Sermon 116

SERMO 116

OF THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL LUKE 24, 36-47:
"Jesus stood in the midst of them, and said to them, Peace be with you," and so forth

Christ appeared in the flesh after the resurrection.

The Lord appeared to His disciples after the resurrection, as you have heard, and greeted them, saying: Peace be with you. This is peace, and the greeting of salvation: for the greeting itself derives its name from salvation. But what is better than for salvation itself to greet man? For our salvation is Christ. Indeed, He is our salvation, who was wounded for us, and nailed with nails to the wood; and taken down from the wood, placed in the sepulcher. From the sepulcher, however, He rose, with His wounds healed, and His scars preserved. For He judged it beneficial for His disciples that His scars should be preserved, from which the wounds of their hearts might be healed. Which wounds? The wounds of unbelief. For He appeared to them showing His true flesh to their eyes: and they thought they saw a spirit. This is no small wound of the heart. Finally, they made a malignant heresy, those who remained in this wound. But do we not think that the disciples were wounded, because they were quickly healed? Let your Charity consider, if they had remained in this wound, believing that the buried body had not risen, but that a spirit had deceived human eyes with the image of a body: if they had remained in this faith, or rather in this perfidy, it would not be their wounds, but their death that should be mourned.

The doubt of the disciples.

But what does the Lord Jesus say? Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your heart? If thoughts arise in your heart, thoughts come from the earth. It is good for a man, not that a thought ascends into his heart, but that his very heart ascends upward: where the Apostle wanted to place the hearts of believers, to whom he said: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God: when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. In what glory? Resurrection. In what glory? Hear the Apostle speaking of this body: It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. This glory the Apostles would not dare to give to their Master, their Christ, their Lord: they did not believe he could raise his body from the tomb; they thought he was a spirit, and they saw the flesh, yet they did not believe their own eyes. And we believe them announcing and not showing. Behold, they did not believe Christ himself showing himself. A bad wound: let the remedies of scars come forth. Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, where I was fixed with nails. Touch and see. But you see, and do not see. Touch and see. What? Because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. Saying this (thus it was recited) he showed them his hands and feet.

How Christ convinced the Apostles that He had risen.

And while they were still trembling and marveling with joy. There was already joy, and yet trembling remained. For indeed an incredible thing had been done, but nonetheless done. Now, is it incredible because the flesh of the Lord has risen from the tomb? The whole world has believed this: whoever has not believed, has remained unclean. Then, however, it was incredible: and it was being persuaded not only by sight, but also by touch, so that through the sense of the body faith might descend into the heart, and faith descending into the heart might be preached throughout the world, not by those seeing or touching, and yet believed without doubt. Do you have here, he said, anything to eat? How much does the good builder add to the structure of faith? He was not hungry, and he sought to eat. And he ate by power, not by necessity. Therefore, let the disciples recognize the true body, which the world recognized by their preaching.

Against the Manichaeans who deny that Christ has risen.

If by chance there are some heretics who still hold in their heart that what Christ showed to the eyes was not His true flesh; let them now set that aside, let the Gospel persuade them. We reprove them because they think this: He will condemn them if they persist in thinking this. Who are you, who does not believe that a body laid in a tomb could rise again? Are you a Manichaean? Who does not even believe He was crucified, because you do not believe He was born; you proclaim that all things He showed were false. He showed false things, and you speak the truth? You do not lie with your mouth; but He lied with His body? Behold, you think what appeared to the eyes was not real; it was a spirit, not flesh. Hear Him: He loves you, lest He condemn you. Hear Him saying: behold, He speaks to you, unhappy one; He speaks to you: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your heart? See, He says, My hands and My feet. Handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh as you see I have. This was truth speaking, and was it deceiving? It was a body, it was flesh; what had been buried appeared. Let doubt perish, let worthy praise follow.

Christ was showing Himself as the head, He was promising His body.

He therefore shows himself to the disciples. What is "himself"? The head of his Church. The Church that was to be throughout the world was foreseen by him, not yet seen by the disciples. He was showing the head, promising the body. For what did he add following this? These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. What is this, "while I was still with you"? Was he not then with them, was he not speaking with them? What is "while I was still with you"? With you as a mortal, which I am no longer. I was with you when I was about to die. What is "with you"? With those who were to die, I was to die. Now, no longer with you: because I am never again going to die with those who are to die. So this is what I was saying to you. What?

Because it was necessary that all things which are written about me in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms be fulfilled. I told you, because it was necessary that all things be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding. Come then, Lord, make the keys, open, so that we may understand. Behold, you say all things, and you are not believed. You are thought to be a spirit; you are touched, you are handled, and still those who touch you tremble. You admonish from the Scriptures, and still they do not understand. Hearts are closed, open, and enter. He did it: Then he opened their understanding. Open, Lord, and open the heart of him who doubts about Christ. Open the understanding of him who believes that Christ was a phantom. Then he opened their understanding, so that they might understand the Scriptures.

The Church is promised to all nations.

And he said to them. What? Because thus it was necessary. Because thus it is written, and thus it was necessary. What? For Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day. They saw this; they saw him suffering, they saw him hanging, they saw him present after the resurrection, living. What then did they not see? The body, that is, the Church. They saw him, but they did not see it. They saw the bridegroom, the bride was still hidden. Let him promise her also. Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day. This is the bridegroom.

The Church is promised to be among all peoples.

What of the bride? And it was preached in his name repentance and remission of sins among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. This the disciples did not yet see: the Church among all nations, starting from Jerusalem, they did not yet see. They saw the Head: and they believed about the body connected to the Head. Through what they saw, they believed what they did not see. We also are like them: we see something that they did not see; and we do not see something that they saw. What do we see that they did not see? The Church among all nations. What do we not see that they saw? Christ in the flesh. Just as they saw Him and believed in the body: so we see the body, and let us believe in the Head. Let our visions help each other. Their vision of Christ helps them to believe in the future Church: the vision of the Church helps us to believe that Christ has risen. Their faith has been fulfilled, and ours is being fulfilled: their faith was fulfilled regarding the Head, ours is being fulfilled regarding the body. The whole Christ has been revealed to them, and to us: but the whole is not seen by them, nor is the whole seen by us. The Head was seen by them, the body believed: the body is seen by us, the Head believed. Yet Christ is missing from no one: He is full in all, and the body still remains to Him. They believed, many in Jerusalem believed through them; Judea believed, Samaria believed. Let the members come, let the building approach the foundation. For no one can lay another foundation, says the Apostle, except that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Let the Jews rage, let them be filled with zeal: let Stephen be stoned, let Saul watch over the garments of those who stone him, let Saul become the future Apostle Paul. Let Stephen be killed, let the Jerusalem Church be disturbed: let the burning logs go forth from there, let them come and set on fire. For in a manner of speaking, the logs were burning in the Jerusalem Church with the Holy Spirit, when they had one soul and one heart in God. When Stephen was stoned, that heap endured persecution: the logs were scattered, and the world was ignited.

Saul transformed into a preacher of the Gospel.

Finally, following these things in a rage, Saul received letters from the chief priests and began to go about raging, breathing murders, thirsting for blood, dragging whomsoever he could, and wherever he could, to punishment, to satisfy himself with their blood. But where is God, where is Christ, where is the crowner of Stephen? Where, if not in heaven? He sees Saul and mocks his rage, cries out from heaven: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am in heaven, you are on earth; yet you persecute me. You do not touch the head, but you tread on my members. But what are you doing? What do you gain? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. No matter how many kicks you deliver, you harm yourself. Therefore, abandon your rage, take up health. Abandon your evil plan, seek good help." He was struck down by that voice. Who was struck down? The persecutor. See, he was conquered by a single voice. Where were you going? Why were you raging? Whom were you seeking, now you follow; those whom you were persecuting, now for them you suffer persecution. The preacher rises up, who was struck down a persecutor. He heard the voice of the Lord. He was blinded, but in the body, so that he might be enlightened in heart. Led to Ananias, instructed in many things, baptized, he proceeded as an apostle. Speak, preach: preach Christ, disseminate, good ram, formerly a wolf. Look at him, observe him, who was raging: "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Spread the Gospel: what you conceived in your heart, spread with your mouth. Let the nations hear, let the nations believe: let the nations blossom, let the bride adorned in the blood of the martyrs be born unto the Lord. And how many have approached from her? How many members have adhered and now adhere to the head and believe? These were baptized, others will be baptized, and others will come after us. Then, I say, at the end of the age, stones will join the foundation, living stones, holy stones, so that at the end the whole building may be constructed from that Church; indeed, from this very Church, which now sings a new song, while the house is being built. For thus the Psalm itself says: "When the house was being built after the captivity.” And what? "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." What a great house! But when does it sing the new song? When it is being built. When is it dedicated? At the end of the age. Its foundation has already been dedicated because it ascended to heaven and does not die. When we too shall have risen, that we may never die, then we shall be dedicated.