The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Tropologically. S. Bernard says (Serm. vi. de Ascens.), “Thou art deceived, O Thomas, in hoping to see the Lord when separated from the company of the Apostles. The truth loves not holes and corners, takes no pleasure in places apart. He stands in the midst, that is, He takes pleasure in common discipline, common life, common studies.”
And saith unto them, Peace be unto you. This is the usual Hebrew mode of greeting, for peace brings with it every good, war every evil.
Ver. 20. — And when He had so said, He showed them His hands and His side. It is clear from this verse (and still more clearly from ver. 27) that Christ after His Resurrection retained not only the scars, but even the very holes, of His wounds, and that really and not in appearance. So S. Augustine teaches in answer to Porphyrius (Epist. xlix. [al. cii.] ad Deogratias). He did not fill them up with His glorified flesh, but left them open, in order that they might be incontrovertible proofs of the truth of His Body, and of Its Resurrection. So S. Cyril and Leontius. S. Augustine says (in loc.), “The nails had wounded His hands, the spear had pierced His side, and the marks of the wounds were left, to heal the hearts of the doubtful.”
2. This was a sign of His victory over sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil. So S. Augustine and S. Ambrose in Luke (cap. ult.)
3. To inspire us with greater confidence, inasmuch as Christ, by displaying these wounds to the Father, intercedes for us. See S. Anselm on Heb. ix. and [Pseudo]-Cyprian, de Baptismo Christi.
4. To enkindle our love, and to lead us in return willingly to bear even death itself for His sake. So S. Ambrose (ut supra), and S. Gregory in Cant iii.
5. That Christ might in the day of judgment convict Jews and reprobates of impiety and ingratitude, in neglecting such great grace. So S. Augustine. All theologians teach us (as well as S. Cyril, xii. 58) that Christ carried these wounds into heaven, and will retain them for ever. See Zech. xiii. 6, John xix. 37. It was miraculously so ordered by God that these wounds interfered not with the actions and motions of His Body. (See Suarez, iii. part., Quæst. xliv., Disput. xlvii. art 4, sect. 2.)
S. Augustine accordingly thinks (de Civ. xxii. 20) that it will be thus with the wounds of the martyrs. He thus writes, “Are we so inspired with love for the martyrs as to wish to behold in their bodies the scars of the wounds which they suffered for Christ? And it may be we shall see them. For this will not be a deformity, but an honour; and even though some of their limbs have been cut off, yet will they not appear without them at the resurrection. For it was said to them, ‘Not a hair of your head shall perish.’” He adds, and “these proofs of their virtue must not be counted as defects.”
S. Cyril (ut supra) seems to deny this; but he is not speaking of martyrs, but of those who have some natural defect, as those who are blind, deaf, &c. These will rise again with all their faculties.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, and recognised Him by His wounds. S. Augustine (de Civ. xxii. 19) says, “The brightness with which the righteous will shine as the sun, seems to have rather been veiled in Christ’s person than wanting. For man’s feeble sight could not have endured it, when steadily looking at Him, in order to recognise Him.”
They were glad, not only because they saw that Christ was risen, but also because they hoped that all His gracious promises would now be made good.
Ver. 21. — Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. Why again? The Interlinear Gloss says, “It was a repeated confirmation, Peace upon peace, according to the prophet.” Bede says, “He repeats it, because the virtue of charity is twofold, or because He is the peace who makes both one.” The Gloss, “He offers peace, who came for the sake of peace; and He repeats His words to show that all things whether in heaven or in earth are restored to peace through Him.” S. Chrysostom, “Because they were waging an unappeasable contest with the Jews.” He proclaims peace in order to console them, and sets forth also the power of the cross, He drave away all sorrow, and conferred every good, which is peace. But a further joy was announced to the women, for they had to bear the curse, “in sorrow shalt thou bring forth,” and they were indeed in sorrow.
As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. With like power, authority, end, mode, and love.
Observe here by this word ‘as’ Christ in a manner puts His Apostles on an equality with Himself, that is proportionately, as His successors and vicars. This word signifies likeness in office; with the same power and special authority with which the Father sent Me to found His Church, do I send you as its teachers and rulers (as I am Myself), that ye may have power to remit sin, as I also have. So Rupertus, S. Cyril, Theophylact, who maintain that by these words Christ made His Apostles His Vicars, the teachers and pastors of the world, and communicated to them His own office and authority, that is to say, all ecclesiastical authority, in fact made them Bishops. But Turrianus thinks that they were created Bishops on the day of Pentecost, as he writes in his notes on the Apostolic Constitution, vi. n. Bellarmine (de Rom. Pontiff i. 24), following Turrecremata, thinks that only S. Peter was ordained Bishop by our Lord, and that the other Apostles were ordained by S. Peter. Suarez considers it more probable that all the Apostles were ordained Bishops by Christ, though not certain as to time and place (see Tract de Fide, Disput. v. sect 1 num. 8). S. Augustine takes this latter view (Quæst. xcviii. in Quæst. N. and Vet. Test.) (2.) The word ‘as’ signifies similarity of origin. The beginning of Christ’s mission, as also that of the Apostles, was God Himself. (3.) It signifies likeness of object or end, that is, the propagation of the faith and the salvation of the world. So S. Cyril and Leontius. (4.) Likeness of mode, that ye may confirm your teaching by miracles, as I have confirmed Mine. (5.) Likeness of mutual love. As the Father sent Me to shed My blood from love of Him, with the same love do I send you. For it is a mark of the supreme love of God when He makes any one his witness and martyr.
Hear S. Gregory. “In sending you forth among the perils of persecutors, I love you with the same love that the Father had to Me, when He sent Me to endure My Passion.”
Ver. 22. — And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Why did He breathe on them? (1.) To signify the nature of the Holy Spirit, as proceeding both from Him and the Father. For as a man by breathing on another imparts to him his breath, so the Father and the Son by spiration produce the Holy Spirit, and communicate to Him their Spirit and Godhead. So S. Augustine (in loc.), Cyril, Bede, and others. This breathing was not the Holy Spirit Himself, but a sign of Him: so that it means, Receive by this breathing, as by a sign and instrumental cause, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(2.) To signify that the Holy Spirit was consubstantial with Himself and the Father. (3.) To show that it was He who first breathed into Adam the breath of life. As if He would say, I first gave Adam his natural life by breathing on him, so by breathing on you, do I give you that Holy Spirit which bestows on you supernatural and divine life. I who first created men, am now their re-creator and restorer. See S. Cyril (Lib. xii. 56), Leontius, Euthymius, and S. Athanasius (Quæst. lxiv. ad Antiochum). (4.) S. Cyril and S. Basil (de Spir. Sancto, cap. xvi.) and S. Ambrose (Serm. xx. in Ps. cxviii. [cxix.]) say that Christ, by these words, signified that He breathed into Adam not only breath but grace, and because he had lost grace by sin He restored it in this way to the Apostles, and through them to all men, being in fact the restorer of grace. He seems to say, Receive ye the Spirit which ye lost in Adam’s person by sin. Breathe Him forth on penitents in the sacrament of penance, remit through Him their sins and restore them to the life of the Spirit by grace. Hear S. Cyril: “Man was at first made by the Word of God, and God breathed into him the breath of life, and strengthened him by the imparting of His Spirit. But since he fell by disobedience, God the Father refashioned him, and brought him to new life by His Son. And we may learn that as it was He who in the beginning created our nature, and sealed it by His Holy Spirit, so when He began the renewal of our nature, He gives the Spirit to the disciples by breathing on them, that just as we were created by Him at first, we may in like manner also be renewed by Him.”
Symbolically. This breathing represents sin as a black cloud. For as a cloud is dispersed by the wind, so is every cloud of sin driven away by the breath of the Spirit. See Is. xliv. And again, it represents the judiciary power of remitting sins, which is exercised by the breath of the voice which says, I absolve thee.
Tropologically. It denotes that a Priest, in order to remit sin, should possess a mighty spirit, charity, and zeal, so as to breathe on penitents and lead them to true penitence, sorrow, and repentance, and thus dispose them for the remission of their sins. And so we see Confessors who are gifted with mighty resolution, wound with the spirit of their mouth many and great sinners, and convert them to holiness. Just as we read that S. Ambrose, when hearing the sins of those who confessed to him, was wont to weep, and thus by his own tears lead them to tears and contrition.