Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/880

 EESURRECTION

790

RESURRECTION

(resurrectio camis, resurrectio rrwrluorum, aviaTaait tUv ixKpuv) for a double reason: first, since the soul cannot die, it cannot be said to return to life; secondly, the heretical contention of Hymeneus and Philetus that the Scriptures denote by resurrection not the return to life of the body, but the rising of the soul from the death of sin to the life of grace, must be excluded. We shall first treat of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and then of the General Resurrection of the Body.

I. Resurrection of Jesus Christ. — The fact of Christ's resurrection, the theories opposed to this fact, its characteristics, and the reasons for its im- portance must be considered in distinct paragraphs.

A. The Fact of Christ's Resurrection. — The main sources which directly attest the fact of Christ's Resurrection are the Four Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul. Easter morning is so rich in incident, and so crowded with interested persons, that its complete history presents a rather compUcated tableau. It is not surprising, therefore, that the partial ac- counts contained in each of the Four Gospels appear at first sight hard to harmonize. But whatever exegetic view as to the ^^sit to the sepulchre by the pious women and the appearance of the angels we may defend, we cannot deny the Evangelists' agreement as to the fact that the risen Christ appeared to one or more persons. According to St. Matthew, He appeared to the holy women, and again on a mountain in Galilee; according to St. Mark, He was seen by Mary Magdalen, by the two disciples at Emmaus, and by the Eleven before His Ascension into heaven; according to St. Luke, He walked with the disciples to Emmaus, appeared to Peter and to the assembled disciples in Jerusalem; ac- cording to St. John, Jesus appeared to Mary Magda- len, to the ten Apostles on Easter Sunday, to the Eleven a week later, and to the seven disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. St. Paul (I Cor., .xv, 3-8) enumerates another series of apparitions of Jesus after His Resurrection; he was seen by Cephas, by the Eleven, by more than 500 brethren, many of whom were still alive at the time of the Apostle's writing, by James, by all the Apostles, and lastly by Paul himself.

Here is an outUne of a possible harmony of the Evangelists' account concerning the principal events of Easter Sunday: (1) The holy women carrying the spices pre\'iously prepared start out for the sepul- chre before dawn, and reach it after sum-ise; they are anxious about the heavy stone, but know nothing of the official guard of the sepulchre (Matt., xxviii, 1-3; Mark, x-vi, 1-3; Luke, xxiv, 1; John, xx, 1). (2) The angel frightened the guards by his brightness, put them to ffight, rolled away the stone, and seated himself (not upon, ^ir' oi^roO, but) above {iirdpu auToO) the stone (Matt., xxviii, 2-4). (3) Mary Magdalen, Marj' the Mother of James, and Salome approach the sepulchre, and see the stone rolled back, whereupon Mary Magdalen immediately returns to inform the Apostles (Mark, x-vi, 4; Luke, xxiv, 2; John, xx, 1-2). (4) The other two holy women enter the sepulchre, find an angel seated in the vestibule, who shows them the empty sepulchre, announces the Resurrection, and commissions them to tell the disciples and Peter that they shall see Jesus in Galilee (Matt., xxviii, 5-7; Mark, x-yi, 5-7). (5) A second group of holy women, consisting of Joanna and her companions, arrive at the sepulchre, where they have probably agreed to meet the first group, enter the empty interior, and are admonished by two angels that Jesus has risen according to His prediction (Luke, xxiv, 10). (6) Not long after, Peter and John, who were notified by Mary Magda- len, arrive at the sepulchre and find the linen cloth in such a po.sition as to exclude the supposition that the body was stolen; for they lay simply flat on the

ground, showing that the sacred body had vanished out of them without touching them. When John no- tices this he believes (John, xv, 3-10). (7) Mary Magdalen returns to the sepulchre, sees first two angels within, and then Jesus Himself (John, xx, 11-16; Mark, x\'i, 9). (8) The two groups of pious women, who probably met on their return to the city, are favoured with the sight of Christ arisen, who commissions them to tell His brethren that they will see Him in GaUlee (Matt., xxviii, 8-10; Mark, xvi, 8). (9) The holy women relate their experiences to the Apostles, but find no belief (Mark, xvi, 10-11; Luke, x.xiv, 9-11). (10) Jesus appears to the dis- ciples at Emmaus, and they return to Jerusalem; the Apostles appear to waver between doubt and be- lief (Mark, xvi, 12-13; Luke, xxiv, 13-35). (11) Clirist appears to Peter, and therefore Peter and John firmly believe in the Resurrection (Luke, xxiv, 34; John, xx, 8). (12) After the return of the disciples from Emmaus, Jesus appears to all the Apostles excepting Thomas (Mark, x\^i, 14; Luke, .xxiv, 36-43; John, xx, 19-25). The harmony of the other apparitions of Christ after His Resur- rection presents no special difficulties.

Briefly, therefore, the fact of Christ's Resurrection is attested by more than 500 eyewitnesses, whose experience, simplicity, and uprightness of life ren- dered them incapable of inventing such a fable, who lived at a time when any attempt to deceive could have been easily discovered, who had nothing in this Ufe to gain, but everything to lose by their testimony, whose moral courage exhibited in their apostolic life can be explained only by their intimate conviction of the objective truth of their message. Again the fact of Christ's Resurrection is attested by the eloquent silence of the Synagogue which had done everything to prevent deception, which could have easily discovered deception, if there had been any, which opposed only sleeping witnesses to the testi- mony of the Apostles, which did not punish the alleged carelessness of the official guard, and which could not answer the testimony of the Apostles except by threatening them "that they speak no more in this name to any man" (.-^cts, iv, 17). Finally, the thousands and millions, both Jews and Gentiles, who believed the testimony of the Apostles in spite of all the disadvantages following from such a belief, in short the origin of the Church, requires for its ex- planation the reality of Christ's Resurrection, for the rise of the Church without the Resurrection would be a greater miracle than the Resurrection itself.

B. Opposing Theories. — By what means can the evidence for Christ's Resurrection be overthrown? Three theories of explanation have been advanced, though the first two have hardly any adherents in our day. (1) There is the theorj' of those who assert that Christ did not really die upon the cross, that His supposed death was only a temporary swoon, and that His Resurrection was simply a return to con- sciousness. This was advocated by Paulus ("Ex- egetisches Handbuch", 1842, II, p. 929) and in a modi- fied form by Hase ("Gesch. Jesu", §112), but it does not agree with the data furnished by the Gospels. The scourging and the crown of thorns, the carrying of the cross and the crucifixion, the three hours on the cross and the piercing of the Sufferer's side can- not have brought on a mere swoon. His real death is attested by the centurion and the soldiers, by the friends of Jesus and by his bitterest enemies. His stay in a sealed sepulchre for thirty-six hours, in an atrnosphere poisoned by the exhalations of a hundred pounds of spices, would have of itself sufficed to cause death. Moreover, if Jesus had merely returned from a swoon, the feelings of Easter morning would liave been those of sympathy rather than those of joy and triumph, the Apostles would have been roused to' the duties of a sick chamber rather than to apos-