DEPARTURE OF THE DISCIPLES FROM JERUSALEM.--SECOND
GALILEAN LIFE OF JESUS.
The most earnest desire of those who have lost a dear friend is to
revisit the places where they have lived with him. It was no doubt
this feeling which, some days after the events of Easter, induced
the disciples to return to Galilee. From the moment of the arrest
of Jesus, and immediately after His death, it is probable that many
of His disciples had already taken their departure for the northern
provinces. At the period of the resurrection, a report was spread that
it was in Galilee that they would see him again. Some of the women who
had been at the sepulchre returned with the statement that the angel
had told them that Jesus had already preceded them into Galilee.[2.1]
Others said that it was Jesus himself who had told them to meet him
there.[2.2] Sometimes they even fancied that they remembered how that
He had told them so in his lifetime.[2.3] It is, however, certain,
that at the end of some days, perhaps after they had completed the
solemnities of the Paschal feast, the disciples believed that they
had received a commandment to return to their own country, and they
returned accordingly.[2.4] Perhaps the visions began to diminish in
frequency at Jerusalem. A sort of homesickness possessed them. The
short apparitions of Jesus were not sufficient to compensate for the
enormous void left to them by His absence. They fancied that they were
actuated by a melancholy affection for the lake and the beautiful
mountains where they had tasted of the kingdom of God.[2.5] The women,
especially, desired at all hazards to return to the country where they
had enjoyed so much happiness. It must be observed that the order for
leaving Jerusalem came especially from them.[2.6] This odious city
weighed down their spirits; they longed to revisit the country where
they had possessed Him whom they so well loved, assured aforehand in
their own minds that they would need him there. The greater part of
the disciples then departed full of joy and hope, perhaps in company
with the caravan which was conducting homewards the pilgrims who had
attended the Paschal feast. That which they hoped to find in Galilee
was not only fleeting visions, but Jesus Himself to continue with them
as He had done previous to His death. An intense expectation filled
their minds. Was He about to restore the kingdom of Israel, to found
in definite form the kingdom of God, and, as it has been said, "reveal
His justice?"[2.7] All this is possible. Already did they recall to
their minds the smiling landscapes where they had been happy with
Him. Many thought that He had told them that He would meet them on a
mountain,[2.8] probably that one to which so many sweet remembrances
of Him were attached. Never certainly was any more cheerful journey
undertaken. They were on the eve of realizing all their dreams of
happiness. They were going to see Him again.
And indeed they did see him. Hardly restored to their peaceable
fantasies, they believed themselves to be placed in the midst of the
Gospel dispensation. It was about the end of the month of April. The
ground was covered with red anemones, which are probably the "flowers
of the field," from which Jesus loved to draw his similes. At every
step they recollected His words, attached, as it were, to the thousand
events of the way. See this tree, this flower, this seed, from which
he took up his parable! here is the little hill on which he delivered
his most touching discourses; here is the little ship in which he
taught. It was all like a beautiful dream commenced anew, like an
illusion which had vanished, and then reappeared. The enchantment
seemed to spring up again. The sweet "kingdom of God" to be established
in Galilee, took possession of their hearts. This pellucid air, those
mornings spent on the bank of the lake or on the mountain, those nights
passed on the lake while guarding their nets,--all these returned
to their minds in distinct visions. They saw him in every place in
which they had lived with him. Doubtless it was not always the joy of
possession. Sometimes the lake appeared to them to be very solitary.
But a great love is contented with small matters. If all of us, while
we are alive, could stealthily once a year calculate on a moment long
enough to behold those loved ones whom we have lost, and to exchange
but two words with them, death would be no more death.
Such was the state of mind of this faithful company in this short
period when Christianity seemed to return for a moment to its cradle
to bid Him an eternal adieu. The principal disciples, Peter, Thomas,
Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, returned to the shore of the lake and
henceforth took up their abode together;[2.9] they had taken up their
former trade of fishers at Bethsaida, or at Capernaum. The women of
Galilee were, doubtless, with them. More than the others, they had
urged the return to Galilee; for with them it was a matter of heartfelt
love. This was their last act in the foundation of Christianity. From
this moment we see no more of them. Faithful to their affection,
they would not quit the country where they had tasted of so great
enjoyment.[2.10] Soon they were forgotten, and as Galilean Christianity
had scarcely any posterity, the remembrance of them was completely lost
in certain ramifications of the tradition. These touching demoniacs,
these converted sinners, these real founders of Christianity, Mary of
Magdala, Mary Cleophas, Joanna, Susanna, all passed into the condition
of forsaken saints. St. Paul knows nothing about them.[2.11] The faith
which they had created almost threw them into oblivion. We must come
down to the middle ages before justice is rendered to them; and when
one of them, Mary Magdalene, again assumes her lofty position in the
Christian heaven.
The visions on the lake shore appear to have been frequent enough.
On these very waters where they had touched God, how was it that the
disciples had not again beheld their Divine friend? The most simple
circumstances restored Him to them. On one occasion they had toiled
all the night without having taken a single fish; all on a sudden the
nets are filled: this was a miracle. It seemed to them that some one
had told them from the shore, "Cast your nets to the right." Peter and
John looked at each other: "It is the Lord," said John. Peter, who was
naked, hastily covered himself with his tunic and jumped into the sea,
that he might go and rejoin the invisible counsellor.[2.12] At other
times, Jesus came to share their simple repasts. One day, when they
had done fishing, they were surprised to find the coals lighted, with
a fish upon the fire, and some bread beside it. A lively recollection
of their feasts in times past took possession of their minds, for
the bread and the fish had always been essential characteristics of
them. Jesus was in the habit of offering portions to them. They were
persuaded after their meal that Jesus was seated at their side, and had
presented them with these victuals, which had become already, in their
view, eucharistic and holy.[2.13]
It was John and Peter, more than all the others, who had been favored
with these intimate conversations with the well-beloved phantom. One
day Peter, dreaming perhaps (But why do I say this? Was not their
life on these shores a perpetual dream?), thought that he heard Jesus
ask him, "Lovest thou me?" The question was thrice repeated. Peter,
altogether under the influence of tender and sad feelings, imagined
that he replied, "Oh! yea, Lord! Thou knowest that I love thee;" and on
each occasion the apparition said, "Feed my sheep."[2.14] On another
occasion Peter confided to John a wondrous dream. He had dreamt that
he was walking with the Master. John was coming up a few steps behind.
Jesus spoke to him in very obscure language, which appeared to tell
him of a prison or a violent death, and repeated to him at different
times, "Follow me." Then Peter, pointing to John, who was following,
with his finger, asked, "Lord, and this man?" Jesus said, "If I wish
that this man remain until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou
me." After the martyrdom of Peter, John recollected this dream, and saw
in it a prediction of the kind of death by which his friend suffered.
He told it to his disciples; and they on their part fancied that they
had discovered an assurance that their master would not die before
the final advent of Jesus.[2.15] These grand and melancholy dreams,
these unceasing conversations interrupted and again commenced with the
beloved departed One, occupied the days and the months. The sympathy
of Galilee in behalf of the prophet whom the Jerusalemites had put to
death, was renewed. More than five hundred persons were already devoted
to the memory of Jesus.[2.16] In the absence of the lost Master, they
obeyed the chief of the disciples, and above all, Peter. One day, when
following their spiritual chiefs, the Galileans had climbed up one of
the mountains to which Jesus had often led them, and they fancied that
they saw him again. The air on these mountaintops is full of strange
mirages. The same illusion which had previously taken place in behalf
of the more intimate of the disciples, was produced again.[2.17] The
whole assembly imagined that they saw the Divine spectre displayed in
the clouds; they all fell on their faces and worshipped.[2.18] The
feeling which the clear horizon of these mountains inspires is the
idea of the immensity of the world and the desire of conquering it.
On one of these neighboring points, Satan, pointing out with his hand
to Jesus the kingdoms of the earth, and all the glory of them, it is
said proposed to give them to him if he would fall down and worship
him. On this occasion, it was Jesus who, from the top of these sacred
summits, pointed out to his disciples the whole world, and assured
them of the future. They came down from the mountain persuaded that
the Son of God had commanded them to convert the whole human race, and
had promised to be with them even to the end of the world. A strange
ardor, a divine fire, took possession of them when they returned from
these conversations. They looked upon themselves as the missionaries of
the world, capable of effecting prodigious deeds. St. Paul saw many of
those who were present at this extraordinary scene. At the expiration
of twenty-five years, the impression on their minds was still as strong
and as vivid as it was on the first day.[2.19]
Nearly a year passed over during which they lived this charmed life,
suspended, as it were, between heaven and earth.[2.20] The charm,
far from diminishing, increased. It is the peculiarity of grand and
holy enterprises, that they always become grander and more pure of
themselves. The feeling towards a beloved one whom we have lost is
always more intense than on the day following his death. The more
distant it is, the more intense does this feeling become. The sorrow
which at first was part of it, and in a certain sense diminished it,
is changed into a serene piety. The image of the departed one is
transfigured, idealized, and becomes the soul of life, the principle of
every action, the source of every joy, the oracle which we consult, the
consolation which we seek in times of despondency. Death is a necessary
condition of every apotheosis. Jesus, so beloved during His life, was
even more so after His last breath; or rather His last breath became
the commencement of His actual life in the bosom of His Church. He
became the intimate friend, the confidant, the travelling companion,
the one who, at the corner of the road, joins you and follows you,
sits down to table with you, and reveals Himself as He vanishes out of
your sight.[2.21] The absolute want of scientific exactitude in the
minds of these new believers, was the reason why no question was ever
propounded as to the nature of His existence. They represented Him as
impassible, endowed with a subtle body, passing through open windows,
sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, but always alive. Sometimes
they thought that His body was not a material body; that it was a pure
shadow or apparition.[2.22] At other times they accorded to Him a
material body with flesh and bones; with an unaffected minuteness, and
as if the hallucination had wished to be on its guard against itself,
they represented Him as drinking and eating; nay even as feeling.[2.23]
Their ideas on this point were as vague and uncertain as the waves of
the sea.
With difficulty have we thus far dreamed, in order to propose a
trifling question, but one which admits not of easy solution. Whilst
Jesus rose again in this real manner, that is to say in the hearts of
those who loved Him; while the immovable conviction of the apostles
was being formed and the faith of the world being prepared--in what
place did the worms consume the lifeless corpse which, on the Saturday
evening, had been deposited in the sepulchre? This detail will be
always steadily ignored; for, naturally, the Christian traditions
can give us no information on the subject. It is the spirit which
quickeneth; the flesh is nothing.[2.24] The resurrection was the
triumph of the idea concerning its reality. The idea once entered upon
its immortality, what need of discussion about the body?
About the year 80 or 85, when the actual text of the first Gospel
received its last additions, the Jews had already formed a fixed
opinion in regard to it.[2.25] According to them, the disciples
came by night and stole away the body. The consciences of the
Christians were alarmed at this report, and, in order to put an end
to such an objection at once, they invented the circumstances of
the guard of soldiers and the seal affixed to the sepulchre.[2.26]
This circumstance, related only in the first Gospel, and mixed up
with legends of very doubtful authority,[2.27] is in no respect
admissible.[2.28] But the explanation of the Jews, although
unanswerable, is far from altogether satisfactory. We can scarcely
admit that those who so bravely believed that Jesus had risen again,
were the very ones who had carried off the body. However slight the
accuracy with which these men reflected, we can hardly imagine so
strange an illusion. It must be remembered that the little Church was
at this moment completely dispersed. There was no organization, no
centralization, and no open regularity of proceeding. The contradictory
stories which have reached us respecting the incidents of the Sunday
morning, prove that the reports were spread through different channels,
and that there was no particular care on their part to harmonize them.
It is possible that the body was taken away by some of the disciples,
and by them carried into Galilee. The others, remaining at Jerusalem,
would not have been cognizant of the fact. On the other hand, the
disciples who carried the body into Galilee,[2.29] could not have,
as yet, become acquainted with the stories which were invented at
Jerusalem, so that the belief in the resurrection would have been
propounded in their absence, and would have surprised them accordingly.
They could not have protested; and had they done so, nothing would
have been disarranged. When a question of miracles is concerned,
a tardy correction is not the way to a denial.[2.30] Never did a
material difficulty prevent the sentimental development and creation
of the desired fictions.[2.31] In the history of the recent miracle of
Salette, the imposture has been clearly demonstrated;[2.32] this does
not damage the prosperity of the temple, nor the increase of belief in
it. It is also permissible to suppose that the disappearance of the
body was the work of the Jews. Perhaps they thought that in this way
they would prevent the scenes of tumult which might be enacted over the
corpse of a man so popular as Jesus. Perhaps they wished to prevent
any noisy funeral ceremonies, or the erection of a monument to this
just man. Lastly, who knows that the disappearance of the body was not
effected by the proprietor of the garden or by the gardener?[2.33] This
proprietor, as it would seem from such evidence as we possess,[2.34]
was a stranger to the sect. They chose his cave because it was the
nearest to Golgotha, and because they were pressed for time.[2.35]
Perhaps he was dissatisfied with this mode of taking possession of his
property, and caused the corpse to be removed. Of a truth, the details
related by the fourth Gospel of the linen cloths left in the tomb,
and of the napkin folded away carefully by itself in a corner,[2.36]
scarcely agree with such a hypothesis as this. This last circumstance
would lead to the conclusion that a female hand had slipped in
there.[2.37] The five stories of the visit of the women to the tomb
are so confused and so embarrassed, that we may well be permitted to
suppose that they conceal some misconception. The female conscience,
when under the influence of passionate love, is capable of the most
extravagant illusions. Often is it the abettor of its own dreams.[2.38]
To introduce these kinds of incidents regarded as miraculous,
deliberately deceives no one; but all the world, without thinking of
it, is induced to connive at them. Mary of Magdala had been, according
to the parlance of the age, "possessed with seven devils."[2.39] In
all this we must consider the want of precision of eastern women,
from their absolute defect of education and the particularly slight
knowledge of their sincerity. The conviction of being exalted, renders
any return to oneself impossible. When one sees the heaven everywhere,
one is induced at times to put oneself in the place of heaven.
Let us draw a veil over these mysteries. In the circumstances of a
religious crisis, everything being considered as divine, the very
grandest effects can be produced from the very meanest causes. If we
were witnesses of the strange facts which lie at the bottom of all
works of faith, we should see therein circumstances which seem to us
quite out of proportion to the importance of the results, and others at
which we could but smile. Our old cathedrals are counted amongst the
most beautiful things of the world; one can scarcely enter them without
being in some sort inebriated with the infinite. But these splendid
marvels are almost always the blossoming of some little deceit. And
what does it matter definitively? The result alone counts in such a
matter. Faith purifies all. The material incident which has produced
the belief in the resurrection was not the veritable cause of the
resurrection. It was love that made Jesus rise again; and this love was
so powerful that a little risk was sufficient to build up the universal
faith. If Jesus had been less loved, if the belief of the resurrection
had had less reason for its establishment, these sorts of risks would
have been incurred in vain; nothing would have come of it. A grain of
sand causes the fall of a mountain, when the moment for the fall of the
mountain has arrived. The grandest results are produced altogether from
causes very grand and very insignificant. The grand results alone are
real; the little ones only serve to hasten the production of an effect
which has been a long time in a state of preparation.