1 And on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
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VERS. 1.-- *And on the first day of the week,* etc. The first of the sabbath is the same as the first day of the sabbath, that is, the one day from the day of the sabbath or of the sabbaths, which is now called the Lord's day. In that the women came very early to the monument, a great fervour of charity in seeking and finding the Lord is shown. Mystically: an example is given, that with faith enlightened and the darkness of the vices shaken off, we should approach the sacred body of the Lord. For the sepulchre is a figure of the altar, on which the mystery of the Lord's body and blood is celebrated. The spices which they bring signify the odour of the virtues and the sweetness of prayers, with which we ought to draw near to the altar.
2 And they found the stone rolled back from the sepulchre.
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VERS. 2.-- *The stone rolled back.* The rolling back of the stone signifies the unlocking of the sacraments of Christ, which were covered by the veil of the letter. The law was written on stone; and when its covering is taken away, the body of the Lord is not found dead, but is proclaimed living: *because although we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no more*. And he was able to go forth from a closed sepulchre who went forth from a closed womb.
3 And going in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4 And it came to pass, as they were astonished in their mind at this, behold, two men stood by them, in shining apparel.
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VERS. 4.-- *Cast down in mind.* They are cast down in mind, because they were both amazed that a stone of immense size had been rolled back, and grieved that so venerable a body was not found. As, when the Lord was tempted in the wilderness, angels ministered to him when the victory was accomplished, so now, after death had been conquered, angels came, who announce the glory of the triumphant one not only by word but also by their shining habit. And as they stood by the body in the sepulchre, so also they daily stand by the consecrated body upon the altar.
5 And as they were afraid and bowed down their countenance towards the ground, they said unto them: Why seek you the living with the dead?
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VERS. 5.-- *They bowed down their countenance.* Note that neither are the holy women read to have fallen to the earth, nor any of the saints to have adored prostrate on the earth at the Lord's resurrection; whence the custom began in the Church, at paschal time, not to bend the knees in prayer, but to pray with the countenance bowed toward the earth.
6 He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke unto you, when he was yet in Galilee,
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VERS. 6.-- *Remember.* On the third day, as we have from this place, the Lord foretold among the disciples, and to the women also who were following him, that he would rise again. On the preparation-day, at the ninth hour, he expired; in the morning, on the first day of the sabbath, he rose again. And deservedly did he lie one day and two nights in the sepulchre, because he set the light of his own single death (which was in the flesh only) against the darkness of our double death, which was in the body and in the soul, and healed both of ours. For if he had taken both upon himself, he would have freed us from neither.
7 Saying: The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again.
8 And they remembered his words.
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VERS. 8.-- *And they remembered.* As the women, standing at the Lord's monument, remember the words which he had spoken beforehand concerning his dispensation, so we, amid the mysteries of the Lord's passion that are to be celebrated, ought to remember not only the passion but the resurrection also.
9 And going back from the sepulchre, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
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VERS. 9.-- *They told.* As in the beginning the woman was to the man the author of guilt, and the man was the executor of the error, so now she who had first tasted death saw the resurrection; and lest she should bear among men the reproach of a perpetual guilt, she who had poured guilt into the man poured grace also into him. And because the inferior sex, weaker for carrying a thing through, has not the constancy of preaching, the office of evangelizing is committed to men.
10 And it was Mary Magdalen and Joanna and Mary of James and the other women that were with them, who told these things to the apostles.
11 And these words seemed to them as idle tales: and they did not believe them.
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VERS. 11.-- *And they did not believe.* That the disciples are slow to believe was not so much their weakness as our own firmness to come; for while they doubted, the resurrection is shown by many proofs, and while we, reading, come to know them, what else are we but made solid out of their doubting?
12 But Peter rising up, ran to the sepulchre and, stooping down, he saw the linen cloths laid by themselves: and went away wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
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VERS. 12.-- *But Peter rising up.* John relates that both he and Peter ran together, and that, while Peter went inside into the monument and saw the linen cloths and the napkin, John himself, stooping down, saw the linen cloths and did not go in. But it is to be understood that Peter first, stooping down, saw what Luke relates and John passes over in silence; but that afterwards he entered, that he might discern the inner things more carefully, yet entered before John went in.
13 And behold, two of them went, the same day, to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus.
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VERS. 13.-- *Named Emmaus.* Emmaus is itself the metropolis, a notable city of Palestine, which, after the storming of Judea, was restored under the prince Marcus Aurelius Antonius, and changed its name along with its condition.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus himself also, drawing near, went with them.
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VERS. 15, 16.-- *While they talked together.* The Lord draws near and accompanies them as they speak of him, that he may both kindle in their minds the faith of the resurrection, and fulfil what he had promised he would do: *Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them*. *Drawing near,* etc. *Their eyes,* etc. He appeared indeed in his own form, but did not show the form which they might recognize. As they both loved him within and yet doubted, so he himself is present outside and at hand, and does not show who he is. To those who speak of him, then, he grants his presence; but from those who doubt of him he takes away the appearance by which he might be known.
16 But their eyes were held, that they should not know him.
17 And he said to them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk and are sad?
18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to him: Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days?
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VERS. 18, 19, 20.-- *Art thou a stranger,* etc. *To whom,* etc. They think him a stranger whom they do not recognize. And truly he was a stranger to them, from whose frailty he now stood far off through the glory of the resurrection, and from whose faith, ignorant of the resurrection, he remained an alien. *A man, a prophet,* etc. *And how they delivered him up,* etc. They confess him a prophet and a great one; of the Son of God they are silent, either because they do not yet believe perfectly, or, if they believe, they fear to be delivered into the hands of the Jews, not knowing with whom they speak.
19 To whom he said: What things? And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people.
20 And how our chief priests and princes delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.
21 But we hoped that it was he that should have redeemed Israel. And now besides all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done.
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VERS. 21.-- *But we hoped,* etc. In a manner they refute themselves, in that they had hoped for redemption in him whom they had seen dead, nor did they believe that he would rise again; and they grieve most of all that he was slain without guilt, whom they had known to be innocent; and from this they were walking sorrowful.
22 Yea and certain women also of our company affrighted us who, before it was light, were at the sepulchre,
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VERS. 22.-- *They affrighted us,* etc. They are rightly said *teruisse* those to whom they added more sadness about the body not found than they bring gladness, by the resurrection announced, wherewith they might be refreshed.
23 And not finding his body, came, saying that they had all seen a vision of angels, who say that he is alive.
24 And some of our people went to the sepulchre and found it so as the women had said: but him they found not.
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VERS. 24.-- *Some of us went,* etc. Since above he said that Peter ran to the monument, and now Cleophas says: *Some of us went to the monument,* etc., it is to be understood that two went together. But he mentioned Peter alone first, because Mary announced it to him first.
25 Then he said to them: O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all things, Which the prophets have spoken.
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VERS. 25.-- *O foolish and slow of heart.* Here a twofold necessity of being humbled presses upon us, who are neither taught in the Scriptures as much as we ought, nor as intent as is fitting on fulfilling the things we know. For if Moses and the prophets spoke of Christ, and had foretold that he would enter through passion into glory, how does he glory that he is a Christian who neither searches out in the Scriptures how they pertain to Christ, nor desires to reach through sufferings the glory which he wishes to have with Christ?
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so, to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things that were concerning him.
28 And they drew nigh to the town whither they were going: and he made as though he would go farther.
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VERS. 28, 29.-- *And he himself,* etc. *Stay with us,* etc. He showed himself such in body as he was among them in mind. They were to be tested, whether they would love at least as a stranger him whom they did not yet love as God. But because they cannot be strangers to the brightness, they with whom the Truth was walking call him to lodging, nay compel him. From which example it is gathered that strangers are not only to be invited to lodging, but even to be drawn in.
29 But they constrained him, saying: Stay with us, because it is towards evening and the day is now far spent. And he went in with them.
30 And it came to pass, whilst he was at table with them, he took bread and blessed and brake and gave to them.
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VERS. 30.-- *He broke it,* etc. Him whom they did not know in the exposition of Scripture they knew in the breaking of bread; because not the hearers of the law but the doers shall be justified, and the truth is better understood by working than by hearing.
31 And their eyes were opened: and they knew him. And he vanished out of their sight.
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VERS. 31.-- *Their eyes were opened,* etc. The appearance of weakness is withdrawn from the eyes of the flesh, that the glory of the resurrection may begin to appear to their minds.
32 And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way and opened to us the scriptures?
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VERS. 32.-- *And they said,* etc. Mystically: for this reason another likeness was shown them in Christ, that they might not know him save in the breaking of bread; so that all may understand that they do not recognize Christ unless they become partakers of his body, that is, of the Church, whose unity the Apostle commends in the sacrament of the bread, saying: *We being many are one bread, one body*. When therefore he reaches out the blessed bread, their eyes are opened that they may know him, and the impediment is removed which was upon their eyes from Satan, that Jesus might not be recognized. And this impediment the Lord allows to remain until the sacrament of the bread be come to. But when the unity of the body has been shared, the enemy's impediment is taken away, that Christ may be recognized. *Burning.* When the word had been heard, the heart, before cold with the numbness of unbelief and of fear, was kindled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, so that it now burns with a heavenly desire and stretches itself out to believe the truth. By as many precepts as a man is instructed, by so many torches, as it were, is he set aflame.
33 And rising up, the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem: and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were with them,
34 Saying: The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon.
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VERS. 34.-- *The Lord is risen.* Already there was a report that Jesus had risen, made by those women and by Simon Peter, to whom he had appeared; these two found them speaking of these things. But they themselves also had heard earlier that he had risen; yet they feared to say it on the way, when they said only that angels had been seen by the women. For, not knowing him with whom they were speaking, they could fear that they might fall into the hands of the Jews, if they should say anything anywhere about Christ's resurrection.
35 And they told what things were done in the way: and how they knew him in the breaking of bread.
36 Now, whilst they were speaking these things, Jesus stood in the midst of them and saith to them: Peace be to you. It is I: Fear not.
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VERS. 36.-- *Jesus stood,* etc. This appearance is that of which John says: *When it was late that day,* etc., *and he said to them: Peace be to you.* But as to John's saying that Thomas was not with them, while Luke says that these two found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, it is to be understood that Thomas had gone out from there before the Lord appeared to them as they spoke of these things.
37 But they being troubled and frightened, supposed that they saw a spirit.
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VERS. 37, 38.-- *To see a spirit. And he said to them.* The disciples had known him to be true man, but after he died they do not believe that true flesh could rise from the sepulchre on the third day. They think therefore that they see the spirit which he sent forth in the passion; but the Lord takes away this error. *Why are you troubled.* The apostles believed, but nevertheless they are troubled, etc., *as far as* that the Lord, with the doors shut, poured himself in unforeseen with his body. *Thoughts,* etc. False ones, not descending from above, but rising up in the heart like an evil weed. I require the faith which I planted in you; what has sprung from yourselves I condemn. If there is no truth of the resurrection, the fruit of the passion is lost.
38 And he said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39 See my hands and feet, that it is I myself. Handle, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.
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VERS. 39.-- *Handle and see.* By many proofs he persuades them of the resurrection, offering himself both to be seen by their eyes and to be handled by their hands; and while by their handling he shows bones and flesh, he marks the state of his own resurrection and of ours, in which our body will be both subtle through the effect of a spiritual power, and palpable through the truth of its nature. After the resurrection the Lord showed in his body two contrary things: both what is palpable, of the same nature, that he might form them to faith, and what is incorruptible, of another glory, that he might invite them to the reward.
40 And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and feet.
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VERS. 40.-- *He showed them his hands,* etc. That by showing the scar of his wounds he might heal the wound of unbelief; which scars he both kept then and will keep in the judgment. First, to establish faith in the resurrection; then, that, entreating the Father for us, he may always show what kind of death he endured for man; thirdly, that he may intimate to those redeemed by his death how mercifully they have been helped, by setting before them the tokens of that same death. But lastly, that in the judgment he may declare how justly the impious are condemned, by showing the scar which he received from them. Not therefore from any inability to heal them did he keep the scars, but that he might carry about the perpetual triumph of his victory.
41 But while they yet believed not and wondered for joy, he said: Have you here any thing to eat?
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VERS. 41.-- *Have you here anything.* To convey the truth of the resurrection, he willed not only to be touched but to eat with them; not that either he or we after the resurrection ought to need food, but that he might make manifest that he was a body, not a spirit; he ate by power, not by necessity. In one way the thirsting earth soaks up water, in another the hot ray of the sun: the former by need, the latter by power.
42 And they offered him a piece of a broiled fish and a honeycomb.
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VERS. 42.-- *Of a broiled fish.* The broiled fish is the Mediator himself who suffered, taken in the waters of the human race by the snare of death, broiled at the time of the passion. He is also to us a honeycomb in the resurrection. The honeycomb in the wax, that is, the Godhead in the manhood. In the eating of this honey it is signified that he receives into his body, unto eternal rest, those who, when they feel tribulations for God, do not withdraw from the love of the inward sweetness. They who are broiled here shall there be filled with the true sweetness.
43 And when he had eaten before them, taking the remains, he gave to them.
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VERS. 43.-- *And when he had eaten.* He takes away all evasions: he was seen, he was touched, he ate; and lest in anything he should seem to have deluded the human senses, he puts his hands to the Scriptures, so that even if it should seem, as the pagans say, that by magic arts he was able to do what he willed, they may at least see that he could not have prophesied before he was born.
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 needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.
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VERS. 45.-- *Then he opened.* After the sight, after the touch, after the law recalled to mind, he opened their understanding, that they might understand what they see and read; then, after the truth of his own body had been commended, he commends the unity of the Church: *And that there should be preached in his name.*
46 And he said to them: Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, the third day:
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VERS. 46.-- *It behoved,* etc. It behoved that the ministers who were to preach penance and remission unto all nations should begin from Jerusalem. Not only because to them were entrusted the oracles of God, and because theirs is the adoption of sons, and the glory the testaments, and the law-giving; but for this reason also, that the Gentiles, entangled in various errors and crimes, might by this token above all of the divine loving-kindness be roused to the hope of pardon: that he grants pardon to those who crucified the Son of God.
47 And that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48 And you are witnesses of these things.
49 And I send the promise of my Father upon you: but stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high.
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VERS. 49.-- *But stay you.* After he had perfectly instructed the disciples about the power of preaching, although he could of a sudden, if he willed, have strengthened them, he put it off, saying: *But stay you.* That he might give an example to those who follow, lest the imperfect presume to preach before the time. He sits in the city who binds himself within the cloisters of the mind, lest by speaking he wander abroad outside; so that when he has been perfectly clothed with the divine power, then he may go forth as it were out of himself, by instructing others.
50 And he led them out as far as Bethania: and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
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VERS. 50.-- *And he led them out.* Passing over all that was done through the forty days, he silently joins to the first day of the resurrection the last, on which he ascended into heaven. And beautifully, being about to bless the disciples, he leads them out to Bethany, which is called the house of obedience: because he who came down on account of the disobedience of the perverse, ascended on account of the obedience of the converted.
51 And it came to pass, whilst he blessed them, he departed from them and was carried up to heaven.
52 And they adoring went back into Jerusalem with great joy.
53 And they were always in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.
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VERS. 53.-- *In the temple.* That in the place of prayer, amid the devotions of praise, with hearts made ready in all things, they might await the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. So let us, after the solemnities of the passion and the resurrection have been celebrated in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace, seek Bethany with the Lord for our leader, that with a quiet mind we may be steeped in the sacraments of his body and blood, and may take care to be a house of obedience. *Praising and blessing.* Luke, who took upon himself to set forth Christ's priesthood more fully than the rest, and therefore began his Gospel from the ministry of the temple through the priesthood of Zachary, beautifully completed it in the devotion of the temple, when he concludes with the apostles there, ministers, namely, of the new priesthood to come, not in the blood of victims, but in the praise of God and in blessing.