20.— Jesus shows His Sacred Hands and Feet.

Jesus shows His Sacred Hands and Feet.

Read St. John xx. 19, 20.

[19] Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you. [20] And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.

1. When Our Lord appeared after the Resurrection His sacred hands and feet and side still bore the wounds made by the nails and spear. They were like no other wounds: they in no way disfigured His Sacred Body; on the contrary, they shone like jewels of dazzling brilliancy. So, too, the martyrs of Jesus will to all eternity be decorated with each wound they suffered on earth, as with an ornament; and all who have mortified their bodies for His sake will have an additional beauty in body and soul alike in heaven.

2. Our Lord was not ashamed of these marks of His humiliation, of His shame and outrage and degradation. He rejoiced in them. They were the scars in the battle by which He had won Heaven for His elect; the trophies of victory over sin and Satan. We cannot win the battle without humiliation, shame, and bearing His reproach. How we ought to rejoice when we are thought worthy to share in any way His sufferings, knowing that we shall thereby earn a share in His triumph!

3. Our Lord points out to His apostles these proofs that it is He Himself, Jesus of Nazareth, in no way changed. He goes still further, and to convince them of His human nature He asks for some food, and eats before them. He shows a wonderful condescension for their weakness and their incredulity. He is determined to put them at their ease, and leaves no means untried to win their confidence and love. In much the same way He has treated me and won me in spite of myself.

Challoner note to verse [19] The doors were shut: The same power which could bring Christ’s whole body, entire in all its dimensions, through the doors, can without the least question make the same body really present in the sacrament; though both the one and the other be above our comprehension.