Matthew 28:8-15
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
The Report of the Guard
11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
Cited in the Catechism: In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraphs 640, 641, 645 and 654.
Commentary
Jesus rises from the dead and appears to the women, The soldiers are bribed
28:1–15. The resurrection of Jesus, which happened in the early hours of the Sunday morning, is a fact which all the evangelists state clearly and unequivocally. Some holy women discover to their surprise that the tomb is open. On entering the hall (cf. Mk 16:5–6), they see an angel who says to them, “He is not here; for he has risen, as he said.” The guards who were on duty when the angel rolled back the stone go to the city and report what has happened to the chief priests. These, because of the urgency of the matter, decide to bribe the guards; they give them a considerable sum of money on condition that they spread the word that his disciples came at night and stole the body of Jesus when they were asleep. “Wretched craftiness,” says St Augustine, “do you give us witnesses who were asleep? It is you who are really asleep if this is the only kind of explanation you have to offer!” (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 63, 15). The apostles, who a couple of days before fled in fear, will, now that they have seen him and have eaten and drunk with him, become tireless preachers of this great event: “This Jesus”, they will say, “God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32).
Just as he foretold he would go up to Jerusalem and be delivered to the leaders of the Jews and put to death, he also prophesied that he would rise from the dead (Mt 20:17–19; Mk 10:32–34; Lk 18:31–34). By his resurrection he completes the sign he promised to give unbelievers to show his divinity (Mt 12:40).
The resurrection of Christ is one of the basic dogmas of the Catholic faith. In fact, St Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14); and, to prove his assertion that Christ rose, he tells us “that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor 15:5–8). The creeds state that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day (Nicene Creed), by his own power (Ninth Council of Toledo, De Redemptione), by a true resurrection of the flesh (Creed of St Leo IX), reuniting his soul with his body (Innocent III, Eius exemplo), and that this fact of the resurrection is historically proven and provable (St Pius X, Lamentabili).
“By the word ‘resurrection’ we are not merely to understand that Christ was raised from the dead … but that he rose by his own power and virtue, a singular prerogative peculiar to him alone. Our Lord confirmed this by the divine testimony of his own mouth when he said: ‘I lay down my life, that I may take it again.[…] I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again’ (Jn 10:17–18). To the Jews he also said, in corroboration of his doctrine: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (Jn 2:19–20) […]. We sometimes, it is true, read in Scripture that he was raised by the Father (cf. Acts 2:24; Rom 8:11); but this refers to him as man, just as those passages on the other hand, which say that he rose by his own power, relate to him as God” (St Pius V, Catechism, 1, 6, 8).
Christ’s resurrection was not a return to his previous earthly existence; it was a “glorious” resurrection, that is to say, attaining the full development of human life—immortal, freed from all limitations of space and time. As a result of the resurrection, Christ’s body now shares in the glory which his soul had from the beginning. Here lies the unique nature of the historical fact of the resurrection. He could be seen not by anyone but only by those to whom he granted that grace, to enable them to be witnesses of this resurrection, and to enable others to believe in him by accepting the testimony of the seers.
Christ’s resurrection was something necessary for the completion of the work of our redemption. For, Jesus Christ through his death freed us from sins; but by his resurrection he restored to us all that we had lost through sin and, moreover, opened for us the gates of eternal life (cf. Rom 4:25). Also, the fact that he rose from the dead by his own power is a definitive proof that he is the Son of God, and therefore his resurrection fully confirms our faith in his divinity.
The resurrection of Christ, as has been pointed out, is the most sublime truth of our faith. That is why St Augustine exclaims: “It is no great thing to believe that Christ died; for this is something that is also believed by pagans and Jews and by all the wicked: everyone believes that he died. The Christians’ faith is in Christ’s resurrection; this is what we hold to be a great thing—to believe that he rose” (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 120).
The mystery of the Redemption wrought by Christ, which embraces his death and resurrection, is applied to every man and woman through Baptism and the other sacraments, by means of which the believer is as it were immersed in Christ and in his death, that is to say, in a mystical way he becomes part of Christ, he dies and rises with Christ: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
An ardent desire to seek the things of God and an interior taste for the things that are above (cf. Col 3:1–3) are signs of our resurrection with Christ.
Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
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"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome
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