Since we have already run through the readings of Matthew and Mark concerning the Lord's Resurrection, let us now inquire into what most blessed Luke has thundered forth on this matter. 'On the first day,' he says, 'of the week, very early in the morning, the women came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared' (Luke 24). We have often said that the things done concerning the resurrection of Christ were done as a figure of our own resurrection: hence it is that the evangelists set forth the sequence of Christ's deeds in a discourse more mystical than merely factual. 'On the first day,' he says, 'of the week.' Well is it called 'the first,' because the day of the resurrection knows no other; the mother of eternal light knows no time of night; the perpetual day dawns perpetually; the light of those who rise cannot die: the light which destroys the night knows not to be extinguished.
'They came,' he says, 'to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared: and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, and going in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.' What is this, that those who before had fled from the tomb now boldly return to the sepulchre: fearless they return to the fearsome corpse, they confidently invade the sadness of the grave; and not finding the Lord, they steadfastly seek Him, and yet more steadfastly linger; nor do they dread that which the night added to the tomb, since, while it breeds darkness, it adds fear. Brethren, woman, the cause of evil, the author of sin, the way of death, the epitaph of the grave, the gate of hell, the whole necessity of lamentation:
for this reason they are born to tears, are made over to griefs, are consigned to groanings, and are strong only in lamentation, as much as they are found feeble in strength: and as much as they are unprepared for labours, so much are they prepared for tears: hence it is that tears conquer arms, weepings bend down kingdoms, and lamentations break all the fortitude of men. It is no wonder, therefore, if to tears, to the funeral, to the sepulchre, to the service of the Lord's body, the women here seem more ardent than the apostles; where the woman first runs to tears, who first ran to the fall; she precedes to the sepulchre, who preceded to death; she becomes the herald of the resurrection, who was the interpreter of death:
and she who had held out to man the tidings of so great a destruction, herself holds out to men the hearing of great salvation, that by the message of faith she might make up for what she took away by the hearing of faithlessness. There is here no reversed order, but a mystical one; the apostles are not set beneath the women, but are reserved for greater things; the women receive the service of Christ, the apostles receive the sufferings of Christ; the women carry spices, the men carry scourges; the women enter the sepulchre, the men enter prison; the women hasten to service, the men fly to chains; the women pour out oil, the men pour out blood: the women are stunned at death, these men receive deaths. And what need of many words?
The women stay at home, these men march to the battle lines, that as devoted soldiers they may prove their faith by adversities, their virtue by labours, their patience by injuries, their death by dangers, their endurance by wounds, their devotion by punishments, their constancy by the tearing of their vitals. The women, then, bear tears for Christ; the apostles, the devil overcome and their enemies vanquished, bring back to Christ both victory and triumph (Luke 24). But that the apostles are reported either not to have believed the women announcing that the Lord had risen, or to have judged it madness, let no one gravely reproach: he doubts deeply who believes more deeply; he cannot be deceived who is not easy of hearing; he is too cowardly who, even after an example, is found unwary;
a raw soldier runs to the battle line, one who knows not the cause of the war and is ignorant of the enemy's force; it is skill, not sloth, when a veteran soldier advances cautiously. So the new Adam fell quickly, while he believed quickly; and while he readily lent his ears to the hearing of a woman, he consigned himself and his posterity to the worst enemy: but the veteran Peter does not readily listen to a woman, is slow to believe the women who announce, and like a veteran he deliberates, lest like a boy he rush headlong. In short, when two of the disciples who after the resurrection merited to have Christ as companion of their journey returned and announced that they had seen the Lord, the apostles judge what they hear to be no raving, but the word of a man:
they lend their ears, fix their gaze, open their eyes, unfold their hearts, and so commend what is said to their senses, that after the heat of hesitation they thirstily drink the hearing of faith from the river which the tongue of their companions was pouring forth. Just as cool draughts quench and cool the ardour of thirst, so the hearing of the mind becomes gladder after grief. Brethren, who can grasp the causes of the Lord's Nativity? Who is worthy to estimate the transaction of the Lord's Resurrection? To ponder, to grasp, to estimate these things no one will be able, unless he has received it from God Himself: that the Creator of all is created by a woman's birth, that the Lord of the world is seen in human servitude, that the shepherd of all needs feeding; that He is consigned to the accused, who absolves all;
that the life of the world is punished, that the raiser of the dead dies, that He who encloses all things is enclosed in a tomb, that the Lord of those above is found among those below. He, therefore, who can grasp these things, judging deeply, does not marvel at the hesitations, tremblings, fears, flights, and hidings of the apostles. Therefore, brethren, that the apostles doubt, that they take up such great things with so slow a readiness of belief, let us not marvel, we who to this day do not believe, but let us pray that we may be counted worthy to perceive concerning these things only as much as He shall grant, who bestows on man the perception of things divine. What remains of the sequence of the reading, with God's help, we will search out in the next sermon.