Sermon 246

SERMO 246

A sermon delivered on the fifth day of Easter.

The variety of the Gospels without falsehood is to be admired.

The Lord Jesus appeared to His faithful in many ways after the resurrection; the Evangelists all had something to write as the Spirit provided them with the memory of things they wrote. One said one thing, another said another. Someone could omit something true, not say something false. Consider that all these things are spoken as one; truly one spoke because one Spirit was in all of them. What did we hear today? That the disciples did not believe that Jesus had resurrected and did not believe Him when He foretold this very thing. The matter is clear and therefore it was written so that we might give great thanks to God because we believed in Him whom we have not seen on earth. It was scarcely persuaded to their eyes and hands what we believe.

The disciples of Christ believed the body was taken from the tomb.

You have heard that his disciple went into the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there and believed; for they did not yet know the Scriptures that it was necessary for Jesus to rise from the dead. Thus you have heard, thus it has been read: He saw and believed; for they did not yet know the Scriptures. Therefore, it should have been said: He saw and did not believe; for they did not yet know the Scriptures. What then is: He saw the linen cloths and believed? What did he believe? What the woman had said: They have taken my Lord from the tomb. For if you have heard, indeed because you have heard, that woman had said this: They have taken my Lord from the tomb and I do not know where they have laid him. Upon hearing this, they ran. He went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths, and believed what the woman had said; that Christ had been taken from the tomb. Why did he believe that Christ had been taken and stolen from the tomb? Why? For they did not yet know the Scriptures that it was necessary for Jesus to rise from the dead. He had entered, he had not found. He ought to have believed that He had risen, not that He had been stolen.

Christ dead would profit us nothing unless He had risen.

What does this want, therefore? We are accustomed to speak to you about it every year. But the reading itself is read solemnly, and the sermon itself is delivered solemnly. Why did the Lord Christ say to the woman who was already recognizing him... For first he had said, "Whom are you seeking? Why are you crying?" But she thought he was the gardener. And, if you consider it, if we are his vegetables, Christ is the gardener. Is he not the gardener who planted the mustard seed, that is, the smallest and most fiery seed? And it grew and rose and made a tree so great that even the birds of the sky rested in its branches. If you have, he himself says, faith like a mustard seed. The mustard seed seems small, nothing more contemptible in appearance, but nothing indeed stronger. What is this if not the greatest ardor and inner power of faith in the Church? Therefore, she thought he was the gardener and said to him: Lord, - for the sake of respect, because she was asking for a favor, she said Lord - if you have taken him away, show me where you have placed him and I will take him. As if saying: He is necessary to me, not to you. O woman, you think a dead Christ is necessary to you, recognize him alive. You seek a dead one, the Lord saw himself being sought as dead. However, a dead one would not benefit us at all unless he had risen from the dead. And he was sought dead, he showed himself living. How living! He called her by name: Mary; and immediately upon hearing her name: Rabboni. For a gardener could say: Whom are you seeking? Why are you crying? But only Christ could say Mary. He called her by name, who called her to the kingdom of heaven. He said the name he himself had written in his book: Mary. And she said: Rabboni, which means Teacher. She now recognized him by whom she was being illuminated to be recognized, now, who was previously thought to be the gardener, was seen as Christ. And the Lord to her: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.

What is touching if not believing?

What does this mean: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father? If she could not touch Him standing on earth, could she touch Him sitting in heaven, as if He said: Do not touch me now, touch me then when I have ascended to my Father? Let your Charity recall yesterday's lesson when the Lord appeared to the disciples and they thought they were seeing a spirit. But wanting to remove this error from them, He presented Himself to be touched. What did He say? It was read yesterday, and there was a sermon on it. Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, touch and see. Had He already ascended to the Father when He said: touch and see, presenting Himself to His disciples to be touched, not just touched but palpated, so that faith might be made in the true flesh of the true body, so that the solidity of the truth might be exhibited even to human touches? Therefore, He presents Himself to be palpated by the hands of His disciples, and says to the woman: Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. What does this mean? Men could not touch Him except on earth; women then were to touch Him in heaven: For I have not yet ascended to my Father? What then is to touch, if not to believe? For we touch Christ by faith and it is better to touch by faith and not by the hand, than to palpate by hand and not touch by faith. It was not a great thing to touch Christ. The Jews touched Him when they apprehended Him, touched Him when they bound Him, touched Him when they hung Him, touched Him and by touching wickedly, they lost what they touched. Touch by faith, O Catholic Church, touch by faith. If you think Christ is only a man, you have touched Him on earth. If you believe Christ is Lord equal to the Father, then you have touched Him when He ascended to the Father. Therefore, He ascends for us when we understand Him. He ascended once then at that time, but now He ascends daily. And to how many has He not ascended, how many lie on the earth, how many say: He was not a man, how many say: He was a great man, how many say: He was a prophet, how many Christians exist who would say, as Photinus: He was a man, nothing more; but He surpassed all pious and holy men in excellence of justice and wisdom, for He was not God. O Photinus, you touched on earth, you rushed to touch, you hastened judgment, to the truth of equality to the Father and thus did not reach the homeland, because you erred on the way.

God, Father of Christ and our Father.

Next, let us hear His words: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Why not: "to our Father and our God," but with distinction: "my Father and your Father and my God and your God"? My Father, because I am the only one, your Father by grace, not by nature. My Father, because this always was, your Father, because I chose you. My God and your God. Whence is the Father the God of Christ? Thus His Father because He begot Him. Whence His God? Because He also created Him. He begot Him, the Only Begotten Word; He created Him from the seed of David according to the flesh; therefore both Father of Christ and God of Christ; Father of Christ according to divinity, God of Christ according to infirmity. Hear whence the God of Christ, let us ask the Psalm. Through the Prophet, He said: "From my mother's womb, You are my God." Before my mother's womb, my Father, from my mother's womb, my God. Therefore, why is there also a distinction there, for instance, my Father and your Father? There is a distinction because Father of the Only Begotten Son is different, and Father of ours is different. His Father by nature, ours by grace. Therefore He had to say: to my Father and your Father and our God, because God, if He is God of the creature, and therefore of Christ, because Christ is also a creature according to man. Father of Christ distinctly. Because Creator of Christ, God of Christ, why distinctly, since according to the man, Christ is a creature, and we are creatures, according to the man, Christ is indeed a servant - taking the form of a servant, the Apostle said - why then: my God and your God are also distinct there? Distinct clearly. For all of us, God formed us through the propagation of sin. He was made man differently, He was born of a virgin, He was conceived by a woman not through concupiscence but by believing, He did not draw the propagation of sin from Adam. We all were born through sin; He was born without sin, who cleansed sins. Therefore, there is also a distinction there: my God and your God. For you were created from seed, from a male and a female, you came from the concupiscence of the flesh with the propagation of sin: For who is clean in Your sight? Not even an infant whose life is one day upon the earth. Finally, it is run with infants so that what they added not by living, but drew by being born, might be absolved from them. Not so Christ. My God and your God; my God because of the likeness of sinful flesh; your God because of the flesh of sin.

Thus far, it is sufficient to have spoken about the gospel reading which pertains to the resurrection of the Lord as written by John the Evangelist, because other readings of John's Gospel about the resurrection of the Lord will need to be read. For no one has narrated more abundantly about His resurrection than Saint John, in such a way that it cannot be read in one day, but is read also on another, and again on a third, until all that Saint John wrote about the Lord's resurrection is finished.