Monday in the Octave of Easter, April 18, 2022

Matthew 28, 8–15

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”  While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.

The accounts of St. Matthew and St. John on what happened after the Resurrection of the Lord seem to contradict each other.  John tells us that Mary Magdalene saw the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb and then ran to tell the Apostles.  St. Matthew says that Mary and the women with her saw an angel who spoke to them, after which they ran to tell the Apostles.  In order to understand the actual sequence of events, we must keep in mind that not every Evangelist tells us everything that occurred, nor do they claim to do so.  Each tells what he himself remembers or what he has learned from certain others.  And we should not assume that the Evangelists tell us every detail of what they knew.  The sequence of events appears to be that the women came to the tomb early in the morning and that they saw the stone that had sealed the tomb rolled back.  They ran to tell the Apostles.  Peter and John ran to the tomb and looked inside but saw no one.  Meanwhile, the women walked back to the tomb and saw an angel (or possibly two).  They then started back to the house where the Apostles were hiding and encountered Jesus on the way.  That this was how the Fathers understood the series of events is clear from the fact that though they closely examine other apparent contradictions, such as how many women there were or when they started from Jerusalem to the tomb, they do not consider this at all.  Nor do the great Medieval commentators such as St. Thomas Aquinas.  Thus, John tells of the women first running to the Apostles in confusion and fear; and Matthew tells of their return to the Apostles, dazzled, but full of joy: “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples.”  

“And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.”  We might wonder why the Lord appeared to them not as he emerged from the tomb or just outside the tomb, but “on their way”.  He appears to them in a way that will not terrify them but in a perfectly natural way, as he might have before his Passion and Death.  He appears to us similarly, on our prayers and meditations and in inspirations.  “They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.”  Their actions tell us that they recognized him as the Son of God.  They are not merely overjoyed to see again someone they thought they had lost forever.  The Lord also seems not to have appeared to them so that his wounds were evident.  If so, it may be because the women did not require proof to believe that it was him, as the Apostles did.  “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”  He appears to the women in order to give them the joy of seeing him and to enlarge their faith in him, but also to send them on a mission to the Apostles.  The Lord appears to the women before he appears to the Apostles because it is the women who came looking for him while the Apostles locked themselves away for fear of the Jews.  The way Matthew tells it, the first time the Apostles see the Lord is in Galilee at a later time.  However, his silence concerning the appearances to the Apostles and others recounted by Luke and John does not mean they did not occur.  He simply does not mention them (although I would suggest that many of the Lord’s sayings Matthew includes among the words he uttered during his lifetime must have been taken from what he said after his Resurrection, implying other appearances).  The Venerable Bede enumerates ten appearances the Lord made after his Resurrection, based on the New Testament writings, five of them on Easter Sunday. 

“While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened.”  Only Matthew tells us of the bribing of the guards by the Sanhedrin.  The guards find themselves in a bad spot.  A guard whose prisoner escaped was executed as a warning to other guards, and so they feared for their lives.  At the same time, they were not guarding a live prisoner but a dead body.  They have little choice but to go to the Sanhedrin to tell their extraordinary story and hope for the best.  The Sanhedrin, for their part, think it best to bribe the guards.  This is consistent with their behavior toward Jesus: they ignore the marvels he performed as evidence of his divinity out of their hatred for him.  The guards take the bribes, perhaps wondering whether their masters can be trusted not to kill them later on.