Cornelius a Lapide

John XX

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

Christ, rising from the sepulchre, appears first to Magdalene in the guise of a gardener; second, at verse 19, to the ten Apostles, and breathing on them He gives them the Holy Spirit and the power of forgiving sins; finally, at verse 26, He appears again to the same and to Thomas, and offers His wounds to him to be touched.

Vulgate Text: John 20:1-31

1. And on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early, while it was yet dark, to the sepulchre; and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2. She ran therefore, and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them: They have taken the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we do not know where they have laid Him. 3. Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre. 4. And they both ran together, and that other disciple outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5. And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; yet he did not go in. 6. Then came Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying, 7. and the napkin that had been about His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped up separately in one place. 8. Then therefore that other disciple also, who came first to the sepulchre, went in, and saw, and believed: 9. for as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10. The disciples therefore departed again to their own home. 11. But Mary stood at the sepulchre outside, weeping. Now as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre: 12. and she saw two angels in white, sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid. 13. They said to her: Woman, why do you weep? She said to them: Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. 14. When she had said this, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing: and she did not know that it was Jesus. 15. Jesus said to her: Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She, thinking He was the gardener, said to Him: Sir, if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away. 16. Jesus said to her: Mary. She, turning, said to Him: Rabboni (which is to say, Master). 17. Jesus said to her: Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren and say to them: I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God. 18. Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples: I have seen the Lord, and these things He said to me. 19. Now when it was late that same day, the first 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, and said to them: Peace be to you. 20. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. 21. He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. 22. When He had said this, He breathed on them; and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Spirit: 23. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose you shall retain, they are retained. 24. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to 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. 26. And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. 27. Then He saith 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 faithless, but believing. 28. Thomas answered, and said to Him: My Lord, and my God. 29. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. 30. Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 31. 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.

Verse 1: On the First Day of the Week, Mary Magdalene Came Early, While It Was Yet Dark

1. ON THE FIRST (that is, on the first day) OF THE WEEK, — that is, after the Sabbath; or "of the sabbath," that is, of the week (for the week is called "sabbath" from its principal day), namely on the Lord's Day, or the day of Easter, on which Christ rose again. See what is said on Matt. XXVIII, 4.

Mary Magdalene came — with her companions, whom Matthew, Mark, and Luke name; but here she alone is named, because she was the leader of the others, more fervent and active than all.

WHEN IT WAS YET DARK — mixed with the rising light, that is, at dawn, or "in the deep daybreak," as Luke says. Note here the diligence, watchfulness, and ardor of St. Magdalene. At dawn she seeks Christ, and hence she first deserved to see Him as the rising sun. Hear St. Ambrose on the title of Psalm LV, "For the morning reception": "This morning reception," he says, "we can ascribe to Mary Magdalene, who, watching early and at daybreak at the sepulchre, first received the resurrection of the Lord her Savior; and as the sun of the world grew bright, she alone before all others knew the rising of the Sun of Justice, and by this morning reception rejoiced that the day was restored; but she rejoiced more that Christ was raised from the dead; and in her was fulfilled the prophecy: Weeping shall endure for the evening, and in the morning gladness."

TO THE SEPULCHRE, — in order to anoint the buried Jesus, says Nonnus.

AND SAW THE STONE TAKEN AWAY — and also the angels saying that Christ had risen; but Mary did not believe this nor understand it; and hence, hurrying and breathless, running back to Peter and John, she said: "They have taken away my Lord," that is, the body of Jesus my Lord has been taken from the sepulchre; I know not by whom, nor where it has been laid. See the order and sequence of the whole event, which I have set out on Matt. XXVIII, 8. Aptly St. Jerome, epistle 150 to Hedibia: "The error of the woman," he says, "was joined with piety: piety in this, that she longed for Him whose majesty she knew; error in this, that she said: They have taken Him away," etc.

Verse 2: She Ran Therefore, and Came to Simon Peter, and to the Other Disciple Whom Jesus Loved

2. SHE RAN THEREFORE, AND COMETH TO SIMON PETER (as to the first of the Apostles, and one already designated by Christ as their vicar and successor, Matt. XVI), AND TO THE OTHER DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED, — to John, whom she knew to be loved by Christ above the others, and therefore to be more diligent in searching out the body of Christ, which she had found to have been already taken out of the sepulchre; especially since she had seen John standing with her at the cross, and therefore one who would be more concerned to care for and to seek out the body of Christ.

Verse 4: And They Both Ran Together, and That Other Disciple Outran Peter

4. AND THEY BOTH RAN TOGETHER. — Those who loved beyond the others also ran beyond the others, says St. Gregory.

DID OUTRUN (him) — because he was younger, nimbler, and more eager to see the body of Christ, which a little before he had seen so disfigured on the cross.

Verse 5: And When He Stooped Down, He Saw the Linen Cloths Lying; Yet He Did Not Go In

5. And when he had stooped down (to look into the sepulchre), HE SAW THE LINEN CLOTHS LYING (that is, the shroud in which the body of Jesus had been wrapped in the sepulchre), BUT YET HE WENT NOT IN, — showing reverence to Peter as the elder and worthier, so that he might enter first, says Lyranus; or hindered by fear, and seized by a certain sacred awe of the body of Christ buried there.

Verse 6: Then Came Simon Peter Following Him, and Went into the Sepulchre

6. THEN COMETH SIMON PETER, FOLLOWING HIM, AND WENT INTO THE SEPULCHRE. — Peter, says Chrysostom, as being fervent, goes in and diligently inspects everything; for by then the soldiers who were the guards of the tomb, having seen the angel and the earthquake, had been struck down and fled and hidden themselves. So St. Jerome, Question VI to Hedibia.

Verse 7: And the Napkin That Had Been About His Head, Not Lying With the Linen Cloths, But Wrapped Up Separately

7. AND HE SAW THE LINEN CLOTHS LYING, AND THE NAPKIN THAT HAD BEEN ABOUT HIS HEAD (covering His face, as is customarily done for the dead for the sake of decency), NOT LYING WITH THE LINEN CLOTHS, BUT APART, WRAPPED UP INTO ONE PLACE. — "This was a sign of the resurrection," says Chrysostom; "for if they had carried away the body, they would not have stripped it; nor, if they had stolen it, would they have been so concerned about this as to wrap up the napkin and put it aside. Therefore John premised that He had been buried with myrrh, which binds the linen cloths to the body, so that you would not be deceived by those saying He had been carried off by theft; for what thief would labor so much over a superfluous matter?"

Verse 8: Then Therefore That Other Disciple Also Went In, and Saw, and Believed

8. Then went in also that other disciple, who HAD COME FIRST TO THE SEPULCHRE. — Mystically St. Gregory, homily 22, takes Peter to stand for the Synagogue of the Jews, and John for the Church of Christians, as if to say: "The Synagogue came first to the sepulchre, but did not enter, because it received indeed the precepts of the law and the prophecies concerning the Passion of the Lord, but would not believe in Him as dead; the Church of the Gentiles, following afterwards, believed in Jesus Christ the Mediator of God and men, and recognized Him as dead in the flesh, and believed Him to be the living God."

Tropologically Toletus says: By John all Christians are signified; by Peter, the Pontiffs, the vicars of Christ. Peter enters first, because in dignity the vicar of Christ excels all Christians; but John arrives later, because it can happen that he who is first in dignity may be later in merit and holiness.

AND HE SAW, AND BELIEVED — both, that is, Peter and John; "believed," I say, not that Christ had risen, but that Mary had spoken the truth, namely that the body of Christ had been taken out of the sepulchre; so St. Augustine, Theophylact, and Jansen. Cyril, Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Gregory of Nyssa in his oration On the Resurrection add that both believed that Christ had risen. It is plainer and truer that these words refer only to John, not to Peter, as if to say: John, having seen the linen cloths and the napkin wrapped up separately, remembered that Christ had foretold that He would rise on the third day; wherefore, comparing Christ's prediction with these signs, he believed that He had risen. But Peter, on account of the novelty of the resurrection and his great desire to see Christ alive again, believed it more slowly. Hence significantly the angel says to the women: "Tell His disciples and Peter," Mark XVI, 7.

Verse 9: For As Yet They Knew Not the Scripture, That He Must Rise Again From the Dead

9. FOR AS YET THEY KNEW NOT THE SCRIPTURE, THAT HE MUST RISE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD. — Refer these words to "believed" in verse 8, as if to say: Then for the first time John believed that Christ had risen, since before then neither he nor the other Apostles had believed it, because they did not yet understand the Scriptures which had foretold that He would rise. For although Christ had repeatedly assured them that He would rise again, yet because of the novelty and greatness of the matter they did not grasp it, but thought Christ was speaking figuratively and in parables, as He was accustomed to do.

Verse 10: The Disciples Therefore Departed Again to Their Own Home

10. THE DISCIPLES THEREFORE DEPARTED AGAIN TO THEIR HOME. — The Arabic and Syriac have, "to their own place," as if to say: Peter and John, having seen the empty sepulchre of Christ, returned home, Peter marveling and John believing that He had risen; Mary alone remaining at the sepulchre, that she might more surely learn something about the body of her beloved Christ. So St. Augustine, Tractate 121. "Whence it came about that she alone then saw Him, because she had remained to seek Him; for surely perseverance is the virtue of a good work," says St. Gregory, homily 23.

Verse 11: But Mary Stood at the Sepulchre Without, Weeping

11. BUT MARY STOOD AT THE SEPULCHRE WITHOUT, WEEPING, — because she anxiously sought everywhere the body of Jesus, with whose love she burned; and she was as it were intoxicated, and could not find Him, and therefore she wept sorrowfully. St. Augustine adds: "The eyes that had sought the Lord and had not found Him, gave themselves to tears, grieving more that He had been taken from the sepulchre than that He had been slain on the wood: because of so great a Master, whose life had been taken away, not even the memory remained."

NOW AS SHE WAS WEEPING, SHE STOOPED DOWN, AND LOOKED INTO THE SEPULCHRE. — For although she had already looked in before and had seen the sepulchre empty, the body having been taken away, she looked again and again. For, as St. Gregory says, homily 25: "For one who loves, it is not enough to have looked once, because the power of love multiplies the intensity of the search; she persevered in order to seek; hence it also came about that she found; and it was so done, that her deferred desires grew, and, growing, took hold of what she had found."

Verse 12: And She Saw Two Angels in White, Sitting, One at the Head and One at the Feet

12. AND SHE SAW TWO ANGELS IN WHITE, SITTING, ONE AT THE HEAD, AND ONE AT THE FEET, WHERE THE BODY OF JESUS HAD BEEN LAID. — All these things, namely the angels, the white garments, the sitting posture, are symbols of the resurrection and glory of Christ, and they prepare Mary's mind to believe in it. Moreover, one sits at the head, the other at the feet of Christ, to signify that both the feet and the head, and the members between, that is, the whole body of Christ, had risen again; and that by putting on the state of the angels, immortality and glory through the resurrection, He had passed over into the fellowship of the angels, and therefore had left these two angels in the sepulchre as it were as guards, to announce this same thing to Mary.

Mystically Origen says: The angel at the feet represents the active life; the angel at the head, the contemplative life. For both are from Jesus, about Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus.

Verse 13: They Say to Her: Woman, Why Weepest Thou?

13. THEY SAY TO HER: WOMAN, WHY WEEPEST THOU? — as if to say: There is no place now for weeping, but for laughing and rejoicing, because you see here no dead body of your beloved; for from this you ought to conclude that your Jesus has risen, and is now not among the dead, but among the living; nay, among the glorious angels, such as we ourselves are, living a blessed and heavenly life.

SHE SAITH TO THEM: BECAUSE THEY HAVE TAKEN AWAY MY LORD, AND I KNOW NOT WHERE THEY HAVE LAID HIM, — as if to say: I weep for three reasons: first, for the unworthy slaughter and death of my Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, for His body which has been taken away from the sepulchre: for if I could see it, I would kiss it, weep over it, anoint it, and thus somewhat ease my sorrow; thirdly, because I know not whither they have carried Him, nor where I may seek Him. For if I knew that, I would run to Him at once and embrace and kiss Him. See here how Jesus allows the souls of those who love Him to remain for a time in the darkness of ignorance, so that He may sharpen and kindle their desire for Him, and then, when it is sharpened and kindled, may console and gladden them by the full revelation of Himself.

Verse 14: When She Had Said This, She Turned Herself Back, and Saw Jesus Standing

14. WHEN SHE HAD SAID THIS, SHE TURNED HERSELF BACK, AND SAW JESUS STANDING; AND SHE KNEW NOT THAT IT WAS Jesus. — Note: Christ appeared behind Mary's back, in such a way that the angels, looking upon Him, rose up and bowed their heads to Him and showed Him other signs of reverence and adoration; and this was the occasion, or cause, why Mary turned herself back, to see who He was whom the angels so reverently saluted. So St. Chrysostom, homily 83, and St. Athanasius, or whoever is the author, Question LXXVIII to Antiochus. Others think that Christ stirred up a noise behind Mary with His feet, so that she would turn back toward the Christ who was making the noise.

And she saw Jesus. — Without doubt she who burned more than the others was the first to deserve the joys.

AND SHE KNEW NOT THAT IT WAS JESUS, — because He appeared to her under another form, namely that of a gardener, as He appeared to those going to Emmaus under the form of a pilgrim. For glorified bodies can appear in whatever form and shape they wish, and they do this not by changing the actual figure and form of their countenance, but by hindering this figure of the countenance from casting its entire likeness to the eye of the beholder, so that only a broken, halved, and distracted image is cast. Christ did this in order not to overwhelm her at the first sight, says Chrysostom. Again, because she burned with love of Jesus, Jesus appears to her; but because she did not believe that Jesus was alive, as the angels had told her, therefore Jesus hid Himself from her somewhat, and appeared outwardly such as He was within her own heart. So St. Gregory, homily 23, speaking of the disciples going to Emmaus, to whom Christ appeared as a pilgrim.

Verse 15: Jesus Saith to Her: Woman, Why Weepest Thou? Whom Seekest Thou?

15. JESUS SAITH TO HER: WOMAN, WHY WEEPEST THOU? WHOM SEEKEST THOU? — Hear St. Ambrose, in Book III De Virginibus, weighing each word distinctly: "Woman, why weepest thou? He who does not believe is a woman; for he who believes rises up into a perfect man, into the measure of the fullness of the age of Christ. Woman, he says, is a rebuke not of the sex but of the hesitation; and rightly she is called 'woman' who wavered, because the Virgin had already believed. Why weepest thou? that is, you yourself are the cause of your weeping, you who are unbelieving toward Christ. You weep because you do not see Christ believe, and you shall see: Christ is present, and never is He lacking to those by whom He is sought; there is no need of tears, but of ready faith worthy of God: do not think of mortal things, and you will not weep; do not think of perishable things, and you will not be able to have a cause for weeping. Surely, you weep for that for which others rejoice. Whom seekest thou? do you not see that Christ is present?"

Origen wrote a remarkable homily, full of pious affections, about Magdalene, in which among other things he says: "Love made her stand and grief made her weep. She stood and looked around, to see if by chance she might see the one she loved. She wept indeed, because she thought that the one she sought had been taken away. Her grief was renewed, for before she had grieved for Him as dead, and now she grieved for Him as taken away. And this grief was the greater, because she had no consolation."

And after a few intervening remarks, he opens the source of her grief, saying: "Peter and John were afraid, and therefore did not stand by. But Mary was not afraid, because she suspected nothing remained to her that she should have to fear. For she had lost her Master, whom she loved so singularly that beyond Him she could love nothing, hope for nothing. She had lost the life of her soul, and already thought it would be better for her to die than to live, because perhaps in dying she might find Him whom she could not find while living, without whom, however, she was not able to live. Love is strong as death. What else indeed would death do to Mary? She had become lifeless, had become insensible: feeling, she did not feel; seeing, she did not see; hearing, she did not hear; nor was she even there where she was, because she was wholly there where her Master was; yet where He was she did not know. I do not seek angels, because they can increase my grief, not destroy it, but the Lord of me and of the angels."

And after many things, which he interweaves with holy affections glowing for this subject, he adds: "Distresses are upon me on every side, and I know not what to choose. If I remain beside the sepulchre, I do not find Him; if I depart from the sepulchre, I do not know, unhappy that I am, whither I shall go, nor where I shall seek Him. To depart from the sepulchre is death to me; to stand at the sepulchre is an incurable grief. Yet it is better for me to guard the sepulchre of the Lord than to go farther from it. For if I go farther away, perhaps when I return I shall find Him taken away and the sepulchre destroyed. I shall therefore stand here, and die here, that at least I may be buried beside the sepulchre of my Lord. Return, return, my beloved; return, beloved of my desires."

Finally he adds these words: "Sweet Master, why, I pray, do You stir up the spirit of this woman? why do You trouble her soul? Wholly she hangs upon You, wholly she abides in You, wholly she hopes in You, and wholly she despairs of herself. She so seeks You that, seeking, she seeks nothing else, thinks nothing besides You. And therefore perhaps she does not recognize You, because she is not in herself, but for Your sake is outside herself. Why then do You say: Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?"

SHE, THINKING IT WAS THE GARDENER (of the garden in which was the sepulchre of Jesus), SAITH TO HIM. — Not that Jesus appeared holding a hoe or a mattock in His hand; but, as Theophylact and Euthymius say, "from His common and humbler dress, and because He was in the garden, she reckoned Him to be a gardener (for she seems to have known nothing of the presence of the hidden soldiers); " and He appeared, as is likely, without a cloak, as if He were at home. She knew that Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the garden, did not live there; she therefore supposed Him to be the one who had the care of cultivating and guarding the garden. So Franciscus Lucas.

Origen continues: "O Mary, if you seek Jesus, why do you not recognize Jesus? And if you recognize Jesus, why do you seek Jesus? Behold, Jesus comes to you, and He whom you seek, seeks you: Woman, why weepest thou? And you suppose Him to be the gardener, so as not to recognize Him. And indeed Jesus is also a gardener, because He Himself sows every good seed in the garden of your soul and in the hearts of His faithful servants." Hence St. Gregory, homily 25: "Was He not," he says, "a gardener to her, who planted in her breast, through the seeds of His love, the virtues flourishing green?"

SIR, IF THOU HAST TAKEN HIM HENCE, TELL ME WHERE THOU HAST LAID HIM; AND I WILL TAKE HIM AWAY. — "Him." Whom? For she does not name Him, but she means Jesus, with whom she was full. So St. Thomas and others, who say that this is characteristic of those who love vehemently, namely that they think others also are thinking about Him whom they themselves have in mind. Although it may have been possible that, seeing Him near her, she thought that He had understood what she herself had answered to the angels: "Because they have taken away my Lord," which Chrysostom seems to suggest.

Hear Origen: "So great a grief had seized her over Your death, that she could not think about Your life and resurrection. Finally, Joseph laid Your body in the sepulchre: Mary likewise buried her own spirit there, and so indissolubly joined it and in a certain way united it with Your body, that she could more easily separate the soul that vivified herself from her own vivified body than separate her spirit that loved You from Your dead body. For the spirit of Mary was more in Your body than in her own body: and when she sought Your body, she was likewise seeking her own spirit; and when she lost Your body, she lost with it her own spirit. What wonder therefore if she, who had lost her spirit, had no sense? What wonder if she did not know You, she who did not have the spirit by which she ought to have known? Give her back therefore her spirit, which Your body holds within itself, and she will soon recover her sense and leave her error behind."

AND I WILL TAKE HIM AWAY. — What if He is in the court of the prince of the priests? "I will take Him away." What if in the house of Pilate? "I will take Him away": because love conquers all things, and considers all things, even the impossible, to be possible for itself, nay, easy. So Origen and Chrysostom; although St. Jerome, Question V to Hedibia, thinks these words to be those of ignorance and inconsideration.

Verse 16: Jesus Saith to Her: Mary. She Turning, Saith to Him: Rabboni

16. JESUS SAITH TO HER: MARY. SHE TURNING, SAITH to Him: Rabboni (which is to say, Master). — He called her not only by her proper name, but also by the sound, sweetness, grace, and efficacy of voice with which He was accustomed to call her in His lifetime; and therefrom she immediately recognized Christ. Hence, marveling at Christ's condescension, Origen exclaims: "O change wrought by the right hand of the Most High! Great grief was turned into great joy; the tears of grief were changed into tears of love. When Mary heard: Mary (for thus her Master was accustomed to call her), she perceived in the name a certain singular sweetness of calling, and through it she recognized Him by whom she was called to be her Master. Then her spirit revived and her sense returned. And when Jesus wished to add still more, Mary could not patiently wait, but from excess of joy interrupted Him, saying: Rabboni; for she did not think she needed words, she who had found the Word, and she thought it far more useful to touch the Word than to hear any words whatsoever. O strong and impatient love! It did not suffice her to see Jesus and to speak with Jesus, unless she also touched Jesus; for she knew that virtue went out from Him and healed all."

SHE TURNING, SAITH TO HIM: RABBONI, WHICH IS (being interpreted) Master. — "She turning": because, when Jesus delayed to answer, she had turned her face away from Jesus to the angels, as if to ask them who this gardener speaking with her was, and why they had risen up before Him and saluted Him so reverently; but hearing herself called by Jesus by her name "Mary," and recognizing Jesus by His voice, at once, seized with joy, she turned her face and her whole self back toward Him. The voice therefore of the Shepherd, penetrating into the ears and the mind of the little sheep, soon opens her eyes to her, and with a hidden power and its accustomed sweetness soothes, stirs, and snatches away all her senses, so that, intoxicated with unhoped-for and unutterable joy, she says: "Rabboni," that is, my Master, behold I, Your disciple, Your spiritual daughter, give myself wholly to You; in You, alive again, I live once more, I exult and rejoice. So Cyril, Chrysostom, and others. Wherefore, cast down on her knees, she reverently, after her custom, sought to touch and kiss and caress not His head but His feet: just as the Shunammite held the feet of the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings (4 Kings) IV, 27. This is clear from the fact that Christ, forbidding this, adds (what follows).

RABBONI, — that is, my Master; but the "my" John did not add, because in Greek it is not usually added, as it is added in Hebrew and Syriac, where it coalesces with "Rabboni," that is, Master, into one and the same word. So Franciscus Lucas. Hence John as well as the Latin, Syriac, and Arabic translate it simply "Master," omitting the "my." "Rabboni" therefore, and in Chaldee Ribboni, is the same as Rab and Rabbi, where the final yod can be taken either as a heemantic letter or as a suffixed pronoun meaning "my." Caninus adds, in Hebrew Names, chapter VI, that Rabboni signifies master, lord, prince, and is a more august name than Rabbi. Hence it was attributed to the glorified Christ by Magdalene only after the resurrection, since before that Christ was called merely Rabbi, John 4.

Verse 17: Touch Me Not, For I Have Not Yet Ascended to My Father

17. JESUS SAITH TO HER: TOUCH ME NOT, FOR I HAVE NOT YET ASCENDED TO MY FATHER: BUT GO TO MY BRETHREN, AND SAY TO THEM: I ASCEND TO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER, TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.

This passage is difficult, and its connection is more difficult still. For what reason is indicated here, when He says: "Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father?"

First, St. Augustine, tract. 121, explains and connects it thus, as if to say: Touch Me not, because thou art not yet worthy of touching Me; for I have not yet ascended to the Father in thy heart, because thou dost not yet perfectly believe that I am the Son of God and ascend to God the Father. St. Jerome says much the same, Quaestio V to Hedibia. But this seems mystical rather than literal; just as is that remark of St. Leo who, in Sermon 2 On the Ascension, explains it thus: "Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to My Father: that is, I will not that thou come to Me bodily, nor that thou recognize Me by the sense of the flesh. I defer thee to higher things, I prepare greater things for thee: when I shall have ascended to the Father, then thou wilt touch Me more perfectly and truly, apprehending what thou touchest not and believing what thou seest not."

Secondly, Cyril, Book XII, Chapter L, says: He forbade His own being touched, signifying that no one ought to approach His glorious body — now also in the sacrament of the Eucharist — to touch and receive it, unless first having received the Holy Spirit, whom He had not yet sent here, but sent 50 days afterward at Pentecost. But by this reasoning neither the other women, nor Thomas, nor the rest could have touched Christ after the resurrection: which however they did.

Thirdly, St. Chrysostom (Homily 85), Theophylact and Euthymius say that Christ forbade Mary Magdalene to touch Him because He wished to be touched by her more reverently than before, inasmuch as He was now risen again, immortal, heavenly and glorious, who would no longer dwell with men but with the Angels and the Blessed. But it does not appear how Mary Magdalene, who was supremely loving and likewise reverent toward Christ, could have failed in this reverence: for she revered Him not now as mortal, but as immortal and glorious. And besides, what has this to do with: "For I have not yet ascended to the Father"?

Fourthly, Justin, in Questions Proposed by Gentiles, Question XLVIII, and from him Toletus, Francis Lucas and others explain it thus, as if to say: Touch Me not: for I am now heavenly, not earthly: for although I have not yet ascended to heaven, yet I shall shortly ascend thither; I wish namely to draw thee and others gradually away from My accustomed presence and converse. But hear Justin: "The saying: Touch Me not, was spoken to Mary by the Saviour in this sense: Do not follow Me so as to be always with Me in that manner as before I was led to the cross. For He wished gradually and step by step to wean the disciples from the custom of seeing and being in the presence of His body. And so He was not always seen by the disciples in the days when He dwelt with them on earth after the resurrection, nor did He altogether render Himself invisible to them; but He did both with intervals of time and space, so that He might be seen by them and not seen." But this exposition is obscure, and is forced to supply much, and it inverts "for I have not yet ascended" into "for although I have not yet ascended, yet I shall shortly ascend."

Fifthly therefore, expound it more connectedly and genuinely, so as to explain "Touch Me not" of an act altogether completed. For Mary Magdalene, wholly devoted to Christ, when she saw that He had risen, being filled with ineffable joy, fell at His feet and wished to cling there, nor could she be satisfied with kissing them. Wherefore Christ forbids her and bids her not to linger there, but to announce His resurrection to the sorrowing Apostles. The sense therefore is, as if He said: "Touch Me not," that is, do not linger any longer in this touching of Me, do not be too long in kissing My feet; for thou shalt have leave to do this many times hereafter, "for I have not yet ascended:" it is a Hebraism, that is, for I am not yet ascending, or I will not ascend to heaven so soon, but I shall yet dwell on earth 40 days, and shall show Myself to you to be seen and touched. Therefore hasten to the other women, who coming from the tomb after Peter and John, are returning to their homes in Jerusalem, and go with them at once to My brethren the Apostles, grieving at My death, and tell them that I have risen and shall shortly ascend to heaven; but first am to be seen and saluted by them, that thou mayest take away their sorrow and fill them with the greatest joy: for often the words of the Hebrews signify an act not begun but continuing and completed, as I have shown elsewhere. Thus Vatablus, Emmanuel Sa, Suarez (Part III, disp. XLIX, sect. 3), Dominicus Bannes (Part I, Quaest. I, art. 10, doubt 6) explain this place, where he says this is the common opinion of more recent writers.

So also Ribera here: Mary Magdalene knew, he says, that Christ was to ascend into heaven, and that afterwards she would not enjoy the sight of Him, and therefore she did not wish to let slip the opportunity given her of touching Christ. But Christ said to her: "Touch Me not," as if to say: Thou shalt yet have time to touch Me and speak with Me; for I am still on earth, I have not yet ascended into heaven. Therefore do not linger here, but cause My Apostles to share in the joy which thou enjoyest. For it is not right that thou shouldst abide alone in this supreme joy of My resurrection, while My Apostles pine away in sorrow. Whence afterwards Christ permitted Himself to be touched by her and her companions, saying: "Hail," and they came up and held His feet, Matthew chap. XXVIII, verse 9, because they were already on the way to announce to the Apostles that Christ had risen.

Moreover Christ, saying: "Touch Me not," touched Mary Magdalene's forehead with His fingers and impressed their marks upon it. Hear Sylvester Prierias in Surius, in the Life of St. Mary Magdalene: When in the year of the Lord 1497, for the sake of devotion, I had visited the cave in which Blessed Mary Magdalene did penance, and her sacred relics at St. Maximinus, her sacred and venerable head was shown to me several times, very large and wholly stripped bare down to the bone, except for that part of the forehead which we said the Saviour of all had touched: for there the skin clearly appears like that of an Ethiopian woman, and in the skin are two hollows of the ends of two fingers: one of which is much more evident and deeper than the other, and beneath the skin the flesh inclines toward whiteness.

Secondly, St. Epiphanius (Heresy 26) gives a moral reason, that Christ, in order to give us an example of the purest and most perfect chastity, did not wish to allow Mary Magdalene, as being a woman, alone to touch Him alone; but shortly afterwards He permitted it in the presence of the other women. Whence St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Martin, St. Chrysostom, St. Charles Borromeo and very many others followed this example of Christ, and never wished to speak with women except in the presence of others, so that they might have witnesses of their integrity.

Thirdly, Rupert gives an allegorical reason: Mary, he says, here bore the type of the Church to be called and gathered from among the Gentiles, which was to come to Christ after His ascension not by bodily contact, as the Jews, but by spiritual, that is by faith: on which subject Chrysologus has much to say in Sermons 75 and following.

Finally, it is very probable as St. Augustine teaches (On the Harmony of the Gospels, Book III, ch. XXIV), together with Theophylact and Euthymius (on the last chapter of Matthew), and St. Jerome (Epistle 150 to Hedibia, Quaestio V), namely that Mary Magdalene, having seen Christ here, after His speech to her and His disappearing, hastened and quickened her pace, and caught up with her companion women, who, following Peter and John on their return, were going home: for they, being sad, doubtful and wavering as to what had happened to the body of Christ, were walking slowly and tardily. Mary Magdalene then, hastening, caught up with them, and there saw Christ again, appearing to all, adored Him and touched His feet; and this Matthew sufficiently implies in the last chapter, verse 9, even though Toletus denies it.

Tropologically, learn here that it is more pleasing to Christ that one should assist those in mourning or afflicted with grave sorrow, anguish, pain and distress, than oneself; so much so that one should postpone even the sermon and Mass on a feast day for the help of the sick or afflicted, when necessity and piety or charity so demand, according to that: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice," Hosea VI, 6, and Matt. IX, 13. See what is said there.

Symbolically, St. Bernard, Sermon 3 on the Feast of All Saints: "Touch Me not, He says, for I have not yet ascended to My Father: it is a word of glory. For a wise son is the glory of the father. Do not therefore, says glory, touch Me. Do not meanwhile seek glory; rather flee it, and see thou touch Me not at all, until we come to the Father, where all glorying is now secure."

BUT GO TO MY BRETHREN. — Christ calls the Apostles brethren out of pure and wonderful condescension, since He is their Head, Lord and Prince, not only as God, but also as man: namely because all men are brethren by reason of human nature, which they drew in common from the first parent Adam, and because they are sons of the same God the Father by grace. But properly so, because they were Apostles: for the Apostles were brethren among themselves; and Christ was an Apostle, that is, one sent from the Father, dispatched into the world for the preaching of the Gospel, in which He associated Peter, John and the rest with Himself as brethren. Thus the Pope calls the Cardinals and Bishops brothers, although he is their Superior and Hierarch. Christ says this to encourage the Apostles, fainthearted because of their flight, and to lift them into hope, as if to say: Though they deserted Me in My passion, yet I do not desert them, but love them as brethren; nay, for this very reason in rising I took up human flesh again, that I might show Myself their brother, according to that: "The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things," Ecclesiasticus III.

AND SAY TO THEM: I ASCEND TO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER, TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD. — As if to say: Tell the Apostles to remember what I said to them before My passion, namely that after a few days I shall ascend into heaven to God the Father. But He says, "My Father and your Father": "Mine by nature," says St. Augustine, "yours by grace," to show that He is their brother, inasmuch as He has God as Father in common with them, but here as natural Father to Himself, as adoptive to them. So St. Ambrose (Book III On Virginity). Moreover St. Hilary (Book XI On the Trinity): "He is Father to Him, as to the rest, on that side by which He is man; and God to Him, as to all, from that nature by which He is servant. Whence He says: Go to My brethren; for the only-begotten God is without brothers." More plainly thou mayest say that Christ calls Him "Father" and at the same time "God," so that by "My Father" He shows His divine nature, and by "My God" the human nature assumed by Him, and that He is Himself both true God and true man. So St. Ambrose in the place cited, according to that passage of Hebrews II: "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare Thy name unto My brethren."

The sense therefore is, as if He said: Tell the Apostles to lay aside fear and sorrow: for I have now risen from the dead and love them as brothers, and therefore I shall soon ascend to heaven to prepare for them a place there, and that they may follow Me thither, and that from thence I may send them the Holy Spirit, who shall make them heroic heralds of My Gospel.

Verse 18: Mary Magdalene Came, Announcing to the Disciples: I Have Seen the Lord

18. MARY MAGDALENE CAME ANNOUNCING (the Syriac: evangelized) to the disciples: I HAVE SEEN THE LORD, AND THESE THINGS HE SAID TO ME.

Behold, Mary Magdalene is here made by Christ the Apostle of the Apostles and an evangelist. Whence she herself, after Christ's resurrection, having been driven into exile by the Jews, and having landed at Marseilles, was there the apostle of its inhabitants. She merited this by her burning love toward Christ, by her faith and constancy, through which she alone, while the Apostles remained behind, went to His tomb before sunrise and remained there unwearied with Him until she should see her Jesus.

Verse 19: When It Was Late That Same Day, the First of the Week, and the Doors Were Shut

19. NOW WHEN IT WAS LATE THAT SAME DAY, THE FIRST 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, AND SAID TO THEM: PEACE BE TO YOU.

"One of the sabbaths," that is, on the first day of the week, namely the Lord's Day, or the day of the Pasch, on which Christ rose. See what is said on Matthew XXVIII, 1.

AND THE DOORS WERE SHUT. — Calvin says that Christ opened the closed doors, or certainly entered through an open window, lest He be compelled to admit the penetration of dimensions, and that two bodies can be in the same place, as in the Eucharist the whole body of Christ is in a point of place. Durandus (on IV Sentences, dist. 44, Quaest. VI) holds the same opinion here concerning the body of Christ; for he thinks that it is not possible, even by divine power, that two bodies should penetrate one another. But John here signifies entirely the opposite: for he says the doors were shut in order to signify that Christ passed through them, as He passed through His mother's closed womb in being born and through the stone of the tomb in rising, and this in order to show the omnipotence of His divinity, and the gifts of the resurrection and of the glorious body. So all the Fathers and other orthodox interpreters, whom Adam Contzen, Maldonatus, Bellarmine (Controversy On the Eucharist, Book III, ch. VI) and others cite at length here. Hear the chief of them:

From the Latins, St. Augustine partly in Sermons 159 and 160 On the Season, partly in Epistle 3 to Volusian: "Closed doors did not stand in the way of the mass of the body where divinity was. For He was able to enter them not open, He at whose birth the virginity of His Mother remained inviolate." Hence consequently St. Augustine (Book XXII On the City of God, ch. XX) thinks that in the martyrs in similar manner the scars of the wounds which they received will remain, such as we see in wounds already healed.

St. Ambrose on chap. XXIV of Luke: "With all the bodies closed through impassable barriers, His body was inserted with its frame unharmed; and therefore it is wondrous how corporeal nature was poured through an impenetrable body, with invisible entry and visible appearance, etc. Not therefore by any incorporeal nature, but by the quality of His bodily resurrection, He passed through what was impervious to use and closed."

St. Hilary, past the middle of Book III On the Trinity: "And with Him the sight may enter the closed house of thy understanding. All things are whole and locked, but behold He stands in the midst, to whom by His own power all things are pervious."

Among the Greeks, Justin, in his Replies to Questions Proposed by the Gentiles, reply 117: "As the Lord, he says, walked on the sea not by a change of body into spirit; but by His own divine power made the sea, which cannot be crossed by walking, passable, not only for His own body, but also for Peter's: so by His own divine power He went out from the tomb, when the stone had been placed on the tomb, and entered to the disciples through shut doors."

St. Epiphanius, Heresy 64 of Origen, far past the middle: "Just as, he says, our Lord rose from the dead, not raising up another body, but the very one which He had, and not another than what was His, but the very one that was, transmuting it into spiritual subtlety and uniting the whole as spiritual, He entered through the shut doors; which they deny can happen in our bodies because of their grossness, and because they are not yet united into spiritual subtlety."

St. Cyril on this passage: "With the doors shut, the Lord suddenly, having by His omnipotence overcome the nature of things, entered to the disciples, etc. For since He is true God, He is not subject to the nature of things."

Euthymius from St. Chrysostom: "He did not knock on the doors lest they should be disturbed, but with them shut entered in as God."

Tropologically: Christ appears to those who have shut the doors of the mind against the world and the flesh, and coming to them gives them a most sweet and unexpected peace. Thus St. Gregory (Book IV on I Kings, ch. V): "Those have closed doors, he says, who, against the negligence of human falling, hold the duties of the body under strict guard. They are also within, because in interior love they rest in the heavenly life. To such the risen Lord truly appears: for they behold His glory the more clearly, the more strictly they follow the mystery of His passion through contempt of the world. They also can be filled with the Holy Spirit as in a house, because they receive abundantly the gifts of His graces, who have prepared themselves to receive them by despising visible things."

Verse 20: And When He Had Said This, He Showed Them His Hands and His Side

Note: From this verse, and more clearly from verse 27, it is plain that Christ after the resurrection preserved in His glorious body not only the scars but even the openings of His five wounds, and that truly, not pretendedly, as St. Augustine teaches against Porphyry in Epistle 49 to Deogratias. Wherefore He did not fill these wounds with glorified flesh that would have the shape of a nail (as St. Bonaventure narrates was done in the stigmata impressed on St. Francis in his Life), but preserved them as open openings, as is plain from verse 27, where Thomas at Christ's command inserted his finger and hand into them. And He did this, first, that these might be irrefragable signs and arguments of the truth of His body and resurrection, namely that He truly had a body, and had truly risen from the dead. So Cyril and Leontius. Hear St. Augustine: "The nails had fastened His hands, the lance had opened His side: where, to heal the hearts of those who doubted, the traces of the wounds were preserved."

Secondly, as a sign and trophy of the victory over sin, the world, the flesh and the devil won through His passion. So St. Augustine and St. Ambrose on the last chapter of Luke.

Thirdly, to arouse in us greater confidence, inasmuch as Christ, showing these wounds to the Father, through them intercedes for us and obtains all things. So St. Anselm on ch. IX of Hebrews, and Cyprian in the sermon On the Baptism of Christ.

Fourthly, to kindle our love, that we may imitate and love in return Christ wounded for us, and in turn for Him willingly take up any wounds and death itself. So St. Ambrose in the place cited, and St. Gregory on Canticles, ch. II.

Fifthly, that by them Christ as judge on the day of judgment may convict the impiety and ingratitude of the Jews and the reprobate, in that they have neglected so great a grace. So St. Augustine. For generally the theologians, with St. Cyril (Book XII, ch. LVIII), teach that Christ bore these wounds with Him in ascending into heaven, and will preserve them there eternally; and this is gathered from Zech. XIII, 6, and John XIX, 37.

Moreover, by a special miracle of God it was brought about that those openings of the wounds in Christ do not hinder the nerves and arteries from being continuous and most well disposed, both for containing the blood and for all the actions and movements of life carried out by Christ. See Suarez, Part III, Quaest. XLIV, disp. XLVI, art. 4, sect. 2.

Hence consequently St. Augustine (Book XXII On the City of God, ch. XX) thinks that in the martyrs the scars of the wounds which they received will remain in the same way, such as we see in wounds already healed (nor does St. Augustine seem in the same place to posit anything else in Christ); for those who have had their head or other members cut off cannot otherwise remain in a whole and glorious body except through the signs and scars of themselves. Hear St. Augustine: "But I know not how it is that we are so affected with love of the blessed Martyrs that we wish in that kingdom to see upon their bodies the scars of the wounds which they endured for the name of Christ? and perhaps we shall see. For there will be in them no deformity but dignity, and a certain beauty, though in the body, yet not of the body but of virtue, will shine forth; nor yet for that reason, if any Martyrs have had members cut off and taken away, will they be without those members in the resurrection of the dead: to whom it was said: A hair of your head shall not perish." And he adds: "Marks of virtue are not to be reckoned as defects."

St. Cyril (Book XII, ch. LVIII) seems to deny this about the Martyrs, but he does not really deny it: for he is not speaking of the Martyrs, but of those who suffer from certain defects of nature, such as the lame, the blind, the deaf; for these shall rise not blind and deaf, but seeing and hearing.

The Disciples Therefore Rejoiced, When They Saw the Lord (and from the scars recognized).

On which hear St. Augustine (Book XXII On the City of God, ch. XIX): "The brightness by which the just shall shine as the sun is to be believed to have been hidden rather than wanting in the body of Christ when He rose; for weak human sight could not have borne it, when He had so to be observed by His own that He might be recognized."

They Rejoiced — both because they saw Christ risen to life from the death for which they grieved; and because they hoped that all the good things promised by Him were now in fact to be given to them by Him.

Verse 21: Therefore Jesus Said to Them Again: Peace Be to You

Why "again"? Hear various authors who assign various reasons. The Interlinear: "Repetition is confirmation; He gives them peace upon peace, as He promised through the Prophet." Bede: "He repeats, because the power of charity is twofold, or because He is the one who made both one." The Gloss: "He offers peace, He who had come for the sake of peace; He repeats it to show that things in heaven and things on earth have been reconciled through His blood." Chrysostom: "Because they had an implacable war with the Jews, He announces peace to them again to console them, at the same time demonstrating the efficacy of the cross, through which He loosed all sorrows and conferred all good things, and this is peace. But the women had already received above the announcement of joy, for they had this curse: In sorrow shalt thou bring forth; and they were in mourning."

As the Father Hath Sent Me, I Also Send You. "As," that is, with like power, authority, end, manner, love.

Note: By this little word "as," Christ in a certain way makes the Apostles equal and peers to Himself, namely proportionally, as His successors and vicars.

First therefore, "as" signifies likeness in office, as if to say: With like power and special authority with which the Father sent Me to establish and govern the Church, I likewise send you, that you may be its teachers and rulers as I am, and that you may have the power also of remitting sins, as I have, as follows. So Rupert, Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, who assert that Christ by these words created the Apostles His own vicars, teachers and pastors of the world, and communicated to them His own office and authority, that is, every ecclesiastical power, and consequently made them Bishops: although our Francisco Turrianus, from Ammonius, Theophanes, Damian and others, wishes the Apostles to have been made Bishops at Pentecost: thus he writes in his commentary on St. Clement, Book VI Apostolic Constitutions, chapter XI, page 227. But Bellarmine (Book I On the Roman Pontiff, ch. XXIV), following Torquemada, thinks that only Peter was ordained Bishop by Christ, and the other Apostles were ordained Bishops by St. Peter. But Suarez more probably holds that all the Apostles were ordained Bishops by Christ Himself, although he is uncertain about place and time. So he himself in Tractatus On Faith, disp. X, sect. 1, num. 8; St. Augustine favors this view in Questions of the New and Old Testaments, Quaest. XCVII, saying: "For He Himself, before ascending into heaven, imposing a name on the Apostles, ordained them Bishops."

Secondly, "as" signifies likeness of principle, as if to say: As God the Father sent Me, so I too, equal God to Him, send you: so Theophylact; the principle therefore of the mission both of Christ and of the Apostles is from God, nay is God Himself.

Thirdly, "as" signifies likeness in end: for both are sent to the same end, namely to propagate the faith and for the salvation of the whole world. So Cyril and Leontius.

Fourthly, in manner, namely that you confirm your doctrines with miracles, O Apostles, as I have confirmed the same.

Fifthly, in reciprocal love, as if to say: With what love the Father sent Me, to shed My blood out of love for Him, with the same I send you. For God's supreme love is when He Himself makes someone His witness and martyr. So Toletus.

Hear St. Gregory: "As the Father hath sent Me, so also I send you, as if to say: With that charity do I love you, when I send you amidst the scandals of persecutors, with which charity the Father loves Me, whom He caused to come to endure sufferings."

Verse 22: When He Had Said This, He Breathed Upon Them, and Said to Them: Receive Ye the Holy Spirit

Why "He breathed"? I reply, first, to signify the nature of the Holy Spirit and that He is breathed and proceeds from Him equally as from the Father. For just as a man, by breathing upon someone, sends from his mouth his own breath or corporeal spirit into another; so the Father and the Son by breathing (spirando) produce the Holy Spirit, and communicate to Him their spirit and divinity. The Holy Spirit therefore is, as it were, a divine breath, proceeding from the spiration of the Father and the Son. So St. Augustine, Tract 121; Cyril, Bede and others. Moreover this breathing of Christ was not the Holy Spirit Himself, as if to say: Receive this breath, which is the Holy Spirit; but it was the sign of Him; as if to say: Receive in this breathing, or through this breathing, as through a sign and instrumental cause, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, to signify that the Holy Spirit is ὁμοούσιον (of one substance) with Himself and the Father, that is, consubstantial, just as a breath emitted by breathing is consubstantial with the spirit of him who emits and exhales it. So Cyril and Leontius.

Thirdly, to show Himself to be the one who originally breathed into Adam the breath of life, according to Genesis ch. II, verse 7: "He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul," that is, man was made a living animal; for He alludes to this, as if to say: As I, as God, once by breathing into Adam gave him a soul which gave him natural and animal life, so now I, by breathing on you, give you the Holy Spirit, who gives you supernatural and divine life. Therefore I am the same who was once the Creator of men, and am now their re-creator and restorer. So Cyril (Book XII, ch. LVI); Leontius, Euthymius, and St. Athanasius (to Antiochus, Question LXIV).

Fourthly, Cyril and St. Basil (Book On the Holy Spirit, ch. XVI), and from him St. Ambrose (Sermon 20 on Psalm CXVIII) add that Christ by this breathing signified that He had originally breathed into Adam not only a soul but also grace; but because Adam by sinning had lost it, hence by breathing on the Apostles, and through them on the rest of men, He restores the same: therefore He is the restorer of the grace that was lost, as if to say: Receive the Holy Spirit, whom you lost by sinning in Adam, and breathe Him through the sacrament of Penance upon the penitent, and through Him remit their sins, and restore yourselves to spiritual life through grace. Hear St. Cyril: "First, through the Word of God man was made, and God breathed into him the breath of life, Genesis II, and fortified him by participation in His own spirit: but since through disobedience he fell and lost his former glory, God the Father formed him again, and brought him into a new life through the Son: so that we may learn that He is the same who in the beginning created our nature and sealed it with the Holy Spirit; again at the beginning of nature's renewal, by breathing He bestows the Spirit on the disciples, that as we were created from the beginning, so also we may be renewed."

Symbolically: this breathing represents sin as it were a black cloud. For just as this is dispersed by the blowing wind, so by the breathing of the Holy Spirit every cloud of sin is dispersed, according to that of Isaiah XLIV: "I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud." Again, this breath represents the judicial power of remitting sins, which Christ here gives to the Apostles. For this is exercised by the breath of the voice saying: "I absolve thee."

Tropologically: this breathing indicates that the priest, in order to remit sins, ought to excel in mighty spirit, charity and zeal, which he is to breathe upon the penitents, that he may impel them to true penance, sorrow and contrition, by which he may dispose them for the remission of sins. So we see confessors endowed with great spirit move many great sinners by the spirit of their mouth to compunction, conversion and sanctification: as we read of St. Ambrose, that he was accustomed, on hearing the sins of those confessing, to weep, and by his tears to move them to tears and contrition.

Receive Ye the Holy Spirit.

Note: The Apostles had already received the Holy Spirit in baptism and in the Holy Eucharist, and were just and holy; but they were to receive the fullness of Him by Christ's promise at Pentecost, so that through it they might convert the Gentiles to Christ; for then the Holy Spirit, visibly descending upon them in fiery tongues, heaped them with every gift, and especially with efficacy in preaching. Here, therefore, Christ gives the Apostles the Holy Spirit, whom they already had, for another use and effect which they did not yet have, namely for the remission of sins. "Receive therefore the Holy Spirit," that is, receive the power of remitting sins through the Holy Spirit: so Theophylact, Euthymius and Rupert. He does this to signify that He had come for this, according to that of Isaiah XXVII, 9: "And this is all the fruit, that sin should be taken away;" and that He gives the Holy Spirit equally as the Father. Hence it is clear that the Holy Spirit is given not only through sanctifying grace, but also through gratuitous grace (gratia gratis data), such as the power of remitting sins, which is given to priests even while in mortal sin, when they are ordained. For the Holy Spirit is the primary author who operates in the Sacrament, and through it remits sins, even if His minister is impious. Whence Cyril and Chrysostom thus explain: "Receive the Holy Spirit," that is, receive the power of remitting sins through the Holy Spirit, cooperating with you in the Sacrament and remitting sins... Again, by the Holy Spirit, with St. Augustine here and St. Ambrose (Sermon 10 on Psalm CXVIII), you may understand the very grace and charity of the Holy Spirit; for this was here infused by Christ upon the Apostles in greater and ampler measure, and the same is infused upon priests when they are ordained by the power of the sacrament of Orders (unless they themselves place an obstacle and wish to persevere in their sins, or are unwilling to be contrite for past ones), that they may duly and without sin administer the sacrament of Penance and absolve sinners. For a priest who absolves others ought to be pure from sin; otherwise he sins, yet nevertheless truly absolves and justifies the penitent. From what has been said it is clear that the Holy Spirit has the first and highest power of remitting sins, and communicates it to the Apostles, and therefore He is truly God. So St. Basil (Book V Against Eunomius); St. Ambrose (Book III On the Holy Spirit, ch. XIX), and Chrysostom (Homily 6 on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians). Moreover, the same power is common to the whole Holy Trinity, but is appropriated to the Holy Spirit, as also goodness and love and all the works of sanctification; to the Father is appropriated power, to the Son wisdom and His works.

Note secondly, that the Holy Spirit and His power of remitting sins is here given to the Apostles, not so much for their own sake, as being future judges of the guilty in the tribunal of penance, as for the sake of the guilty penitents: whence the same is given also to evil priests when they are ordained, just as the power of judging in the secular forum can be given to an impious judge; if however they themselves by penance dispose themselves to rightly receive the sacrament of Orders, they shall receive in it the Holy Spirit also for their own sanctification, that they may be more fit to sanctify others, namely the penitents, as was here done for the Apostles.

Thirdly, St. Cyril notes, and from him Maldonatus, that the Holy Spirit was here inspired by Christ also upon Thomas, although absent, and the power of remitting sins conferred upon him; just as of old the spirit of prophecy was given through Moses to Eldad and Medad, although they were absent, Num. XI, 26. Yet the contrary seems truer. For Thomas at that time was unbelieving, and therefore incapable of the Holy Spirit; wherefore the Holy Spirit and the power of remitting sins was given to Thomas by Christ on the eighth day, when Christ appeared to him and showed him His wounds, and thus converted him. So Toletus, Ribera and others.

Finally, note this example of Christ for Ecclesiastical ceremonies. For Christ by the ceremony of breathing conferred upon the Apostles the Holy Spirit and the power of remitting sins. Therefore Ecclesiastical ceremonies are not idle, frivolous and superstitious things (as the heretics will have it), but seemly, efficacious and religious.

Verse 23: Whose Sins You Shall Forgive, They Are Forgiven Them; and Whose Sins You Shall Retain, They Are Retained

Calvin distorts this to refer to the preaching of the Gospel, as if to say: To those to whom you shall preach the Gospel, if they believe it, by this very fact their sins shall be forgiven them through faith. But anyone can see that this exposition is twisted, violent, inept and ridiculous. For thus not the Apostles, but the believers themselves, as it were as judges, would by their own faith remit their own sins, which is absurd; for no one is superior to himself, nor his own judge, so as to remit sins to himself. Secondly, these two, namely to preach the Gospel — judgment — and to forgive sins are plainly different and distinct things; for the former is the work of an Apostle who preaches, while the latter is the act of a judge who judges: for to forgive sins is a judicial act.

Thirdly, the Gospel must be preached to all; and this absolution of Calvin's can be given to all, even to the impious: Your sins are forgiven you, if you believe the Gospel. But Christ does not will that the sins of all be forgiven, but commands that the sins of some be retained, namely of those whose sins the Apostles and their successors shall have judged ought to be retained.

Fourthly, because Christ had already before clearly given the Apostles the power of preaching and had sent them to preach, Luke X, 1; indeed He had given them the command of preaching everywhere, Matthew last chapter, and Mark last chapter, 15: "Going, He says, into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature." Why then would He repeat this here in words so obscure and unintelligible?

I say therefore: It is of the faith that this passage must be understood of the sacrament of Penance, in which the priest as judge truly forgives not only the penalties but also the guilt of the sins of penitents who accuse themselves in confession. This is clear from the very words, which all sound and signify the judicial power of forgiving or retaining sins according to his own judgment, given here by Christ to the Apostles as judges in the forum and tribunal of conscience. Thus all the Fathers and the whole Church in every age have understood this passage, as the Council of Trent defines, session XIV, canon 3: "If anyone shall say that those words of the Lord our Savior: Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained — are not to be understood of the power of forgiving and retaining sins in the sacrament of Penance, as the Catholic Church has always understood from the beginning, but shall distort them against the institution of this Sacrament to the authority of preaching the Gospel: let him be anathema." Christ therefore in this passage instituted the sacrament of Penance in the manner of a judgment, as the same Council in the same place defines, canon 4: "The Lord especially instituted the sacrament of Penance when, raised from the dead, He breathed upon His disciples, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. By which so notable a deed and by words so clear the consent of all the Fathers has always understood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins, for reconciling the faithful who have fallen after baptism, was communicated to the Apostles and their lawful successors." Bellarmine cites the testimonies of the Fathers, book III On Penance, chapter II, and among others that of St. Gregory, Homily 26, saying: "They obtain the headship of divine judgment, so that in God's place they may retain the sins of some, and release the sins of others."

The sense therefore is, as though He said: "Receive the Holy Spirit," through whom I deliver to you the power of Order, which even one who is in sin can have, and at the same time I deliver to you grace and sanctification, so that you may worthily and holily exercise this power, not only for the salvation of others, but also for your own. "Whose sins you shall forgive": for you shall truly forgive them as My ministers, and you shall not merely show that they are forgiven, etc.; "and whose sins you shall retain," either by not absolving them because they do not come to you, or because you will judge them unworthy of absolution, etc., "they are retained" in heaven by God.

You will say: Cyril here expounds this passage concerning the preaching of the Gospel. I answer: Cyril does not expound the words "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them," but the words "as the Father has sent Me, so also I send you," namely to preach the Gospel. You will press further: Cyril, explaining the words "Whose sins you shall forgive," says that sins are forgiven in two ways, namely by baptism and by penance. I answer: Both are true, but neither is according to the mind of Christ in this passage; for Christ is properly speaking about the tribunal of Penance, whereas Cyril extends Christ's statement further, namely to baptism. For Christ is properly treating of the judicial remission of sin, which does not exist in baptism, but only in the sacrament of Penance, as the other Fathers and the Council of Trent expound in the places already cited. See St. Chrysostom here, and books III and VI Of the Priesthood, where he shows that priests are more worthy not only than kings, but even than angels, to whom the power of forgiving sins has not been granted.

Moreover, from the fact that Christ here instituted this tribunal of Penance, He consequently by this very act sanctioned Sacramental confession and commanded it by divine right; otherwise He would have erected this tribunal in vain. For sins cannot be forgiven in this tribunal by the priest unless they are known; and they cannot be known unless the penitent confesses them, because they are often hidden, even concealed in the mind. Therefore it is necessary that the penitent sinner here take on the role of his own accuser, and be at once the defendant, the accuser, and the witness against himself, and from the priest, as from a judge, humbly beg pardon for the sins of which he accuses himself and of which he repents; and if the priest sees him to be truly penitent, pronouncing upon him the sentence of absolution, he will absolve him from all, and in the name of Christ, as His vicar, will pardon him everything; for Christ ratifies the sentence of the priest, and what he pardons, Christ also pardons; what he retains, Christ also retains. For Christ often commands in the Gospel that, putting aside our sins, we should do penance, and indeed the whole sum of His preaching was this: "Do penance," Matthew III; and this penance must be done in the way that Christ instituted, namely by receiving the sacrament of Penance, that is, by confessing sins to a priest in the sacrament of Penance and begging absolution from him. Thus the Council of Trent, session XIV, chapter v: "From the institution of the sacrament of Penance, already explained, the universal Church has always understood that an entire confession of sins was also instituted by the Lord, and that by divine right it is necessary for all who have fallen after baptism; because our Lord Jesus Christ, about to ascend from earth to heaven, left priests as His own vicars, as presidents and judges, to whom all mortal crimes are to be brought — into which Christ's faithful may have fallen — so that, according to the power of the keys, they may pronounce sentence of the remission or the retention of sins. For it is established that priests could not have exercised this judgment with the cause unknown, nor could they have preserved equity in imposing penalties, if penitents had declared their sins only in general, and not rather in particular and one by one. From this it is gathered that it behooves penitents to enumerate in confession all the mortal sins of which, after a diligent self-examination, they are conscious, even though they be most hidden." Cajetan therefore errs when he says that the precept of Confession is not here given. This error, since the Council of Trent, is heresy, but Cajetan preceded this Council.

And Whose Sins You Shall Retain, They Are Retained. Note: The word retinueritis does not signify merely the denial of absolution, but a positive power. For the sense is: "Whose sins you shall retain," that is, whom you shall have judged unworthy of absolution because of their indisposition, whom you have rebuffed, whom you have rejected from absolution, whom you have judged guilty of sin and therefore worthy of hell — these likewise shall God so judge, who alone primarily and by His own authority pardons or retains sins. For it belongs to God alone to pardon an offense committed against Himself; but He in this matter has constituted priests as His vicars in His place. This is what Christ says in Matthew XVIII, 18: "Whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven." For example: if a priest sees that a penitent does not have true sorrow for his sins, or does not have a true resolve to amend, because he will not leave his concubine or other proximate occasions of sin, or will not restore a neighbor's reputation or wealth that he has taken away, he ought to deny him absolution and to judge him incapable of absolution and to remain in his sin together with the guilt of hell.

Finally note: Although the Apostles were ordained priests by Christ before the Passion, at the Last Supper after the institution of the Eucharist by those words, "Do this in remembrance of Me," Luke XXII, 19, yet at that time they received only the power of consecrating the Eucharist; but here, after Christ's resurrection, they receive from Him another power, namely that of forgiving sins: for these are distinct powers, and can be divided and separated. For Christ had the power of excellence, by which He could institute priests in a different manner than they were afterwards to be constituted in the Church, because now in the ordination of priests the matter is the chalice and paten with bread and wine; and the form is: "Receive the power of offering sacrifice": therefore when the Bishop delivers this to someone, and pronounces the form just mentioned, by this very act he consecrates him a perfect Priest, and consequently confers on him the power both of forgiving sins and of offering sacrifice. Wherefore, when he afterwards says, "Receive the power of forgiving sins," these words do not belong to the essence of the form, but only declare the power conferred on him by the first words, as D. Soto teaches in IV, dist. 24, Quaest. I, art. 4, against Paludanus, and from him Gregory of Valencia, tract. De Ordine, disp. 9, Quaest. 1, punct. 5.

Verse 24: Now Thomas, One of the Twelve, Who Is Called Didymus, Was Not With Them When Jesus Came

Didymus, that is, twin, for the reasons I explained in chapter XI, verse 16. Here however he is called Didymus, that is, double, varying, uncertain, doubtful, twofold, because he wavered and doubted in faith in Christ's resurrection. Wherefore he was then weaker than the other Apostles; but after being converted by Christ's renewed appearance he became stronger and more faithful than all, seeing that he alone by preaching traversed almost the whole world. See Thomas Stapleton, in his book On the Three Thomases, in the Life of St. Thomas the Apostle, where he shows that by preaching he went around the world and reached as far as the outermost Garamantes and the Indians, and preached not only to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Carmanians, Hyrcanians, and Bactrians, but even to the Abyssinians and the Chinese themselves — nay, that he penetrated into the New World, I mean America.

He Was Not With Them — because, as St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and Euthymius say, all the Apostles, fleeing during the Passion of Christ, were scattered; but on the Lord's day they gradually gathered themselves together and returned to the upper room, where they had eaten the Last Supper with Christ. Hence on the same day, but in the evening, the risen Christ appeared to them there; but Thomas had not yet returned from his flight. More probably St. Augustine, Bede, Lyra, D. Thomas, Cajetan, Toletus, and Ribera answer that Thomas was with the other Apostles when the two disciples returning from Emmaus related that they had seen Christ; but because this report seemed incredible and a fiction to Thomas, hence being offended at the credulity of the Apostles who believed it, he left them and went away: for thus we are wont to leave when someone's talk displeases us. This Luke hints at in the last chapter, when he says the women returning from the tomb reported what they had seen to the eleven Apostles; therefore Thomas was then present, and only the twelfth, Judas, was absent, being already hanged. Wherefore, when Luke says in chapter XXIV, 11: "And these words seemed to them as madness," he seems to be noting Thomas.

Verse 25: Unless I Shall See in His Hands the Print of the Nails, I Will Not Believe

Unless I Shall See. — Here Thomas sinned: first, by incredulity; secondly, by obstinacy; thirdly, by pride; fourthly, by irreverence: for though all the other Apostles said that Christ had risen, he obstinately resisted and refused to believe; fifthly, by presumption, because he was unwilling to believe otherwise than by putting his hand and fingers into Christ's wounds. Wait, O Thomas, do you presume to dictate laws to Christ? Sixthly, because he remained obstinate in this unbelief for eight days, perhaps even with Christ's own Mother attesting that he should believe. Wherefore he was incredulous not about the manner of the resurrection, as St. Ambrose holds in the last chapter of Luke, but about the very truth of Christ's resurrection, as if the other Apostles had been deluded and deceived, and had seen not the true Christ, but a phantasm masked under Christ's appearance, as Origen rightly notes in book II Against Celsus. So also St. Augustine, book XVI Against Faustus, chapter XXXIII, and St. Gregory, Homily 26.

Furthermore, this incredulity of Thomas arose partly from the fact that he did not believe Christ to be God; for if he had believed, he would easily have recognized that Christ could raise His own body from death to life: it is therefore strange that Cyril says Thomas believed Christ to be God; partly from excessive sorrow and grief, especially because while the other Apostles saw Christ, he alone did not see Him. For this pricked and tormented his heart: whence he broke forth into these bitter words, indicators of his grief. So Cyril, book XII, chapter LVII. God permitted this, both so that Thomas himself, and that we all, might be confirmed in humility and in faith in Christ's resurrection through a new appearance of Christ. Thus St. Gregory, Homily 26; St. Augustine, Sermon 161 De Tempore, and others.

The Print. — In Greek τύπου, that is, the figure, and so many Latin codices read: but it comes to the same sense; for this "figure" is understood as the figure left by the driving of the nails. Hence the Arabic translates it vestigium (trace); the Syriac, the place of the nails. For the root τυπόω means the same as to sign, to engrave, to imprint, to figure, as is done in the cutting of bronze, silver, or gold: for so by the nails and lance the wounds were cut, engraved, and imprinted into the hands and side of Christ. Beautifully does St. Augustine say, Sermon 159 De Tempore: "He sought," he says, "the hand and the side; and while he remains curious about the wound, he incurs death in faith: the Lord willed that he should see, lest by incredulity he should lose his soul."

Verse 26: And After Eight Days, Jesus Came, the Doors Being Shut, and Stood in the Midst, and Said: Peace Be With You

That is, on the eighth day (not the ninth) from the Sunday of Christ's resurrection, now ending and turning toward evening and night, namely Low Sunday, or the octave of Easter, when we commemorate this mystery and read this Gospel in the Mass. Hence Cyril observes that the Apostles already then, from the signs of Christ's appearances, began to hold ecclesiastical assemblies on the Lord's day, and, as it were, to consecrate the Lord's day, because on that day Christ had risen: wherefore Christ was gradually directing the Apostles to substitute the Lord's day for the sabbath.

Again His Disciples Were Within, — in the upper room in Jerusalem, just mentioned above. It is therefore scarcely probable, what St. Jerome says in the last chapter of Matthew, verse 16, and also Rupert and Ribera here, that Christ appeared to Thomas and the Apostles not in Jerusalem, but in Galilee: for there, afterwards, Christ appeared not only to the Apostles but also to the other faithful.

And Thomas With Them. Jesus Came, the Doors Being Shut, and Stood in the Midst, and Said: Peace Be With You. — Note here Christ's wonderful condescension: in order to convert the unbelieving and obstinate Thomas, He offers Himself again to him not only to be seen but even to be touched. But He did this not for Thomas alone, but also for the sake of the other Apostles, that He might strengthen both them and all of us in the faith of the resurrection.

Verse 27: Then He Said to Thomas: Put in Your Finger Here, and See My Hands; and Bring Here Your Hand, and Put It Into My Side

Behold the clemency of Christ, by which in all things He lowers Himself to what Thomas had demanded, and in all things complies with his wishes, so that He may convert him. See, says Chrysostom, how Christ even for one soul shows His wounds, and since Thomas was of a coarser disposition, seeks faith for Himself from the coarsest of the senses, that is, from touch.

Be Not Incredulous, But Believing. — As though to say: Do you think, O Thomas, that I do not know what you said about Me in My absence? Know that I know these things, nay more, that being present I heard them. For I heard you say out of unbelief: "Unless I shall put my finger into the place of the nails, and my hand into His side, I will not believe." Do as you have said: behold, I offer you My pierced hands and side, that you may handle them, touch them, indeed measure them with your finger and hand, that you may lay aside your incredulity, and henceforth believe that I have risen — the same, I say, numerically, who hung transfixed on the cross, not another. By this means Christ cures the other wound of Thomas' unbelief; for He shows Himself to know all things, even hidden things, and to be a cardiognostes, that is, a knower of hearts, and therefore God, which Thomas did not believe. Therefore Christ heals the disease at the root; for Thomas did not believe that Christ had risen, because he did not believe Him to be God.

You will ask: did Thomas truly touch Christ's wounds? The Gloss is doubtful; Euthymius thinks he did not touch them: but St. Augustine holds the contrary, who in Tract 121 says: "He saw and touched a man, and confessed God whom he neither saw nor touched; but through that which he saw and touched, with doubt now removed, he was believing." The same is said by St. Gregory, Cyril, Theophylactus, and Bede. St. Chrysostom seems to hold the same; nor does it seem doubtful, because since the Lord said "Put in your finger here," had it not been done, John would not have passed over in silence that he believed without touching.

Add that Christ here commands Thomas to put in his finger, a command which Thomas certainly obeyed. It is therefore a certain matter, says Toletus, and confessed among all, that Thomas, according to the Lord's command, touched the wounds of Christ: for this Christ commanded so that He might leave as an effective proof of His resurrection, not only to Thomas, but also to the faithful of all ages. Hence St. Augustine, Sermon 147 De Tempore: "He willed," he says, "to display in that flesh the scars of the wound to some who were doubting, that He might heal the wound of incredulity." And St. Ambrose, on the last chapter of Luke: "By his touch," he says, "He had to teach me, just as He also taught Paul." Listen to St. Gregory, Homily 26: "This was not done by chance, but by divine dispensation. For supernal clemency acted in a wondrous way, so that by that doubting disciple, while he handled the wounds of flesh in his Master, He might heal in us the wounds of unbelief. For Thomas' unbelief profited more for faith than did the faith of the believing disciples, because while he is led back to faith by touching, our minds, with all doubt laid aside, are strengthened in the faith." Again St. Augustine, Sermon 161 De Tempore: "Thomas therefore, since he was holy, faithful, and just, sought all these things anxiously; not because he himself had any doubt, but to exclude every suspicion of incredulity. For it had been enough for his own faith to have seen Him whom he knew, but he worked this for us, that he might touch Him whom he saw, so that if perhaps we should say his eyes had been deceived, we could not say his hands had been frustrated. For in the manifestation of the resurrection there can be ambiguity about sight, but about touch there can be no doubt."

You will say: Christ says: "See, not: Touch, My hands." Therefore Thomas saw them, but did not touch them. I reply: "See," that is, touch, so that by the very touch you may see, that is, certainly know that I, the same one numerically who was crucified, have risen. Thus St. Augustine, Tract 121. For sight, because it is the general and most noble of the senses, is taken here for any sense, even for touch, as I showed on Exodus XX, 10, in the passage: "The people saw, that is, heard, the voices."

You will say secondly: Christ's glorious body is subtle, therefore impalpable. Cyril, Chrysostom, Leontius, and Theophylactus answer that by divine dispensation it was touched by Thomas for the sake of creating faith in the resurrection: namely, that mode of resistance which is in a body (by which one body resists another and is therefore touchable by it), which is a passion and property of quantity, is in the power of Christ and the other Blessed, that it may remain or be taken away by God at their pleasure. The same is true of visibility; whence Christ, when He willed, was seen; when He did not will, He was not seen. See what is said on Luke, last chapter, verse 39.

Moreover, this finger of St. Thomas is religiously preserved at Rome in the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem (where I myself looked upon and kissed it at close range), together with the Holy Cross, the title, the nail, and the thorns of the crown of thorns, which St. Helena transferred thither from Jerusalem. From the fact that Christ says: "Bring your hand and put it into My side," gather that the wound of Christ's side was great and immense, such that Thomas could put his whole hand, which was large and thick, into it: whence he, marveling at what had been granted him on his own behalf, exclaimed: "My Lord and my God," and he longed to abide in it and through it to enter into Christ's heart, as many of the Saints have desired — among others St. Bernard, St. Francis, and St. Elzearius, count of Arian. See St. Bernard, Sermon 61 on the Canticle.

Verse 28: Thomas Answered, and Said to Him: My Lord and My God

Thomas said this, not before, as Euthymius holds, but after touching Christ, as will be clear in the following verse. Therefore Thomas remained incredulous until, exploring Christ's wounds by touch, he recognized from them in actual fact that it was the very same Jesus, who now appeared alive again and who on the cross had received the aforementioned wounds. So Tertullian, book On the Soul, chapter XXVIII; St. Ambrose, on Psalm XLIII; St. Hilary, book III Of the Trinity; Cyril, book XII, chapter LVIII; Gregory, Homily 26.

My Lord and My God. — Supply: You are, O Christ; the Greek has the article ὁ in both places, by which it signifies Him to be truly God, not by participation but by nature, says Cyril, namely ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου; the Syriac, My Lord, and my God. Here humble and penitent Thomas acknowledges and condemns his former unbelief, and he does this with great affection of faith, hope, penance, and charity. By the word Lord he confesses the human nature of Christ; by the word God, the divine, as though to say: Since I did not believe that You were God, hence I did not believe that You had risen: now because I see that You have risen, I likewise believe that You are God, and therefore that You, by the power of Your divinity, have raised Your body from death to life. Thus Hilary, book VII Of the Trinity, and St. Ambrose on Psalm XLIII, who also adds that the word Lord signifies that Christ is our Redeemer, inasmuch as He purchased us with His blood, and therefore by right of purchase and redemption is Lord of all. By these words, therefore, Thomas rendered to Christ the adoration of latria, says Francis Suarez. Listen to St. Augustine: "He saw and touched a man, and confessed God, whom he did not see, nor touch; but through what he saw and touched, he now with doubt removed was believing." Hence the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in the Constitution of Pope Vigilius, which pertains to the fifth collation, anathematizes Theodore of Mopsuestia, who wanted the saying "My Lord and my God" to have been uttered by Thomas not as confessing Christ to be God, but as praising God out of astonishment and wonder at the miracle.

Note the word "my," as though to say: Although Jesus is the Lord and God of all, yet He is properly mine, because He Himself sought me like a lost sheep as a good shepherd; wherefore in return I love and venerate Him with the inmost marrow of my soul, as my unique God and Lord. You therefore, O Jesus, are for me God and Lord, because by these Your wounds, which I have now touched and known most truly, You have merited and obtained for me this faith, by which I believe that You have truly risen; and this hope, by which I hope through the merits of Your wounds to obtain grace and glory; and this fervor of charity, by which I most ardently love You as my God and Lord, and offer and consecrate my whole self to You as Your perpetual servant, so that henceforth I wish to do nothing except what pleases You, nothing except what praises and glorifies You. Would that I could pour out this feeling of my heart and breathe it forth to the whole world! Would that I could preach and communicate to all nations this faith, hope, and love of You! In sum, You will always be for me my Lord and my God. Thus St. Francis was wont to say repeatedly: "My God and my all." And the royal Prophet: "For what have I in heaven? And besides Thee what have I desired upon earth? My flesh and my heart have fainted away: Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever," Psalm LXXII, 26.

Verse 29: Jesus Said to Him: Because You Have Seen Me, Thomas, You Have Believed: Blessed Are They Who Have Not Seen, and Have Believed

That is, touched, and by touching seen, that is, certainly known. As though to say: Blessed are you, Thomas, who have touched Me and therefore believed that I have risen and am true God, according to that saying: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see," Luke X, 23. But more blessed are those who have not seen Me nor touched Me, and yet have believed in Me, because faith has greater merit where human reason provides no experimental test, says St. Gregory. He says "have believed," because the other Apostles, and through them many of the faithful, had already believed that Christ had risen; but under the past tense "have believed" He means the present "believe" and the future "will believe," as though to say: More blessed are they and will they be, who, though they have not seen Me, yet believe in Me or will believe, for the reason just given. St. Augustine adds that those who will believe have already believed in the foreknowledge and predestination of God, and therefore are said to have believed; but this is more subtle than solid.

Hence St. Gregory, Homily 26; St. Hilary, book VII Of the Trinity; and St. Augustine, Tract 121, teach that Thomas saw one thing and believed another: namely, he saw Christ already risen, but he believed Him to be God, and consequently that He had raised Himself; whence he said: "My Lord and my God," as though Christ meant: Because you, O Thomas, have seen and touched My humanity now raised up, therefore you have believed the divinity hidden within it and raising it up. For the resurrection of Christ confirmed all His doctrines, among which one was that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, who would die on the cross for the salvation of men, and on the third day rise from the dead: all of which Thomas here believed.

Again, that too which falls under sense, which we see and touch, we can believe with divine faith, but for a different formal reason. For we see because we behold it with our eyes; but we believe because God has revealed that very thing, especially if sense could err, or if the thing involves something not seen, as is the case here with the resurrection of Christ now past: for it is of faith in the resurrection that Thomas here doubted and is reproved.

You will say: St. Augustine, Tract 40, says: "Faith is to believe what you do not see." I reply: This is true in the sense that the principal material objects of faith are such as are not seen, but not all: but the formal object of faith, namely God's revelation, is always such, namely invisible.

Therefore, although Thomas, insofar as he saw Christ risen, did not formally believe it on that ground; nevertheless, because he saw Christ — inasmuch as He was a man already raised up — and heard Him asserting and revealing the same, hence he believed God speaking and revealing this through the mouth of Christ and the Apostles, namely that it was not a phantasm in the appearance and form of Christ, as Thomas had previously thought, but Christ Himself who had truly risen from the dead and appeared to the Apostles. Thus we say: Because you have seen the miracles, because you have heard the preaching of the Gospel, therefore you have believed; where the word "because" does not signify the reason or formal cause of believing (for this is the unique revelation of God), but that which disposes and moves one to believe.

It can be expounded in a third way: "Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed": you have believed, I say, not with divine but with human faith: for thus we believe, that is, we assent to the things which we see and know. Therefore to believe is the same as to assent. So Toletus. Hear St. Gregory: "He was touching a man, and confessing God"; and Theophylactus: "He who had before been unbelieving, after the touching of the side, showed himself the best Theologian, explaining the two natures and the one hypostasis of Christ. For by saying 'Lord' he confessed the human nature; by saying 'God,' the divine — in one and the same."

Verse 30: Many Other Signs Also Did Jesus in the Sight of His Disciples, Which Are Not Written in This Book

"He did signs," both throughout His whole life, say Euthymius and Ribera, and especially after His resurrection, say Chrysostom and Theophylactus, because the discourse about it has just preceded; and these signs Christ did before the Apostles alone, while the others He did before the people and the crowds — as though to say: Besides the signs shown to the Apostles and to Thomas, which I have already recounted, Jesus performed many others, by which He confirmed not only His other doctrines but especially His resurrection, which I John am unwilling to write, lest I become too lengthy, and because many of them have already been written down by the other Evangelists. Thus St. Thomas, Lyra, Cajetan, Ribera, Toletus, and others.

For John seems by this clause to end the book of his Gospel concerning Christ and Christ's life, death, and resurrection, says St. Augustine, Tract 127; for the things that follow in the last chapter pertain not so much to commending faith in Christ's resurrection among the Apostles — who already believed it — as to the mysteries of the Church and the primacy of Peter, so that namely the multiplication of the faithful in the Church may be shown, over whom Christ, departing to heaven, set Peter in charge, and constituted him as His Vicar for governing it. Less probable is what Jansen holds, in chapter CXLVII, that John wished to end the Gospel here; but that afterwards, when the things narrated in the last chapter occurred to his memory, he added them. For it seems that not only the Holy Spirit, but John also, added those things not from recollection, but by settled purpose.

Verse 31: But These Things 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

Namely the Messiah, the redeemer of the world, of old promised by God to Abraham and David, and now in fact sent in the flesh — life of grace in the present, and of glory everlasting in the future — that is, through His name, that is, through Him, says Chrysostom, namely through the merits and satisfaction of Christ, which are applied to us through faith and the Sacraments, if, that is, we believe in Him and obey His commandments. It is necessary therefore to believe that He is: first, Jesus, that is the Savior of the world; secondly, the Christ, that is the Messiah awaited for so many ages; thirdly, God and the Son of God; fourthly, that He Himself will give eternal life to those who believe in Him and obey Him. "For he truly believes," says St. Gregory, "who does by working that which he believes."