Whether Christ's Resurrection Ought to Have Been Manifested to All?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Resurrection ought to have
been manifested to all. For just as a public penalty is due for
public sin, according to 1 Tim. 5:20: "Them that sin reprove before
all," so is a public reward due for public merit. But, as Augustine
says (Tract. civ in Joan.), "the glory of the Resurrection is the
reward of the humility of the Passion." Therefore, since Christ's
Passion was manifested to all while He suffered in public, it seems
that the glory of the Resurrection ought to have been manifested to
all.
Obj. 2: Further, as Christ's Passion is ordained for our salvation,
so also is His Resurrection, according to Rom. 4:25: "He rose again
for our justification." But what belongs to the public weal ought to
be manifested to all. Therefore Christ's Resurrection ought to have
been manifested to all, and not to some specially.
Obj. 3: Further, they to whom it was manifested were witnesses of the
Resurrection: hence it is said (Acts 3:15): "Whom God hath raised
from the dead, of which we are witnesses." Now they bore witness by
preaching in public: and this is unbecoming in women, according to 1
Cor. 14:34: "Let women keep silence in the churches": and 1 Tim.
2:12: "I suffer not a woman to teach." Therefore, it does not seem
becoming for Christ's Resurrection to be manifested first of all to
the women and afterwards to mankind in general.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Acts 10:40): "Him God raised up the
third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people,
but to witnesses preordained by God."
_I answer that,_ Some things come to our knowledge by nature's common
law, others by special favor of grace, as things divinely revealed.
Now, as Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. iv), the divinely established law
of such things is that they be revealed immediately by God to higher
persons, through whom they are imparted to others, as is evident in
the ordering of the heavenly spirits. But such things as concern
future glory are beyond the common ken of mankind, according to Isa.
64:4: "The eye hath not seen, O God, besides Thee, what things Thou
hast prepared for them that wait for Thee." Consequently, such things
are not known by man except through Divine revelation, as the Apostle
says (1 Cor. 2:10): "God hath revealed them to us by His spirit."
Since, then, Christ rose by a glorious Resurrection, consequently His
Resurrection was not manifested to everyone, but to some, by whose
testimony it could be brought to the knowledge of others.
Reply Obj. 1: Christ's Passion was consummated in a body that still
had a passible nature, which is known to all by general laws:
consequently His Passion could be directly manifested to all. But the
Resurrection was accomplished "through the glory of the Father," as
the Apostle says (Rom. 6:4). Therefore it was manifested directly to
some, but not to all.
But that a public penance is imposed upon public sinners, is to be
understood of the punishment of this present life. And in like manner
public merits should be rewarded in public, in order that others may
be stirred to emulation. But the punishments and rewards of the
future life are not publicly manifested to all, but to those
specially who are preordained thereto by God.
Reply Obj. 2: Just as Christ's Resurrection is for the common
salvation of all, so it came to the knowledge of all; yet not so that
it was directly manifested to all, but only to some, through whose
testimony it could be brought to the knowledge of all.
Reply Obj. 3: A woman is not to be allowed to teach publicly in
church; but she may be permitted to give familiar instruction to some
privately. And therefore as Ambrose says on Luke 24:22, "a woman is
sent to them who are of her household," but not to the people to bear
witness to the Resurrection. But Christ appeared to the woman first,
for this reason, that as a woman was the first to bring the source of
death to man, so she might be the first to announce the dawn of
Christ's glorious Resurrection. Hence Cyril says on John 20:17:
"Woman who formerly was the minister of death, is the first to see
and proclaim the adorable mystery of the Resurrection: thus womankind
has procured absolution from ignominy, and removal of the curse."
Hereby, moreover, it is shown, so far as the state of glory is
concerned, that the female sex shall suffer no hurt; but if women
burn with greater charity, they shall also attain greater glory from
the Divine vision: because the women whose love for our Lord was more
persistent--so much so that "when even the disciples withdrew" from
the sepulchre "they did not depart" [*Gregory, Hom. xxv in
Evang.]--were the first to see Him rising in glory.
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