5. He showed himself then to the disciples. What is “Himself”? The Head of His Church.
The Church was foreseen by Him as in thee to be throughout the world, by the disciples it
was not yet seen. He showed the Head, He promised the Body. For what did He add next?
“These are the words which I spake to you, while I was yet with you.”3562 What is this,
“While I was yet with you”? Was He not with them then when He was speaking to them?
What is, “when I was yet with you”? was with you as mortal, which now I am not. I was with
you when I had yet to die. What is, “with you”? With you who were to die, Myself to die.
Now I am no more with you: for I am with those who are to die, Myself to die no more for
ever. This then is what I said to you. What? “That all things must be fulfilled which are
written in the Law, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me.”3563 I told you
that all things must be fulfilled. “Then opened He their understanding.”3564 Come then, O
Lord, employ Thy keys, open, that we may understand. Lo, Thou dost tell all things, and
yet are not believed. Thou art thought to be a spirit, art touched, art rudely handled,3565
and yet they who touch Thee hesitate. Thou dost admonish them out of the Scriptures, and
yet they understand Thee not. Their hearts are closed, open, and enter in. He did so. “Then
opened He their understanding.” Open, O Lord, yea, open the heart of him who is in doubt
concerning Christ. Open “his” understanding who believes that Christ was a phantom.
“Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.”
6. And “He said unto them.” What? “That thus it behoved. That thus it is written, and
thus it behoved.” What? “That Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead the third day.”3566
And this they saw, they saw Him suffering, they saw Him hanging, they saw Him with them
alive after His resurrection. What then did they not see? The Body, that is, the Church. Him
they saw, her they saw not. They saw the Bridegroom, the Bride yet lay hid. Let him promise
her too. “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead
the third day.” This is the Bridegroom, what of the Bride? “And that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”3567
This the disciples did not yet see: they did not yet see the Church throughout all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. They saw the Head, and they believed the Head touching the Body.
By this which they saw, they believed that which they saw not. We too are like to them: we
see something which they saw not, and something we do not see which they did see. What
do we see, which they saw not? The Church throughout all nations. What do we not see,
3562 Luke xxiv. 44.
3563 Luke xxiv. 44.
3564 Luke xxiv. 45.
3565 Ulsaris.
3566 Luke xxiv. 46.
3567 Luke xxiv. 47.
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On the words of the Gospel, Luke xxiv. 36, ‘He himself stood in the midst…