Whether Christ Ought to Have Lived Constantly with His Disciples
After the Resurrection?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ ought to have lived constantly
with His Disciples, because He appeared to them after His
Resurrection in order to confirm their faith in the Resurrection, and
to bring them comfort in their disturbed state, according to John
20:20: "The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." But they
would have been more assured and consoled had He constantly shown
them His presence. Therefore it seems that He ought to have lived
constantly with them.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ rising from the dead did not at once ascend
to heaven, but after forty days, as is narrated in Acts 1:3. But
meanwhile He could have been in no more suitable place than where the
disciples were met together. Therefore it seems that He ought to have
lived with them continually.
Obj. 3: Further, as Augustine says (De Consens. Evang. iii), we read
how Christ appeared five times on the very day of His Resurrection:
first "to the women at the sepulchre; secondly to the same on the way
from the sepulchre; thirdly to Peter; fourthly to the two disciples
going to the town; fifthly to several of them in Jerusalem when
Thomas was not present." Therefore it also seems that He ought to
have appeared several times on the other days before the Ascension.
Obj. 4: Further, our Lord had said to them before the Passion (Matt.
26:32): "But after I shall be risen again, I will go before you into
Galilee"; moreover an angel and our Lord Himself repeated the same to
the women after the Resurrection: nevertheless He was seen by them in
Jerusalem on the very day of the Resurrection, as stated above (Obj.
3); also on the eighth day, as we read in John 20:26. It seems,
therefore, that He did not live with the disciples in a fitting way
after the Resurrection.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (John 20:26) that "after eight days"
Christ appeared to the disciples. Therefore He did not live
constantly with them.
_I answer that,_ Concerning the Resurrection two things had to be
manifested to the disciples, namely, the truth of the Resurrection,
and the glory of Him who rose. Now in order to manifest the truth of
the Resurrection, it sufficed for Him to appear several times before
them, to speak familiarly to them, to eat and drink, and let them
touch Him. But in order to manifest the glory of the risen Christ, He
was not desirous of living with them constantly as He had done
before, lest it might seem that He rose unto the same life as before.
Hence (Luke 24:44) He said to them: "These are the words which I
spoke to you, while I was yet with you." For He was there with them
by His bodily presence, but hitherto He had been with them not merely
by His bodily presence, but also in mortal semblance. Hence Bede in
explaining those words of Luke, "while I was with you," says: "that
is, while I was still in mortal flesh, in which you are yet: for He
had then risen in the same flesh, but was not in the same state of
mortality as they."
Reply Obj. 1: Christ's frequent appearing served to assure the
disciples of the truth of the Resurrection; but continual intercourse
might have led them into the error of believing that He had risen to
the same life as was His before. Yet by His constant presence He
promised them comfort in another life, according to John 16:22: "I
will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man
shall take from you."
Reply Obj. 2: That Christ did not stay continually with the disciples
was not because He deemed it more expedient for Him to be elsewhere:
but because He judged it to be more suitable for the apostles'
instruction that He should not abide continually with them, for the
reason given above. But it is quite unknown in what places He was
bodily present in the meantime, since Scripture is silent, and His
dominion is in every place (Cf. Ps. 102:22).
Reply Obj. 3: He appeared oftener on the first day, because the
disciples were to be admonished by many proofs to accept the faith in
His Resurrection from the very outset: but after they had once
accepted it, they had no further need of being instructed by so many
apparitions. Accordingly one reads in the Gospel that after the first
day He appeared again only five times. For, as Augustine says (De
Consens. Evang. iii), after the first five apparitions "He came again
a sixth time when Thomas saw Him; a seventh time was by the sea of
Tiberias at the capture of the fishes; the eighth was on the mountain
of Galilee, according to Matthew; the ninth occasion is expressed by
Mark, 'at length when they were at table,' because no more were they
going to eat with Him upon earth; the tenth was on the very day, when
no longer upon the earth, but uplifted into the cloud, He was
ascending into heaven. But, as John admits, not all things were
written down. And He visited them frequently before He went up to
heaven," in order to comfort them. Hence it is written (1 Cor. 15:6,
7) that "He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once . . .
after that He was seen by James"; of which apparitions no mention is
made in the Gospels.
Reply Obj. 4: Chrysostom in explaining Matt. 26:32--"after I shall be
risen again, I will go before you into Galilee," says (Hom. lxxxiii
in Matth.), "He goes not to some far off region in order to appear to
them, but among His own people, and in those very places" in which
for the most part they had lived with Him; "in order that they might
thereby believe that He who was crucified was the same as He who rose
again." And on this account "He said that He would go into Galilee,
that they might be delivered from fear of the Jews."
Consequently, as Ambrose says (Expos. in Luc.), "The Lord had sent
word to the disciples that they were to see Him in Galilee; yet He
showed Himself first to them when they were assembled together in the
room out of fear. (Nor is there any breaking of a promise here, but
rather a hastened fulfilling out of kindness)" [*Cf. Catena Aurea in
Luc. xxiv, 36]: "afterwards, however, when their minds were
comforted, they went into Galilee. Nor is there any reason to prevent
us from supposing that there were few in the room, and many more on
the mountain." For, as Eusebius [*Of Caesarea; Cf. Migne, P. G.,
xxii, 1003] says, "Two Evangelists, Luke and John, write that He
appeared in Jerusalem to the eleven only; but the other two said that
an angel and our Saviour commanded not merely the eleven, but all the
disciples and brethren, to go into Galilee. Paul makes mention of
them when he says (1 Cor. 15:6): 'Then He appeared to more then five
hundred brethren at once.'" The truer solution, however, is this,
that while they were in hiding in Jerusalem He appeared to them at
first in order to comfort them; but in Galilee it was not secretly,
nor once or twice, that He made Himself known to them with great
power, "showing Himself to them alive after His Passion, by many
proofs," as Luke says (Acts 1:3). Or as Augustine writes (De Consens.
Evang. iii): "What was said by the angel and by our Lord--that He
would 'go before them into Galilee,' must be taken prophetically. For
if we take Galilee as meaning 'a passing,' we must understand that
they were going to pass from the people of Israel to the Gentiles,
who would not believe in the preaching of the apostles unless He
prepared the way for them in men's hearts: and this is signified by
the words 'He shall go before you into Galilee.' But if by Galilee we
understand 'revelation,' we are to understand this as applying to Him
not in the form of a servant, but in that form wherein He is equal to
the Father, and which He has promised to them that love Him. Although
He has gone before us in this sense, He has not abandoned us."
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