My Lord and my God! The apparitions of the Risen Christ contrast with those before his death on the Cross. The certainty of being before an exceptional person, yes, but of flesh and blood, who eats, sleeps, gets tired, rejoices and cries, suffers and dies, contrasts with these sudden appearances and disappearances of the glorious Christ, triumphant over death. Thus, the doubts of those who have seen him, thinking that he is a ghost or an illusion.
"Why are you alarmed, why do doubts arise within you? Look at my hands and my feet: it is me in person. Touch me and realize that a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." "It is Jesus himself who, after the resurrection, contacts the disciples in order to give them a sense of reality and dispel the opinion (or fear) that it is a ghost and therefore that they were victims of an illusion. Indeed, he establishes direct relations with them, precisely through touch.... Feel me and see.
He invites them to see that the resurrected body, with which he appears before them, is the same one that was martyred and crucified. This body possesses, however, at the same time new properties: it has become spiritual and glorified and therefore is no longer subject to the usual limitations of material beings.... Jesus enters the Cenacle even though the doors were closed, he appears and disappears, etc. But at the same time this body is authentic and real. In its material identity is the demonstration of Christ's resurrection" (John Paul II)
The certainty that Christ had risen was not a product of delusion of the disciples, but of evidence and the repeated apparitions with which the Lord was helping them to accept such a supernatural fact. Hence, when they had to proclaim this truth which, on the other hand, accused of killing God those who led Jesus to death, even if intimidated with torture and threats of death if they did not keep silent. Peter and John answered: "Can God approve that we obey you instead of him? You be the judge. We cannot but tell what we have seen and heard."
"Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he added, 'Thus it was written: The Messiah will suffer, he will rise from the dead on the third day...'" With this absolutely new light, even the event of the Cross shined in their eyes, and they were in a position to announce these things to all peoples.
Dealing with Jesus Christ in the attentive and frequent reading of his Word and in the Eucharist will help us to dispel any doubts about the foundation of our faith: everything does not end with death, Christ has conquered it, and has given us the possibility to overcome it. Let us take time each day to meditate on Sacred Scripture, and receive the Eucharist.
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