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1. Mary Magdalene had brought the news to His disciples, Peter
and John, that the Lord was taken away from the sepulchre; and
they, when they came thither, found only the linen clothes wherewith
the body had been shrouded; and what else could they believe but what
she had told them, and what she had herself also believed? "Then the
disciples went away again unto their own" (home); that is to say,
where they were dwelling, and from which they had run to the
sepulchre. "But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping." For
while the men returned, the weaker sex was fastened to the place by a
stronger affection. And the eyes, which had sought the Lord and had
not found Him, had now nothing else to do but weep, deeper in their
sorrow that He had been taken away from the sepulchre than that He had
been slam on the tree; seeing that in the case even of such a Master,
when His living presence was withdrawn from their eyes, His
remembrance also had ceased to remain. Such grief, therefore, now
kept the woman at the sepulchre. "And as she wept, she stooped
down, and looked into the sepulchre." Why she did so I know not.
For she was not ignorant that He whom she sought was no longer there,
since she had herself also carried word to the disciples that He had
been taken from thence; while they, too, had come to the sepulchre,
and had sought the Lord's body, not merely by looking, but also by
entering, and had not found it. What then does it mean, that, as
she wept, she stooped down, and looked again into the sepulchre?
Was it that her grief was So excessive that she hardly thought she
could believe either their eyes or her own? Or was it rather by some
divine impulse that her mind led her to look within? For look she
did, "and saw two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and
the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain." Why is it
that one was sitting at the head, and the other at the feet? Was it,
since those who in Greek are called angels are in Latin nuntii [in
English, news-bearers], that in this way they signified that the
gospel of Christ was to be preached from head to foot, from the
beginning even to the end? "They say to her, Woman, why weepest
thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord,
and I know not where they have laid Him." The angels forbade her
tears: for by such a position what else did they announce, but that
which in some way or other was a future joy? For they put the
question, "Why weepest thou?" as if they had said, Weep not.
But she, supposing they had put the question from ignorance, unfolded
the cause of her tears. "Because," she said, "they have taken
away my Lord:" calling her Lord's inanimate body her Lord,
meaning a part for the whole; just as all of us acknowledge that Jesus
Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord, who of course is at once
both the Word and soul and flesh, was nevertheless crucified and
buried, while it was only His flesh that was laid in the sepulchre.
"And I know not," she added, "where they have laid Him." This
was the greater cause of sorrow, because she knew not where to go to
mitigate her grief. But the hour had now come when the joy, in some
measure announced by the angels, who forbade her tears, was to succeed
the weeping.
2. Lastly, "when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and
saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She,
supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, If thou
hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will
take Him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself,
and saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master." Let no
one speak ill of the woman because she called the gardener, Sir
(domine), and Jesus, Master. For there she was asking, here she
was recognizing; there she was showing respect to a person of whom she
was asking a favor, here she was recalling the Teacher of whom she was
learning to discern things human and divine. She called one lord
(sir), whose handmaid she was not, in order by him to get at the
Lord to whom she belonged. In one sense, therefore, she used the
word Lord when she said, "They have taken away my Lord; and in
another, when she said, Sir (lord), if thou hast borne Him
hence." For the prophet also called those lords who were mere men,
but in a different sense from Him of whom it is written, "The Lord
is His name." But how was it that this woman, who had already
turned herself back to see Jesus, when she supposed Him to be the
gardener, and was actually talking with Him, is said to have again
turned herself, in order to say unto Him "Rabboni," but just
because, when she then turned herself in body, she supposed Him to be
what He was not, while now, when turned in heart, site recognized
Him to be what He was.
3. "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet
ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I
ascend unto my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your
God." There are points in these words which we must examine with
brevity indeed, but with somewhat more than ordinary attention. For
Jesus was giving a lesson in faith to the woman, who had recognized
Him as her Master, and called Him so in her reply; and this
gardener was sowing in her heart, as in His own garden, the grain of
mustard seed. What then is meant by "Touch me not"? And just as
if the reason of such a prohibition would be sought, He added, "for
I am not yet ascended to my Father." What does this mean? If,
while standing on earth, He is not to be touched, how could He be
touched by men when sitting in heaven? For certainly, before He
ascended, He presented Himself to the touch of the disciples, when
He said, as testified by the evangelist Luke, "Handle me, and
see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have;" or
when He said to Thomas the disciple, "Reach hither thy finger, and
behold my hands; and put forth thy hand, and thrust it into my
side." And who could be so absurd as to affirm that He was willing
indeed to be touched by the disciples before He ascended to the
Father, but refused it in the case of women till after His
ascension? But no one, even had any the will, was to be allowed to
run into such folly. For we read that women also, after His
resurrection and before His ascension to the Father, touched Jesus,
among whom was Mary Magdalene herself; for it is related by Matthew
that Jesus met them, and said, "All hail. And they approached,
and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him." This was passed
over by John, but declared as the truth by Matthew. It remains,
therefore, that some sacred mystery must lie concealed in these words;
and whether we discover it or utterly fail to do so, yet we ought to be
in no doubt as to its actual existence. Accordingly, either the
words, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father,"
had this meaning, that by this woman the Church of the Gentiles was
symbolized, which did not believe on Christ till He had actually
ascended to the Father, or that in this way Christ wished Himself to
be believed on; in other words, to be touched spiritually, that He
and the Father are one. For He has in a manner ascended to the
Father, to the inward perception of him who has made such progress in
the knowledge of Christ that he acknowledges Him as equal with the
Father: in any other way He is not rightly touched, that is to say,
in any other way He is not rightly believed on. But Mary might have
still so believed as to account Him unequal with the Father, and this
certainly is forbidden her by the words, "Touch me not;" that is,
Believe not thus on me according to thy present notions; let not your
thoughts stretch outwards to what I have been made in thy behalf,
without passing beyond to that whereby thou hast thyself been made.
For how could it be otherwise than carnally that she still believed on
Him whom she was weeping over as a man? "For I am not yet
ascended," He says, "to my Father:" there shalt thou touch me,
when thou believest me to be God, in no wise unequal with the
Father. "But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto
my Father, and your Father." He saith not, Our Father: in one
sense, therefore, is He mine, in another sense, yours; by nature
mine, by grace yours. "And my God, and your God." Nor did He
say here, Our God: here, therefore, also is He in one sense
mine, in another sense yours: my God; under whom I also am as man;
your God, between whom and you I am mediator.
4. "Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, I have seen the
Lord, and He hath spoken these things unto me. Then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus,
and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And
when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side."
For nails had pierced His hands, a spear had laid open His side:
and there the marks of the wounds are preserved for healing the hearts
of the doubting. But the shutting of doors presented no obstacle to
the matter of His body, wherein Godhead resided. He indeed could
enter without their being opened, by whose birth the virginity of His
mother remained inviolate, "Then were the disciples glad when they
saw the Lord. Then said He unto them again, Peace be unto you."
Reiteration is confirmation; for He Himself gives by the prophet a
promised peace upon peace. "As the Father hath sent me," He
acids, "even so send I you." We know the Son to be equal to the
Father; but here we recognize the words of the Mediator. For He
exhibits Himself as occupying a middle position when He says, He
me, and I you. "And when He had said this, He breathed on them,
and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." By breathing on
them He signified that the Holy Spirit was the Spirit, not of the
Father alone, but likewise His own. "Whose so-ever sins," He
continues, "ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever
ye retain, they are retained." The Church's love, which is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, discharges the sins of all
who are partakers with itself, but retains the sins of those who have
no participation therein. Therefore it is, that after saying
"Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He straightway added this regarding
the remission and retention of sins.
5. "But Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was
not with them when Jesus came. 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 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. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood
in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith He to
Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach
hither thy hand, and put it into my side: and be not faithless, but
believing. Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my
God." He saw and touched the man, and acknowledged the God whom he
neither saw nor touched; but by the means of what he saw and touched,
he now put far away from him every doubt, and believed the other.
"Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed." He saith not, Thou hast touched me, but, "Thou hast
seen me," because sight is a kind of general sense. For sight is
also habitually named in connection with the other four senses: as when
we say, Listen, and see how well it sounds; smell it, and see how
well it smells; taste it, and see how well it savors; touch it, and
see how hot it is. Everywhere has the word, See, made itself
heard, although sight, properly speaking, is allowed to belong only
to the eyes. Hence here also the Lord Himself says, "Reach hither
thy finger, and behold my hands:" and what else does He mean but,
Touch and see? And yet he had no eyes in his finger. Whether
therefore it was by looking, or also by touching, "Because thou hast
seen me," He says, "thou hast believed." Although it may be
affirmed that the disciple dared not so to touch, when He offered
Himself for the purpose; for it is not written, And Thomas touched
Him. But whether it was by gazing only, or also by touching that he
saw and believed, what follows rather proclaims and commends the faith
of the Gentiles: "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed." He made use of words in the past tense, as One who, in
His predestinating purpose, knew what was future, as if it had
already taken place. But the present discourse must be kept from the
charge of prolixity: the Lord will give us the opportunity to
discourse at another time on the topics that remain.
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