Resurrection Confirmed by Signs Which Followed. (Homilies on the New Testament, Viii., T. Iii., P. 89.)12
The reason, beloved brethren, why we read immediately after the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of the wonders worked by the Apostles is that we may have a clear and unambiguous proof of the Resurrection. You did not look upon Him rising from the dead with your bodily eyes, but you see Him rising with the eyes of faith. You did not look upon Him rising with this physical eyesight of yours, but you will see Him rising through those signs. For their manifestation will lead you to faith’s contemplation. Hence the working of signs in His name was a much greater and stronger testimony than seeing Him as He rose from the dead. Would you know how this establishes the Resurrection more firmly than if it had been seen by all men with their bodily eyes? Listen with attention, for many men make this objection and say, ‘Why, when rising from the dead, did He not show Himself immediately to the Jews?’ But this argument is trifling and vain. If He had meant to enforce faith upon them, He would not have omitted to appear to all men after the Resurrection. Now He showed that He did not mean to put force upon them by appearing after the Resurrection: in the case of Lazarus, He raised up this man, who had been four days dead, and was corrupt and stinking, and He made him, who was bound, come forth before all; and not only He did not induce them to believe, but He provoked them to anger. When they came they wished to put Him to death on this account. Now, if they were faithless when He raised up another, would they not also have been mad with Him if He had shown them Himself risen from the dead? If they had not been able to accomplish anything, they would still have been guilty of impiety. Thus, wishing to save them from a useless madness, He concealed Himself. For He would have made them deserving of chastisement if He had appeared to them after the Cross. Consequently, to spare them, He hid Himself from their eyes, but manifested Himself through signs. Hearing Peter say, In the Name of Jesus Christ arise and walk, was not a less thing than seeing Him rise again. And that this was a great proof of the Resurrection, and more conducive to faith than the first, that seeing signs taking place in His Name was better able to persuade the minds of men than the sight of Him risen is evident from what I am going to say. Christ rose and showed Himself to the disciples. Yet one of their number, Thomas, who was called Didymus, was unbelieving, and he demanded to put his hands into the marks of the nails. Now, if that disciple, who had spent three years with Him, who had partaken of his Lord’s table, witnessed great signs and wonders, and heard his Lord’s words, did not at first believe when he even beheld Him risen, until he felt the marks of the nails and of the wounds, tell me how would the whole world have believed it if it had seen Him risen? Who would say as much? But I will give you further proof than this that signs were more persuasive than the physical sight of the risen Lord. The crowd hearing Peter’s words to the lame man, In the Name of Jesus Christ arise and walk, three thousand, and five thousand believed in Christ; on the other hand, the single disciple seeing Christ risen was unbelieving. Do you see that the signs much more furthered faith in the Resurrection? In presence of the one His own disciple doubted, whereas in contemplating the signs even enemies were persuaded. Hence they were more powerful and clearer; they attracted men and won them over to the Resurrection. And why do I speak of Thomas? For understand fully that neither were the other disciples persuaded by their first sight of Jesus risen; but condemn them not, dear brethren. If Christ did not reproach them, neither should you, for the disciples saw a strange and wonderful thing; they saw Him rising the First-Born from the dead. Signs so great as this are wont at first to stupify, until in process of time they take root in the souls of the faithful. Now, this is what happened to the disciples. Whilst Christ risen from the dead spoke to them the words, Peace be to you, the Evangelist says they were troubled and frightened, imagining they saw a spirit, and Jesus said to them, Why are ye fearful? And after that He showed them His Hands and Feet, and He said to them, whom joy and wonder made unbelieving, Have you anything to eat? wishing to convince them through these material things of the Resurrection. ‘Do neither My Side nor My Wounds persuade you, then let even food persuade you.’ That you may clearly understand that He said, Have you anything to eat here? in order to show them they beheld not a vision, nor a spirit, nor a phantom, but a true and substantial resurrection, consider how Peter is convinced of it in this very way. For in saying that God had raised Him from the dead and had given Him to appear in a glorious form to us His preordained witnesses, he added, as a proof of the Resurrection: we who ate and drank with Him. This was why whenever Christ raised anyone from the dead, in order to prove the Resurrection, He said: Give him to eat. When, therefore, you hear that He offered Himself to them in the body during forty days, appearing to them and living with them, understand His reason for eating with them. It was not that He required food, but He wished to strengthen the weakness of the disciples; whence it is plain that the signs and wonders of the Apostles were the greatest proof of the Resurrection. Therefore, His own words were: Amen, Amen, I say to you, he who believeth in Me shall do the works which I do, and greater works than I do. For since the Cross coming between had scandalised many, He required even greater signs after it. If, indeed, Christ in ending His life had remained in death and the tomb, and had not risen, as the Jews pretend, nor ascended into heaven, not only were greater signs not required to come after the cross, but even the former ones should have been blotted out. Follow my argument attentively, as what I have said is an irrefutable proof of the Resurrection, and therefore I repeat it. First, Christ did wonders, He raised the dead and cleansed lepers, and cast out devils: after this He was crucified, and, as the lawless Jews assert, He did not rise from the dead. Now, how are we to answer them? That if He did not rise, how after this did greater signs take place in His Name? No living man at his death ever worked greater wonders after it, but in this case they were greater after it, both in manner and in matter. They were greater in matter, for never had the shadow of Christ raised from the dead, yet the shadows of the Apostles did many things of this kind. And they were greater in manner when at His command signs took place; but after the crucifixion His servants, using His awful and all-holy Name, did greater and more wonderful things, so that their power shone forth more conspicuously than His. For it was much more striking that another should do these things by invoking His Name than that He should command them to be done. See you, dear brethren, how the signs of the Apostles after Christ’s Resurrection were greater both in manner and in matter? Therefore, the proof of the Resurrection is irrefutable. As I was saying, and now repeat, if Christ had died and not risen again, wonders also should have ceased and been extinguished: now, not only were they not quenched, but they became more evident and more glorious after these things. And if Christ had not risen, others would not have worked signs so great in His Name. One and the same power did wonders both before and after the Cross, first through Himself and afterwards through His disciples; but the greater and more wonderful signs took place after the Cross in order that the proof of the Resurrection might be the clearer and more renowned. ‘And how,’ the unbeliever asks, ‘is it certain that signs did take place?’ ‘How is it certain that Christ was crucified?’ ‘From Holy Scripture,’ you answer. And it is also evident from Holy Scripture both that signs took place then and that Christ was crucified, for they say one and the other. And if the adversary assert that the Apostles did no signs, he shows their power and divine grace to have been the greater, inasmuch as without wonders they were able to win such a world to the service of God.13 For this is the greatest sign and the crowning wonder of all, that the lowly, and poor, and despised, and ignorant, and unlearned, and needy, twelve men in number, seem without signs to drag in their train cities so great, and races and peoples, kings, tyrants, philosophers, and orators, and, so to speak, the whole world. Would you like to see signs taking place now? Then I will show you signs more striking than the former ones—not one dead man raised to life, not one blind man restored to sight, but the whole world freed from the darkness of error; not one leper cleansed, but entire nations washed from the leprosy of sin and purified through baptism to regeneration. What greater signs than these would you have, O man, contemplating so radical a change over the face of the earth?
Would you know how Christ restored sight to the world? Men began by looking at wood and stone, not as wood and stone, but were so blinded as to invoke material things as gods: now, however, that they have seen what wood is and what stone is, they believe what God is, for that high and blessed nature is contemplated by faith alone. Would you have another sign of the Resurrection? You will find it in the knowledge of the disciples, which was increased after the Resurrection. For it is admitted by all that one who is well-disposed towards a living man thinks no more of him when he is dead, but if he dislikes the living man, and if he deserts him whilst present, much more will he forget him when dead. Hence, no one who neglected a friend and counsellor when living will make much of him when dead, especially when he finds a thousand dangers threatening himself if he should be so minded. Yet, what took place in the case of no other man did take place with Christ and His Apostles and those who had denied and forsaken Him during His life, who had left Him when apprehended, and turned their backs upon Him after numberless reproaches, made so much of the Cross, as to give up their own lives for their testimony and for their faith in Him. If Christ did not die and did not rise again, what reason was there that those who had fled from Him when living, on account of impending danger, should have encountered a thousand dangers for Him when dead? Now they all fled from Him, and Peter, besides, denied Him thrice with an oath, and he who denied Him thrice with an oath, and was frightened at a poor maid-servant, after His death, wishing to persuade us through their acts that he had seen Him risen, became so thoroughly changed that he defied all the people, and went out into the midst of the Jews and proclaimed that He Who was crucified and buried had risen from the dead on the third day, and had ascended into heaven, and that he himself feared no evil. Whence came this courage of his? Whence, if not from his conviction of the Resurrection? For since he had seen Christ, and spoken with Him, and had heard future things foretold, risking the rest of his life as if for a living man, he so confronted all adverse things that he took fresh strength and courage, so as to die for Him, and to be crucified with his head downwards. Therefore when you see greater signs taking place, and the disciples showing more feeling for Him Whom they at first deserted, and a bolder fearlessness, and the change in morals becoming everywhere more marked, and bringing everything into a secure and happy state, learn through practical experience that the personal history of Christ did not stop at the death of Christ, but a Resurrection received Him, and He lives and remains immutably the crucified God for ever. If He had not risen and were not living, the disciples would not have worked greater wonders than had taken place before the Cross. Then the disciples even had left Him: now the whole world seeks Him out, and not Peter alone, but thousands of others; and after Peter many more, who never saw Him, have given up their lives for Him. They have lost their heads and suffered numberless evils in order to maintain a pure and entire belief in Him until their death. How then could a dead man lying in his tomb, as you say, O Jew, have shown forth so great a strength and power even in those coming after Him, persuading them to adore Him alone, and to be willing to endure and suffer anything rather than to give up their faith in Him? Do you not see this clear proof of the Resurrection in every particular? Through the signs then and now, through the affection of the disciples then and now, through the perils in which believers passed their lives? Would you see His enemies too fearing His strength and His power, and in much greater straits after His crucifixion? Give your minds, then, to this also. The Jews seeing the courage of Peter and John, the Scripture says, and considering that they were ignorant and untaught men, wondered and were dismayed, not that they were illiterate, but that, being illiterate, they got the better of all the wise, and seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it, although before this they had had something to say against it when they saw signs taking place. Now, why had they nothing to say then? The invisible power of the Crucified had sealed their tongues. He it was Who had silenced their mouths and put down their boldness, so that they stood there, and could not gainsay them. And when they did speak, see how they admit their own cowardice. Would you draw down upon us the blood of this man? For if He be a mere man, why fear His blood? How many prophets have you removed, O Jew, how many just have you slain, and have you feared the blood of any one of them? Why, then, did you fear in this case? The Crucified awed their conscience; and not being able to conceal their struggle, they reveal their own weakness towards their enemies in spite of themselves. And when they crucified Him, they cried out, saying, His blood be upon us and upon our children. Thus did they despise His blood. But after the Cross, seeing His power shine forth, they are afraid and distressed, and say, Would you draw down the blood of this man upon us? If indeed he was a deceiver, and impious, as you false Jews say, why did you fear His blood? If He were this you should have prided yourselves on putting Him to death, but because He was not this, therefore, are you in fear.
Do you see how everywhere His enemies are distressed and afraid? Do you see their anguish? Learn, too, the kindness of the Crucified. They said, His blood be upon us and upon our children. Not so Christ, but, supplicating the Father, He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. For, if His blood had indeed fallen upon them and upon their children, the Apostles would not have been made out of their children; neither three thousand nor five thousand would have believed on the spot. See you how barbarous and cruel as they were towards their descendants, they ignored even nature itself, whilst God was more loving than all fathers put together and tenderer than any mother? Still His blood was upon them and upon their children, though not upon all their children, but on those alone who emulated the impiety and unrighteousness of their fathers. Those alone were liable to the evils who were sons, not according to nature, but through their own foolish choice. Look with me at another side of the goodness and lovingness of God. He did not at once let the chastisement and penalty fall upon them, but He allowed forty years and more to pass after the Cross. Our Lord Himself was crucified under Tiberius, and their city was destroyed under Vespasian and Titus. Now, why did He allow so long a time to elapse after these things? Because He wished to give them time for repentance, so that they might put off their iniquities and be quit of their crimes. As, having a respite for conversion, they remained in their impenitence, He at last inflicted punishment upon them, and, destroying their city, sent them out wanderers over the face of the earth. And this He did through love. He dispersed them that they might everywhere see that Christ Whom they had crucified adored, and that, seeing Him adored by all, they might learn His power and acknowledge their own exceeding wickedness, and in acknowledging it might come to the truth. And indeed their humiliation became a teaching to them and their chastisement a remedy, for, if they had remained in the country of the Jews, they would not have recognised the truth of the prophets. What had the prophets said? Ask of me and I will give you the gentiles for your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession. Thus it behoved them to go out to the ends of the earth that they might see with their own eyes that Christ reigns even there. Again, another prophet says, Each one shall adore Him from his own place. Therefore it was necessary that they should be dispersed into every corner of the earth, that with their very eyes they might see every man adoring Him from his own place. Again, another says, The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Therefore, it was fitting that they should go forth unto all the earth, that they might see it all filled with the knowledge of God, and seas, that is, these spiritual churches, with His fear. On this account God dispersed them throughout the earth. If they had established themselves in Judæa, they would not have known these things. He wishes too that they should experience with their eyes both the truth of the prophets and His own power, so that, if they be right-minded, they may be thus led to the truth, whilst, if they follow impiety, they may have no excuse in the terrible day of judgment. Therefore, God dispersed them over the earth that we too may draw profit hence, that, seeing the prophecies concerning their dispersion and the destruction of Jerusalem, which Daniel, in recalling the abomination of desolation, and Malachias, in saying, The gates shall be shut in you, and David and Isaias and many other prophets have foretold, and how those are chastised who did not receive their Lord, cut off from their national liberty, from all their domestic ties and hereditary customs, may understand the power which accomplishes and works these things, and that enemies may see His strength through our gain. May we indeed learn through their chastisement His infinite kindness and power, and may we be constant in giving Him praise, so that we may arrive at eternal and unspeakable goods by the grace and goodness of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom, with the Father and the Son, be honour and power, now and for ever. Amen.