In this week of the Easter Octave, the Church marches through many of the episodes in which the Resurrected Jesus encounters his disciples and apostles. Today he appears in their mi. They are startled and confused. Jesus asks them why doubts arise in their hearts. Then the next ten lines or so concern Jesus helping them to see that he is not a ghost.
C. S. Lewis comments on the passage:
We come to the strangest story of all, the story of the Resurrection. it is very necessary to get the story clear. I heard a man say, 'The importance of the Resurrection is that it gives evidence of survival, evidence that the human personality survives death.' On that view what happened to Christ would be what had always happened to all men, the difference being that in Christ's case we were privileged to see it happening.
In other words, some people have the idea that the Resurrection was not something different or unique, it is the fate of every single human being. The idea is that
everyone survives death in their soul or spirit, so of course Jesus did. The only peculiarity in the case of Jesus, according to this idea, is that Jesus was able to interact after his death. His soul or spirit made some contact after death.
Then C. S. Lewis goes on to emphasize that the Apostles of Jesus teach in many places -- including today's Gospel passage -- something completely different.
The earliest Christian writers thought [that] something perfectly new in the history of the universe had happened. Christ had defeated death. The door, which had always been locked, had for the very first time been forced open. This is something quite distinct from mere ghost-survival. I don't mean that they disbelieved in ghost-survival. On the contrary, they believed in it so firmly that, on more than one occasion, Christ had had to assure them that He was not a ghost. The point is that while believing in the survival they yet regarded the Resurrection as something totally different and new. The Resurrection narratives are not a picture of survival after death; they record how a totally new mode of being has arisen in the universe. Something new had appeared in the universe: as new as the first coming of organic life. This Man, after death, does not get divided into 'ghost' and 'corpse'. A new mode of being has arisen. That is the story.
I love the point Lewis makes here that the Apostles need to be
convinced that Jesus was not a ghost. Sometimes people imagine the people of the ancient world as simpletons, ready to believe any old thing. Not in this case! The Apostles were slow to believe, a good bit skeptical. Their first hypothesis is that Jesus is a ghost. They need to be convinced otherwise. Jesus eases the truth into their minds, showing them that he has flesh and bones, and then by eating. Jesus is not a ghost. He is fully man, back from the death. He is the Resurrection and the Life.
This fact of Jesus' real body is a helpful reminder of (buckle up!) the incarnational dispensation of grace. That is, God arranges that his grace be given incarnationally, through earthly materials. God communicates his grace through bodily things. First of all, through Jesus himself, at a certain time and place. Then through the Apostles, in their time and place. (Remember that touching scene in which the
shadow of Peter brings healing to the people?) Then in the sacraments, with their earthly elements of water, bread, and wine touching our skin, hands, and mouths. God works through bodily realities. He works through material things. He chooses certain times and places to bring about his grace.
This incarnational dispensation is a suitable topic for contemplation at any time (and what a mystery it is!) but particularly in these times, I think. Right now, as we're prevented from gathering in the holy places for the sacraments, we or others might tend to offer comfort by downplaying the importance of the physical sacraments and the physical building of the Church. Up to a point that's okay, since God is not bound by physical limits, and yet we cannot go so far as to forget that God, in his infinite mercy, goodness, and wisdom, has graciously established an incarnational dispensation, infusing certain places and visible earthly realities with divine grace. He has made a model perfectly fitted to who we are, means that touch our souls by sounds to our ears, sights to our eyes, cool water to our touch, bread to our taste, and incense to our smell. He has consecrated places to his service, so that our whole being can serve him on consecrated ground. He has given us knees to kneel with, and holy ground to kneel on. He has given us hands to fold in subdued adoration, and a Eucharistic sanctuary to adore. He has given us voices to lift up in exultant praise, and a building to shake with joy.
Let us pray him that we may soon return to our sacred place and receive his sacred gifts, given to us by Our living, Resurrected, bodily Lord.