Sermon 229K

SERMON 229/K On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were together, suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

TREATISE ON THE FIFTH DAY OF EASTER

Christ is better touched by faith than by flesh.

It is good to remember what you are used to hearing every year; for just as what is written is not enough to be read once, so is an explanation of what is not understood insufficient if done only once. Therefore, those who have heard and understood, holding it in their minds and remembering well, should listen patiently, when even those who might have forgotten are instructed or hear who perhaps have not yet heard. For it is puzzling why the Lord Jesus Christ, when the faithful woman sought to reach the body of her Lord which she could not find in the tomb, said: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father." For if He did not wish to be touched before He had ascended to the Father, He had not yet ascended to the Father when He said to His disciples: "See my hands and feet; touch and see." He did not want to be touched, who wanted to be palpated. Hence arises a question that must be resolved: for no one has heard it said: He wanted to be touched by men before He had ascended to the Father; but He reserved Himself to be touched by women after He had ascended to the Father. When He ascended to the Father, or when He had ascended to the Father, who touched Him? Did He reserve Himself to be touched by women at a time when He could not be touched by men? And yet, out of love, not only was He being touched by Saul the persecutor, but also ravaged on earth, when He said from heaven: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" For the Lord Christ is both there at the right hand of the Father, and here laboring on earth; He is there, but here are His members; He is there to judge the living and the dead, and the same He is here in His own, about whom He will say: "When you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." So what does it mean: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father"? Christ is better touched by faith than by flesh; to touch Christ by faith, that is to touch. Likewise, the woman who was suffering from a flow of blood approached with faith and touched the garment with her hand, touching majesty with faith. And see what it means to touch. Then the Lord, who was pressed upon by the crowds, was touched by one. For He said: "Who touched me?" The disciples were astonished, because the crowd was pressing on Him from all sides, and they responded: "The crowds press upon you and you say, 'Who touched me?'" And He said: "Someone touched me." For if the crowds press you, they do not touch you: whence did she touch you, unless it was because she believed?

By faith must be touched either the humanity or the divinity of Christ.

And now, my brothers, Jesus is in heaven. When He was before His disciples, according to His visible flesh, according to His tangible bodily substance, He was seen and touched. But now as He sits at the right hand of the Father, which of us can touch Him? And yet woe to us if we do not touch Him by faith. All of us who believe touch Him. Certainly, He is in heaven, certainly He is far away, certainly it cannot be imagined by what distance of spaces He is separated from us. Believe, and you touch Him. What am I saying, you touch Him? Because you believe, you have with you the One you believe in. Therefore, if to believe is to touch, indeed if to touch is to believe, what does it mean: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father? What is this? Why do you seek my flesh, since you do not yet understand my divinity? Do you wish to know how this woman was wanting to touch Him? She was seeking Him as if dead, who she did not believe would rise again. They have taken my Lord from the tomb; and she laments as a man. O touch! Because she saw herself occupied with the form of a servant, she did not know, nor believe, nor understand the form of God, by which He is equal to the Father, so He defers the touch to fulfill the touch. He says, Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. You touch me before I ascend to the Father, and you believe only in the man; what profit is it to you that you believe? Therefore, let me ascend to the Father. From whence I never departed, I ascend for you, if you would believe me equal to the Father. For our Lord Jesus Christ did not descend from the Father in such a way that He deserted the Father; because, even as He ascended from us, He did not depart from us. For about to ascend and sit at the right hand of the Father, He says finally to the disciples: Behold, I am with you even to the end of the world.