Thursday in the Octave of Easter
(Luke 24:35-48)
The German Renaissance master Mathis Grünewald portrayed scenes from the gospel on what is called the Isenheim Altarpiece. The paintings of the crucifixion and the resurrection especially stand out. One can hardly imagine a more pathetic figure than Christ tortured on the cross. He is writhing in pain. His body is hideously contorted. Thorns not only pierce his head but are embedded over his skin from a beating with reeds. As atrocious as Jesus looks here, his resurrected body is gloriously resplendent. His skin glows, and his wounds sparkle. There is not a hint of the agony he underwent just two days before.
St. Thomas Aquinas would find the magnificent transformation of Christ’s body entirely appropriate. He writes, according to one commentator, that in the resurrection the incorruptible soul bestows on the body “something glorious or luminous”. The gospel narrative today attests to this transformation. Jesus’ disciples cannot believe what they are seeing as the resurrected Lord stands before them. They mistakenly believe that he is a ghost because the last time they saw him was in the distance hanging on the cross (cf. Luke 23:49).
Aquinas does not relegate such a glorified body solely to Jesus, however. No, he says that everyone who dies with Christ are bound to undergo this same transformation. It will not happen on the day we die but at the resurrection of the dead on the last day. Our bodies will have all the resilience of robust youth whether we die at ninety days or ninety years. This is just another example of how God shows his love for us. It provides us still another reason to love God unreservedly in return.
