Let no one ask how the Lord, being in a material body, entered unhindered though “the doors were shut.” Rather, let him attend to this: the divine Evangelist says this not about one of us, but about Him who sits together with God the Father and easily accomplishes whatever He wills.
For it was fitting that He who is God by nature and true should not be subject to the natural order of things. These things, without doubt, came from Him. Rather, He rules over necessity itself and over all that takes place according to the natural law of nature.
Otherwise, how did He subject the sea to His feet and walk upon the waves as upon dry land, although our bodies cannot walk freely upon water? Or how did He perform His other wonders by His divine omnipotence?
You will certainly acknowledge that those things surpass our reason. Add this also to them. Do not, like some who are prone through their light-mindedness to improper thoughts, suppose because of this that the Lord rose not with this body, but without flesh and without the temple He had assumed.
If you cannot understand the operation of the Ineffable Nature, why do you not rather accuse human weakness? This, I think, is far more reasonable. But you prefer to be silent about the limitation assigned to you by the Creator.
As though rejecting sound sense, you object to the great mystery of the resurrection, on which we set all our hope. Indeed, let everyone remember Paul’s cry: “If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is vain, and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:16-17).
And again: “We are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if indeed the dead do not rise” (1 Cor 15:15).
But what is restored, if not what had fallen? And what is raised, if not what had undergone death? How shall we expect resurrection if Christ did not raise His own temple, setting Himself before us as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and the firstborn from the dead?
Or how shall this corruptible put on incorruption if, as some think, it is subjected to total destruction? And why should it not undergo this, if it has no hope of being brought to life?
Therefore, do not disturb the correctness of the faith because of the miracle that occurred. Rather, wisely add this also to the other miracles. Notice how, by His wondrous entrance “when the doors were shut,” He showed again that He is God by nature.
He is not someone other than the One who had formerly dwelt with them. By uncovering the very side of His body and showing the wounds from the nails, He clearly certified that He had raised the temple which had hung on the cross.
He raised again that very body which He had borne. He plainly abolished the death proper to flesh, since He is by nature Life and God. Otherwise, what need was there to show His hands and side, if, according to the senseless opinion of some, He did not rise with His own flesh at all?
If He wished the disciples to think something else about Him, why did He not appear to them in another form? Why did He not, disregarding bodily appearance, produce other thoughts in them?
But behold, He shows great care that they believe in the resurrection of His flesh. Even when the time was already calling Him to transform His body into a certain ineffable and supernatural glory, He condescended providentially to appear with it again as it had been.
He did this so that He might not be thought to have another body, different from that in which He also suffered death on the cross. That the glory of the holy Body would have been unbearable for our eyes is easy to understand.
This would be clear if Christ had willed to disclose it before His ascent to the Father. Recall the transfiguration once shown to the holy disciples on the mountain.
The blessed Evangelist Matthew writes that He once took “Peter, James, and John, went up on the mountain, and was transfigured before them. His face shone like lightning, and His garments became white as snow” (Mt 17:1-2). They, unable to bear the vision, fell down.
Therefore, for providential reasons, our Lord Jesus Christ, not yet transforming His temple into the glory proper and fitting to Him, continued to appear in His former form. He wished to impart faith in no other kind of body than the one He received from the Holy Virgin.
In that body, crucified, He died according to the Scriptures, since death has power over flesh alone, and from flesh it has been driven out. For if His dead body did not rise, what death has been conquered? In what has the power of corruption been weakened?
Was one of the rational creatures subjected to death? Was the soul? Was an angel? Was the very Word of God? Therefore, if the power of death extends only to what is subject to corruption, the power of resurrection must justly apply to that alone.
Thus the might of the tyrant, the devil, is destroyed. Therefore, prudent people must number the Lord’s entrance “when the doors were shut” among His other miracles.
But He also greets the holy disciples. “Peace be to you,” He says, calling Himself peace. Indeed, those with whom Christ is present must undoubtedly abide with an undisturbed spirit.
Paul also prayed that this might come from God to those who believe in Him, saying: “The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds” (Phil 4:7). By the peace of Christ, which rises above every mind, he means no one other than His Spirit. Whoever receives Him will be filled with every good thing.
THEOSIS