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Objection 1: It would seem that Christ ought to have lived
constantly with His Disciples, because He appeared to them after
His Resurrection in order to confirm their faith in the
Resurrection, and to bring them comfort in their disturbed state,
according to Jn. 20:20: "The disciples were glad when they saw
the Lord." But they would have been more assured and consoled had
He constantly shown them His presence. Therefore it seems that He
ought to have lived constantly with them.
Objection 2: Further, Christ rising from the dead did not at once
ascend to heaven, but after forty days, as is narrated in Acts
1:3. But meanwhile He could have been in no more suitable place
than where the disciples were met together. Therefore it seems that
He ought to have lived with them continually.
Objection 3: Further, as Augustine says (De Consens. Evang.
iii), we read how Christ appeared five times on the very day of His
Resurrection: first "to the women at the sepulchre; secondly to the
same on the way from the sepulchre; thirdly to Peter; fourthly to the
two disciples going to the town; fifthly to several of them in
Jerusalem when Thomas was not present." Therefore it also seems
that He ought to have appeared several times on the other days before
the Ascension.
Objection 4: Further, our Lord had said to them before the
Passion (Mt. 26:32): "But after I shall be risen again,
I will go before you into Galilee"; moreover an angel and our Lord
Himself repeated the same to the women after the Resurrection:
nevertheless He was seen by them in Jerusalem on the very day of the
Resurrection, as stated above (Objection 3); also on the eighth
day, as we read in Jn. 20:26. It seems, therefore, that He
did not live with the disciples in a fitting way after the
Resurrection.
On the contrary, It is written (Jn. 20:26) that "after
eight days" Christ appeared to the disciples. Therefore He did not
live constantly with them.
I answer that, Concerning the Resurrection two things had to be
manifested to the disciples, namely, the truth of the Resurrection,
and the glory of Him who rose. Now in order to manifest the truth of
the Resurrection, it sufficed for Him to appear several times before
them, to speak familiarly to them, to eat and drink, and let them
touch Him. But in order to manifest the glory of the risen Christ,
He was not desirous of living with them constantly as He had done
before, lest it might seem that He rose unto the same life as before.
Hence (Lk. 24:44) He said to them: "These are the words
which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you." For He was there
with them by His bodily presence, but hitherto He had been with them
not merely by His bodily presence, but also in mortal semblance.
Hence Bede in explaining those words of Luke, "while I was with
you," says: "that is, while I was still in mortal flesh, in which
you are yet: for He had then risen in the same flesh, but was not in
the same state of mortality as they."
Reply to Objection 1: Christ's frequent appearing served to assure
the disciples of the truth of the Resurrection; but continual
intercourse might have led them into the error of believing that He had
risen to the same life as was His before. Yet by His constant
presence He promised them comfort in another life, according to Jn.
16:22: "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice;
and your joy no man shall take from you."
Reply to Objection 2: That Christ did not stay continually with
the disciples was not because He deemed it more expedient for Him to
be elsewhere: but because He judged it to be more suitable for the
apostles' instruction that He should not abide continually with them,
for the reason given above. But it is quite unknown in what places He
was bodily present in the meantime, since Scripture is silent, and
His dominion is in every place (Cf. Ps. 102:22).
Reply to Objection 3: He appeared oftener on the first day,
because the disciples were to be admonished by many proofs to accept the
faith in His Resurrection from the very out set: but after they had
once accepted it, they had no further need of being instructed by so
many apparitions. Accordingly one reads in the Gospel that after the
first day He appeared again only five times. For, as Augustine says
(De Consens. Evang. iii), after the first five apparitions "He
came again a sixth time when Thomas saw Him; a seventh time was by
the sea of Tiberias at the capture of the fishes; the eighth was on
the mountain of Galilee, according to Matthew; the ninth occasion is
expressed by Mark, 'at length when they were at table,' because no
more were they going to eat with Him upon earth; the tenth was on the
very day, when no longer upon the earth, but uplifted into the cloud,
He was ascending into heaven. But, as John admits, not all things
were written down. And He visited them frequently before He went up
to heaven," in order to comfort them. Hence it is written (1
Cor. 15:6,7) that "He was seen by more than five hundred
brethren at once . . . after that He was seen by James"; of which
apparitions no mention is made in the Gospels.
Reply to Objection 4: Chrysostom in explaining Mt.
26:32---"after I shall be risen again, I will go before you
into Galilee," says (Hom. lxxxiii in Matth.), "He goes not
to some far off region in order to appear to them, but among His own
people, and in those very places" in which for the most part they had
lived with Him; "in order that they might thereby believe that He
who was crucified was the same as He who rose again." And on this
account "He said that He would go into Galilee, that they might be
delivered from fear of the Jews."
Consequently, as Ambrose says (Expos. in Luc.), "The Lord
had sent word to the disciples that they were to see Him in Galilee;
yet He showed Himself first to them when they were assembled together
in the room out of fear. (Nor is there any breaking of a promise
here, but rather a hastened fulfilling out of kindness)" [Catena
Aurea in Luc. xxiv, 36]: "afterwards, however, when their
minds were comforted, they went into Galilee. Nor is there any
reason to prevent us from supposing that there were few in the room,
and many more on the mountain." For, as Eusebius [Of Caesarea;
Cf. Migne, P. G., xxii, 1003] says, "Two
Evangelists, Luke and John, write that He appeared in Jerusalem
to the eleven only; but the other two said that an angel and our
Saviour commanded not merely the eleven, but all the disciples and
brethren, to go into Galilee. Paul makes mention of them when he
says (1 Cor. 15:6): 'Then He appeared to more then five
hundred brethren at once.'" The truer solution, however, is this,
that while they were in hiding in Jerusalem He appeared to them at
first in order to comfort them; but in Galilee it was not secretly,
nor once or twice, that He made Himself known to them with great
power, "showing Himself to them alive after His Passion, by many
proofs," as Luke says (Acts 1:3). Or as Augustine writes
(De Consens. Evang. iii): "What was said by the angel and by
our Lord---that He would 'go before them into Galilee,' must be
taken prophetically. For if we take Galilee as meaning 'a
passing,' we must understand that they were going to pass from the
people of Israel to the Gentiles, who would not believe in the
preaching of the apostles unless He prepared the way for them in men's
hearts: and this is signified by the words 'He shall go before you
into Galilee.' But if by Galilee we understand 'revelation,' we
are to understand this as applying to Him not in the form of a
servant, but in that form wherein He is equal to the Father, and
which He has promised to them that love Him. Although He has gone
before us in this sense, He has not abandoned us."
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