Christ Resurrection: The Guards and the Tomb (Gospel Topic Series Book 9)

Introduction

On the third day, Christ rose from the dead after spending three days in the tomb. This is a part on our faith. We profess in our Creed “on the third day he rose again from the dead.” What draws us to this Mystery? It is the Mystery of Christ Jesus; the Word made flesh and his love for humanity. One of the most memorable moments of Christ resurrection is his appearance to the Apostles on the lake, while they were fishing. Peter recognizes the Lord on the seashore and jumps into the water. The Apostles come ashore, and the Lord invites them to have fish and bread with him. That beats any bed in breakfast experience anyone can imagine. Yes, it was the Lord Jesus, now in his glorious resurrected body, but he comes to share his resurrected life with his Apostles, who just a few hours earlier had seen him hanging on a tree and expiring before their eyes. For Mary, his Mother, who tradition holds was one of the first persons he appeared to after his resurrection, could indeed “ponder all these things in her heart.” It was to her fiat at the Annunciation who invited Christ into her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was her love in the simple home of Nazareth who Mary and Joseph watched over and cared for the child Jesus until he was old enough to take up the father’s plan for humanity. Lastly, it was Mary’s beckoning that launched Jesus career before the wedding guests at Cana, and the Apostles, which began his public ministry, and his disciples began to “believe in him.” But now, as Jesus stands before the Apostles on the Lake he sits with them and waits on them besides the glowing fire to the tune of bread and fish. Charity Incarnate, Crucified and Risen! Jesus didn’t hide his wounds but displayed them to his Apostles. We only have to consider the way in which Jesus invited Thomas, who was beginning to doubt Jesus had actually risen from the dead, to place his hands in his side and to put his finger in the nail marks. However great a wonder the resurrection was to the disciples, Jesus made it clear that it was more blessed to believe than to see:

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. (Jn. 20:22-31)

Jesus makes it very clear to Thomas, in the midst of the Apostles, he wants his Apostles to see with that eyes of the mind moved by grace, rather than the eyes of the body that see naturally. The “evidence of things that appear not,” are more important than the things that appear before our bodily eyes, yet can be separate from the things “we hope” to attain later in the next life. Yes, the Apostles evidently saw the Lord with their eyes and heard him with their ears. Even St. John says in his first letter to Christians the exact things they experienced in Christ.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we h