for none bury Christ save those who believe God. Not all can bury Christ. At length, although the devout women stood far off, yet, because devout, they diligently observed the place, that they might bring ointments and pour them over Him. Yet anxious, they both withdraw from the tomb as the later ones and return to the tomb as the earlier ones. Though steadfastness is lacking, diligence is not lacking. The sex wavers; devotion is aflame. At length, at the time of the resurrection they are present, and, when the men were put to flight, they alone are admonished by the angel not to fear. They summon Peter—the earlier in eagerness, but the later in confidence. At length he came without fear, and steadfastly he who had come later enters first, as one who had received the keys of the kingdom, that he might open to others.
Now the earthquake is, to the faithful, the resurrection; to the unskilled, terror—to the former, because the sluggish body rouses itself from the sleep of death; to the latter, because, disturbed by the trembling of the body and the earthly commotion, they fall away from faith and belief in the resurrection. But early on the Sabbath they came very early to the tomb. Here for many a great doubt arises; for although the evangelists do not seem to have said contradictory things, yet they said diverse things, seeing that this one says, very early in the morning, Mark says, very early, Matthew, in the evening of the Sabbath, John, on the first day of the Sabbath while it was yet dark, the women came to the tomb.
Then this one records that two men, Mark that one young man sitting in white, Matthew one angel, John two angels sitting in white, were seen. Finally—what may seem scarcely capable of unraveling—John wrote that it was said to Mary Magdalene: Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; while Matthew wrote that the Lord met Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, and set forth in a most clear account that they came and held His feet and worshipped Him. How then is this to be resolved, unless you suppose that the four evangelists spoke of four different times, so that you may conjecture both other persons of women and other visions? Indeed, some come with ointment on the first day of the Sabbath, others without ointment in the evening of the Sabbath.
Of these the names are expressed; the others are designated as having followed the Lord from Galilee. And in this matter, lest the roughness of a thorny interpretation should at the end offend anyone, where perhaps things pleasant have been taken for granted, judge now that we lower the sails of our discourse as it draws to a close, since we have come to the harbor; and the ship which has crossed the seas in swift course, when it begins to draw near to the shore, grazes the lurking rocks with broken speed. Therefore, lest my discourse, as though to an idle helmsman, should stick fast in the sands of the shore, I judge that I should choose, as it were, the hidden shoals and slacken my course rather than hasten it, so that our speech may not gape open with leaks upon us.
First, then, this is to be considered: what is meant by the Scripture saying that the Lord rose in the evening of the Sabbath, which dawns toward the first day of the Sabbath. For thus you have it: that in the evening of the Sabbath Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For He rose not on the Sabbath day—for they kept silence on the Sabbath according to the commandment—but after the Sabbath day, surely in the night. At length, those who came in the morning, although very early, yet already knew that the Lord had risen. So therefore it must be tempered, that the resurrection be believed to have taken place neither on the morning of the Lord's day, which is the first after the Sabbath, nor on the Sabbath. For how is the space of three days completed? He rose, then, not as the day was turning to evening, but in the evening of the night.
Finally, the Greek said sero, that is, ὀψέ. Now sero both signifies an hour at the setting of the day and denotes the lateness of any thing whatever, as if you should say: it was suggested to me late, that is, tardily; he came late, that is, one who arrives after the appointed time. Though he should come in the morning of the following day, it is still late, where the time for acting has passed. There is also a sero meaning the deep time of night, as if you should say: I rose late to study by lamplight, that is, I rose not in the evening hour, but in the depth of night. Whence the women too have opportunity of approaching the tomb, the guards now surely resting; and the very guards are the more terrified, as commonly happens to those roused from sleep.
Finally, even the chief priests, gathered with the elders, confirm that it was done by night, saying to the guards: Say that His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were sleeping. For from the time which they learned from the guards they seize an argument for their fraud. For John too indicates that early, while it was yet dark, Mary Magdalene came to him and to Peter, and yet he presents her as ignorant of the resurrection that had taken place; for surely, if it had been done as the day was turning to evening, it could at once have become known. It is morning, and still Peter does not know, John does not know.
Would the Lord suffer His disciples to be tormented longer by uncertainty of His death—the disciples to whom He at once sent an angel, at once sent women as messengers of the deed accomplished? And that you may know it was done by night, some of the women do not know, others know. They know who watched by nights and days; they do not know who had withdrawn. The one Mary Magdalene does not know according to John; the other Mary Magdalene knows according to Matthew; for the same woman could not both know before and not know afterward. Therefore, if there were several Marys, perhaps there were also several Magdalenes—since the one is a name of a person, the other of a place. At length, recognize that she is another. The one is allowed to hold the Lord's feet, to touch the Lord; the other is forbidden;
the one deserved to see an angel, the other, at her first coming, saw no one; the one announced to the disciples that the Lord had risen, the other indicates that He had been carried off; the one rejoices, the other weeps; to the one Christ already meets in His glory, the other still seeks Him as dead; the one saw the Lord and believed, the other could not recognize Him though she saw Him; the one was worshipping with faithful spirit, the other was grieving with doubting affection. Rightly indeed is she forbidden to touch the Lord; for we touch Christ not by bodily contact, but by faith. For He says, I have not yet ascended to my Father—that is, I have not yet ascended for you, who seek the Living among the dead; and therefore she is sent to the stronger, by whose example she may learn to believe, that they may proclaim to her the resurrection.
For as in the beginning the woman was the author of guilt for the man, and the man the executor of error, so now she who had first tasted death first saw the resurrection—first in the order of guilt, first in the remedy. And lest she who had transferred guilt to the man should bear the reproach of perpetual blame among men, she transferred grace also, and compensates the affliction of the old fall by the sign of the resurrection. Through the mouth of a woman death had before gone forth; through the mouth of a woman life is restored. But because in steadfastness she is inferior for preaching, and the sex is weaker for carrying out, to the men is committed the office of evangelizing.
For just as in the case of women not only is guilt loosed through the law, but grace is even multiplied, that she who before had deceived one may persuade many, so too the man, who before had rashly believed, ought to recover the gift lent back to him, that he who had been to himself slippery for believing might become to others fit for preaching. But let us attend to the very words of the command: Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brethren and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. How had You not ascended, Lord Jesus? How were You absent, who had commended Your spirit into the Father's hands? Or when can You be absent, who are always in the Father, always with the Father? Indeed You Yourself said:
If I descend into hell, You are there; if I take my wings before the light and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me. Or how do You ascend, who are everywhere always? You did indeed descend as Son of Man, nor, when You descended, were You absent from the Father; but You descended for us, that we might see You with eyes and minds, that we might believe in You. So too You ascended for us, that we might follow You with our minds, whom we cannot see with our eyes. You ascended for the apostles, to whom You said: He who has seen me has seen the Father also. At length John knew where to seek You. He sought You with the Father and found You, and therefore says: And the Word was with God.
You ascended also for Paul, who, not content to follow You alone, taught us too how we are to follow You and where we may find You, saying: If, then, you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. And lest we should suppose this to be a task of the eyes rather than of the soul, he added: Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. Therefore we ought to seek You not above the earth, nor on the earth, nor according to the flesh, if we wish to find You; for now we no longer know Christ according to the flesh. At length Stephen did not seek above the earth—he who saw You standing at the right hand of God; but Mary, who was seeking on the earth, could not touch You.
Stephen touched, because he sought in heaven; Stephen among the Jews saw the absent One, Mary among the angels did not see the present One. But why she could not touch Him the evangelist himself has taught us, saying that, when she saw You, she did not know that it was You. For thus you have it: she turned back and saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it was Jesus. Rightly she could not touch Him whom she had not been able to see; for he who sees, touches. And so Scripture distinguishes what difference there is between that Mary and this one. The one meets Him, that she may see Jesus; this one turns back. The one is greeted; this one is rebuked. For thus you have it: Jesus says to her, Woman. She who does not believe is a woman, and is still designated by the appellation of bodily sex;
for she who believes meets Him as a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, lacking now the name of the world, the sex of the body, the slipperiness of youth, the loquacity of old age. Jesus therefore says: Woman, why do you weep? as if to say: God does not require bare tears, but faith. Tears are good, if you recognize Christ. Whom do you seek? He says; for the Lord condemns belated efforts. But well did He add whom—not that He Himself doubts whom she seeks, but because she does not know whom she seeks; for she does not seek Christ, whom she thinks carried off. Christ is present—how is He sought? He therefore who is sought is unknown, when He is not recognized though He is seen. At length she saw Christ and thought Him the gardener; for thus you have it:
She, supposing that it was the gardener, said to Him: Sir, if You have taken Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him. Though uncertain in faith, yet not slippery in speech; though she thought Him the gardener, yet she designated the Son of God; though she does not yet believe, yet she strives to believe; for He Himself bore the body who raised it. The error of the woman is therefore pardonable, who, although she ought not to have doubted that Christ's body had been taken up through the glory of the resurrection, yet longs to be taught by Christ. And devoted, she already promises her faith, that she herself may now take Him up from the earth and seek Him at the right hand of God. At length, after these words she is no longer called woman, but Mary;
for one thing is the common name of the multitude, another the special name of the person who follows Christ. And to the disciples she is sent, though not yet an arbiter of full faith, yet a messenger. But she is forbidden to touch, because the fullness of the Godhead did not yet dwell bodily in Christ for her as Paul had received it; she had not yet emptied out the slipperiness of the world, the ambiguity of the flesh; she had not yet lived the life of Christ. At length this one neither worships the Lord nor holds His feet, like that Mary, in whom indeed not so much bodily homage as the affection of full faith is designated, because she believes Christ to be both man and God; for it is God who is worshipped, it is man who is held.
The Lord, therefore, does not disdain to be touched by a woman, whose feet Mary also anointed with ointment, nor does He scorn the touch, but He teaches progress: that not all can touch the risen Christ, whom they touched in this life while He dwelt also in the body. Whoever wishes to touch Christ, let him mortify his own members and, like one about to rise again, let him put on bowels of mercy, let him not hesitate to renounce earthly things. What then is meant by: Touch me not?
Do not lay your hand upon greater things, but go to my brethren—that is, to the more perfect—for whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother—because the resurrection cannot easily be grasped except by the more perfect; the prerogative is reserved for those more firmly grounded in this faith. But I do not permit women to teach in the church; let them ask their own husbands at home. To them, therefore, she is sent who are of the household, and she receives the appointed commands. Nor does it escape me that in this place some have thought that Christ refused to be touched because He had not yet received back the type which He had commended to the Father, as though as yet He ought not to be touched.
I ascend to your Father, my God and your God. Well did He distinguish, because He was speaking to a woman; for our nature is not common with Christ save in the human condition. To Him the Father is by His own begetting, to us by voluntary adoption; to Him by nature, to us by grace; to Him God by unity of the mystery, to us by heavenly power. Someone says: How then did Thomas, when he did not yet believe, nevertheless touch Christ? But he seems to have doubted not about the Lord's resurrection, but about the quality of the resurrection, and by his touch he was meant to teach me, just as Paul also taught: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality—that the unbeliever may believe and the hesitant may not be able to doubt;
for we believe more easily what we see. But Thomas had cause for wonder, when he saw, with everything closed, a body inserted through impassable barriers with an unhindered juncture; and therefore it was marvelous how a corporeal nature poured itself through an impenetrable body—by an invisible entrance to a visible sight—easy to touch, difficult to comprehend. At length the disciples, being troubled, thought they saw a spirit; and therefore the Lord, to show us the appearance of the resurrection, said: Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me to have. He penetrated, then, not through an incorporeal nature, but through the quality of the bodily resurrection, into places closed against ordinary use. For what is touched is a body; what is handled is a body;
but we rise again in the body; for a natural body is sown, a spiritual body rises—but the former more subtle, the latter more gross, as still compacted with the quality of earthly defilement. For how was it not a body in which remained the marks of the wounds, the traces of the scars, which the Lord offered to be handled? In which He not only confirms faith, but also sharpens devotion, because the wounds He took upon Himself for us He chose rather to carry into heaven than was willing to abolish, that He might show to God the Father the price of our liberty. Such a one the Father seats at His right hand, embracing the trophies of our salvation; such martyrs there He has shown to us with the crown of His own scar.
And since our discourse has come to this point, let us consider by what grace, according to John, the apostles believed, who rejoiced, while according to Luke they are reproved as though unbelieving; how there they received the Holy Spirit, here they are bidden to sit in the city until they be clothed with power from on high. And it seems to me that, as it were, the apostle touched here the greater and loftier matters, the latter the things nearest to the human—the former employing a historical circuit, the latter brevity; for neither can there be doubt about him who bears witness of those things at which he himself was present, and his testimony is true. From him too, who deserved to be an evangelist, it is fair that the suspicion either of negligence or of falsehood be repelled.
And therefore we hold both to be true, distinguished neither by variety of meanings nor by diversity of persons. For although in the first place Luke says that they did not believe, yet afterward he shows that they did believe. And if we consider the first parts, they are contradictory; if the latter, it is certain that they agree. Let us therefore consider the very words of Scripture. John speaks thus: And the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. He says to them therefore again: Peace be with you; as the Father sent me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose you retain, they are retained. But Luke says: And how they knew Him in the breaking of bread.
Now while they were speaking these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them: Peace be to you; it is I, do not be afraid. And being troubled and frightened, they thought they saw a spirit. And it might seem that here there were more present; but since here too it was late on the day of the resurrection—for now as the day was turning to evening, those who had entered to abide with the Lord, where He suddenly withdrew Himself, these two are reported to have returned at that same hour to the disciples, when He offered Himself to be handled—and according to John it is presented that late on that day, on the first of the Sabbath, He appeared to the disciples and offered His wounds to be handled, lest it should bring any ambiguity, we thought it should be inquired into more diligently.
For He seems to have shown Himself separately to those eleven, just as He had already shown Himself apart to the man of Emmaus and to Cleopas in the evening; and just as those two, so also they—the eleven—seem to have been able to come together to confirm the rest. At length they too were troubled, as you have it according to Luke; and therefore He opened their understanding, that they might understand the things that are written. But that the one wrote more fully, the other more briefly, is not in doubt. For how would they say that He was seen by Cephas alone, if He had been seen by all? But just as, of the women, He was seen by Mary and the other Mary Magdalene, so of the men He was seen by Peter first, early in the morning. And Paul speaks thus:
For I delivered to you first of all that Christ died according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas. And therefore Mark especially introduces a young man commanding that the women should tell Peter and the disciples that the Lord had risen. Peter, then, saw the Lord alone; for his devotion, ever ready and prompt, believed, and therefore was eager to gather the more frequent signs of faith. Elsewhere with John, elsewhere alone, yet everywhere he runs untiring; everywhere either alone or first, not content to have seen what he had seen, he repeats his gazing, and kindled with love for seeking the Lord, he is not satisfied with seeing.
He sees alone, he sees with the eleven, he sees with the seventy, he sees also when Thomas believed, he sees while fishing—but not content to have seen, impatient in his desire, heedless of being caught, unmindful of danger, yet not unmindful of reverence, when he saw the Lord on the shore, he covered himself with a garment, thinking it too late if he should arrive with the rest by boat. So when the Lord walked upon the sea, forgetful of his own nature he met Him over the waves of the sea; so when the Lord was being held by the Jews, he alone drew a sword against the crowds; so now too, when the Lord had stood on the shore, by a perilous shortcut he hastened his devout homage. There is therefore no doubt that Peter believed, and believed because he loved, and loved because he believed.
Whence he is also grieved, because he is asked a third time: Do you love me? For he is asked of whom there is doubt; but the Lord did not doubt, who was asking not that He might learn, but that He might teach whom He, about to be lifted up into heaven, was leaving us as the vicar, as it were, of His own love. For thus you have it: Simon son of John, do you love me? Surely You know, Lord, that I love You. And Jesus says: Feed my lambs. Well, conscious of himself, Peter testifies to an affection not assumed for the moment, but already long known to God. For who else is there who could easily profess this of himself? And therefore, because he alone professes it of all, he is set before all; for charity is the greatest of all. This too is to be more diligently considered, why, when the Lord said, Do you love me? he answered:
You know, Lord, that I love You. In which it seems to me that dilectio (love) holds the charity of the soul, while amor (love) holds a certain heat conceived by the ardor of body and mind; and I think that Peter signified not only the ardor of his soul but also of his very body now blazing about the worship of God. At length the third time the Lord asked not now Do you love me (diligis)? but Do you love me (amas)? and now no longer lambs, as at first, to be fed on a kind of milk, nor little sheep, as the second time, but he is bidden to feed the sheep—the more perfect ones—that the more perfect might govern. And therefore, as to one perfect in all things, whom the flesh could no longer recall from the glory of the passion, the crown is decreed. When you were younger, He says, you girded yourself and walked where you would;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish. Good is old age—not feeble for use by length of life, but prepared by maturity of virtue for martyrdom; which restrains the wantonness of bodily pleasures and does not indulge in lusts, declines whatever is sweet, does not strive after what is fair to see; for the flesh lusts against the spirit, and by crooked side-paths of walking finds for itself the diverse pleasures wherever it wishes. But good is the old age of the mind, which chooses not what is sweet to the body, but what it judges useful to the mind, nor is it captured by the voluntary appetite of the body, but is recalled, as if unwilling, by a resisting restraint.
Therefore Peter too, although he was ready in spirit to undergo martyrdom, yet when the danger came, he bent the steadfastness of his mind; for the sweetness of the heavenly use of His gift takes hold of us. For who would not choose martyrdom, if he could die willingly? Therefore Peter too seems to be unwilling, but he prepares to conquer. And what wonder if Peter is unwilling, when the Lord says: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done? At length, after the temptation of his own presumption, Peter no longer dares to promise the perseverance of his will, but, as it were for his own solace, seeks the fellowship of another. Led, therefore, by so many examples of virtue, we believe that Peter could not have doubted.
That John too believed is manifest, since he saw the Saviour; for he believed even then, after he saw the sepulchre empty of the body. Why then does Luke present them as having been troubled? First of all, because the opinion of a few is included in the judgment of the greater part; then, because, even if Peter had believed concerning the resurrection, he could yet be troubled when he saw that the Lord poured Himself in unexpectedly with His body and into the enclosures that were barred at the entrances and built up with walls. Luke therefore followed each detail historically; the one regarded the end, the other the sequence. For surely, by saying: Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the things that are written, he too professes that the disciples believed.
But the Holy Spirit He either breathed upon those eleven as upon the more perfect, and promises that He is to be given afterward to the rest as well; or He breathed it upon the same there and promised it here. Nor does it seem to be contradictory, since there are diversities of graces; for to one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healings, to another kinds of tongues. Therefore He breathed one operation there, He promises another here; for there the grace of remitting sins was bestowed, which seems to be the more august, and therefore there is a breathing forth by Christ, that you may believe the Spirit to be of Christ and may believe the Spirit to be of God; for God alone remits sins. But Luke describes the grace of tongues poured forth.
For there you have it: 'Receive the Holy Spirit; whosesoever sins you remit, they shall be remitted.' But in the Acts of the Apostles you have it thus: 'And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with various tongues, even as the Spirit gave them to utter.' Now the diversity of the appearances signifies the abundance of the angels who minister, according to what the Lord himself had promised, saying: 'And you shall see the angels descending and ascending to the Son of Man.' And would that our own discourse too might be brought to a close together with the end of the Gospel! Why does he, according to Matthew and Mark, bid the disciples, 'I will go before you into Galilee; there you shall see me,' but according to Luke and John he offered himself to be seen even within a closed chamber?
And indeed that he often offered himself to be seen, and was seen by more than five hundred brethren, and by Peter and James, we have proved by the testimony of the Apostle himself; and Luke in the Acts of the Apostles has taught that he showed himself alive to the disciples after his Passion, appearing to them in many proofs and discoursing of the kingdom of God. Therefore, since he appeared often and in diverse places, while Scripture nowhere marked a prescribed and definite time when he was seen in Galilee, but at Jerusalem expressed both the day and the hour when he offered himself, let the more timid be visited again within their chambers, and let the braver gather upon the mountain.
Finally, John brings in the disciples gathered within a chamber with the doors shut, because of fear of the Jews; and these he wrote were not eleven, as Luke says, but more. But Matthew did not keep silent that these same eleven alone came together in Galilee. For thus you have it: 'But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had appointed them; and seeing him they worshipped, but some doubted.' To these he granted the power of teaching and baptizing. Mark too writes that he appeared at the end to the eleven as they reclined at table, when likewise he committed to them the office of preaching throughout the whole world.
Whence I judge it more fitting that the Lord indeed bade the disciples to see him in Galilee, but that while they sat within the chamber out of fear, he first offered himself to them, and afterward, when their spirits had been strengthened, those eleven set out for Galilee. Or certainly I find that this too has pleased careful writers: nothing forbids us to say that fewer were within the chamber, while more were upon the mountain.