ACC ~ Luke 24 v1 - 8

SUNDAY, THE DAY OF RESURRECTION, THE FIRST AND EIGHTH DAY

AUGUSTINE: The Lord’s day is called the first of the sabbath. [1] But the first day itself falls away when the second follows it. That day, which both the eighth and the first, represents eternity. It is that day which we abandoned at the beginning by sinning in our first parents and so came down into this mortal state, and also the last and, as it were, the eighth day, to which we again look ahead after the resurrection, once our last enemy death has been destroyed. [2] Only then will this perishable thing put on imperishability and this mortal thing put on immortality. [3] The returning son [prodigal] will receive the first robe, which is to be given back to him on the last and, so to say, eighth day, after the labors of his distant exile and his feeding of pigs, and the other miseries of mortal life, and the sevenfold circulation of the wheel of time.

So it was perfectly reasonable that it should have been on the first, which is also the eighth day—Sunday—that our Lord chose to give us an example in his own flesh of bodily resurrection. “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” [4] To this exalted state of his we must go with humility. SERMON 260C.5. [5]

[1] Mt 28:1; Mk 16:2.

[2] 1 Cor 15:26.

[3] 1 Cor 15:53.

[4] Rom 6:9.

[5] WSA 3 7:197 **.

THE WOMEN COME TO ANOINT HIS DEAD BODY

BEDE: According to the Gospel reading, holy women came to see the sepulcher “after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week.” This is how we should understand this: they started to come during the evening but reached the sepulcher as the morning of Sunday was dawning; that is, they prepared the spices with which they desired to anoint our Lord’s body on [Saturday] evening but brought the spices which they had prepared in the evening to the sepulcher in the morning. Matthew, for the sake of brevity, wrote this more obscurely, but the other Evangelists [1] show more distinctly the order in which it was done. After our Lord had been buried on Friday, the women went away from the tomb and prepared spices and ointments for as long as they were allowed to work. Then they refrained from any activity on the sabbath, in accord with the commandment, [2] as Luke clearly reports. When the sabbath was over, as evening was coming on, one could work again. Being unwavering in their devotion, they bought the spices which they had not prepared [earlier] (as Mark records it) [3] so that they might come and anoint him. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 11.7. [4]

[1] Mk16:1-2.

[2] Ex 12:16; 20:8-10.

[3] Mk 16:1-2.

[4] CS 111 2:59-60**.

THE EMPTY TOMB SHOWS JESUS IS NOW PRESENT IN THE SACRAMENTS

BEDE: Mystically, the rolling away of the stone implies the disclosure [1] of the divine sacraments, which were formerly hidden and closed up by the letter of the law. The law was written on stone. [2] Indeed, in the case of each of us, when we acknowledge our faith in the Lord’s passion and resurrection, his tomb, which had been closed, is opened up. We enter the tomb but do not find the body of the Lord, when in our hearts we carefully think back over the order [of events] of his incarnation and his passion and recall that he has risen from the dead and is no longer to be seen in his mortal flesh. But the Jew and the pagan, who ridicule the death of our Redeemer which they believe in but refuse to believe further in the triumph of his resurrection, continue to be like a tomb still closed by a stone. They are not capable of entering to see that the body of the Lord has disappeared by his rising, because by the hardness of their infidelity they are prevented from becoming aware that a dead person, who has destroyed death’s right of entry and has already passed into the heights of the heavens, cannot be found on earth. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 11.10. [3]

[1] Disclosure: revolutio, a metaphorical meaning of the word translated “rolling away” earlier in the sentence.

[2] Ex 24:12; 32:15; 34:1.

[3] CS 111:90-91.

ANGELS APPEAR AT HIS BIRTH AND RESURRECTION

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Angels also brought the joyful tidings of the nativity to the shepherds in Bethlehem. Now they tell of his resurrection. Heaven yields its service to proclaim him, and the hosts of the spirits which are above attend the Son as God, even though he is in the flesh. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, CHAPTER 24. [1]

[1] CGSL 615*.

JESUS IS NOT IN THE TOMB BECAUSE HE IS LIFE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The women came to the sepulcher, and when they could not find the body of Christ—for he had risen—they were quite perplexed. And what followed? For the sake of their love and zeal for Christ, they were counted worthy of seeing holy angels who then told them the joyful news as the heralds of the resurrection, saying, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!” The Word of God ever lives and by his own nature is life. Yet, when he humbled and emptied himself, submitting to be made like us, he tasted death. But this proved to be the death of death, for he rose from the dead to be the way by which not so much he himself but rather we could return to incorruption. Let no one seek among the dead him who ever lives. But if he is not here, with mortality and in the tomb, where then is he? Obviously, in heaven and in godlike glory. COMMENTARY ON LUKE, CHAPTER 24. [1]

[1] CGSL 615**.

PREDICTIONS OF CHRIST’S PASSION AND RESURRECTION WERE NOT UNDERSTOOD

CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see that they clearly understood nothing about the resurrection? The Evangelist pointed out this very thing when he said, “As yet they did not know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” [1] In addition to their failure to understand this, they were in much deeper ignorance about other things, such as the kingdom of heaven, that we are chosen as the first fruits, and his ascension into heaven. [2] They were still confined to the ground and not yet able to fly.

Such was the understanding they had. They expected that the kingdom would come to him immediately in Jerusalem because they had no better grasp of what the kingdom of heaven really is. Another Evangelist hinted at this when he said that they thought of it as a human kingdom. They were expecting him to enter into it but not to go to the cross and death. Even though they had heard it ten thousand times, they could not clearly understand. AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 8.29-30. [3]

[1] See Jn 20.9 and NAB note ad loc.

[2] See 2 Thess 2:13.

[3] FC 72:224-25.

THE ANGELS RETELL THE DIVINE PLAN OF GOD

BEDE: God’s Son saw fit to become Son of man to make those of us who believe in him sons of God. He was delivered into the hands of sinful human beings to separate us from the company of sinful human beings and at the same time to free us from the power of malignant spirits. He was crucified and rose on the third day, so that he might grant us the virtue of suffering for him and the hope of rising and living with him. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 11.10. [1]

[1] CS 111:93.

Lk