RETURN OF THE APOSTLES TO JERUSALEM.--END OF THE
PERIOD OF APPARITIONS.
The apparitions, in the meanwhile, as is usually the case in all
movements of too credulous enthusiasm, began to diminish. Popular
chimeras are nearly allied to contagious diseases; quickly do they
become stale and change their shape. The activity of these ardent souls
was already turned in another direction. That which they believed they
had heard from the lips of their beloved and resuscitated friend,
was the command to go before him to preach and to convert the world.
But where should they commence? Naturally at Jerusalem.[3.1] The
return to Jerusalem was accordingly resolved upon by those who at
this time directed the movements of the sect. As these journeys were
ordinarily made in caravanseries at the periods of the feasts, we may
suppose, with sufficient probability, that the return of which we are
treating, took place at the feast of Tabernacles at the end of the
year thirty-three or at the Paschal feast of the year thirty-four.
Galilee was, accordingly, abandoned by Christianity, and abandoned for
all time. The little church which remained there, doubtless, still
existed; but we intend to speak no more of it. It was probably crushed,
like all the rest, by the frightful catastrophe which overwhelmed the
country during the war of Vespasian; the residue of the dispersed
society took refuge, from that time, in Jerusalem. After the war, it
was not Christianity which was replanted in Galilee; it was Judaism.
In the second, third, and fourth centuries, Galilee was altogether a
Jewish country, the centre of Judaism, the country of the Talmud.[3.2]
Thus Galilee was considered as of no account whatsoever in the history
of Christianity; but this was the sacred time of the church, _par
excellence_; it conferred on the new religion its enduring qualities,
its poetry, its penetrating charms. "_The Gospel_," according to the
theory of the synoptics, was a Galilean work. But we shall endeavor to
show, further on, that "_The Gospel_," thus understood, has been the
principal cause of the success of Christianity, and continues to be the
surest guarantee of its future history.
It is probable that a portion of the little school which surrounded
Jesus during his last days had remained at Jerusalem at the time
of their separation. The belief in the resurrection was already
established. This belief became accordingly developed from two points
of view, each having a perceptibly different aspect, and such,
doubtless, is the reason for the completely different variations
which are so remarkable in the stories of the apparitions. Two
traditions--one Galilean, the other Jerusalemitish--were intended;
according to the former, all the apparitions (except those of the
earliest period) had occurred in Galilee; according to the latter,
they had all taken place at Jerusalem.[3.3] The agreement of the two
portions of the little church respecting the fundamental dogma, only
served, as was natural, to confirm the common belief. They were united
by the bonds of the same faith; again and again they said, "He is
risen!" Perhaps the joy and enthusiasm which were the consequence of
this harmony produced for them certain other visions. It is at about
this period that we can place the "vision of James" mentioned by St.
Paul.[3.4] James was the brother, or at least the kinsman, of Jesus.
It is not clear that he accompanied Jesus during his last sojourn at
Jerusalem, but he came there, probably, with the apostles, when they
departed from Galilee. All the chief apostles had had their vision;
it was hard that this "brother of the Lord" should not also have had
his. It would appear that this vision was eucharistic--that is to say,
one in which Jesus appeared taking and breaking the bread.[3.5] Later,
those members of the Christian family who attached themselves to James,
and who are called the Hebrews, referred that vision to the very day of
the resurrection, and pretended that it had been the first of all.[3.6]
It is, indeed, very remarkable that the family of Jesus, certain
members of which during his life had been unbelieving and opposed to
his mission,[3.7] should now have become members of the Church and
hold a position of eminence in it. We are compelled to suppose that
the reconciliation took place during the sojourn of the apostles in
Galilee. The renown with which the name of their kinsman had suddenly
become invested--these five hundred persons who believed in him and
were assured that they had seen him resuscitated--might have made an
impression on their minds.[3.8] Since the definitive establishment
of the apostles at Jerusalem, we see with them Mary, the mother of
Jesus, and the brethren of Jesus.[3.9] As far as Mary is concerned,
it appears that John, in the belief that he was thus obeying a
recommendation of his Master, had adopted her and taken her into his
own house.[3.10] He perhaps took her to Jerusalem. This woman, whose
history and personal characteristics had been veiled in profound
obscurity, became henceforth of great importance. The saying which
the Evangelist puts into the mouth of some unknown woman: "Blessed is
the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked!" began
to be verified. It is probable that Mary did not survive her son many
years.[3.11]
In respect to the brothers of Jesus, the question is more obscure.
Jesus had brothers and sisters.[3.12] It seems probable, nevertheless,
that in the class of persons who were termed "brothers of the Lord,"
were comprehended kinsmen of the second degree. It is only in connexion
with James that the inquiry possesses any consequence. Was this James
the Just, or "brother of the Lord," whom we are about to regard as
playing a grand part during the first thirty years of Christianity--was
he James the son of Alphæus, who appears to have been a cousin-german
of Jesus, or was he a real brother of Jesus? The data, in this respect,
are altogether uncertain and contradictory. What we know of this James
gives us an idea of a character so far removed from that of Jesus that
one can hardly believe that two men so different could be born of the
same mother. If Jesus is the true founder of Christianity, James was
its most dangerous enemy; he almost ruined it through his narrow mind.
Later, it was certainly believed that James the Just was a real brother
of Jesus.[3.13] But perhaps some confusion has always surrounded this
subject. However that may be, henceforth the apostles only separated
to undertake temporary journeys. Jerusalem became their centre,[3.14]
they seem to be afraid to disperse, and certain traits appear to
manifest amongst them a determination to prevent a return into Galilee,
which would have dissolved their little society. They expected an
express order from Jesus, forbidding them to quit Jerusalem, at least
until the grand manifestation which awaited them.[3.15] The apparitions
became more and more infrequent. They spoke of them far less often,
and they began to think that they should no more see the Master until
his solemn return in the clouds. Their imaginations were forcibly
impressed by a promise which they supposed that Jesus had made. During
His lifetime, they said Jesus had frequently spoken of the Holy Spirit,
conceived as a personification of divine wisdom.[3.16] He had promised
His disciples that this Spirit should be their strength in the battles
which they would have to fight, their inspiration in difficulties,
their advocate if they were called upon to speak in public. When
these visions became rare, they relied on this Spirit, viewed as a
Comforter, as another self whom Jesus would doubtless send to his
friends. Sometimes they fancied that Jesus, displaying himself suddenly
in the midst of his assembled disciples, had breathed upon them from
His own mouth a current of vivifying air.[3.17] On other occasions,
the disappearance of Jesus was regarded as the condition of the coming
of the Spirit.[3.18] They thought that in these apparitions he had
promised the descent of this Spirit.[3.19] Many set up an intimate
connexion between this descent and the restoration of the kingdom
of Israel.[3.20] All the activity of imagination which the sect had
displayed in the creation of the legend of Jesus resuscitated, it now
began to apply to the creation of a similar pious belief respecting the
descent of the Spirit and His marvellous gifts.
It seems, meanwhile, that a grand apparition of Jesus had again
taken place at Bethany, or on the Mount of Olives.[3.21] Certain
traditions referred to that vision the final recommendations, the
reiterated promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit, and the act by
which He invested His disciples with power to remit sins.[3.22] The
characteristic features of these apparitions became more and more
vague; one was confounded with another, and the result was, that
they ceased to think much about them.[3.23] It was a received fact
that Jesus was alive, that he had manifested himself by a number of
apparitions sufficient to prove His existence, and that he would
continue still to manifest Himself in partial visions, until the grand
final revelation when everything would be consumed.[3.24] Thus St.
Paul represents the vision which he saw on the route from Damascus as
being of the same order as those which have been related.[3.25] At
any rate, it was admitted that in an ideal sense the Master was with
his disciples and would be with them even to the end.[3.26] In the
early days, the apparitions were very frequent; Jesus was imagined
as dwelling upon the earth constantly, and more or less fulfilling
the functions of an earthly life. When the visions became rare, they
inclined to another conception, representing Jesus as having entered
into His glory and seated at the right hand of His Father.
"He is ascended into heaven," they said.
This saying, though depending for the most part upon the state of
vague idea in which they indulged, or on a process of induction,[3.27]
was by many converted into a material scene. It was desirable that at
the close of the last vision which was common to all the apostles, and
when he delivered to them His last commands, Jesus should be taken up
into heaven.[3.28] Afterwards, the scene was developed, and became
a complete legend. They related that men of heavenly appearance,
surrounded by the most appalling brilliancy,[3.29] appeared at the
moment when a cloud surrounded Him, and consoled His disciples by the
assurance of His return in the clouds precisely similar to the scene
which they had just witnessed. The death of Moses had been invested
by the popular ideas with circumstances of the same sort.[3.30]
Perhaps also they bethought them of the ascension of Elijah.[3.31] A
tradition[3.32] placed the locality of this scene near Bethany, on the
summit of the Mount of Olives, a neighborhood always very dear to the
disciples, doubtless because Jesus had dwelt there.
The legend relates that the disciples, after this marvellous scene,
returned to Jerusalem "with joy."[3.33] For our own part, it is with
sorrow that we say a last farewell to Jesus. To find Him again still
living his shadowy life, has been to us a great consolation. This
second life of Jesus, a pale image of the first, is yet full of charms
for us. Now all trace of Him is lost. Exalted on His cloud at the right
hand of His Father, He leaves us with men; and, heavens! how great is
the fall! The reign of poetry is past; Mary of Magdala retired to her
hamlet-home, has there buried her recollections of him. In consequence
of this never-ending injustice which permits man to appropriate to
himself alone the work in which woman has taken an equal share, Cephas
eclipses her and sends her to oblivion. No more sermons on the Mount;
no more of the possessed ones cured; no more courtezans convinced
of sin; no more of those wonderful fellow-laborers in the work of
Redemption, whom Jesus had not repulsed. God truly has disappeared.
The history of the Church will henceforth be oftener the history of
treacheries than subservient to the idea of Jesus. But, such as it is,
this history is still a hymn to his glory. The words and the image
of the illustrious Nazarene will stand out in the midst of infinite
miseries, as a sublime ideal--we shall the better understand how grand
He was, when we shall see how paltry were His disciples.