28-31 CHAPTER 20 VER. 1. _On the first day of the week._ Literally, of the Sabbath, the week being called the Sabbath, after its principal day, or the day of the Pasch. (see on Mat 28:1) _Mary Magdalene came._ The other gospels speak of the other women but she only is mentioned here, as being thei... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter_, as the Chief Apostle, and as designated by Christ as His Vicar and successor, (_Matt_. xvi.), _and that other disciple whom Jesus loved_, i.e., S. John, who would be more diligent than the rest in searching for the Body of Christ. VER. 4. _So they ran b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre._ Peter (says S. Chrysostom) entered with ardour, and carefully inspected everything. For the soldiers who guarded the tomb, when they saw the angel and the earthquake, ran away through fear. See also S. Jerome, _Quæst._ vi _. ad He... [ Continue Reading ]
_But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping._ Because she anxiously looked about on every side for the Body of Jesus, as glowing in love for Him, and was beside herself; and not finding Him, wept for grief. "The eyes (says S. Augustine _in loc_.) who sought, but found Him not, had leisure to we... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus_. Christ appeared behind the Magdalene, so that the angels who beheld Him rose up and bowed their heads, and exhibited other tokens of reverence and adoration towards Him. And this was why sh... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?_ S. Ambrose (_Lib._ iii _. de Virg_.) explains the whole passage minutely: "Woman, why weepest thou? He who believeth not is a woman; for he that believes rises up into the 'perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fulness... [ Continue Reading ]
_Mary came and told the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and He has said these things to me._ She thus became an apostle and evangelist to the Apostles. And accordingly, when she was driven into exile by the Jews, and arrived at Marseilles, she preached the gospel to the people there. And she fully... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then the same day at evening, on the first day of the week._ Or the feast of the Pasch. (See notes on Matthew 28:1.) _When the doors were shut._ Calvin says that Christ opened the doors, or entered through an open window, so as not to be compelled to admit that one dimension could penetrate another... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when He had so said, He showed them His hands and His side._ It is clear from this verse (and still more clearly from ver. 27) that Christ after His Resurrection retained not only the scars, but even the very holes, of His wounds, and that really and not in appearance. So S. Augustine teaches i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you._ Why again? The Interlinear Gloss says, "It was a repeated confirmation, Peace upon peace, according to the prophet." Bede says, "He repeats it, because the virtue of charity is twofold, or because He is the peace who makes both one." The Gloss, "He... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost._ Why did He breathe on them? (1.) To signify the nature of the Holy Spirit, as proceeding both from Him and the Father. For as a man by breathing on another imparts to him his breath, so the Father and th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained._ Calvin twists and turns this to make it mean the preaching of the Gospel, namely, that they to whom ye preach the Gospel, if they believe it, will have their sins forgiven by their mere belie... [ Continue Reading ]
_But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didimus, was not with them when Jesus came._ Didymus means a twin. See notes on. chap. xi. 16. But here he is so called (double, doubtful) because he wavered and doubted as to Christ's resurrection. He was at that time weaker than the other Apostles, but afterw... [ Continue Reading ]
_The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe. _ Thomas sinned in this (1) by unbelief, (2) by obs... [ Continue Reading ]
_And after eight days._ The eighth day after the Lord's resurrection, the Octave of the Passover, when we commemorate this mystery, and read this Gospel. And from this S. Cyril observes that the Apostles, from these appearances of Christ, began from this time to hold the assemblies of the Church on... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side._ Behold the kindness of Christ in humbling Himself to all Thomas' requests, and in all things complying with his wishes, in order to convert him. See, says S. Chrysostom, ho... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God._ This was after he had fully ascertained that it was indeed Christ Himself, who had received these wounds on the cross, and who was now alive again. See Tertullian, _de Anima_, cap. xxviii.; S. Ambrose, _in Ps._ xliii. (xliv.); S. Hilary, _de T... [ Continue Reading ]