Summa III q.55 a.1-4: How the Resurrection Was Made Known — To Chosen Witnesses, Not Seen Rising, Not Always With the Disciples, Appearing in Another Likeness

Orientation #

He opens by saying “we’re up to question fifty-five,” the third question on the manifestation of the resurrection, and reads out its list of articles. He breaks at the end of a. 4, “before we get down to the last two articles here.” The previous class treated q. 54 on the quality of Christ’s risen body.

The class, in order #

1. The plan of q. 55 (“about this four things are asked”) #

He reads the prologue and lists the articles, though he counts more than the “four things” the text announces — he names six: (1) to all or only to some; (2) whether it was fitting they see him rise; (3) whether he ought to converse with the disciples after; (4) whether he ought to appear “in an alien effigy” (he guesses Emmaus, and notes Mary Magdalene not recognizing him first); (5) whether he ought to make his resurrection known by arguments; (6) the sufficiency of those arguments. The discrepancy with “four” is left standing.

2. a. 1, objections: public merit, common utility, women preaching (“a public sin there is owed a public punishment”) #

1. Public sin gets public punishment (1 Tim 5, “refute the one sinning before all”), so public merit should get public reward; and the clarity of the resurrection is the reward of the humility of the passion (Augustine on John); the passion was public, so the glory should be.
2. As the passion is ordained to our salvation, so the resurrection (Rom 4, “he rose on account of our justification”); what pertains to common utility should be known to all.
3. Those to whom it was made known became witnesses (Acts 3, “of which we are witnesses”), and testimony must be public by preaching, which does not belong to women (1 Cor 14, “let women be silent in the churches”; 1 Tim 2, “I do not permit a woman to teach”) — so it is unfitting it was made known to women first. Aside: “Say this in the academy today, you’d be in trouble — docere mulieri non permitto, said Berquist.” Sed contra: Acts 10 — God gave him to be made known “not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God.”

3. a. 1 body and replies: the law of mediated revelation (“some are known from a special gift of grace”) #

Some things are known by the common law of nature, others only from revelation; and Dionysius (Celestial Hierarchy) gives the divinely instituted law that what comes from God immediately to the higher is brought down by them to the lesser, as in the ordering of the celestial spirits. Things of future glory exceed common natural knowledge (Isa 64; 1 Cor 2, “God revealed these to us through the Holy Spirit”). Since Christ rose by a glorious resurrection, it was made known only to some, whose testimony carried it to others. Reply 1: the passion was carried out in a body still of passable nature, known by the common law to all, so it could be made known to all at once; the resurrection was through the glory of the Father. Public punishment and public reward hold of the present life, to provoke others; the punishments and rewards of the future life are manifested only to the preordained. Reply 2: the resurrection did reach the knowledge of all, but not immediately — by deferred testimony. Reply 3: a woman may not teach publicly in the church, but may instruct privately “by domestic admonition”; Ambrose on Luke — women are sent to the household, not to testify to the whole people. Christ appeared to a woman first so that she who brought the beginning of death to man should announce the beginnings of the risen Christ; Cyril — “the woman who once was a minister of death” first perceived and announced the mystery, taking away the ignominy and the curse. And this shows that as regards the state of glory the feminine sex suffers no detriment: greater charity, greater glory of the divine vision — she loved more intensely, she did not recede from the tomb when the disciples did, so she first saw the Lord in glory. “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Asides: Kasurik’s “God hates equality” — with his own reason: if God had made us all equal, no one would be like God in being superior; and even in philosophy we depend on Aristotle, Euclid, and such minds. Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, the husband thinking his wife unfaithful and denouncing woman as the source of evil. Daily Mass has more women than men — “maybe more than in heaven than men. I don’t know. We’ll see.”

4. a. 2: why no one saw him rise (“was he shy?”) #

Objections: (1) the disciples were to testify with great power (Acts 4:33), and sight is the most certain testimony; (2) they saw the ascension for certitude of faith, so likewise the resurrection; (3) they saw the Lord revive Lazarus, a sign of Christ’s own future resurrection — he calls this one “very interesting,” and recommends going back and forth between the Summa and the Gospels. Sed contra: Mark 16:9 — he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, and she did not see him rise; at the tomb she heard from the angel that he has risen. Body: “Quae a Deo sunt ordinata sunt” (Rom 13:1) — “Thomas often quotes that”; wisdom orders all things sweetly. By divine order what is above men is revealed to men through angels (Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy ch. 4 — as with the angels singing to the shepherds). Christ did not return to the life commonly known but to an immortal life conformed to God (Rom 6, “the one who lives lives to God”); so the resurrection was to be announced by angels, not immediately seen. Hilary on Matthew: the angel is the herald of the resurrection. Aside: most people do not realize the Old Law was given through the angels — it comes out in the Fathers.

5. a. 2 replies: oculata fide and the two termini (“with the eyes of faith”) #

Reply 1: the apostles could witness by sight, since after the resurrection they saw him living oculata fide — he stops on the phrase (the adjective modifies fide: “seeing faith,” “an eyeing faith”) and asks how the English renders it. As one comes to the blessed vision through the hearing of faith (“faith is from hearing”), so to the vision of the risen Christ men come through what they first hear from angels. He quotes the Adoro te: “visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, sed auditu solo tuto creditur… credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius, nil hoc verbo veritatis verius.” He compares doubting Thomas: he sees the risen Christ but does not see the divinity, and believes both — a mixture of eye and faith. He notes the principle quae a Deo sunt ordinata sunt governs both a. 1 and a. 2: angels first, then apostles, then the rest of us. Reply 2 (the ascension): the ascension does not transcend common knowledge as regards the term from which (his being raised from the earth), only as regards the term to which (they do not see how he is received in heaven); the resurrection transcends common knowledge in both terms — the soul returning from the lower parts, the body going forth from a closed sepulchre, and the obtaining of a glorious life. Hence it could not be done so as to be seen. Reply 3 (Lazarus): he was resuscitated to such a life as he had before, which does not transcend common knowledge — “he solves that up. Good to have a master like this around.” Aside: the Thomas Aquinas College newsletter quoting the present Holy Father and a cardinal on St. Thomas.

6. a. 3, objections: why not continuously with them? (“he was with them forty days”) #

(1) He appeared to certify their faith and console them (John 20, “the disciples rejoiced seeing the Lord”) — continual presence would certify and console more. A student exchange: the week between the first day and Thomas’s seeing him; Thomas had to wait a week. (2) He did not ascend at once but after forty days, and no place would be more suitable than where the disciples were gathered. (3) On the very day, Augustine (De consensu evangelistarum) counts five appearances: to the woman at the monument; to some returning from the monument on the way; to Peter (in Luke); to the two going to the castle, Emmaus; and to many in Jerusalem where the apostles were, Thomas absent — so he ought to appear often on later days too. (4) He said “after I rise I will precede you in Galilee,” said also by the angel and by himself to the women — yet he was seen in Jerusalem, on that day and again on the eighth. Sed contra: John 20 — after eight days Christ appeared; therefore not continuously. Aside: the President on inaugural night going from dance to dance thanking supporters — “with a resurrected body it would be no problem to get from one place to the other.”

7. a. 3 body and replies: truth of the resurrection vs. glory of the one rising (“he did not wish to continually converse with them”) #

Two things had to be declared: the truth of the resurrection, and the glory of the one rising. For the truth, it sufficed that he appeared many times, spoke familiarly, ate and drank, offered himself to be touched. For the glory, he did not converse continually as before, lest it seem he had risen to such a life as before. Luke 24: “these words which I spoke to you when I was still with you” — then he was with them by bodily presence only; before, also by a likeness of mortality. Bede: “when I was with you in mortal flesh” — resurrected in the same flesh but not in the same mortality. “Okay, Thomas, that’s pretty good, huh?” Connected question he raises himself: why did he not remain on earth? Because such emphasis would fall on his humanity that his divinity would be ignored; he ascended to lead us to contemplate his divinity, and the Holy Spirit would not be sent if they remained immersed in the material. Reply 1: frequent appearance sufficed to certify them — enough times and long enough that they had no doubt when they went out to preach; continual presence could have led them into error, believing he rose to a life like the former. The consolation of continual presence he promised in another life (John 16, “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you”). Aside: the film he mentioned earlier, the sister parting as Teresa enters the convent — “we’ll soon see each other again.” Reply 2: not because he judged himself better placed elsewhere, but because this was more suitable for instructing them; where he was bodily in the interval is unknown, Scripture not treating it, “and in every place is his domination.” Reply 3: on the first day he appeared more frequently, by many signs, that they might receive the faith from the beginning; once received, so frequent apparitions were unnecessary. After the first day’s five, the Gospels read five more: (6) where Thomas saw him; (7) at the Sea of Tiberias, at the capture of the fishes, end of John; (8) on the mount in Galilee, in Matthew; (9) Mark’s, when they were at table — “this may be the last, because they were not going to live with them any more on earth”; (10) not on earth but elevated in the cloud, at the ascension. But not all are written, as John confesses — 1 Cor 15 gives the more than five hundred brothers at once and the appearance to James, of which the Gospels make no mention. His own addition: he would think Christ appeared to the Blessed Virgin — no account, “just too private a family matter, I guess”; “if anybody needed consoling, she did… most likely she was the first one.”

8. a. 3, reply 4: Galilee (“I will precede you in Galilee”) #

Chrysostom on Matt 26: not in some far-off place, but among his own people, in the regions where they would spend much time, that they might believe the crucified is the one risen; and that they might be freed from fear of the Jews. Ambrose on Luke: he commanded them to see him in Galilee, but since from fear they stayed inside the conclave with doors locked, he showed himself to them first — no transgression of the promise but a hastening of it from benignity (festinata ex benignitate). Or: fewer in the conclave, more on the mountain (the five hundred) — Eusebius: Luke and John record appearances to the eleven in Jerusalem, the other two in Galilee, and the command was to all the disciples and brethren, as Paul’s five hundred recalls. Or, truer: in Jerusalem, to those in hiding, he was seen once or twice for consolation; in Galilee “with much power,” giving himself alive after the passion in many signs (Acts). Or Augustine (De consensu): take it prophetically — Galilee signifies transmigration, that he would migrate from Israel to the Gentiles, preceding the apostles by preparing the way in men’s hearts; or Galilee as revelation, not in the form of the servant but as equal to the Father, promised to his lovers. He notes this last objection is not really on the article’s topic but is one where texts are reconciled: the text seemed to say he would not be seen except in Galilee, so one must see in what sense that was meant. Aside on the word: “conclave — clavis means key, right? Locked in. That’s where they elect the pope.”

9. a. 4, objections: appearing in another effigy (“if he deceives, he is not truth”) #

(1) A thing can appear in its truth only as it is; Christ had but one effigy, so any other appearance was fictitious — and Augustine (83 Questions): “if he deceives, he is not truth,” but Christ is truth. (2) Nothing appears in another effigy unless the eyes of the seers are detained by illusion; such praestigia come about by magical arts, unfitting for Christ (2 Cor, “what agreement is there of Christ with Belial?”). (3) As our faith is made sure by Scripture, so theirs by the apparitions; Augustine to Jerome: if one lie is admitted in Scripture the whole authority of Scripture is weakened — “tell that to the scriptural scholars” — so one false apparition would weaken everything they saw. Sed contra: Mark 16 — “he was shown to two of them walking in another effigy.” Aside prompted by obj. 1: the Blessed Virgin appearing as a native in different countries — Guadalupe looking Aztec, appearing Oriental to Orientals. “Is that false? Or does it signify she’s all things to all men?” He leaves it as a difficulty.

10. a. 4 body: appearance follows the disposition of the beholder (“such he showed himself as he was in them”) #

Divine things are revealed to men according as they are diversely affected: those with a mind bene dispositum perceive divine things according to the truth; those not well disposed perceive them with a certain confusion of doubt or error — “the animal man does not perceive those things which are of the spirit of God” (1 Cor 2). He applies it: many in the world and even in the Church have a mind not well disposed. So to those disposed to believe he appeared in his own effigy; to those seen to have grown tepid, in another — “we had hoped that he would redeem Israel.” Gregory in the homily: “such he showed himself to them in the body as he was in them in their mind” — because they were still wandering (peregrinus) from the faith in their hearts, he pretended to go further, as if a traveller.

11. a. 4 replies: fiction that signifies is not a lie (“not everything that we invent is a lie”) #

Reply 1: Augustine (Questions on the Gospels) — what we feign is a lie only when it signifies nothing; when our fiction refers to some meaning, it is not a lie but a figure of the truth. Otherwise everything said figuratively by wise men, holy men, and the Lord himself would be counted false. As things said, so things imagined may be made without lie to signify. His own examples: John the Baptist calling the Pharisees vipers, and Christ calling men whited sepulchres full of dead bones — is he lying? And Thomas commenting on a passage where St. Paul speaks ironically, stopping to explain irony — saying the opposite of what you mean. His class example: finding a student drunk under the table and saying “What a fine example of an Assumption College student!” — am I lying? Or saying “Gee, you’re nice” to someone being mean. Student exchange: what about Mary Magdalene not recognizing him? — she may at first have thought the body had merely been moved; she was not yet firm. Reply 2: Augustine (De consensu) — the Lord was able to transform his flesh, so that what was seen was truly other than what they were used to behold, as before the passion he was transformed on the mountain and his face shone as the sun. But not so here; here, “not incongruously,” we may take the impediment in their eyes to have been from Satan — Luke 24, “their eyes were held lest they should know him.” He notes this means held by the demons, but not always: the mountain transfiguration was not that case. Reply 3: the objection would hold if from the sight of the alien effigy they had not been brought back to seeing the true effigy of Christ. Augustine: this permission lasted only until the sacrament of the bread, when he broke bread and they knew him — by the unity of his body the impediment of the enemy was removed. Hence “their eyes were opened to knowing him”: not that they walked before with eyes closed, but there was something in them that did not allow them to recognize what they saw, “which some humour or cloud could do.”

12. Break (“before we get down to the last two articles”) #

He stops here, with aa. 5–6 still to come.

His words #

• “quae a Deo sunt ordinata sunt” — the things which are from God are ordered (Rom 13:1); his governing principle for aa. 1, 2, 4.
• “the common law of nature” vs. “a special gift of grace” — the two ways things are known.
• “passable nature” — a body still able to suffer [ed.: passible].
• “oculata fide” — “an eyeing faith,” “seeing faith”; the adjective modifies fide.
• “term from which” / “term to which” — terminus a quo / ad quem, applied to ascension and resurrection.
• “the truth of the resurrection” vs. “the glory of the one rising” — the two things to be declared to the disciples.
• “festinata ex benignitate” — the Jerusalem appearance as a hastening from benignity, not a breaking of the Galilee promise.
• “conclave” — from clavis, key; the locked room.
• “effigy” — appearance, shape.
• “praestigia” — illusions produced by magical arts.
• “bene dispositum” — a well-disposed mind, which perceives divine things secundum veritatem.
• “peregrinus” — wandering; also “traveller,” as Christ feigned to go further.
• “fingimus” / fiction — what we invent; a lie only if it signifies nothing.

Texts #

Read in class

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 55, prologue and aa. 1–4 (objections, sed contra, body, replies).

Mentioned (within those articles or by him)

• Scripture: 1 Tim 5; 1 Tim 2; 1 Cor 14; Acts 3; Acts 10; Acts 4:33; Rom 4; Rom 6; Rom 13:1; Isa 64; 1 Cor 2; 1 Cor 15; 2 Cor (Christ and Belial); Mark 16:9; Mark 16 (another effigy); Matt 26; Luke 24; John 16; John 20; the Lazarus narrative; Emmaus; the Tiberias fishes.
• Augustine, De consensu evangelistarum; 83 Questions; Questions on the Gospels; Epistle to Jerome; on John.
• Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy (ch. 4 cited at a. 2).
• Hilary on Matthew; Bede; Ambrose on Luke; Chrysostom on Matthew; Cyril; Gregory, homily; Eusebius.
• Thomas Aquinas, Adoro te devote; Thomas’s commentary on a passage of St. Paul explaining irony (no locus given).
• Shakespeare, Cymbeline; a film about Teresa entering the convent; the Thomas Aquinas College newsletter; De Koninck on Augustine’s mother; Fr. Boulay on benignitas.

His questions #

• Why was the resurrection made known only to some, when the passion was public? Because the passion was in a passible body, known by the common law to all; the glorious resurrection exceeds natural knowledge and comes down in order, through chosen witnesses.
• Why were women told first, if they may not preach? Public teaching in church is not theirs, but private domestic instruction is; she who brought the beginning of death announced the beginning of risen glory, and in the state of glory the sex suffers no detriment.
• Did anyone see Christ rise? “Was he shy?” No one: by divine order what is above men is announced through angels; the resurrection transcends common knowledge in both its terms.
• Then how could the apostles witness by sight? By oculata fide — they saw living after the resurrection the one they had known dead, having first heard from angels.
• Why could they see the ascension but not the rising? They saw the ascension only as to the term from which, not the term to which; the resurrection exceeds common knowledge in both.
• Why did he not spend the forty days continuously with them? Frequent appearance sufficed for the truth of the resurrection; continual presence would have obscured the glory and suggested he had risen to his former life.
• Where was he bodily in the intervals? Unknown — Scripture does not treat of it.
• Did he appear to the Blessed Virgin? Not recorded; he himself thinks one must assume it, “too private a family matter.”
• Was appearing in another effigy a deception? No: a fiction that signifies is a figure of the truth, not a lie; and he showed himself in body as he was in their minds, the impediment removed at the breaking of bread.
• Is Our Lady appearing as a native of each country false? Left open — “or does it signify she’s all things to all men?”