From: Matthew 28:8-15
Jesus Appears To The Women
[8] So they (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) departed quickly from
the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples.
[9] And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail!" And they came up and
took hold of His feet and worshipped Him. [10] Then Jesus said to them,
"Do not be afraid; go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee; and there
they will see Me."
The Soldiers Are Bribed
[11] While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the
city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. [12] And when
they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum
of money to the soldiers [13] and said, "Tell people, `His disciples
came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.' [14] And if
this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out
of trouble." [15] So they took the money and did as they were directed;
and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
Commentary:
1-15. The resurrection of Jesus, which happened in the early hours of
the Sunday morning, is a fact which all the evangelist state clearly
and unequivocally. Some holy women discover to their surprise that the
tomb is open. On entering the hall (cf. Mark 16:5-6), they see an
angel who says to them, "He is not here; for He has risen, as He
said." The guards who were on duty when the angel rolled back the
stone go to the city and report what has happened to the chief
priests. These, because of the urgency of the matter, decide to bribe
the guards; they give them a considerable sum of money on condition
that they spread the word that His disciples came at night and stole
the body of Jesus when they were asleep. "Wretched craftiness," says
St. Augustine, "do you give us witnesses who were asleep? It is you
who are really asleep if this is the only kind of explanation you have
to offer!" ("Ennarationes in Psalmos", 63, 15). The Apostles, who a
couple of days before fled in fear, will, now that they have seen Him
and have eaten and drunk with Him, become tireless preachers of this
great event: "This Jesus, they will say, "God raised up, and of that we
are all witnesses" (Acts 2:32).
Just as He foretold He would go up to Jerusalem and be delivered to the
leaders of the Jews and put to death, He also prophesied that He would
rise from the dead (Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34).
By His resurrection He completes the sign He promised to give
unbelievers to show His divinity (Matthew 12:40).
The resurrection of Christ is one of the basic dogmas of the Catholic
faith. In fact, St. Paul says, "If Christ has not been raised, then
our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Corinthians
15:14); and, to prove his assertion that Christ rose, he tells us "that
He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then He appeared to more
than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive,
though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all
the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also
to me" (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). The creed states that Jesus rose from
the dead on the third day ("Nicene Creed"), by His own power (Ninth
Council of Toledo, "De Redemptione Creed"), by a true resurrection of
the flesh ("Creed" of St. Leo IX), reuniting His soul with His body
(Innocent III, "Eius Exemplo"), and that this fact of the resurrection
is historically proven and provable ("Lamentabili", 36).
"By the word `resurrection' we are not merely to understand that Christ
was raised from the dead...but that He rose by His own power and
virtue, a singular prerogative peculiar to Him alone. Our Lord
confirmed this by the divine testimony of His own mouth when He said:
`I lay down My life, that I may take it again....I have power to lay it
down: and I have power to take it up again' (John 10:17-18). To the
Jews He also said, in corroboration of His doctrine" `Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up' (John 2:19-20) [...]. We
sometimes, it is true, read in Scripture that He was raised by the
Father (cf. Acts 2:24; Romans 8:11); but this refers to Him as man,
just as those passages on the other hand, which say that He rose by His
own power, related to Him as God" ("St. Pius V Catechism", I, 6, 8).
Christ's resurrection was not a return to His previous earthly
existence; it was a "glorious" resurrection, that is to say, attaining
the full development of human life--immortal, freed from all
limitations of space and time. As a result of the resurrection,
Christ's body now shares in the glory which His soul had from the
beginning. Here lies the unique nature of the historical fact of the
resurrection. He could not be seen by anyone but only by those to whom
He granted that grace, to enable them to be witnesses of this
resurrection, and to enable others to believe in Him by accepting the
testimony of the seers.
Christ's resurrection was something necessary for the completion of the
work of our Redemption. For, Jesus Christ through His death freed us
from sins; but by His resurrection He restored us all that we had lost
through sin and, moreover, opened for us the gates of eternal life
(cf. Romans 4:25). Also, the fact that He rose from the dead by His
own power is a definitive proof that He is the Son of God, and
therefore His resurrection fully confirms our faith in His divinity.
The resurrection of Christ, as has been pointed out, is the most
sublime truth of our faith. That is why St. Augustine exclaims: "It is
no great thing to believe that Christ died; for this is something that
is also believed by pagans and Jews and by all the wicked: everyone
believes that He died. The Christians' faith is in Christ's
resurrection; that is what we hold to be a great thing--to believe that
He rose" ("Enarrationes in Psalmos", 120).
The mystery of the Redemption wrought by Christ, which embraces His
death and resurrection, is applied to every man and woman through
Baptism and the other sacraments, by means of which the believer is as
it were immersed in Christ and in His death, that is to say, in a
mystical way he becomes part of Christ, he dies and rises with Christ:
"We were buried therefore with Him by baptism unto death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).
An ardent desire to seek the things of God and an interior taste for the
things that are above (cf. Colossians 3:1-3) are signs of our
resurrection with Christ.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.