Choose a topic from Part 3a:
1. Christ rose from the dead and was manifested to"witnesses preordained of God" (Acts 10:40). Thesewitnesses were to make his Resurrection known to others.
2. No human eye was privileged to see our Lord in thefirst moment of his Resurrection. An angel was the herald of hisrising glorious from the dead.
3. After the Resurrection, our Lord did not liveconstantly with his disciples. But he appeared to them repeatedly,and thus he proved two needful facts: the truth of the Resurrectionitself, and the glory of the Risen Lord. Had our Lord lived withthe disciples as he had lived with them before his Passion, itmight be thought that he rose to the same life as before.
4. On the very day of the Resurrection, our Lord appeared"in another shape" to the two disciples who werejourneying to Emmaus (Mark 16:12; Luke 24:13-16). After theResurrection, Christ appeared in his own shape to some whowere well disposed to believe in him, and in another shapeto those who were prone to doubt. The two disciples on the way toEmmaus said that they "had hoped that it was he who shouldhave redeemed Israel" (Luke 24:21). Their hope was, as theirvery words show, a thing of the past. Our Lord therefore showedhimself to these disciples as he was in their own minds, that is,as a stranger.
5. Christ proved the truth of his Resurrection to hisdisciples, "to whom he showed himself alive after his passion,by many proofs, for forty days, appearing to them, and speaking tothem of the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). Thus Christstrengthened the faith of the disciples, and supplied them withargument to use in carrying out their mission.
6. Our Lord's proofs of his Resurrection wereperfectly adequate. He made use of the testimony of the angels, andof the scriptures. He showed that he had a true and solid body, notan apparent body, and he identified this body by the marks of hiswounds. In his risen body, he ate and drank with his disciples,heard them and spoke to them, and discoursed on the scriptures.Throughout the appearances to his disciples, our Lord manifestedthe reality of his body and also the reality of his human soul, forhe used the soul-faculty of intellect-he reasoned. Finally, ourLord showed his power and glory by entering through closed doors,and by disappearing suddenly from the presence of hisdisciples.
"It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come."
Thomas á Kempis
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"A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine
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