in such a way that he would be thought to be only what was seen.
Jesus added: “Go to my brothers,” namely the disciples, “and tell them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Hilary says in Book 9 of On the Trinity: The Lord, remaining in the form of God, assumed the form of a servant. When Jesus Christ speaks all these things in the form of a servant—“I ascend to my Father,” and so forth—there is no doubt that the Father is his, as he is the Father of the others, with respect to that part by which Christ is man; and that God is his, as he is God of all, with respect to that nature by which Christ is a servant. Finally, he began this very instruction by saying: “Go to my brothers.” They are his brothers from the flesh; but the only-begotten God is without brothers.
Mary then went out from the tomb, that is, from the place where the garden was, some distance before the stone hollowed out as a tomb. Finding the other Marys and relating what had happened, she went with them to announce the Resurrection to the disciples. On the way Jesus met them and manifested himself to them, as Matthew alone narrates. Greeting them, he said: “Hail.” They approached and held his feet, piously kissing them, as may be believed, with the greatest devotion. Because they had now recovered faith in his Resurrection, Christ permitted himself to be touched by them. Magdalene therefore came with the others, announcing to the disciples what had been commanded her.
Jesus appeared a third time to Peter, as is clear from the last chapter of Luke, where it is said: “The Lord has truly risen and has appeared to Simon”; and from First Corinthians 15: “He was seen by Cephas.” But when, where, or in what manner he appeared is not clear from the Gospel. It is nevertheless believed to have occurred that same day, when Peter was alone and perhaps came again to the tomb after Mary’s announcement. That it was before the final appearance is evident from the Gospel’s extended narration of the history.
Mark also refers to the next appearance in two words, saying: “After this”—namely, after the appearance which Jesus made to Magdalene—“he appeared in another form to two disciples from among them as they were going into a village. They went and announced it to the others, and they did not believe them.” Luke, however, expresses it clearly. What Luke calls a fortified town, Mark calls a village, because a fortified town is also called a village by many.
Jesus appeared a fourth time to two disciples going to the fortified town of Emmaus near Jerusalem, which is sixty stadia distant from it. A stadion was one-eighth of a mile. Luke testifies to this appearance in his final chapter.
Luke gives the name of one of the two, namely Cleopas, who is thought to have been one of Christ’s seventy-two disciples. The other’s name is withheld, on account of which some say it was Luke himself, who out of humility did not wish to express his own name. Gregory touches upon this opinion in the prologue to the Moralia. But this does not appear correct, because Luke was not one of Christ’s disciples, but a disciple of the Apostles, converted by them. Hence Ambrose gives the other man another name, namely Amaon.
As they traveled, they spoke with each other concerning all the things which had happened around Jesus, not truly believing but marveling at them as at strange things. While they were conversing and inquiring among themselves concerning them, Jesus himself approached and walked with them, just as some traveler, seeing other travelers before him, often joins himself to them.
According to Bede, he did this both to implant the truth of the Resurrection in their minds and to fulfill what, existing as mortal, he had promised he would do when he said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name”—namely, to speak about me or about their salvation—“there am I in the midst of them.”
Having now obtained a spiritual—that is, glorified—body, Theophilus says, distance of place did not prevent him from being present to whom he wished. Nor did he any longer govern his body by natural laws, but spiritually and above nature. Hence Mark also says that he was seen in another form, by which recognition of him was impeded.
It follows: “Their eyes were held so that they would not recognize him,” namely so that they might disclose their whole doubtful intention and, revealing the wound, receive the medicine; and so that they might know that although the same body which had suffered arose, it was no longer such that it was visible to everyone, but only to those by whom it wished to be seen.
Gregory says: Fittingly, Christ also did not show them the form which they recognized, outwardly doing in the eyes of the body what was being done inwardly among them in the eyes of the heart. For within themselves they both loved and doubted. To them as they spoke about him, he displayed his presence because of their love; but to them as they doubted about him, he concealed the form by which they would know him. This is in Cause 1, Question 1, § Dominus.
He therefore said to them: “What are these words which you exchange with one another, and why are you sad?” The Greek commentator says: They were conversing among themselves as though they no longer expected Christ to be alive and grieved because their Savior had been killed.
Cleopas said to him: “Are you alone a stranger in Jerusalem and do not know the things which have happened there in these days?” It is as though he said: Are you alone such a stranger that you dwell outside Jerusalem’s borders and have no share in the things which happened in its midst?
Bede says: They thought him a stranger because they did not recognize his face. But in truth he was a stranger to them: the glory of reason he possessed stood far from the frailty of nature, and he remained foreign to their faith, since it was ignorant of his Resurrection. It does not belong to the present work to explain how Christ morally possessed the conditions of a pilgrim, in which all the elect imitate him, according to the Psalm: “I am a sojourner and a pilgrim before you, as all my fathers were”; and according to Peter’s exhortation to all the faithful in his First Canonical Epistle: “I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from carnal desires which war against the soul.”
Jesus the pilgrim answered Cleopas: “What things?” He certainly knew them all, because he had suffered them all in his own body. Yet he questioned as though ignorant, to signify that the glory and reward of the blessed for the labors endured here are so ineffable that, because of that glory’s exceeding joy, they shall seem to have forgotten everything. This accords with Gregory’s example: “Often in joy we remember sorrowful things”; and with Isaiah’s words: “The former distresses have been given to oblivion and shall no longer rise into the heart.”
Cleopas therefore said: “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a man, a prophet.” He called him a prophet, not the Son of God, either because they did not believe him to be the Son of God, or because, since they did not recognize the one to whom they spoke, they feared falling into the hands of the persecuting Jews. He was “powerful in deed and word.”
Theophilus says: No discourse of teaching is approved unless the person who teaches first shows himself its author. Deed precedes appearance, for unless you cleanse the mirror of the understanding through works, the desired beauty does not shine forth. The same point is found in Distinction 81, canon Nemo: “Before God and all the people.”
Theophilus says: First God must be pleased, namely through a pure intention directed toward him. Then, as far as possible, one must take care concerning innocence before human beings, so that, with divine worship preceding, we may live without scandal to others. This is also treated in Cause 12, Question 1, canon Nolo.
Cleopas then assigned the cause of their sadness, namely Christ’s betrayal and Passion, saying: “How they handed him over,” and so forth. Afterward he disclosed their despair, saying: “We were hoping,” as though to say: We no longer hope that he is the one who will redeem Israel, that is, save it from threatening evils and from Roman servitude. For they believed that he would become an earthly king. “And now, besides all these things,” and so forth.
Because these disciples labored under excessive doubt, Jesus rebuked them, saying: “O foolish and slow of heart to believe all the things which the prophets have spoken.” Theophilus says: It is not enough to believe certain things about Christ individually, but one must believe universally all the things the prophets foretold—not only what is said concerning the cross and the Passion’s ignominy, such as, “They pierced my hands and my feet,” but also what is said concerning the Resurrection and other glorious things, such as: “You shall not permit your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life.” For through his Passion he entered into glory.
Hence he added: “Was it not necessary that Christ suffer these things and so enter into his glory?” Bernard says: If it was necessary that Christ suffer thus and so enter into his glory, how shall we wretches enter into glory—not our own—unless we first suffer? The Apostle says: “If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.”
Isidore says: Although it was necessary that Christ suffer, those who crucified him are nevertheless liable to punishment. For they did not labor to accomplish what God ordained. Hence their execution was impious, but God’s dispensation was most prudent: he converted their wickedness into a benefit for the human race, as though using vipers’ flesh to prepare a saving antidote.
Beginning from Moses, that is, from Genesis, and from all the prophets, Christ interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. It is as though he said: Since you are slow to believe, I shall make you ready by explaining the Scriptures. There are very many prophecies and figures in the Law and the prophets which quite openly foretold Christ’s Passion and Resurrection; we omit an explanation of them all.
As he explained these things, they approached the fortified town to which they were going, and he made as though he would go farther. Augustine says: This does not pertain to a lie. Not everything we feign is a lie; rather, when we feign something which signifies nothing, then it is a lie. But when our feigning is referred to some signification, it is not a lie but a figure of truth. Otherwise, all the things spoken figuratively by wise and holy men and by the Lord himself would be counted as lies, because in such words the truth does not consist according to the customary understanding. Just as things are spoken, so deeds are also feigned without a lie in order to signify something. Thus Augustine.
Christ therefore did not say that he wished to go farther, because that would have been a lie, which is always a sin. This is in Cause 22, Question 2, canon Primum. Rather, he feigned—that is, composed himself to perform an act—as though he wished to proceed farther. This signified the disposition of their minds, because they were still far from true knowledge of him.
“They compelled him,” namely to enter with them. By this example it is indicated that strangers and poor people are not only to be invited, but sometimes compelled to receive necessities. They said: “Stay with us, Lord, because it is growing toward evening,” and so forth. He entered with them.
When the table had been prepared, as they reclined and Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and extended it to them, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Gregory says: They recognize in the breaking of bread the God whom they did not recognize in the explanation of Scripture, because the mind is illuminated through pious works.
“They recognized him” is said not of their sensible eyes, but of mental perception. Chrysostom says: The Evangelist does not say that they walked with closed eyes; rather, there was something which did not permit them to recognize what they saw, as a mist or some moisture is accustomed to do. This was not because the Lord could not have transformed his flesh into another appearance, as in the Transfiguration, but because this was not what happened now.
It is not unfitting to understand that this impediment in their eyes came from Satan, so that they would not recognize Jesus, but that permission for it came from Christ only until the sacrament of the bread. Thus, when they participated in the unity of his body, the enemy’s impediment is understood to have been removed so that Christ could be recognized. Thus Chrysostom.
Theophilus indicates another point as well: the eyes of those who receive the sacred bread are opened so that they may recognize him, for the Lord’s flesh possesses a great and ineffable power.
He vanished from their eyes, that is, he withdrew his appearance. It lies within the power of a glorified body to present itself visibly by suspending its brightness so that mortals can behold it, and to withdraw its appearance from those present. He did not possess such a body that he ought to remain with them any longer; and so that he might likewise increase their affection, he vanished.
They said to each other: “Was not our heart burning within us on the way while he spoke,” and so forth? Theophilus says: Their heart burned either with the fire of the Lord’s words, to which they attended as true, or because, while he opened the Scriptures, their heart was struck inwardly with the conviction that the one who discoursed was the Lord.
They rejoiced so greatly that, suffering no delay, they immediately returned to Jerusalem. Hence it follows: “And rising in that same hour, they returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, saying: The Lord has truly risen and has appeared to Simon.” Those whom the two disciples entered were saying these things.
“The Lord has risen,” and so forth. Bede says: From what the four Evangelists and the Apostle Paul have commemorated and narrated concerning the events, it is understood that, among all the men, the Lord appeared first to Peter. Mark’s statement that the two disciples announced it to the others and that the others did not believe them must be referred not to all but to some of them, such as Thomas, one of the company of eleven, who happened for some reason to have withdrawn from the others.
Jesus then appeared for the fifth time, as Luke and John relate, although Luke does so more fully. Chrysostom says: He appeared first to Peter, who was more worthy and faithful than all the others. For the most faithful soul needed to be the first to receive this sight, so that it would be troubled as little as possible by the unexpected vision. Therefore, he was seen first by Peter, so that the man who first confessed him to be the Christ might merit to see the Resurrection first—that is, before all the other men. And because Peter had previously denied him, Christ also wished to appear to him in order to console him, lest he despair.
Ambrose says in Distinction 50: Peter became more faithful after he wept over having lost his faith, and therefore he received greater grace than before. As a good shepherd of Christ, he received the flock to guard, so that the man who had formerly been weak in himself might become a support to others.
Gregory says that, by the dispensation of divine mercy, Peter was permitted to sin so that from his own weakness he might learn how he ought to show mercy to others who were weak. This is in Distinction 50, canon Consider This.
Christ also appeared to James the Less, as the Apostle says in First Corinthians 15. The Evangelists make no mention of this appearance, but it is not therefore to be disbelieved, since it was revealed to Paul by Christ himself, as Paul says. For the Evangelists do not narrate everything the Lord did, as John says at the end of his Gospel. It is not known when or where this appearance occurred. The Apostle, however, relates it after the appearance in Galilee to five hundred brethren.
In the Gospel of Nicodemus—although that work is apocryphal—it is said that, when Christ had died, James vowed that he would not eat unless he first saw Christ risen. The risen Jesus appeared to him and said: “Rise, my brother, and eat, because the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
But one may reasonably ask where the souls whom Christ had led out of limbo were or remained before Christ ascended into heaven. For no one ascended before him. Although a soul, because it is a spirit, is not circumscriptively in a place—for it is not bounded by place—it is nevertheless definitively in a place, namely, in one place in such a way that it is not in another.
Although I do not find this question determined, one may more fittingly and piously suppose that they accompanied Christ, seeing his divinity clearly, which indeed they would have seen wherever they were. Yet they were not seen by anyone, because a soul cannot be seen by the bodily eye. Thus, when Christ appeared, the disciples and others saw only Christ’s risen body, not his soul or the souls of the fathers, if they were with him.
But since many bodies of the saints arose at Christ’s Resurrection, as Matthew says, and appeared to many, one may ask what became of them and whether they ascended with Christ.
At the end of Book 14 of the Moralia, Gregory says that Job indicated Christ’s Passion when he said, “I know that my redeemer”—for Christ redeemed through death. Job likewise indicated the Resurrection when he added, “lives,” that is, has risen. He uses the present for the future—“lives” for “will live”—because of the certainty of faith arising from the infallibility of God’s foreknowledge, in which the prophets read as in a book.
Because Christ’s Resurrection is the cause of our resurrection, Job immediately added: “And on the last day I shall rise from the earth.” Because he will rise in a true and proper body, he added: “And in my flesh I shall see God my Savior.” Lest it seem impossible to anyone that bodies reduced to dust should rise, many bodies of the saints arose when Christ rose and appeared to many. In this event there were many examples of the resurrection to come.
There are two opinions about whether the bodies of those saints ascended with Christ or returned to dust as before. Some say that, glorified in soul and body together, they ascended with Christ. Jerome touches upon this opinion at the beginning of his sermon on the Assumption, but leaves the matter undetermined.
For this reason some say, as the gloss notes in Cause 13, Question 2, § Likewise Joseph, that Joseph and others commanded that their bodies be buried not in Egypt but in the Promised Land. They knew in spirit that, when Christ arose, many buried in that region would arise, and they wished to be among them.
They also adduce the words of the Apostle Peter in Acts concerning David: “His sepulcher is with us,” as though Peter meant: not his body, because David was one of those who arose with Christ and ascended into heaven; therefore, it was not his body that remained there, but only the sepulcher.
Others, however, say that after those who arose had fulfilled their office—that is, after appearing and speaking to others—they returned bodily to ashes. Augustine and Thomas in the Third Part appear to incline toward this as the more reasonable opinion.
It can also be proved from the authority of Peter cited above. When Peter had brought forward the testimony of the Psalm, “You will not permit your holy one to see corruption,” to prove Christ’s Resurrection, he wished to show that David had spoken those words not about himself but about Christ. Therefore he said: “His sepulcher is with us,” as though to say: David himself saw corruption, since his bones and ashes are in his sepulcher, which is among us, and so his corruption is evident. The question therefore remains doubtful.
But if they remained immortal, they accompanied Christ when he appeared. They were not seen by the others, because it lies within the power of a glorified body to permit itself to be seen or not to be seen.
Concerning the fifth appearance John says: “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were closed where the disciples had gathered for fear of the Jews”—for they feared that they might be seized because they had been Jesus’ disciples—and, as Luke says, while they were speaking of these things, namely of how Christ had already appeared to several people, Jesus came and stood in the midst of the disciples, appearing and showing himself visibly. Thomas, however, was not then with them, because for some incidental reason unknown to us he had withdrawn from them.
Augustine says: Some people are so disturbed by this event that they almost endanger their faith, advancing their rational arguments against divine miracles. If it was a body, they say, and if this body rose from the tomb—the body which had hung upon the wood—how could it enter through closed doors? If you comprehend it, it is not a miracle. Where reason fails, there faith is built up. Closed doors did not obstruct the bulk of the body in which divinity was present. He who could enter without their being opened was the one at whose birth his mother’s virginity remained inviolate. Thus Augustine.
Neither by the power of nature nor by the power of a glorified body precisely as glorified can one body, without another power, be in the same place at the same instant as another body. Nor can one body pass through another unless the latter yields, opens, or is broken—just as the air yields when a human body walks and the water does so when someone swims. Therefore, when the risen Christ came out of the tomb in his body, or now entered among the disciples while the doors were closed, this occurred by a special miracle of divine power beyond the customary course or power of nature.
“He stood in the midst of the disciples.” He stood in the midst so that he might be seen by all and, slighting no one, might not appear to show partiality if he were seen nearer to one than to another. He also did so to show that he dwells among the virtues, which consist in a mean.
“He said to them: Peace be with you.” The Greek commentator says: Let us therefore be ashamed to abandon the gift of peace which Christ leaves us as he departs from here. Peace is both a reality and a sweet name, since we have learned both that it belongs to God, according to the words “the peace of God”; that its God is God, according to the words “the God of peace”; and that it is itself God, according to the words “He is our peace.” Peace is a good commended by all and preserved by few.
What is the cause of this? Perhaps ambition for dominion or possessions, envy, hatred, contempt, or something of that kind, among the things into which we see those who do not know God fall. Peace belongs chiefly to God, for it binds all things together; nothing is so proper to God as unity of nature and a peaceful state. It passes from him to the angels and divine powers, who are peacefully disposed toward God and toward one another. It is spread throughout the whole creation, whose beauty and tranquility it is.
In us it abides in the soul through the pursuit and sharing of virtues, and in the body through the proportion of its members and elements, the former being called beauty and the latter health. Thus the Greek commentator.
Christ added: “It is I,” namely, your teacher, your Lord, and indeed your God, whose most proper name is “I am,” because he alone is immutable according to his divinity. “Do not be afraid.”
The troubled and terrified disciples thought that they were seeing a spirit, that is, some fantastic and airy body. They could have been troubled because he had entered while the doors were closed. Since the turmoil in their souls was not calmed by his word of peace, he showed in another way that he was the Son of God, for he knew the secrets of their minds. Hence he said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?”
Good thoughts descend into the heart, because they are sent down from God like good seed. But evil and false thoughts arise, because they rise into the heart from below—from the devil or from sensuality—like weeds from the earth. Because what they supposed was false, namely, that Christ’s body was fantastic, he said that thoughts of this kind were arising.
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet, that is, the marks of the nails, proving that death had been conquered, that human nature in him had now put off corruption, and that he had truly risen in the very same body which had been pierced by the nails.
He added another proof, namely touch, saying: “Touch and see,” that is, know, “because a spirit does not have flesh and bones,” that is, a phantom such as many apparitions of the dead have been accustomed to be seen around tombs. Yet those apparitions do not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
Gregory says in the Moralia: In the glory of the Resurrection our body will not be impalpable and more subtle than winds and air, as the heretic Eutitius said. Rather, it will be subtle through the operation of spiritual power, yet palpable through the truth of its nature.
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet and also his side, according to John. In them the marks made by the nails and lance shone clearly, so that by displaying the scars of his wounds he might heal the wound of their doubt.
Gentiles are accustomed here to raise the accusation that the Lord was unable to heal the wounds inflicted upon him. But since it is proved that he did what was greater—namely, rise—he consequently could also do what was less, namely, remove the signs of death such as the scars. Yet he preserved them for five reasons, as blessed Thomas notes in the Third Part.
John then says: “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” Thus was fulfilled what he had foretold before his death: “I shall see you again, and your heart will rejoice.”
Augustine says in Book 22 of The City of God: The brightness with which the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, as Christ says, should be believed to have been hidden rather than absent in Christ’s body when he arose. Human and frail sight could not have endured it when he had to be looked upon by his own people so that he could be recognized.
Because, as Chrysostom says, the disciples had an impregnable conflict before them against the Jews, Christ again announced peace to them, saying: “Peace be with you.” Bede says: The repetition of peace is its confirmation. Or he repeats it because the virtue of charity is twofold, or because he himself is the one who made both one.
Chrysostom says: At the same time he demonstrates the efficacy of the Cross, through which he dissolved all sorrowful things and conferred every good; and this is peace. Because all impediments had been destroyed, he therefore added: “As the Father has sent me.”
Gregory says: The Father sent the Son when he determined that the Son should become incarnate for the redemption of the human race. “So I send you,” that is: I love you with the charity with which I send you among the scandals raised by persecutors, just as the Father loved me with the charity which caused me to come to endure the Passion.
Augustine says: We know the Son to be equal to the Father, but here we recognize the words of the mediator. He shows himself to be in the middle when he says: “He sent me, and I send you.”
Chrysostom says: To show them his dignity and power, he gives them power by his own authority. Hence it follows: “When he had said this, he breathed upon them, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Chrysostom says: That bodily breath was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a demonstration by a fitting sign that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also from the Son. For who, Augustine says, would be so senseless as to say that the Spirit whom Christ gave by breathing upon them was one spirit, and the Spirit whom he sent after his Ascension another?
Gregory says: Why is the Spirit first given to the disciples on earth and afterward sent from heaven, unless because there are two commandments of charity, namely, the love of God and the love of neighbor? The Spirit is given on earth so that one’s neighbor may be loved, and from heaven so that God may be loved. He is first given by the Lord dwelling on earth and afterward sent from heaven, because through love of neighbor one learns how to attain the love of God.
“Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them,” and so forth. Chrysostom says: No one will sin by saying that the disciples then received a certain power of spiritual grace, not so that they might raise the dead and work miracles, as on the day of Pentecost, but so that they might forgive sins.
Gregory says: It should be known that those who previously had the Holy Spirit so that they might live innocently and benefit some people through preaching openly received this power after the Lord’s Resurrection so that they might benefit not a few but many. Those who have been called take care not only of themselves but also receive the authority of the supreme judgment, so that in God’s place they may retain the sins of some by not absolving them and release the sins of others by duly absolving them.
Chrysostom says: If a priest governs his own life well but does not attend to the lives of others with diligent care, he goes to hell with the wicked. Yet it is not just for those who are subject to authorities to judge them; even if the authorities’ lives are exceedingly blameworthy, that life causes no harm to the things given by God. For neither a priest, nor an angel, nor an archangel can effect anything in the things given by God. Rather, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dispense all things; the priest, however, supplies his tongue and hand. Thus Chrysostom.
The same point is supported by what Ambrose says in Book 1 of On Penance: The Word of God forgives sins, namely, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the priest is the judge. The priest indeed presents his service, but exercises the rights of no power of his own.
All these statements must be understood of God as the principal and efficient cause, for God alone acts in this way, as is stated in On Consecration, Distinction 4, canon No One. The minister of the sacrament acts as an instrumental cause, and the power of the sacrament is not stained by a wicked minister, as is stated in Cause 1, Question 1, canon If He Has Been.
It follows: “Thomas, however, was not then with them.” While the disciples who saw Christ were still marveling for joy and some did not yet believe perfectly, as Luke says, Jesus said: “Have you anything here to eat?” They offered him a piece of roasted fish and a honeycomb. Taking it, he ate before them.
Here one should note that Christ ate in one way when mortal and in another when risen and immortal. When he existed as passible and ate, he truly ate, digesting the food and converting part of it into nourishment as other human beings do. But when risen he did not eat because he needed food, just as other glorified bodies will not eat, because they will not need it. They could eat if they wished, although they would not wish to because they would not need it.
The risen Christ ate in order to demonstrate in many ways the truth of his bodily Resurrection. He truly chewed and swallowed, but he did not digest, because he did not need nourishment and was incapable of alteration. Therefore, in the act of being swallowed, the food was dissolved into preexistent matter or into airy vapors.
Bede gives an example, saying: The thirsty earth absorbs water in one way, for the water is converted into the earth; the sun’s hot ray absorbs it in another. The former does so from need, the latter from power. The water or vapor is not converted into a ray of the sun, but is dissolved into air by its power.
“A piece of roasted fish,” and so forth. According to Theophilus, the roasted fish signifies the active life, which consumes our humanity—that is, our cupidity—upon the coals of labor. The honeycomb signifies the contemplative life because of the sweetness of its discourse. The eating of each, therefore, is the incorporation of each life into oneself.
“And taking the remains, he gave them to the disciples.” According to Gregory and Bede, the roasted fish signifies Christ’s humanity. He deigned to lie hidden in the waters of the human race, wished to be caught in the snare of death, and to be roasted in the fire of the Passion. The honeycomb—that is, honey in wax—signifies divinity in humanity. He offers these things to his own people to be eaten through meditation upon their mysteries.
He said to them: “These are the words which I spoke to you,” and so forth, “because all things written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their understanding so that they might understand the Scriptures.
Augustine says: Let those who rave that Christ accomplished such great things by magical arts and by that art consecrated his name in order to turn the Apostles toward himself consider this point. Could he by magical arts fill prophets with the divine Spirit on earth before he was born? Even if he caused himself by magic to be worshiped after his death, he was not a magician before his birth, when one nation had been appointed to prophesy his future coming.
“For thus it is written,” he said, and so forth. And a little later: “That penance and the remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.” Eusebius says: It had been said to him, “Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations for your inheritance.” Those converted from the nations had to be cleansed by his power from every contagion and stain, since they had been contaminated by the error of demons and by an execrable and impure life.
After this Luke relates that Jesus led his disciples outside the city of Jerusalem to Bethany, which was on the side of the Mount of Olives. Appearing to them on the day of the Ascension, he raised his hands and was carried into heaven while blessing them. When his Ascension had been completed, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem and were in the temple blessing God. Thus Luke ends his Gospel.
On the eighth day of his Resurrection, as John alone relates, the disciples were gathered together—the ten Apostles and Thomas, who was the eleventh, with them. For when Jesus had appeared to the disciples on the evening of the day of the Resurrection, Thomas was not with them. When he returned and his companions told him that they had seen the risen Lord, he answered them: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and put my hand into his side, I shall not believe.”
First, one should note that Thomas did not see Jesus because he was not with the others when Jesus came. In this, the vice of singularity is tacitly reproved. Hence Bernard says: What do you say, lover of singularity? Why do you disdain common places, a common life, and common observances? At his birth Christ was placed between two animals because there was no room for him in the inn. When risen, he stood in the midst of the disciples as a person shared by all, loving neither the corner of duplicity nor of singularity, but the midst of community.
Second, one should consider what Gregory says in his homily and in Cause 27, Question 2: After his Resurrection, Christ indeed permitted his disciple to doubt, but he did not will him to persevere in doubt. In the same way, before his Nativity he wished Mary to have a spouse, who nevertheless did not consummate her marriage. Just as the disciple who doubted and touched became a witness of the true Resurrection, so the mother’s spouse was the most incorrupt guardian of her virginity. The unbelief of Thomas was more profitable to our faith than the faith of the believing disciples, because when he is led back to faith by touching, our mind is made firm in faith with every doubt set aside.
“And I shall put my hand into his side.” Chrysostom says: Thomas, being coarser than the others, sought faith by means of the coarsest sense, namely touch. Hence he said: “And I shall put my hand, or my finger, into the place of the nails.”
After eight days Jesus therefore came to the disciples while the doors were closed and, after greeting them with peace, said to Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands.” Chrysostom says: Consider the ruler’s clemency—how, even for one soul, he showed himself bearing wounds and approached in order to save one. The disciples who announced it and Christ himself who promised were indeed worthy of belief. Yet because Thomas sought more, Jesus did not deprive him even of this.
He did not appear immediately, but after eight days, so that, after being admonished in the meantime by the disciples, Thomas might be moved to greater desire and remain more faithful in the future. Jesus did not wait to be questioned by Thomas. Rather, to show that he had been present while Thomas spoke with his fellow disciples, he used Thomas’s own words. First he rebuked or reproached him, saying: “Put your finger here.” Second he instructed him, adding: “Do not be unbelieving, but faithful.”
“Put your finger here,” and so forth. Augustine says: If the Lord had wished, he could have wiped every blemish of every scar from his risen and glorified body, but he knew why he preserved the scars. Just as he showed them to Thomas, who would not believe unless he touched and saw, so at the end he will show them to his enemies, so that Truth may convict them, saying: Behold the man whom you crucified. You recognize the side which you pierced, which was opened by you and for you; yet you did not wish to enter.
Modern authors ask whether the marks of the wounds which remained in Christ’s risen body involved a discontinuity or opening in the flesh. Some say they did not, others that they did. Yet no deformity follows from this; rather, there is great beauty and an indication of virtue. This latter opinion appears to accord more closely with the letter of the Gospel, which says: “Put your hand into my side,” namely, into the opening, as Thomas says in the Third Part.
Thomas answered and said: “My Lord and my God.” Augustine says: He saw and touched the man, and he confessed the God whom he neither saw nor touched. Through what he touched, with his doubt removed, he confessed what he did not see.
According to Theophilus, the one who had previously been unbelieving showed himself an excellent theologian after touching Christ’s side, for he expressed Christ’s twofold nature united in one hypostasis. By saying “My Lord,” he confessed the human nature; by adding “My God,” the divine nature; and he confessed one and the same person as God and man.
Jesus said to him: “Because you have seen me.” Augustine says: It could be maintained that the disciple did not dare to touch him even though Christ offered himself to be touched, and that Christ therefore said, “Because you have seen,” not “because you have touched.” Yet this does not prevent us from understanding that Thomas could also have touched him, so that by feeling him he might more effectively testify to the truth of his risen flesh.
Sight is in a certain manner the general sense, because it is the principal and keenest one, and in common speech it is used for any sensation. Thus, “Because you have seen” means “because you have touched; you have believed.”
Gregory asks: Since faith concerns things not seen, how did Thomas see and believe, when sight is opposed to faith? Thomas answers: Although he saw the humanity, he also confessed the divinity, which he could not see, and this he believed.
Gregory says that what follows brings us joy: “Blessed are those who have not seen,” namely, even the humanity, “and have believed,” namely, both natures. This is to be understood if we follow our faith with works. For the one who truly believes is the one who practices what he believes.
Chrysostom says: Because John the Evangelist had related fewer things than the other Evangelists, he added: “Jesus did many other signs in the sight of his disciples which are not written in this book.” The other Evangelists likewise did not write everything, but only what was sufficient to draw their hearers to faith.
It nevertheless seems to me that John is speaking here of the signs which Jesus worked after the Resurrection. Therefore, he adds “in the sight of his disciples,” since after the Resurrection he associated with them alone. Then, so that you may learn that the signs were performed not only for the sake of the disciples but also because it is useful for us to believe these things, he adds: “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and so that, believing, you may have life in his name,” that is, through him; for he himself is life.
John alone describes another appearance of Christ, identifying its place but not its time. He says: “Jesus manifested himself again at the Sea of Tiberias.” He says “manifested himself” because, according to Chrysostom, Christ would not have been seen unless he condescended to be seen, namely, by suspending the brightness of his glorified body.
They had now left the house and gone into Galilee, avoiding danger from the Jews. Chrysostom says that because the Lord was not continually with them, because the Spirit had not yet been given abundantly at Pentecost, and because they had nothing, since they had left everything, they practiced the fishermen’s trade.
Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee—that is, John and James the Greater—and two others whose names are withheld were together. Peter said: “I am going fishing.” The others answered: “We are coming with you.” They therefore went out with him to fish.
Gregory asks in a homily why Peter, who had been a fisherman before his conversion, returned to fishing after the Resurrection, when Truth says: “No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” He answers his own question in On Penance, Distinction 5: It was no fault after conversion to resume an occupation which had been without sin before conversion. There are indeed many occupations which can hardly or in no way be practiced without sins. The mind must not return after conversion to those things which implicate it in sin. Thus Gregory.
This must be understood of mortal sin. Hence Matthew the publican did not return to the tax office after his conversion, because that profession was unlawful, whereas fishing was lawful.
Fishing that night, they caught nothing. When morning came, Jesus stood on the shore, but they did not recognize him when they saw him. In answer to his question they said that they had caught nothing. He ordered them to cast the net on the right side of the boat. When they had done so, they enclosed such an abundant multitude of fish that they could not draw the net because of their number.
From this act John recognized that it was the Lord who had commanded them and said to Peter: “It is the Lord.” Hearing this, Peter, who was more fervent, put on a garment because he was naked—or because he was not wearing all his clothes—and cast himself into the water so that by swimming he might come more quickly to Jesus. The others came in the boat, drawing the net with them, for they were near the shore.
Peter went up and drew the net ashore, full of one hundred and fifty-three large fish; yet the net was not torn by so great a multitude. When they came down, they saw coals on the ground with a fish laid upon them and bread, which Jesus, as God, had then made miraculously without preexistent matter.
Augustine says: Mystically, in the catch of fish the mystery of the Church is commended as it will exist in the final resurrection of the dead. The fact that there were seven disciples in that fishing expedition signifies by their sevenfold number the entire course and end of time, for time revolves in seven days.
The fishermen who preside are teachers and preachers. But when it was night—that is, before the presence of the sun, namely Christ—the prophets caught nothing. For although they attempted to correct the life of the nation of Israel, it nevertheless frequently slipped into idolatry. Thus Theophilus.
“Jesus stood on the shore.” Augustine says: The shore is the end of the sea and therefore signifies the end of the world. Just as in this passage the Lord signified what the Church will be like at the end of the world, so in another catch of fish he signified what it is like now. In that passage Jesus did not stand on the shore; rather, entering one boat, which belonged to Simon, he asked him to draw away a little from the land, as is related in Luke 5, because he was then mortal and therefore upon the sea. Here he had been made immortal by the Resurrection and therefore stood upon the firm shore, not upon the flowing sea.
In that catch the nets are not cast to the right, lest they signify only the good, nor to the left, lest they signify only the wicked. Rather, he says without distinction: “Let down your nets for a catch,” so that we may understand the good and wicked intermingled. Here, however, the net is cast to the right so that those who are to be placed at the right hand—that is, the good alone—may be signified.
He performed the former catch at the beginning of his preaching, but this one after the Resurrection, signifying in the former catch those whom the Church now possesses, and in this one those whom it will possess eternally when the resurrection of the dead has been completed at the end of the world. Those who belong to the resurrection of life—that is, to the right hand—and who are fastened within the nets of the Christian name, namely evangelical doctrine, will appear only upon the shore, that is, when they rise at the end of the world.
For this reason they were unable to draw the nets in such a way as to pour the fish they had caught into the boat, because the elect are not known to the present Church. Yet after the end of this life the Church possesses those on the right hand as though they lay hidden in the depth, in the sleep of peace, until the net reaches the shore.
What was represented in the first catch by two boats is represented here by the two hundred cubits separating them from the shore, namely one hundred and another hundred, on account of the elect of both peoples, circumcision and uncircumcision. Or, according to Bede, the two hundred cubits express the virtue of twofold charity, for through love of God and neighbor we approach Christ.
The roasted fish is Christ in his Passion, who deigned to lie hidden in the waters of the human race and wished to be caught by the snare of death. He who became fish for us in his humanity became bread that restores us from his divinity. The whole of this is indicated by the roasted fish and the bread which the disciples saw placed there.
Gregory says: Holy Church was committed to Peter, for it was said especially to him: “Feed my sheep.” What is afterward openly expressed in words is here signified in the deed. Peter draws the fish to solid ground, because he shows the faithful the stability of the eternal homeland. He did this by his words, he did it by his epistles, and he does it daily by signs of miracles.
It follows: “The net was full of one hundred and fifty-three large fish.” Augustine says: In the other catch the number is not expressed, as though what the prophet foretold is accomplished there: “I have announced it, and they have been multiplied beyond number.” Here, however, there is a definite number, the reason for which must be given.
The number signifying the Law is ten, on account of the Decalogue. When one comes to the law of grace [read: grace comes to the Law]—that is, the Spirit to the letter—seven is in a certain manner added to ten. The Holy Spirit is signified by the number seven on account of his seven gifts, for sanctification belongs properly to him. Sanctification first sounded in the Law on the seventh day; Isaiah likewise commends him by a sevenfold work or gift.
Thus, when the Holy Spirit, represented by seven, is added to the ten of the Law, seventeen results. This number, increasing by the addition of every number from one through itself, reaches one hundred and fifty-three.
Gregory says: Let us also multiply seventeen by three, and fifty-one results. In the fiftieth year all the people rested from every work, but true rest is in unity. Where there is a rupture of division, there is no true rest.
Augustine says: All who belong to the grace of the Holy Spirit and will rise to eternal life are therefore signified by this number. It contains the number fifty three times and, in addition, the three themselves on account of the mystery of the Trinity. Fifty is completed by multiplying seven by seven and adding one. The one is added so that we may know them to be one.
It was not said without purpose that the fish were large. For when the Lord had said, “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it,” intending to give the Spirit through whom the Law could be fulfilled, he said a few words later: “He who shall do and teach thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
In the first catch the net was torn because of the schisms it signified. Here, because there will be no schisms in that supreme peace of the saints, it was fitting for the Evangelist to say: “Although there were so many”—that is, so many large fish—“the net was not torn.”
When the fishing was completed, the Lord called them to the meal, saying: “Come and eat.” Augustine says: The roasted fish is Christ in his Passion; he is also the bread which descended from heaven. The Church is incorporated into him so that it may participate in eternal beatitude. For this reason it was said: “Bring some of the fish you have just caught,” so that all of us who bear this hope may be understood.
Gregory says: By preparing this final meal for seven disciples, he also declares that only those who are filled with the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit will be with him in the eternal refreshment. All this time revolves through seven days, and perfection is signified by the number seven. Thus that refreshment in the future Resurrection will consist in the bread of divinity, in the fish of Christ’s humanity, and in the fish caught here—that is, in the glory and fellowship of the blessed.
“And none of those reclining dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ knowing that it was the Lord.” There is no doubt or ignorance in the heavenly homeland, but clear knowledge. Or, according to Chrysostom, John says this because from that time forward they did not have the same confidence to speak with him as before, but sat in silence and with great reverence, attending to him. Seeing his form altered and being filled with great wonder, they were exceedingly astonished and wished to ask him. But the fear arising from their knowledge that it was the Lord restrained their questioning, and they merely ate what he gave them.
The Evangelist says next: “This was now the third time Jesus was manifested after he had risen.” Augustine says this does not refer to the individual manifestations but to the days. On the first day, namely the day of the Resurrection, he appeared five times; on the eighth day he appeared again, when Thomas was with the other ten Apostles; and for the third time—that is, on one other day—he appeared to these fishermen.
After this meal the Lord Jesus established Peter as ruler of the Church when he said, “Feed my sheep,” concerning which we spoke above. He then foretold Peter’s martyrdom. When Peter asked about John himself, “What of this man?” Christ answered: “Thus I will him to remain until I come.” Consequently the report went out among the brethren, that is, the Apostles, that this disciple would not die. But the saying is not to be explained in the present work.
John the Evangelist thus ends his Gospel, saying: “There are many other things which Jesus did. If each of them were written, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.” Augustine says this should not be understood to mean that the world could not contain them in physical space, but that they could not be comprehended by the capacity of readers. Or, according to Chrysostom, it refers to the power with which Christ acted. Just as it is easy for us to speak, so it was as easy—and much easier—for him to do whatever he wished.
Matthew alone describes the eighth appearance. Although he himself says that the eleven disciples went into Galilee, which was another province from Judea, many others were also present. According to Eusebius, this is the same appearance of which Paul says in First Corinthians 15 that Christ was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, among whom the eleven Apostles were the chief men.
Matthew says that they went into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them, that is, Mount Tabor. This is the appearance he had promised them before the Passion when he said: “After I have risen, I shall go before you into Galilee.” When, after rising, he appeared to the women who were going to announce the Resurrection to the disciples, he likewise said: “Tell my brethren to go into Galilee.” The angel who appeared to the Marys at the tomb also said: “Behold, he goes before you into Galilee. There you shall see him, as he told you.”
Ambrose says: I judge the more fitting explanation to be that the Lord commanded the disciples to see him in Galilee, but because they remained within a locked room from fear, he first offered himself to them there.
The Greek commentator says: This was not a transgression of his promise, but rather its fulfillment hastened out of kindness because of the disciples’ faintheartedness. Afterward, when their souls had been strengthened, the eleven went to Galilee.
Therefore, Luke and John write that Jesus appeared only to the eleven in Jerusalem, while the other two Evangelists relate that they hastened to Galilee and that he appeared to all the disciples and brethren. According to Eusebius, the truer resolution is that after he had been seen once or twice for their consolation while they hid in Jerusalem, he showed himself in Galilee not secretly, or merely once or twice, but with great power, presenting himself alive to them after his Passion by many signs, as Luke testifies in Acts.
Or, according to Augustine, the angel’s words, “He goes before you into Galilee,” must be understood prophetically. Galilee is interpreted “transmigration.” He is therefore understood to meet them in Galilee under the signification of transmigration, because they were to migrate from the people of Israel to the nations. Those nations would not believe the preaching Apostles unless the Lord himself prepared the way in human hearts. This is what is meant by his going before them into Galilee.
According to the other interpretation, by which Galilee means “revelation,” he must be understood not in the form of a servant but in that form in which he is equal to the Father, which he promised to those who love him. That revelation will be, as it were, Galilee, when we see him as he is. It will also be the more blessed transmigration from this world into that eternity. Coming to us, he did not depart from there; and going before us there, he did not abandon us.
Matthew says that when he appeared to them in Galilee, “they worshiped,” namely, as their true God and Lord, “but some doubted,” namely, the truth of his Resurrection. Gregory says this should be attributed less to the guilt of their slowness than to our future benefit. Mary Magdalene, who believed quickly, profited me less than Thomas, who doubted for a long time. For when the doubting Thomas touched the body’s wound—that is, the opening in the side—he removed from us the doubt or unbelief of the mind.
Christ appeared and said: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This does not mean that all power was then newly conferred upon him at the Resurrection, for it had been conferred from the beginning of his conception. Rather, he says that it was given to him at the Resurrection because then and afterward this power and the dominion of all things in heaven and on earth given to him were manifested. This follows the scriptural manner of saying that something happens when it is manifested as happening, as the Master says in the Third Book of the Sentences.
It follows: “Going,” namely, by traveling throughout the world, which refers to the time after the coming of the Holy Spirit, “teach all nations,” that is, every race among the nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” that is, saying: I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; “teaching them to observe the things I have commanded you,” that is, the things necessary for salvation. “Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world”—with you through grace or through the sacrament of the Eucharist, not through bodily presence. With this Matthew ends his Gospel.
Mark and Luke narrate the ninth and tenth appearances, which occurred on the day of the Ascension. Mark narrates the ninth more fully; it took place in the upper room. He says: “While the eleven disciples reclined,” namely, in the upper room where they were then dwelling together, when they had already sat down at the table to eat, and at an hour between the third and the sixth, Jesus appeared to them. He reproached their past unbelief and hardness of heart, as in Thomas and some others, because they had not believed those who had seen him risen, as was shown above concerning Thomas.
Eating with them, he showed that his body was true and thus strengthened them in faith in the Resurrection, as Luke says at the beginning of Acts. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem after the Ascension, but to await there the Father’s promise “which you have heard,” he said, “from my mouth,” and so forth. Luke also touches upon this at the end of his Gospel.
After the meal with them, as Mark relates, he said: “Going into the whole world,” namely, after the coming of the Holy Spirit in its proper time, “preach the Gospel to every creature,” that is, to every nation of human beings. Or, according to Gregory, to the human being, because a human being participates in the nature of every creature in some way: a human has existence in common with stones, growth with plants, sensation with brute animals, and understanding with angels. For this reason the human being is called “every creature.”
“He who has believed,” namely, truly, possessing the works of faith, “and has been baptized,” either in act or in intention, “will be saved,” here through grace and in the future through glory. “But he who has not believed will be condemned,” namely, to eternal death. Nor can any ignorance excuse a person from perishing if he does not believe the things which must be believed and live according to that faith.
Although infants do not believe actually because they lack the use of reason, they nevertheless possess habitual faith received in baptism, just as they possess grace and all the virtues, and therefore they are saved. This is in the title On Baptism, chapter The Greater Ones.
The Lord Jesus next states the signs which will follow those who believe: “They shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it shall not harm them; they shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall be well.”
These signs or miracles were performed literally by the Apostles and many other saints to confirm the faith which they preached. According to Thomas in the Second Part of the Second Part, since faith concerns realities above the natural light of the intellect, it could not be proved better than through supernatural works which nature cannot perform but only divine power, such as miraculous works. The Apostles and other saints did not perform miracles by their own power, but by God’s.
Literally, all the Apostles and many others spoke in various languages, and thus in new—that is, unusual—tongues, as is clear in Acts 2. They cast out demons, as is evident in the legend of Bartholomew and many others. Simon and Jude took away serpents which magicians had brought. John the Evangelist drank poison offered to him by Aristodemus and felt no injury. Laying hands upon the sick, they healed them. Indeed, when Peter passed along the road, sick people touched by his very shadow were healed; and many of the dead were raised by him and by others.
These signs and miracles are not now performed by saints and perfect men, or at least not so abundantly by all the saints, although at no time have there been lacking in the Church, in various places, those who performed true and great miracles. Yet from the fact that miracles are not performed by the faithful, it cannot be argued that they do not truly believe.
At that time bodily miracles had to be performed abundantly so that unbelievers who saw them might be drawn to the true faith. But after the faith had been established and strengthened in many ways by very many miracles, by the teachings of the saints, by examples of perfection, and by the endurance of the martyrs, it was no longer necessary to prove it further.
Gregory gives the example of a little plant, which must be watered while it is small so that it may take root. When it has rooted well and grown, it is watered no further, because it is considered firmly fixed.
Nevertheless, true believers still perform these miracles spiritually, and miracles performed in this way are more salutary to the soul of the person working them than those performed materially. A true worshiper of Christ casts demons out of himself and others by resisting every temptation and driving them from his neighbors by prayers and teachings.
Believers speak with new tongues, not old ones: they utter words to confess their sins, not to excuse them; to praise God, not themselves; and to instruct, not to give evil counsel. They take up serpents when they reject the death-bearing doctrines of heresies. Poison they drink does not harm them, because they are not infected by the evil examples they see so as to follow them. They heal the sick when they assist them in spiritual or bodily necessities. It is therefore more useful to work miracles spiritually than temporally.
Hence Augustine says in Cause 1, Question 1, canon Let Us Maintain Unity: Let us maintain unity, brethren. Apart from unity, namely the unity of charity, even one who performs miracles is nothing.
After this Mark adds the tenth appearance, but does not explain it. He says: “After he had spoken these things, Jesus was taken up into heaven,” and so forth. He thus ends his Gospel, saying: “They preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed.”
Luke describes the tenth appearance more fully in Acts 1 and touches upon it near the end of his Gospel, saying that Jesus led them outside Jerusalem to Bethany, that is, to the Mount of Olives. There, when the Apostles, the Marys, and the other disciples had gathered, he appeared to them.
Bede says concerning this passage: The Evangelist silently joins the first day of Christ’s Resurrection to the final day on which he ascended into heaven, saying: “He led them out,” and so forth. First, this was because of the name of the town, Bethany, which means “house of obedience.” He who descended on account of the disobedience of the perverse ascended on account of the obedience of the converted.
Second, it was because of the position of that village, which is related to have been on the side of the Mount of Olives. This signifies that Christ placed the house of the obedient Church upon the foundations of its faith, hope, and love, in the side of the highest mountain, namely Christ himself.
It is signified in this that one ascends into heaven with Christ through obedience and the perfection of virtues: upon the Mount of Olives chiefly through mercy, with palms through victory over temptations, and in the cloud through humility.
Luke says in Acts 1 that those who had assembled there asked him: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” He answered them: “It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has placed in his own power.”
Here one should note that the kingdom of Israel is understood in three ways: temporal, spiritual, and heavenly.
The temporal kingdom—that is, the temporal royal dignity among the people of Israel, namely the Jews—began in Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. On account of his disobedience, however, it was transferred while he was still alive to David, who was of the tribe of Judah. The kingdom remained in that tribe until Zedekiah, the final king of Judah.
Yet in the time of Rehoboam the kingdom of the whole Jewish people was divided into two kingdoms. The kingdom of Judah contained only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, and was the more notable because the high priest, the Temple of Jerusalem, and the kingdom were among them. The kingdom called Israel contained the remaining ten tribes. On account of their crimes, chiefly idolatry, it was led into captivity in the reign of Hoshea, the last king of Israel, by Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, and was never brought back from that captivity.
The kingdom of Judah likewise was led into captivity on account of its iniquities by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans. The nobles, chiefly those of the tribe of Judah, together with their king Zedekiah, who had been blinded and bound, were taken to Babylon. From that time the kingdom of Israel—that is, of the Jewish people—was taken away or interrupted.
When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem with the permission of Cyrus, king of the Persians, some time afterward, in the time of the Maccabees, Judas Maccabeus assumed leadership of that people. His brothers Jonathan and Simon did so to a much greater degree, exercising both leadership and the high priesthood, although they were of the Levitical tribe, which frequently contracted marriages with the tribe of Judah. Alexander Jannaeus, a descendant of Simon, assumed royal dignity over that people.
A little afterward Herod, a foreigner, obtained the kingdom of Judea from the emperor Octavian. Finally, because of their rebellion against the Roman Empire, to which they were tributaries at the time of Christ’s Passion, and in vengeance for Christ’s death, innumerable members of that people were killed by sword, pestilence, and famine. Those who remained were dispersed throughout the world and never rose again as a kingdom.
The Jews nevertheless believe that the Messiah whom they await—receiving Antichrist as Christ—will restore their temporal kingdom, and they will adhere to him. Christ’s disciples believed that he truly was the Messiah promised in the Law, and he had spoken to them many times of his kingdom, as in the saying: “I appoint to you,” and so forth, “that you may eat and drink in my kingdom.” They understood this quite materially. For that reason the mother of John and James asked him that they might sit with him in his kingdom, one at his right and the other at his left.
The prophet Micah had said of the Messiah: “From you,” namely Bethlehem, “shall come forth a ruler who shall govern my people Israel.” Therefore they now asked whether he would restore the temporal kingdom to the people of Israel and so free them from Roman servitude.
Because this will occur around the end of the world at the coming of Antichrist, from which they were exceedingly distant—for one thousand four hundred and fifty-seven years have now passed from Christ’s Incarnation—he said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has placed in his own power.”
The spiritual kingdom is an infused virtue or grace by which God reigns in human minds. Concerning it the Apostle says in Romans: “The kingdom of God is justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit,” that is, the things which are possessed from the grace of the Holy Spirit.
This kingdom had its beginning among that people in Abraham their father. Hence they said to Christ: “Abraham is our father,” in John 8. From him the Hebrews were named, and he is called the father of faith, because when his other kindred and all the nations of the world turned aside into idolatry, faith and the worship of the one true God remained in him alone and in his household.
Although he was a hundred years old and his wife was barren, he believed that a son would be born from him, in whom all nations would be blessed—that is, from his seed, which is Christ. “Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice,” as is stated in Genesis 17 [read: Genesis 15:6], that is, unto justification.
He showed true faith from his works by obeying God in all his commandments, even the hardest, as in the command to kill his son. From this son, namely Isaac, Jacob was born, and was called Israel by the angel. From his name the people of the Jews were called Israel.
The worship and faith of God greatly increased among that people in the time of Moses, when the Law was given, as is evident in its ceremonies. Divine worship was also enlarged among that people in the time of David and Solomon, when the magnificent Temple was built at Jerusalem. After it was burned by the Chaldeans, it was repaired by Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, and others. Later, when it had been profaned by Antiochus, king of Syria, it was cleansed and purified by Judas Maccabeus with his brothers.
This spiritual kingdom ought to have been perfected when Christ, who had been promised to them in the Law and to whom all the prophets bear witness, came. Yet, as Peter says in Acts, this kingdom failed among them. Except for Christ’s disciples and the faithful of the primitive Church, they fell from faith, the true worship of God, and every virtue. Therefore God does not reign in them through grace, but the devil through malice.
They will not rise to this spiritual kingdom until after the death of Antichrist. Then, seeing themselves deceived by Antichrist, they will be converted “at evening,” that is, at the end of the world, to the true faith. They will “suffer hunger like dogs,” namely hunger to hear the truth of faith, and “will go around the city,” namely the Church, as the Psalm says.
Because this kingdom was even more distant than the first, if they had meant this spiritual kingdom when they asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” the fitting answer was: “It is not for you to know,” and so forth—that is, to know such a time.
The third kingdom is the heavenly one, in which the saints will reign with Christ, glorified not only in soul but also in body. Then they will all sing the words of the Apocalypse: “You have redeemed us, Lord our God, in your blood and have made us a kingdom and priests”—that is, kings—“for our God, and we shall reign.”
This kingdom was begun in Christ’s Resurrection when his body was glorified. His Resurrection is the affective [read: efficient] and exemplary cause of our resurrection, which will occur for all Israel at the end of the world. Such will be the restoration of the kingdom which we lost in the transgression of our first parents.
By “all Israel” I mean not carnal Israel, but spiritual Israel according to the interpretation of the name, for Israel is interpreted “seeing God,” namely through true faith with works. Thus we are to imitate the risen Christ morally, as the Apostle says: “Just as Christ arose from the dead through the glory of the Father” in a glorified body with the endowments of brightness, agility, impassibility, and subtlety, “so we faithful should walk in newness of life,” possessing the brightness of wisdom, the agility of obedience, the impassibility of constancy, and the subtlety of conscience or temperance.
Therefore, if they meant to ask about this kingdom when they said, “Lord, will you at this time,” and so forth, he fittingly answered: “It is not for you to know,” and so forth, namely, the end of the world or the final resurrection. As Jesus says: “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son of Man,” namely, so as to reveal it to you.
Just as God alone knew the beginning of the world in his wisdom and created it by his omnipotence, so he reserved to himself alone, to his wisdom and power, the world’s end. Thomas therefore says in the Fourth Book of the Sentences: All who have wished to speak definitely about the end of the world by fixing a time have been found false; and those who announce this will be found false in the future.
After he said, “It is not for you,” and so forth, he added: “But you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me,” namely, of my Passion, Resurrection, and divinity. This witnessing occurs not only by preaching, but also by living virtuously.
Hence Jerome says: As often as we do something good, so often do we confess God. This is the confession concerning which he says to the disciples: “You shall be witnesses to me in Judea and Jerusalem and even to the furthest part of the earth.” This is in Cause 11, Question 3, canon They Think.
As Luke says at the end of his Gospel: “Raising his hands, he blessed them.” Theophilus says: Perhaps by this he infused into them a preserving power until the coming of the Holy Spirit; and perhaps he instructs us that whenever we depart, we should commend those subject to us to God with blessings.
Origen says: The one who blessed them with raised hands signifies that everyone who blesses ought to be adorned with various works which are lofty in comparison with those of others. For in this way the hands are stretched upward.
Chrysostom says: Attend to how Christ sets the promised rewards before their sight. He had promised the resurrection of bodies from the dead; he himself arose and for forty days made the disciples certain of it. It is also promised that we shall be caught up into the air in the clouds, and he himself reveals this by his deeds. Hence Luke says that he was carried into heaven, and in Acts that “as they watched, he was lifted up,” namely, ascending upward from the earth into the air.
Those who saw him were not only the Apostles, but also other disciples, the Marys, and especially the mother of Jesus. For it should be believed that the day and hour of the Ascension had been announced to them beforehand, namely, the sixth hour.
Theophilus says: Elijah was seen as though taken up into heaven, but the Savior himself, the forerunner of all, ascends into heaven so that in his sacred body he may appear before the divine sight. Now in Christ our nature is honored by every angelic power.
Chrysostom says: But you will say, “What is that to me?” Because you too will be taken up in the clouds likewise.
For your body is connatural with that body. Therefore your body too will be so agile that it can pass through the air. As the head is, so also is the body; as the beginning is, so also is the end.
“And a cloud received him into heaven,” not because he needed the cloud’s assistance, but to show that every creature obeys him. He ascended gradually through the air; but when he had been raised so far from the earth that their eyes could see him no longer, he suddenly passed beyond all the material heavens without their being opened or torn, by a divine miracle. He passed beyond all the intellectual heavens, that is, the orders of angels, and all the rational heavens, namely the souls or rational creatures, according to Ephesians 4: “He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens”; and the Psalm: “He ascended above the Cherubim and flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds,” that is, upon the subtlety and sublimity of souls.
“He was taken up into heaven,” Mark says, “and sits at the right hand of God,” that is, according to his divinity he rests in equality with the Father. According to his humanity, however, he sits at the right hand—that is, among the better things of glory—holding its highest degree.
Mark thus ends his Gospel, saying that they, namely the disciples, preached everywhere after the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed.
After Jesus ascended, Luke says in Acts 1: “Behold, two men,” that is, two angels in the form of men, “stood beside them in white garments,” to indicate their festivity also. They said: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?” as though to say: Do not expect him to return to you now; rather, this Jesus who has been taken from you will come to judge in the same manner in which you saw him ascending into heaven.
Finally, as regards Christ’s Passion, it does not belong to this work to explain its necessity—because “Christ had to suffer,” as is said in the final chapter of Luke; its quality—because it occurred on the Cross for many reasons, for, as Christ himself says in John 3, “Just as Moses raised the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be raised”; or the immensity and multiplicity of Christ’s sorrow, according to Lamentations 3: “O all you who pass by the way, attend and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,” and the Psalm: “My soul is filled with evils,” as regards its sensitive part, namely with the evils of punishments for the evils of our sins, “and my life has drawn near to hell.”
Nor does it belong here to explain the usefulness or power of that Passion. The Psalm says: “Be exalted, Lord, in your power,” that is, be raised upon the Cross in power, namely strength or mercy; “and we shall sing,” praising with the mouth, “and make melody,” imitating in deed your virtues which from the Passion have consequently arisen in us.
Similarly, as regards Christ’s Resurrection: how fittingly he arose, for, as he himself says in the final chapter of Luke, “He had to rise on the third day,” that is, this was necessary by a necessity of fittingness; and he rose on the third day, neither before nor afterward.
Concerning the hour the Psalm says: “Arise, my glory,” that is, my divinity, which seemed to have slept in the Passion by not defending me; “arise, psaltery,” that is, the body, in which are the ten strings, namely the organs of the ten exterior and interior sensitive powers; “arise, harp,” that is, the soul. He answers: “I shall arise at dawn,” that is, in the deep dawn.
How did he arise truly? “The Lord has truly risen and has appeared to Simon,” as is said in the final chapter of Luke. He proved this by many arguments, appearing to them for forty days and showing himself alive: by the testimony of angels; by the testimony of his human enemies guarding the tomb, as is evident in the final chapter of Matthew; by the testimony of the dead who, having been raised, came into the holy city and appeared to many; and by the testimony of his disciples, to whom he appeared ten times, as was said above.
He also proved it by the testimony of his deeds. That he had the same body he showed through the marks of the wounds of the Cross. That he possessed a true soul with its powers he indicated, as regards the vegetative power, by eating with them; as regards the sensitive power, by sight, hearing, and touch; and as regards the intellective power, by explaining the Scriptures. He showed his divinity by entering among the disciples while the doors were closed, through a special miracle of his divinity.
How did he arise integrally? According to John 12: “When I have been raised from the earth,” namely raised from the dead, “I shall draw all things to myself”: souls, by leading them from limbo; his vivified body, by drawing it from the closed tomb; and all the blood shed in various places, by taking it back to himself. Yet he retained the openings of his wounds for five causes, not from impotence, and with great beauty and fittingness.
How did he arise socially, both as regards body and as regards soul? Matthew 27 says: “Many bodies of the saints arose,” namely, when Christ arose. He himself is called in the Apocalypse “the firstborn of the dead,” namely, of those who rise. As regards the soul, when his soul departed he led all the souls from the limbo of the fathers, according to the words of Zechariah: “You also, through the blood of your covenant,” namely its confirmation, “led them from the pit in which there was no water,” that is, from the limbo of the fathers.
How did he arise powerfully? By his own power, namely that of his divinity. First Corinthians 15 [read: Second Corinthians 13:4] says: “He was crucified from weakness, but he lives,” namely, risen, “from the power of God.” He also arose powerfully because he arose to immortal life. Romans 6 says: “Christ, rising from the dead, now dies no more.” He arose with the endowments of a glorified body, namely brightness, agility, impassibility, and subtlety.
Ecclesiastes 1 says: The sun of justice, namely Christ our God, “rises” in his Nativity, “sets” in his Passion, “returns to its place” in his Resurrection, “and there, being born anew,” in his Ascension, “turns through the south” in the sending of the Holy Spirit, and “bends toward the north” in the final examination of judgment. The sun possesses brightness and agility because it is exceedingly swift in its motion; it possesses the impassibility and subtlety of matter because its ray penetrates glass.
How did he arise usefully? Because he is the cause of our resurrection. Hence he says to Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life,” that is, the cause of resurrection. And Job 13 [read: Job 19:25] says: “I know that my redeemer,” namely through the Passion, “lives,” that is, will live through the Resurrection, “and on the last day I shall rise from the earth,” namely by the power and example of his Resurrection. Philippians says: “We await our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our humility, conformed to the body of his brightness.”
How did he arise morally? That is, to form our life in an immortal manner. By rising on the third day he showed that we do not rise from the death of the soul before the day of contrition, the day of confession, and the day of satisfaction—“day,” I say, because this occurs in the light of grace. By rising to immortal life he indicated that we ought not to relapse into mortal sins.
By rising with the endowments, he indicated that, just as he arose from the dead through the glory of the Father—that is, with glorious endowments—so, the Apostle says, “we too should walk in newness of life”: adorned with the brightness of wisdom or prudence, the agility of obedience or justice, the impassibility of constancy or patience, and the subtlety of temperance.
Also, because he did not associate continually with the disciples but withdrew himself, he taught us not always to remain among crowds or companions, but sometimes to be solitary so that we may better recollect ourselves and attend to ourselves. When he appeared to the disciples, he suspended his brightness, instructing us to conceal our brilliant works and not display them from vanity. Again, he sometimes consoled them and sometimes reproved them, as for unbelief and foolishness, and so forth.
I omit a condensed explanation of all these matters because it does not pertain to this treatise, but you have it extensively in the Third Part of blessed Thomas.
Similarly, concerning Christ’s Ascension: how it occurred with great joyfulness. The Psalm says: “God ascended in jubilation,” namely that of the angels and souls. How it occurred with the greatest power. The Psalm says: “You ascended on high; you took captivity captive,” leading the fathers, whom he had taken from the devil, out of limbo and bringing them with himself into heaven.
How it occurred to our profit and with many benefits. Ephesians says: “He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things,” namely, the human intellect with faith, the will with charity, and the mind with hope, filling all the ruins left by the angels with human souls.
In Book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius relates that Josephus, the historian of the Jews, who died in Judaism, bore testimony concerning Christ. As Josephus himself testifies about himself, he was the son of Matthias, a priest from Jerusalem. He was regarded as exceedingly noble not only among his own fellow citizens, the Jews, but also among the Romans, so that on account of his literary merit he was presented with a statue in the city of Rome and his books were handed over to the library.
He wrote the history of the Antiquities in twenty books. He also encompassed the war waged by the Jews with the Romans in seven volumes, and wrote two volumes on the antiquity of the Jews.
In that book he teaches, according to the tradition of the elders, which volumes are held as authoritative among the Hebrews, in these words: We do not have innumerable volumes which disagree among themselves. Rather, there are only twenty-two books which contain the sequence of all times and which are rightly believed to have been written by divine inspiration.
Five of these belong to Moses. They contain the laws of life and the succession of human origins according to wisdom [read: the lineage of the human condition], extending to the end of Moses himself, and encompass a period of a little less than three thousand years. From the death of Moses to Tarses [read: Artaxerxes], who reigned among the Persians after Xerxes, the prophets who lived through those times wrote the events in thirteen volumes. The remaining four books hand down hymns to God, ways of life, institutions, and admonitions for mortals.
Everything from Artaxerxes to our own time has indeed been written, but these writings are said not to possess the same worthiness of faith as the former ones, because there was not thereafter the same continuous and well-attested succession of prophets.
The facts themselves show how reverently we use our Scriptures. Although so many ages have passed, no one has ever dared to add anything, remove anything, or change anything. Rather, in all the people of our nation there is, as it were, an implanted and innate faith that these are God’s decrees, that one must adhere to them continually, and, if the matter itself should require it, willingly lay down one’s life for them. Thus Josephus.
The emperor Titus, as Josephus likewise relates, considered it so important that knowledge of the events from these books should reach all people that he subscribed with his own hand that the books of Josephus ought properly to be read publicly by everyone. Josephus lived in the time of the emperor Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem.
Concerning Christ he therefore writes as follows in the book of the Antiquities: At that time there was a wise man, Jesus, if indeed it is right to call him a man. For he was a worker of marvelous deeds and a teacher of those people who gladly hear true things. He joined to himself both many Jews and many from the Gentiles. He was the Christ.
When Pilate, at the accusation of the chief men of our nation, had decreed that he should be put upon the Cross, those who had loved him from the beginning did not desert him. For he appeared to them alive again on the third day, according as the divinely inspired prophets had foretold either these things or innumerable other future marvels concerning him. Even to the present day, both the name and the race of Christians, who are named from him, have endured. Thus Josephus.
Josephus also relates that John the Baptist was the most just of all, describes his saving doctrine and baptism, and says that he was finally beheaded by Herod, both because he reproved Herod for incest and because Herod feared that the people adhering to John’s doctrine would withdraw from his kingdom and dominion.
Eusebius adds: What further refuge or excuse will remain for the shameless and faithless, so that they are not most plainly convicted of the falsity of the events which the Jews afterward invented?
The same Eusebius says in Book 2: Meanwhile, when happy report of the Resurrection and miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his Ascension into heaven was already spoken in every place, and the reputation of this blessed report flew through the ears of all, it was an ancient custom among the Romans that, if anything new happened in the provinces which they governed, provincial judges reported it to the emperor or the Senate, so that they would not appear ignorant of anything that occurred.
Pilate reported to the emperor Tiberius the Resurrection from the dead of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which had now been published in every place. He also reported his other miracles and that, since Christ had risen after death, he was already believed by very many to be God.
Tiberius reported what he had learned to the Senate. The Senate is said to have scorned it because notice of this matter had not first been brought to itself, but the opinion of the people had forestalled its authority. For an ancient law had been established that no one should be held as a god among the Romans unless confirmed by a decree of the Senate. Yet the truth of what was taking place was that divine power should not be thought to need human advocates.
Although the Senate rejected the things stated above, Tiberius nevertheless maintained his opinion that no one should attempt anything contrary to the teaching of Christ. Tertullian, a man exceedingly skilled in Roman laws and institutions and very distinguished among our writers, related this in the Apologetic which he wrote against the Gentiles for our faith, saying: Tiberius, in whose time the Christian name entered the world, reported to the Senate the things announced to him from Syrian Palestine which had revealed the truth of Christ’s divinity. Although the Senate rejected them because he had not initiated the matter, Caesar remained in his opinion, threatening danger to the accusers of Christians. Thus Tertullian.
Eusebius adds: Certainly, divine wisdom then instilled this into Caesar’s mind so that, without any obstacle in those very beginnings of the Gospel, the word might run in every direction.
One of the Gentile Sibyls, long before Christ’s coming, also foretold many things concerning Christ, as Augustine relates in The City of God after Lactantius. Among other things, after recounting his miracles, she said: After these things the priests of the Hebrews will gather against Christ because he will perform many signs. They will seize him and give God blows with unchaste hands and poisonous spittle from an impure mouth.
He will give his holy back to the scourges, and, receiving blows, he will remain silent, so that no one may recognize that he is the Word or whence he came. He will be crowned with a crown of thorns. For food they will give him gall, for his thirst vinegar; they will suspend him upon wood and kill him.
But you yourself, foolish one, did not understand your Lord playing with mortal senses. At midday there will be a dark night for three hours. He will take the lot of death, having received sleep for three days. Then, returning from the lower regions, he will come first to the light. He will show mortals the beginning of the Resurrection, because he will rise on the third day and show himself to his disciples. As they watch, he will ascend into heaven, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Eutropius found in the Roman annals that the following letter had been written to the senators of Rome by Lentulus, a Roman who found himself in the region of Judea.
Likewise, in the time of Octavian Caesar, when those who presided over provinces in various parts of the world wrote to the senators at Rome concerning the new events occurring throughout the regions of the world, a certain man named Lentulus, who held an office in the territory of Herod, king of Judea, wrote to the senators as follows:
At this time there has appeared, and still lives, a man of great power named Jesus Christ. He is called by the nations a prophet of power; his disciples call him the Son of God. He raises the dead and heals every disease.
He is a man of moderately tall stature and striking appearance, possessing a venerable countenance, which those who behold can love and fear. His hair is the color of an unripe hazelnut and smooth almost to the ears. From the ears downward it forms curling locks, somewhat more bluish and shining, flowing over his shoulders. His hair is parted in the middle of his head according to the custom of the Nazarenes.
His forehead is smooth and very serene, with a face without wrinkle or any blemish, which a moderate redness adorns. His nose and mouth are wholly without fault. He has a full and youthful beard, the same color as his hair, not long but forked in the middle.
His gaze is simple and mature; his eyes are blue-gray, varied, and bright. In reproof he is terrible; in admonition gentle and lovable; cheerful while preserving gravity. He was never seen to laugh, but he was seen to weep.
In bodily stature he is well-formed and upright, possessing hands and arms delightful to see. In conversation he is grave, sparing, and modest, “beautiful among the sons of men.”