Sunday, April 14 : Saint Peter Chrysologus

After the resurrection, as the Lord had entered when all the doors were shut (Jn 20,19), the disciples did not believe he had regained his body in reality but imagined that only his soul had returned under a bodily appearance, like the images that appear to people dreaming in their sleep. «They thought it was a ghost» (Lk 24,37)… «Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet.» Look – that is to say, consider attentively. Why? Because what you are beholding is not a dream. Look at my hands and my feet since, as yet, you cannot look at my face with your bewildered eyes. Look at the wounds in my flesh since, as yet, you cannot see the works of God. Behold the marks made by my enemies since, as yet, you cannot perceive the signs of God. Touch me so that your hand will give you proof since, so far, your eyes are blinded… Feel the holes in my hands, probe my side, reopen my wounds, for I cannot refuse to the faith of my disciples what I did not refuse to my enemies for my agony. Feel, feel…, seek even to my bones, that you may confirm the reality of my flesh and that these still open wounds may attest that it is truly I myself… Why don’t you believe that I am risen who called several dead persons back to life before your eyes?… When I was hung on the cross, they taunted me, saying: «He saved others, he cannot save himself… Let him come down from the cross now and we will believe in him» (Mt 27,42). Which is more difficult? To come down from the cross, tearing out the nails, or to come up from hell, treading death underfoot? Look, I have saved myself and, breaking the chains of hell, have come back up to the world above.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team