Our Redeemer will console our momentary weeping with eternal joy—He who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. At that time, when it was late that same first day of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said to them: 'Peace be unto you.' And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: 'Peace be unto you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.' When He had said this, He breathed upon them, and said to them: 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit.'
'Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.' Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them: 'Unless I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: 'Peace be to you.' Then he said to Thomas: 'Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not incredulous, but believing.' Thomas answered, and said to him:
'My Lord, and my God.' Jesus said to him: 'Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.' Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. The first question of this Gospel reading strikes the mind: how, after the resurrection, could the Lord's body have been a true body, since it was able to enter to the disciples through closed doors? But we must know that a divine work, if it is grasped by reason, is not wonderful; nor does that faith have merit for which human reason furnishes proof.
But these very works of our Redeemer, which cannot in themselves be comprehended, are to be weighed by another of his works, so that deeds still more marvellous may lend credence to marvellous things. For that body of the Lord entered to the disciples through closed doors, which likewise, by his nativity, went forth to human eyes from the closed womb of the Virgin. What wonder, then, if he entered through closed doors after his resurrection, now about to live for ever, who when coming to die went forth without opening the Virgin's womb? But because the faith of those beholding doubted concerning that body which could be seen, he straightway showed his hands and his side; he offered flesh to be handled, which he had brought in through closed doors.
In this matter he showed two wonders, and, according to human reason, things utterly contrary to each other, when after his resurrection he demonstrated his body to be both incorruptible and yet palpable. For that which is handled must needs be corruptible, and that which is incorruptible cannot be handled. But in a wondrous and inestimable manner our Redeemer displayed after the resurrection a body both incorruptible and palpable, so that by showing it incorruptible he might invite us to the reward, and by offering it palpable he might confirm us in the faith. He therefore showed himself both incorruptible and palpable, to prove indeed that after the resurrection his body was of the same nature and of another glory. He said to them: 'Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.'
That is: as the Father God sent me, God, so I too, man, send you, men. The Father sent the Son, who determined that he should be made incarnate for the redemption of the human race. Him indeed he willed to come into the world unto his Passion, yet he loved the Son whom he sent to the Passion. But the Lord sends his chosen apostles into the world not to the joys of the world, but, as he himself was sent, unto sufferings. Since therefore the Son also is loved by the Father, and yet is sent to the Passion, so too the disciples are loved by the Lord, who nevertheless are sent to suffering in the world. And so it is said:
'As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.' That is: I love you with that same charity when I send you amid the scandals of persecutors, with which the Father loves me, whom he caused to come to endure his Passion. Yet this being sent can also be understood according to the nature of the Godhead. For the Son is said to be sent by the Father by that very act by which he is begotten of the Father. For the Son declares that he himself sends the Holy Spirit also, who, though he is coequal with the Father and the Son, was nevertheless not made incarnate, saying: 'When the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father' (John 15:26). For if being sent were to be understood only as being made incarnate, the Holy Spirit, who was in no way made incarnate, would assuredly in no wise be said to be sent.
But his mission is that very procession by which he proceeds from the Father and the Son. Just as therefore the Spirit is said to be sent because he proceeds, so too the Son is not incongruously said to be sent because he is begotten. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them: 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit.' We must ask what it means that our Lord gave the Holy Spirit both once while dwelling on earth, and once while presiding in heaven. For nowhere else is the Holy Spirit openly shown to be given (Acts 2:1ff.) save now when he is received through the breathing, and afterward when, coming from heaven, he is manifested in divers tongues.
Why then is the Spirit first given to the disciples on earth, and afterward sent from heaven, unless because there are two precepts of charity, namely the love of God and the love of neighbour? On earth the Spirit is given, that the neighbour may be loved; from heaven the Spirit is given, that God may be loved. As therefore charity is one, and the precepts two, so the Spirit is one, and the givings two: first by the Lord dwelling on earth, afterward from heaven; because in the love of neighbour is learned how one ought to arrive at the love of God. Whence also that same John says: 'He that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?' (1 John 4:20).
And indeed even before, the same Holy Spirit dwelt in the minds of the disciples unto faith, yet by manifest giving he was not given save after the resurrection. Whence also it is written: 'The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified' (John 7:39). Whence also it is said through Moses: 'They sucked honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hard stone' (Deut. 32:13). For nothing of the kind is read according to history, if the whole series of the Old Testament be reviewed. Nowhere did that people suck honey out of the rock, nowhere oil: but because, according to Paul's word, 'The rock was Christ' (1 Cor. 10:4), they sucked honey from the rock who beheld the deeds and miracles of this same our Redeemer.
But they sucked oil out of the hard stone, because after his resurrection they merited to be anointed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As it were, then, the soft rock gave honey, when the Lord, still mortal, showed to the disciples the sweetness of his miracles. But the hard rock poured out oil, because, after his resurrection now made impassible, through the breathing of the Spirit he emitted the gift of holy unction. Of this oil it is said through the prophet: 'The yoke shall rot away at the face of the oil' (Isa. 10:27). For under the yoke of demonic domination we were held, but we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. And because the grace of liberty anointed us, the yoke of demonic domination has rotted away, Paul bearing witness, who says: 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (2 Cor. 3:17).
But it must be known that those who first had the Holy Spirit, so that they might both live innocently themselves and profit certain persons in preaching, received him openly after the Lord's resurrection for this reason, that they might profit not a few, but many. Whence also in this very giving of the Spirit it is said: 'Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.' It is pleasing to behold to how great a height of glory those disciples, called to such burdens of humility, are led. Behold, they are made secure not only concerning themselves, but they even receive the power of releasing another's bond;
and they obtain the principality of the heavenly judgment, so that in God's stead they may retain sins for some and remit them for others. Thus, thus it behoved them to be exalted by God, who had consented to be so greatly humbled for God. Behold, they who fear the strict judgment of God become judges of souls; and they condemn or set free others, who feared to be condemned themselves. Their place indeed the bishops now hold in the Church. They receive the authority of binding and loosing who obtain the rank of governance. A great honour, but heavy is the weight of that honour. For it is hard that he who knows not how to hold the guidance of his own life should become the judge of another's life. And it often happens that he holds the place of judgment whose life does not at all accord with his place.
And it often comes to pass that either he condemns the undeserving, or, himself bound, looses others. Often in loosing and binding those under him he follows the impulses of his own will, and not the merits of the cases. Whence it comes that he deprives himself of that very power of binding and loosing who exercises it according to his own will, and not according to the conduct of those subject to him. Often it happens that the Pastor is moved toward any neighbour by hatred or by favour: but they cannot worthily judge concerning those under them who in the causes of their subjects follow either their own hatreds or their own favours. Whence rightly it is said through the prophet: 'They put to death souls which do not die; and they gave life to souls which do not live' (Ezek. 13:19). For he puts to death one who is not dying who condemns the just.
And he strives to give life to one who is not to live who endeavours to absolve a guilty man from his punishment. The causes therefore must be weighed, and then the power of binding and loosing is to be exercised. It must be seen what fault preceded, or what penitence has followed after the fault, so that the pastor's sentence may absolve those whom almighty God visits through the grace of compunction. For then is the absolution of the one presiding true, when it follows the judgment of the inward Judge. This is well signified by that raising of the man dead four days, which indeed shows that the Lord first called and gave life to the dead man, saying: 'Lazarus, come forth' (John 11:43);
and afterward he who had come forth living was loosed by the disciples, as it is written: 'And when he that had been bound with winding bands was come forth, then he said to the disciples: Loose him, and let him go' (John 11:44). Behold, the disciples now loose him living, whom the Master had raised from the dead. For if the disciples had loosed Lazarus while dead, they would have shown forth stench rather than power. From which consideration it is to be observed that we ought by pastoral authority to loose those whom we recognize that our Author gives life to by his raising grace. This life-giving, indeed, is recognized in the very confession of sin, even before the working of righteousness.
Whence also to this same dead Lazarus it is by no means said 'Come to life again,' but 'Come forth.' For the sinner, so long as he hides his fault within his conscience, lies within, is concealed in his own inner recesses. But the dead man comes forth when the sinner of his own accord confesses his wickednesses. To Lazarus, therefore, it is said, 'Come forth.' As if it were openly said to any dead man in guilt: 'Why dost thou hide thy guilt within thy conscience? Come forth now through confession, thou who lurkest within thyself through denial.' Let the dead man therefore come forth, that is, let the sinner confess his fault. And as he comes forth let the disciples loose him, that the pastors of the Church may take away from him the punishment which he deserved who was not ashamed to confess what he had done.
These things concerning the order of loosing I have said briefly, that with great governance the pastors of the Church may be zealous either to loose or to bind. But whether the pastor bind justly or unjustly, the pastor's sentence is nevertheless to be feared by the flock, lest he who is subject, even when perchance he is bound unjustly, deserve that very sentence of his binding from another fault. Let the pastor therefore fear either to absolve or to bind indiscreetly. And let him who is under the pastor's hand fear to be bound even unjustly; nor let him rashly reprehend the judgment of his pastor, lest, even if he was bound unjustly, from that very pride of swollen reprehension there arise a fault that was not there before. But because we have said these things briefly by way of digression, let us return to the order of exposition.
'But Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.' This one disciple was absent, and on returning heard what had been done, and having heard it refused to believe. The Lord came again, and offered his side to be handled by the unbelieving disciple, showed his hands, and, having shown the scar of his wounds, healed the wound of that man's unbelief. What, dearest brethren, what do you observe amid these things? Do you believe it was done by chance, that that chosen disciple was then absent, and coming afterward should hear, hearing should doubt, doubting should handle, handling should believe? This was done not by chance, but by divine dispensation.
For the supernal clemency wrought in a wondrous manner that that doubting disciple, while he handled the wounds of the flesh in his Master, should heal in us the wounds of unbelief. For the unbelief of Thomas profited us for faith more than the faith of the believing disciples, because while he is brought back to faith by handling, our mind, laying aside all doubt, is made firm in faith. For thus the Lord permitted the disciple to doubt after his resurrection, yet did not desert him in his doubt, just as before his nativity he willed Mary to have a betrothed, who nevertheless did not come to her marriage-bed.
For thus the doubting and handling disciple was made a witness of the true resurrection, just as the spouse of the mother had been the guardian of her most inviolate virginity. He handled, then, and cried out: 'My Lord, and my God.' Jesus said to him: 'Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed.' Since the Apostle Paul says: 'Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not' (Heb. 11:1), it is clearly manifest that faith is the evidence of those things which cannot appear. For the things which appear no longer have faith, but recognition. Since therefore Thomas saw, since he handled, why is it said to him: 'Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed'? But one thing he saw, another he believed. For by a mortal man the Godhead could not be seen.
He saw, then, a man, and confessed him God, saying: 'My Lord, and my God.' By seeing, therefore, he believed, who, considering a true man, cried out that this One, whom he could not see, was God. What follows greatly gladdens: 'Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.' In this sentence indeed we are specially signified, who hold in mind him whom we have not seen in the flesh. We are signified, but only if we follow up our faith with works. For he truly believes who by working exercises what he believes. On the contrary, of those who hold the faith only in name Paul says: 'They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him' (Titus 1:16). Hence James says: 'Faith without works is dead' (James 2:26).
Hence the Lord says to blessed Job concerning the ancient enemy of the human race: 'He shall drink up a river, and shall not wonder; and he trusteth that the Jordan may flow into his mouth' (Job 40:23). For who is designated by the river, if not the flux of the human race? Which race indeed flows down from its rise to its end, and, as it were in the manner of water, runs on to its appointed term out of the liquid of the flesh. What is signified by the Jordan, if not the form of the baptized? For because in the river Jordan the very Author of our redemption deigned to be baptized, rightly by the name of the Jordan is expressed the multitude of those who are held within the sacrament of baptism.
The ancient enemy of the human race, therefore, drank up the river, because from the origin of the world unto the coming of the Redeemer, with scarcely a few of the elect escaping, he drew the human race into the belly of his malice. Of whom it is rightly said: 'He shall drink up a river, and shall not wonder' (ibid.), because he counts it no great thing when he snatches away unbelievers. But very grave is that which is added: 'And he trusteth that the Jordan may flow into his mouth' (ibid.), because after he has snatched away all unbelievers from the origin of the world, he presumes that he can still receive even the faithful. For with the mouth of his pestilential persuasion he daily devours those in whom a reprobate life is at variance with the confession of faith.
This therefore, dearest brethren, fear with all earnestness; this ponder within yourselves with anxious mind. Behold, we celebrate the Paschal solemnities; but we must so live that we may merit to attain to the eternal feasts. All things pass away that are celebrated as festive in time. Take care, you who are present at these solemnities, that you be not separated from the eternal solemnity. What does it profit to be present at the feasts of men, if it should befall one to be absent from the feasts of the angels? The present solemnity is the shadow of the solemnity to come. Therefore we celebrate this one yearly, that we may be led to that one which is not yearly but continual. When this is kept at the appointed time, our memory is stirred up again to the desire of that one.
By the frequenting therefore of temporal joy, let the mind grow warm and fervent toward the eternal joys, so that it may fully enjoy in the fatherland out of the truth of gladness what it meditates on the way out of the shadow of joy. Compose therefore your lives and your manners, brethren. He who rose gently from death, foresee how strict he will come in judgment. Certainly on the day of the dread examination he will appear with his saints, with angels, with archangels, with thrones, with dominations, with principalities and powers, the heavens and the earth burning, all the elements indeed being shaken in terror at his service. This Judge, then, of such great dread set before your eyes; fear him who is to come, that when he comes you may behold him not fearful, but secure. He is therefore to be feared, that he be not feared.
Let his terror exercise us unto the practice of good work, let the fear of him restrain our life from depravity. Believe me, brethren, that we shall then be as secure about his presence, in proportion as we now take pains to be apprehensive about our guilt. Certainly if any of you were to be brought before my judgment tomorrow to plead your cause with your adversary, you would perhaps pass the whole night sleepless, turning over in your anxious and seething mind what could be said to you, what you would answer to the objections, greatly fearing lest you should find me harsh, dreading lest you should appear guilty before me. And who am I? or what am I? Surely, not long hence, a worm after man, and after the worm, dust.
If then the judgment of dust is so greatly feared, with what intentness must we think, with what dread must we foresee, the judgment of so great a Majesty? But because there are some who are uncertain about the resurrection of the flesh, and we teach this more rightly then, if we also meet the hidden questionings of your hearts: a few things must be spoken by us concerning the faith of the resurrection itself. For many doubt about the resurrection, as we ourselves once did, who, while they behold through the sepulchres the flesh reduced to putrefaction and the bones to dust, distrust that the flesh and bones can be restored from dust, and thus reasoning as it were within themselves say: 'When is a man brought back from dust? when is it brought about that ashes are given life?'
To whom we briefly reply that it is far less for God to restore what was than to have created what was not. Or what wonder is it if he refashions man out of dust, who created all things together out of nothing? For it is more marvellous to have founded heaven and earth out of things non-existent than to restore man himself out of earth. But the ashes are considered, and it is despaired that they can return into flesh, and the power of the divine working is sought to be comprehended as it were by reason. And they say these things in their thoughts for this reason, that God's daily miracles have grown cheap to them from their very constancy. For behold, in the one grain of a very tiny seed lies hidden the whole mass of the tree that is to be born. For let us set before our eyes the marvellous magnitude of any tree;
let us consider whence in its origin it began, which by growing has attained to such a mass. We find, beyond doubt, its origin, a very tiny seed. Let us consider now where, in that little grain of seed, lies hidden the strength of the wood, the roughness of the bark, the magnitude of taste and smell, the abundance of fruits, the greenness of leaves. For the grain of seed when handled is not hard; whence then came forth the hardness of the wood? It is not rough; whence burst forth the roughness of the bark? It is not full of flavour; whence the flavour in the fruits? To the smell it emits no fragrance; whence the odour that is fragrant in the fruits? It shows nothing green in itself; whence came forth the greenness of the leaves? All things therefore lie hidden together in the seed, which nevertheless do not come forth together from the seed.
For from the seed indeed the root is produced, from the root comes forth the shoot, from the shoot arises the fruit, and in the fruit again the seed is produced. Let us add, then, that the seed also lies hidden in the seed. What wonder is it, then, if he brings back bones, sinews, flesh, and hairs out of dust, who daily restores the wood, the fruits, the leaves, in the great mass of the tree, out of a little seed?
When therefore the doubting mind seeks a reason concerning the power of the resurrection, questions of those things are to be brought before it which both happen incessantly and yet can by no means be comprehended by reason, so that while it cannot penetrate by the sight of the thing what it beholds, it may believe from the promise of the divine power what it hears. Ponder therefore with yourselves, dearest brethren, those things promised which endure; but those which pass away with time, despise them as already dismissed. Hasten with all intentness to the glory of this resurrection which the Truth has shown in himself. Flee earthly desires which separate you from your Author, because you attain the more loftily to the sight of God almighty, the more singularly you love the Mediator of God and men.
Who liveth and reigneth with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you. I will not now call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.'
Since all the sacred oracles are full of the Lord's precepts, what is the reason that concerning love, as though concerning a singular commandment, the Lord says: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another,' unless because every commandment is about love alone, and all are one precept, because whatever is commanded is made firm in charity alone? For as many branches of a tree proceed from one root, so many virtues are generated from one charity. Nor has the branch of a good work any greenness, if it does not remain in the root of charity. The Lord's precepts, therefore, are both many and one: many through the diversity of the work, one in the root of love.
But how this love is to be held, he himself intimates, who in very many sentences of his Scripture both bids friends be loved in himself, and enemies be loved for his sake. For he truly has charity who both loves a friend in God, and loves an enemy for God's sake. For there are some who love their neighbours, but through the affection of kinship and of the flesh; to whom nevertheless the sacred oracles do not gainsay in this love. But it is one thing which is spontaneously rendered to nature, another which is owed to the Lord's precepts out of charity by obedience. These indeed both love their neighbour, and yet do not attain those sublime rewards of love, because they render their love not spiritually, but carnally.
Accordingly, when the Lord had said: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another,' he straightway added: 'As I have loved you.' As if he openly said: 'Love unto that end to which I have loved you.' In this matter, dearest brethren, it must be carefully observed that the ancient enemy, while he draws our mind to the delight of temporal things, stirs up against us a weaker neighbour, who may endeavour to take away those very things which we love. Nor does the ancient enemy care, in doing this, that he may take away earthly things, but that he may strike at charity in us. For we suddenly blaze up into hatred; and while we desire to be unconquered without, we are grievously wounded within; while we defend small things without, we lose the greatest things within, because while we love a temporal thing, we lose true love.
For everyone who takes away what is ours is an enemy. But if we begin to hold the enemy in hatred, it is within that we lose. When therefore we suffer something outwardly from a neighbour, let us watch inwardly against the hidden plunderer, who is never better conquered than when the outward plunderer is loved. For the one and highest proof of charity is if even he is loved who is set against us. Hence it is that Truth itself both endures the gibbet of the cross, and yet renders the affection of love to his very persecutors, saying: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). What wonder is it, then, if the disciples love their enemies while they live, when even then the Master loves his enemies while he is being slain?