Archdiocese of Washington
Becoming Witnesses of the Resurrection and the Truth of the Gospel. A homily for the third Sunday of Easter.
By: Msgr. Charles Pope
The Gospel for this Sunday speaks to the necessity of becoming witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus. It begins with the necessary foundation of the proclamation of the Church: “The Lord is risen indeed, he has appeared to Simon!” This solemn declaration of the Church forms the doctrinal certitude of the resurrection. But on this foundation of the truth the personal witness of every Catholic must be built. In this gospel we see how the Lord confirms his resurrection through the teaching authority of the Church but then confirms each apostle in the truth of it, clarifies their faith and then commissions them to be witnesses. Lets see how the Lord does this in four steps.
I. The Certainty of the Resurrection – And [the disciples from Emmaus] rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
In the early hours of the first Easter Sunday, the news began to circulate that Jesus was alive and had been seen. These reports were at first disbelieved or at least doubted by the Apostles. They dismissed various reports from both women and men. Several women including Mary Magdalene had seen Jesus alive. St. John had seen the empty tomb and had “believed.” And though Luke does not mention it here, Mark records that when the disciples returning from Emmaus first sent word they had seen Jesus, they too were at first disbelieved (Mk 16:13). But suddenly that evening, as we pick up the story, there was a change, a declaration by the Apostles that the Lord “has truly risen!”
So what causes this to change? It would seem that after the early evening report from the disciples returning from Emmaus, Peter slipped away, perhaps for a walk. According to both Paul (1 Cor 15:5) and Luke (Lk 24:34) the risen Lord then appeared to Peter privately, prior to making Himself known to any of the other Apostles. Peter reports Jesus’ appearance to the others and it is at this point that the resurrection moves from being doubted to being the official declaration of the community, the Church. The official declaration is worded as follows: The Lord has truly risen, he has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:34)
But did the women’s and the laymen’s declarations mean nothing? Of course not. Indeed, The Lord upbraids the Apostles later for being so reluctant to accept the testimony of the others (Mk 16:14). He calls them “hard of heart” for this reluctance, especially given that he had said he would rise on the third day. Even to this day the Lord often presents apparitions of Mary, the saints or himself to the faithful. The clergy must carefully discern such actions and simply disbelieve them. But no apparition or devotion (e.g. the Divine Mercy Chaplet) can become official teaching of the Universal Church until the Church, in union with Simon Peter’s successor rules it worthy of belief.
This is even more the case with a dogma like the resurrection. It becomes an official teaching when proclaimed so by Peter and his successors. Pope Benedict, writing as Joseph Ratzinger sees an ecclesiological dimension to Peter’s special role in causing the resurrection to go from being merely attested to being “true indeed.”
… This indication of names [Cephas and then the Twelve], … reveals the very foundation of the Church’s faith. On the one hand “the Twelve” remain the actual foundation stone of the Church, the permanent point of reference. On the other hand, the special task give to Peter is underlined here. … Peter’s special witnessing role is confirmation of his commission to be the rock on which the Church is built. … So the resurrection account flows naturally into ecclesiology. … and it shapes the nascent Church [Jesus of Nzareth Vol 2., pp. 259-260].
So the resurrection is now officially declared by he Church, it is certain and true. Faith is a way of knowing, and in our faith in the Church as stated in the creed (I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church) leads us to certain knowledge of the resurrection by the Church’s dogmatic declaration: The Lord has truly risen, he has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:34)
But if the faith is a communal and official declaration of the Church through the college of apostles with Peter as its head, it cannot remain simply this. Faith has to reach every member at a very personal level. It is not enough for you or I to say, Peter say, or the Church says, or Scripture says, or my mother says. We must also be able to add our voice to the witness of the Church: “Jesus is risen it is true! What the Church has always taught I too have experienced. All her teachings and doctrines, all that the Lord has taught and revealed is true because in the laboratory of my own life I tested these truths and found them to be true!”
And thus we must stay with these disciples in their journey to come to experience personally the proclamation of the Church: “The Lord is truly risen, he has appeared to Simon!”
Lets observe their journey and ours unfold in the next three steps.
II. The Contact with the Resurrection - While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
The truth, if we will lay hold of it, is consoling, and freeing. And so Jesus, in the truth of his resurrected glory stands before them and says to them “Shalom”, peace. And while the truth does liberate and bring peace, a journey is usually necessary to realize and accept this. Before we can receive the gift of truth, we must often accept the conflict that it introduces in our life.
For, as we all know, the truth often startles, even upsets; it often breaks conventions and challenges what we think and know. And thus here too the apostles are initially startled. It is one thing to hear and accept that the Lord is risen, that he has appeared to Peter; but it is another thing to be directly be and personally confronted with the truth.
It was one thing for them to believe with the Church, and say “The Lord is truly risen, he has appeared to Simon!” But it is another thing for them to personally experience this. It breaks through everything they have ever known. Their belief is no longer abstract, it is no longer merely communal. Now they are contact the reality of it personally.
So too for us on our journey to deeper faith, a faith declared by the Church, but a faith we must come to know and experience personally. And thanks be to God the Lord is willing to help us do so. For he does not simply shatter our notions, rather he helps us to connect the dots between his truth and what we already know. Lets see how.
III. The Clarification of the Resurrection - Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
As stated earlier, the truth can often startle us, it can challenge what we think and know. For this reason some avoid or resist it initially.
But the Lord in his mercy often sends us assurances and helps us to “connect the dots” between what challenges us and what we already know; between what is new and what is ancient and attested. Truth has a unity and greater truths builds on lesser ones. God prepares us in stages for the full truth. Jesus once said to the apostles: I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth (Jn 16:12-13)
And thus, in this gospel the Lord sets forth a kind of continuity and clarification for them. Through various methods he shows them that though gloriously risen and transformed, he who stands before them now is also the same Jesus who walked with them days before. He shows them his hands and side to indicate he the one they saw crucified. He bids them to touch him and see that he is not a ghost. And he eats to console them and show them he still has fellowship with them among the living, he is no shimmering apparition from another realm. Finally he open their mind to the understanding of Scripture some that they may know that everything that happened is not some radical break or tearing up of God’s plan. Rather it is a fulfillment of all that was written, all that was prophesied. What seems new and different is in fact in line with, in continuity with all that has gone before. This is the new Passover that opens the way to the true, more glorious and eternal Promised Land of Heaven. This is not failure, it is fulfillment, this is not rejection of the Old Covenant, it is the ratification of it and the transposition of it to a higher and more glorious level than ever before. Moses gave them Manna, but Jesus gives himself as the true bread from heaven. Moses gave them Water, but Jesus changed water to wine and wine to his saving blood. The blood of the Passover lamb staved off a death that would later come, but the Blood of the True Lamb cancels the second death of hell.
This is clarification. He is helping them connect the dots between what they have known and this new and startling reality that he has overcome torture and death. It is really him, though as the resurrection accounts also indicate, he is transformed. He has not merely taken up his former life, he has elevated it to a new and mysterious level. He has a humanity that is not only risen form the dead, but that is glorified. His Lordship and glory shows through as never before. He can appear and disappear at will and is able, it would seem, to alter his appearance.
So here is a truth that we must journey to. Jesus is not mere Rabbi or ethical teacher from the ancient world. He is the Lord. He is our brother and yet also our Lord. He raised our humanity from the dead but glorified it as well. He lives at a new level. And we who are baptized into his death also rise with him to a new and higher life (Rom 6:4). Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).
In our journey to what is new, the Lord does not destroy what is behind, that he has done. He takes it up, fulfills it and elevates it. His truth builds and while what is new challenges us, it does not destroy or cancel our reason or what we have already come to know as true, if it was in fact true.
It is for us to cooperate with his grace and personally lay hold of the truth declared by the Church. The Lord does this in a way that respects our intellect and sense of the faith. And thus our conflicts are gradually overcome, our faith is deepened and while communal becomes also more personal. Now we are ready to become witnesses to the Church’s unchanging declaration “The Lord is risen indeed, he has appeared to Simon!” and every other teaching that flows form this.
IV. Commissioning - And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
What is a witness? A witness is not someone who merely repeats formulas and narratives of what others saw and heard. A witness testifies to what he or she has seen and heard. And thus, having contacted personally the certain truth proclaimed by the Church at the Church of the Resurrection, and having it clarified for them, they are now ready to go forth as witnesses. Bishops, priests, deacons, catechists and parents have to move beyond merely repeating formulas, precious and necessary thought hey are (please do not go and invent your own religion!). That Jesus is risen from the dead is certain and true because the Church solemnly proclaims it: He is risen indeed! He has appeared to Simon!”
But next must come that moment when we allow the Lord to stand before us and affirm what the Lord proclaims through the Church. And having this contact we must allow him to clarify it and then commission us to go forth as his witnesses. As witnesses we can and must say, The Church says, He is rise, the Scriptures say, He is risen, and I SAY to you, he is risen. You are witnesses of these things.
Or are you?
35. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
CHRYS. For He did not show Himself to all at the same time, in order that He might sow the seeds of faith. For he who had first seen and was sure, told it to the rest. Afterwards the word going forth prepared the mind of the hearer for the sight, and therefore He appeared first to him who was of all the most worthy and faithful. For He had need of the most faithful soul to first receive this sight, that it might be least disturbed by the unexpected appearance. And therefore He is first seen by Peter, that he who first confessed Christ should first deserve to see His resurrection, and also because he had denied Him He wished to see him first, to console him, lest he should despair. But after Peter, He appeared to the rest, at one time fewer in number, at another more, which the two disciples attest; for it follows, And they told what things were done by the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
AUG. But with respect to what Mark says, that they told the rest, and they did not believe them, whereas Luke says, that they had already begun to say, The Lord is risen indeed, what must we understand, except that there were some even then who refused to believe this?
36. And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, Peace be to you.
37. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit.
38. And he said to them, Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have.
40. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and feet.
CHRYS. The report of Christ's resurrection being published every where by the Apostles, and while the anxiety of the disciples was easily awakened to see Christ, He that was so much desired comes, and is revealed to them that were seeking and expecting Him. Nor in a doubtful manner, but with the clearest evidence, He presents Himself, as it is said, And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them.
AUG. This manifestation of our Lord after His resurrection, John also relates. But when John says that the Apostle Thomas was not with the rest, while according to Luke, the two disciples on their return to Jerusalem found the eleven gathered together, we must understand undoubtedly that Thomas departed from them, before our Lord appeared to them as they spoke these things. For Luke gives occasion in his narrative, that it may be understood that Thomas first went out from them when the rest were saying these things, and that our Lord entered afterwards. Unless some one should say that the eleven were not those who were then called Apostles, but that these were eleven disciples out of the large number of disciples. But since Luke has added, And those that were with them, he has surely made it sufficiently evident that those called the eleven were the same as those who were called Apostles, with whom the rest were.
But let us see what mystery it was for the sake of which, according to Matthew and Mark, our Lord when He rose again gave the following command, I will go before ore you into Galilee, there shall you see me. Which although it was accomplished, yet it was not till after many other things had happened, whereas it was so commanded, that it might be expected that it would have taken place alone, or at least before other things.
AMBROSE; Therefore I think it most natural that our Lord indeed instructed His disciples, that they should see Him in Galilee, but that He first presents Himself as they remained still in the assembly through fear.
GREEK EX. Nor was it a violation of His promise, but rather a mercifully hastened fulfillment on account of the cowardice of the disciples.
AMBROSE; But afterwards when their hearts were strengthened, the eleven set out for Galilee. Or there is no difficulty in supposing that they should be reported to have been fewer in the assembly, and a larger number on the mountain.
EUSEB. For the two Evangelists, that is, Luke and John, write that He appeared to the eleven alone in Jerusalem, but those two disciples told not only the eleven, but all the disciples and brethren, that both the angel and the Savior had commanded them to hasten to Galilee; of whom also Paul made mention, saying, Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once. But the truer explanation is, that at first indeed while they remained in secret at Jerusalem, He appeared once or twice for their comfort, but that in Galilee not in the assembly, or once or twice, but with great power, He made a manifestation of Himself, strewing Himself living to them after His Passion with many signs, as Luke testifies in the Acts.
AUG. But that which was said by the Angel, that is the Lord, must be taken prophetically, for by the word Galilee according to its meaning of transmigration, it is to be understood that they were about to pass over from the people of Israel to the Gentiles, to whom the Apostles preaching would not entrust the Gospel, unless the Lord Himself should prepare His way in the hearts of men. And this is what is meant by, He shall go before you into Galilee, there shall you see him. But according to the interpretation of Galilee, by which it means "manifestation," we must understand that He will be revealed no more in the form of a servant, but in that form in which He is equal to the Father, which He has promised to His elect. That manifestation will be as it were the true Galilee, when we shall see Him as He is. This will also be that far more blessed transmigration from the world to eternity, from whence though coming to us He did not depart, and to which going before us He has not deserted us.
THEOPHYL. The Lord then standing in the midst of the disciples, first with His accustomed salutation of "peace," allays their restlessness, showing that He is the same Master who delighted in the word wherewith He also fortified them, when He sent them to preach. Hence it follows, And he said to them, Peace be to you; I am he, fear not.
GREG. NAZ. Let us then reverence the gift of peace, which Christ when He departed hence left to us. Peace both in name and reality is sweet, which also we have heard to be of God, as it is said, The peace of God; and that God is of it, as He is our peace. Peace is a blessing commended by all, but observed by few. What then is the cause? Perhaps the desire of dominion or riches, or the envy or hatred of our neighbor, or some one of those vices into which we see men fall who know not God. For peace is peculiarly of God, who binds all things together in one, to whom nothing so much belongs as the unity of nature, and a peaceful condition. It is borrowed indeed by angels and divine powers, which are peacefully disposed towards God and one another. It is diffused through the whole creation, whose glory is tranquillity. But in us it abides in our souls indeed by the following and imparting of the virtues, in our bodies by the harmony of our members and organs, of which the one is called beauty, the other health.
BEDE; The disciples had known Christ to be really man, having been so long a time with Him; but after that He was dead, they do not believe that the real flesh could rise again from the grave on the third day. They think then that they see the spirit which He gave up at His passion. Therefore it follows, But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. This mistake of the Apostles was the heresy of the Manicheans.
AMBROSE; But persuaded by the example of their virtues, we can not believe that Peter and John could have doubted. Why then does Luke relate them to have been affrighted. First of all because the declaration of the greater part includes the opinion of the few. Secondly, because although Peter believed in the resurrection, yet he might be amazed when the doors being closed Jesus suddenly presents Himself with his body.
THEOPHYL. Because by the word of peace the agitation in the minds of the Apostles was not allayed, He shows by another token that He is the Son of God, in that He knew the secrets of their hearts; for it follows, And he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
BEDE; What thoughts indeed but such as were false and dangerous. For Christ had lost the fruit of His passion, had He not been the Truth of the resurrection; just as if a good husbandmen should say, What I have planted there, I shall find, that is, the faith which descends into the heart, because it is from above. But those thoughts did not descend from above, but ascended from below into the heart like worthless plants.
CYRIL; Here then was a most evident sign that He whom they now see was none other but the same whom they had seen dead on the cross, and lain in the sepulcher, who knew every thing that was in man.
AMBROSE; Let us then consider how it happens that the Apostles according to John believed and rejoiced, according to Luke are reproved as unbelieving. John indeed seems to me, as being an Apostle, to have treated of greater and higher things; Luke of those which relate and are close akin to human. The one follows an historic course, the other is content with an abridgment, because it could not be doubted of him, who gives his testimony concerning those things at which he was himself present. And therefore we deem both true. For although at first Luke says that they did not believe, yet he explains that they afterwards did believe.
CYRIL; Now our Lord testifying that death was overcome, and human nature had now in Christ put on incorruption, first shows them His hands and His feet, and the print of the nails; as it follows, Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
THEOPHYL. But He adds also another proof, namely, the handling of His hands and feet, when He says, Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. As if to say, You think me a spirit, that is to say, a ghost, as many of the dead are wont to be seen about their graves. But know you that a spirit has neither flesh nor bones, but I have flesh and bones.
AMBROSE; Our Lord said this in order to afford us an image of our resurrection. For that which is handled is the body. But in our bodies we shall rise again. But the former is more subtle, the latter more carnal, as being still mixed up with the qualities of earthly corruption. Not then by His incorporeal nature, but by the quality of His bodily resurrection, Christ passed through the shut doors.
GREG. For in that glory of the resurrection our body will not be incapable of handling, and more subtle than the winds and the air, (as Eutychius said,) but while it is subtle indeed through the effect of spiritual power, it will be also capable of handling through the power of nature. It follows, And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet, on which indeed were clearly marked the prints of the nails. But according to John, He also showed them His side which had been pierced with the spear, that by manifesting the scar of His wounds He might heal the wound of their doubtfulness. But from this place the Gentiles are fond of raising up a calumny, as if He was not able to cure the wound inflicted on Him. To whom we must answer, that it is not probable that He who is proved to have done the greater should be unable to do the less. But for the sake of His sure purpose, He who destroyed death would not blot out the signs of death. First indeed, that He might thereby build up His disciples in the faith of His resurrection. Secondly, that supplicating the Father for us, He might always show forth what kind of death He endured for many. Thirdly, that He might point out to those redeemed by His death, by setting before them the signs of that death, how mercifully they have been succored. Lastly, that He might declare in the judgment how justly the wicked are condemned.
41. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said to them, Have you here any meat?
42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43. And he took it, and did eat before them.
44. And he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.
CYRIL; The Lord had shown His disciples His hands and His feet, that He might certify to them that the same body which had suffered rose again. But to confirm them still more, He asked for something to eat.
GREG. NYSS. By the command of the law indeed the Passover was eaten with bitter herbs, because the bitterness of bondage still remained, but after the resurrection the food is sweetened with a honeycomb; as it follows, And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb.
BEDE; To convey therefore the truth of His resurrection, He condescends not only to be touched by His disciples, but to eat with them, that they might not suspect that His appearance was not actual, but only imaginary. Hence it follows, And when he had eaten before them, he took the remnant, and gave to them. He ate indeed by His power, not from necessity. The thirsty earth absorbs water in one way, the burning sun in another way, the one from want, the other from power.
GREEK EX. But some one will say, If we allow that our Lord ate after His resurrection, let us also grant that all men will after the resurrection take the nourishment of food. But these things which for a certain purpose are done by our Savior, are not the rule and measure of nature, since in other things He has purposed differently. For He will raise our bodies, not defective but perfect and incorrupt, who yet left on His own body the prints which the nails had made, and the wound in His side, in order to show that the nature of His body remained the same after the resurrection, and that He was not changed into another substance.
BEDE; He ate therefore after the resurrection, not as needing food, nor as signifying that the resurrection which we are expecting will need food; but that He might thereby build up the nature of a rising body. But mystically, the broiled fish of which Christ ate signifies the sufferings of Christ. For He having condescended to lie in the waters of the human race, was willing to be taken by the hook of our death, and was as it were burnt up by anguish at the time of His Passion. But the honeycomb was present to us at the resurrection. By the honeycomb He wished to represent to us the two natures of His person. For the honeycomb is of wax, but the honey in the wax is the Divine nature in the human.
THEOPHYL. The things eaten seem also to contain another mystery. For in that He ate part of a broiled fish, He signifies that having burnt by the fire of His own divinity our nature swimming in the sea of this life, and dried up the moisture which it had contracted from the waves, He made it divine food; and that which was before abominable He prepared to be a sweet offering to God, which the honeycomb signifies. Or by the broiled fish He signifies the active life, drying up the moisture with the coals of labor, but by the honeycomb, the contemplative life on account of the sweetness of the oracles of God.
BEDE; But after that He was seen, touched, and had eaten, lest He should seem to have mocked the human senses in any one respect, He had recourse to the Scriptures. And he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you, when I was yet with you, that is, when I was as yet in the mortal flesh, in which you also are. He indeed was then raised again in the same flesh, but was not in the same mortality with them. And He adds, That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.
AUG. Let those then who dream that Christ could have done such things by magical arts, and by the same art have consecrated His name to the nations to be converted to Him, consider whether He could by magical arts fill the Prophets with the Divine Spirit before He was born. For neither supposing that He caused Himself to be worshipped when dead, was He a magician before He was born, to whom one nation was as assigned to prophesy His coming.
45. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures,
46. And said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48. And you are witnesses of these things.
BEDE; After having presented Himself to be seen with the eye, and handled with hands, and having brought to their minds the Scriptures of the law, He next opened their understanding that they should understand what was read.
THEOPHYL. Otherwise, how would their agitated and perplexed minds have learnt the mystery of Christ. But He taught them by His words; for it follows, And said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, that is, by the wood of the Cross.
BEDE; But Christ would have lost the fruit of His Passion had He not been the Truth of the resurrection, therefore it is said, And to rise form the dead.
He then after having commended to them the truth of the body, commends the unity of the Church, adding, And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.
EUSEB. For it was said, Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance. But it was necessary that those who were converted from the Gentiles should be purged from a certain stain and defilement through His virtue, being as it were corrupted by the evil of the worship of devils, and as lately converted from an abominable and unchaste life. And therefore He says that it behoves that first repentance should be preached, but next, remission of sins, to all nations. For to those who first showed. repentance for their sins, by His saving grace He granted pardon of their transgression, for whom also He endured death.
THEOPHYL. But herein that He says, Repentance and remission of sins, He also makes mention of baptism, in which by the putting off of our past sins there follows pardon of iniquity. But how must we understand baptism to be performed in the name of Christ alone, whereas in another place He commands it to be in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. First indeed we say that it is not meant that baptism is administered in Christ's name alone, but that a person is baptized with the baptism of Christ, that is, spiritually, not Judaically, nor with the baptism, wherewith John baptized to repentance only but to the participation of the blessed Spirit; as Christ also when baptized in Jordan manifested the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Moreover you must understand baptism in Christ's name to be in His death. For as He after death rose again on the third day, so we also are three times dipped in the water, and fitly brought out again, receiving thereby an earnest of the immortality of the Spirit. This name of Christ also contains in itself both the Father as the Anointer and the Spirit as the Anointing, and the Son as the Anointed, that is, in His human nature. But it was fitting that the race of man should no longer be divided into Jews and Gentiles, and therefore that He might unite all in one, He commanded that their preaching should begin at Jerusalem but be finished with the Gentiles. Hence it follows, Beginning at Jerusalem.
BEDE; Not only because to them were entrusted the oracles of God, and theirs is the adoption and the glory, but also that the Gentiles entangled in various errors might by this sign of Divine mercy be chiefly invited to come to hope, seeing that to them even who crucified the Son of God pardon is granted.
CHRYS. Further, lest any should say that abandoning their acquaintances they went to show themselves, (or as it were to vaunt themselves with a kind of pomp,) to strangers therefore first among the very murderers themselves are the signs of the resurrection displayed, in that very city wherein the frantic outrage burst forth. For where the crucifiers themselves are seen to believe, there the resurrection is most of all demonstrated.
EUSEB. But if those things which Christ foretold are already receiving their accomplishment, and His word is perceived by a seeing faith to be living and effectual throughout the whole world; it is time for men not to be unbelieving towards Him who uttered that word. For it is necessary that He should live a divine life, whose living works are shown to be agreeable to His words; and these indeed have been fulfilled by the ministry of the Apostles. Hence He adds, But you are witnesses of these things, &c. that is, of My death and resurrection.
Catena Aurea Luke 24
