Sermon 243
SERMO 243
ON THE PASCHAL DAYS
On the Resurrection of the Lord according to John
John recounts that the Lord appeared to Mary in his own way.
The account of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the evangelist John has begun to be read today. For you know this, and I had recommended to you that according to all four Evangelists the resurrection of the Lord would be recited on these days. In what we have heard, it is usually only this that causes question: why did the Lord Jesus say to the woman seeking His body, and who already recognized Him as living, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father." However, I had told you, and you ought to remember, that not all say everything, but that what is omitted by some is stated by others. Yet it is not so that they should be thought to contradict each other, if conflict is absent and piety is present in understanding. For, as it is read in the evangelist Matthew, after He had risen, He met two women in whom this woman was included, and He said to them, "Hail." Those women approached, took hold of His feet, and worshipped Him: and certainly, He had not yet ascended to the Father. How then is she now told, "Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to my Father?" For these words seem to sound as though Mary would then be able to touch Him when He had ascended into Heaven. If she cannot touch Him while He is on earth, who among mortals can touch Him while He is sitting in Heaven?
He touches Christ, who believes in Christ.
But that touching signifies faith. He touches Christ who believes in Christ. For that woman who suffered from the flow of blood said within herself: If I touch the hem of his garment, I shall be healed. She touched with faith, and the health she presumed followed. Finally, in order for us to know what it truly means to touch, the Lord immediately said to his disciples: Who touched me? And the disciples said: The crowds press upon you, and you say, Who touched me? And He replied: Someone touched me. As if saying: The crowd presses, faith touches. Therefore, it seems that this Mary, to whom the Lord said: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, bears the persona of the Church, which then believed in Christ when he had ascended to the Father. Behold, I ask you, when did you believe; I ask the Church spread throughout the whole world, whose persona was in one woman: and with one voice she responds to me, I believed then, when Jesus had ascended to the Father. What does it mean, I believed then; if not, I touched then? Many carnal people thought of Christ as merely a man, they did not understand the divinity hidden in him. They did not touch well because they did not believe well. Do you want to touch well? Understand Christ where he is co-eternal with the Father, and you have touched. But if you think of him as a man, and nothing more, he has not yet ascended to the Father for you.
Why will we retain the members of the body after the resurrection?
Therefore, the Lord Jesus presented the form of His body to human senses to affirm the resurrection of the flesh. He wanted to teach us nothing else by showing Himself alive in the body after His resurrection than for us to believe in the resurrection of the dead. When, therefore, all things are to be restored whole, a difficult question often arises from those who wish to know, and is again proposed by those who wish to debate, regarding the use of the members. For they say that our body has all its members, and that these members appear necessary for certain operations. For who does not know, who does not see, that we have eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, tongue for speaking, nostrils for smelling, teeth for chewing, hands for working, feet for walking; and even those members which are called shameful, for generating? Furthermore, the internal organs, which God wanted to be covered so they would not be horrific in appearance; our internal parts and what are called intestines, for what uses they are good, and many men, and better still, doctors know. They argue and say to us: If we have ears for hearing, eyes for seeing, a tongue for speaking; why will we have teeth if we will not be eating, throats, lungs, stomach, intestines through which food passes and is processed for the tempering of our health; finally, they ask, why will we have those very members which are called shameful, where there will be no generation, no digestion?
On the harmony of the limbs in man.
What shall we answer them? Shall we say that we will rise without intestines, in the likeness of statues? For it is easy to respond regarding teeth. Teeth not only help us to chew but also to speak, striking our tongue like a plectrum on strings, so that we form syllables. Therefore, our other limbs will be for appearance, not for use; for the commendation of beauty, not to meet a necessity. Will they be unsightly because they are idle? And indeed, now because we are unskilled and ignorant of the causes of things, if our interior parts are seen, they are horrified rather than loved. For who knows how our limbs are connected to each other, and by what numbers they are joined together? Hence it is also called harmony; a word derived from music: where we certainly see strings stretched in a lyre. If all the strings sounded alike, there would be no melody. Different tensions produce different sounds, but different sounds joined by reason produce not visible beauty, but sweetness to those who hear. Whoever has learned this reasoning in human limbs admires and delights in it so much that this understanding is preferred by the intelligent over all visible beauty. Now we do not know this; but then we will know: not because they will be exposed, but because even when covered, they will not be able to remain hidden.
The elect, filled with God, will see the divine.
Someone may respond to me and say: How, if they will be uncovered, can they not be hidden? Our hearts will not remain hidden, and our inner parts will remain hidden? Our thoughts, my brothers, the thoughts which only God sees now, we will all see each other’s in that society of the saints. No one there wishes their thoughts to be hidden, because no one there thinks evil. Thus, the Apostle says: Do not judge anything before the time: that is, Do not judge rashly what you cannot see in someone's heart. If something is done, which can also be done with a good heart, do not reprove it; do not usurp for yourself more than humanity requires. Seeing the heart belongs to God; but for men, it is only to judge from what is evident. Therefore, he says, do not judge anything before the time. What does before the time mean? He follows and says: Until the Lord comes, and illuminates the hidden things of darkness. What he calls darkness, he clearly shows with the following words: illuminates, he says, the hidden things of darkness. What does this mean? Listen to what follows: And will make manifest the thoughts of the heart. This means to illuminate the hidden things of darkness, to make manifest the thoughts of the heart. Now, therefore, our thoughts are in light to ourselves, to each one, because we know them; but to our neighbors, they are in darkness because they do not see them. There, what you know you are thinking, another will also know. Why are you afraid? Now you want to hide, now you fear your thoughts being made public: for perhaps you sometimes think something evil, perhaps something shameful, perhaps something vain. There will be nothing but good there, nothing but honorable, nothing but true, nothing but pure, nothing but sincere, when you are there, you will think. How you want your face to be seen now, so then you will want your conscience to be seen.
For also the very recognition, my dear ones, the very recognition, will it not be of all of us? Do you think that you will know me because you know me now, and you will not know my father, whom you do not know, or some bishop, who was in this church many years ago? You will know all of us. Those who will be there will not recognize each other because they see faces: there will be much greater recognition through knowing. Thus, they will all see, and in a much more excellent manner, how here the Prophets are accustomed to see. They will see divinely when they will be full of God. There will be neither anything to offend, nor anything hidden from the knower.
Some members for use, others for adornment.
Therefore, the members will be whole there, even those that are considered shameful here, but there they will not be shameful. There will not be the anxious maintenance of integrity, where there will be no disgrace of lust. Behold, even here, where in a certain way the necessity of all our actions is the mother; which necessity will not be then; yet we find some things which God has placed in bodies for no use, but for beauty alone.
I was running through the limbs for some time now: and now let us retrace them a little more carefully. We have eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, nostrils for smelling, mouth and tongue for speaking, teeth for chewing, throat for swallowing, stomach for receiving and digesting, intestines for transferring food to the lower parts, and those which are called private parts, either for evacuation or for generation: hands for working, feet for walking. What is the use of a beard, except solely for beauty? Why did God create a beard in man? I see the appearance, I do not seek the use. It is apparent why women have breasts, certainly to nurse their babies: why do men have nipples? Ask for the use, there is none: ask for the appearance, a chested with nipples fits men too. Remove nipples from a man's chest, and see how much beauty you have removed, how much ugliness you have introduced.
We shall reign with the Lord forever.
Thus therefore, beloved, so believe, so hold, that the use of many members will not be needed there, but the grace of none will be lacking. There will be nothing indecorous, there will be utmost peace, nothing discordant, nothing monstrous, nothing that offends the sight; in all things God will be praised. For if now in this weakness of the flesh and tender operation of the members so much beauty of the body appears, which entices the lustful, and excites to seeking whether the studious or the curious; and if reason of numbers is found in the body, the same creator of the lowest and highest things is found to be the maker of these and the heavens, by how much more there, where there will be no lust, no corruption, no deformed wickedness, no grievous necessity, but endless eternity, beautiful truth, highest happiness?
But you say to me: What am I going to do? There will be no use for limbs there, what am I going to do? Does no action seem to you to remain: to see, to love, to praise? Behold, these holy days, which are celebrated after the resurrection of the Lord, signify the future life after our resurrection. For just as the days of Lent before Easter signified the laborious life in this mortal trouble: so these joyful days signify the future life, where we shall reign with the Lord. The life signified by Lent before Easter is now experienced: the life signified by the fifty days after the resurrection of the Lord is not experienced, but hoped for, and loved by hoping; and in that very love God, who promised these things, is praised, and these praises are Alleluia. For what is Alleluia? It is a Hebrew word, Alleluia, Praise God. Allelu, Praise; Ia, God: therefore in saying Alleluia, we sound praise to God, and we encourage each other to praise God: with hearts more harmonious than the strings of a harp, we say praises to God, we sing Alleluia. And when we have sung, we retreat due to weakness, to refresh our bodies. Why do we refresh, unless because we falter? Moreover, such is the weakness of the flesh, such the trouble of this life, that any great thing becomes tiresome. How we longed for these days to come again in the next year, as we now part from them; and how eagerly we came to them after a lapse of time! If it were said to us, Sing Alleluia without ceasing, we would excuse ourselves. Why would we excuse ourselves? Because weary, we would not be able to, for even the good itself would become tiresome to us. There, no failing, no weariness. Stand, praise, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. What do you seek, what are you going to do there? Blessed are those who dwell in your house, Lord; they shall praise you forever and ever.