New Testament Revelation

EWTN Global Catholic Radio and St. Joseph Communications proudly present Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. This 50-part series was recorded on phonograph records in the 1960s, and the sound quality is sometimes limited, but the word of God spoken by Archbishop Sheen is timeless. And now, here is Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Peace be to you. It will be recalled that we said there were three motives of credibility. That is to say, three reasons why one might believe in anyone. In particular, in the person of Christ. We named three conditions. First, that he be pre-announced. That we have already discussed. The second motive of credibility was that if he came from God, that there should be certain signs or wonders or miracles to attest his truthfulness. Now a word about miracles. Let us recall the fact that miracles are not a violation of the laws of nature. God and the universe are not on opposite sides. Let us take this example. Nearly all the great railroad stations, where there are junctions of tracks and lines running side by side, meeting and intersecting, have always in their midst what is known as a control tower. From that little building, all lines are directed and signals sent in various ways. A pull of a great lever and a mighty train passes on its appointed way. The working of another lever sends a freight train into a siding until the express train is passed. All railway traffic would be disorganized if the important work were not carried on in that control tower. In fact, there would be disorder and collisions. Now this is a feeble illustration of the laws of nature, for the whole universe works upon fixed lines. We cannot see God's signals, nor understand how he conveys his power to the forces of nature. We do not see him work his levers. We only know that his laws obey him with an exactness and a promptness unknown in any railway system of the world. And when there is a miracle that seems to be at variance with universal law of gravitation, there's merely a higher power introduced. Law of gravitation can be actually overcome by the right arm of a little child. The ball, according to the natural laws, ought to fall to the ground, when it's bounced, bounds up to the ceiling, and now the hand of a little child can stop the operation of the law of gravitation by catching the ball. When God, therefore, puts forth the strength of his arm, he can suspend the action of some of the laws that he has made in order to manifest his goodness and his justice, and the fact that he is Lord of creation, but in this case to witness the truth of the messenger and the message. Our Lord worked many miracles, and here are some of the characteristics about them. We have already hinted at this idea. First he worked them as signs to convince men of the fact that he who came to work these miracles was the one that was promised. He never worked a miracle to amaze a multitude. He never worked a miracle to satisfy his hunger or his thirst. He never worked a miracle to obtain a living. He never received money for the things which he accomplished. He refused to convert the stones of the wilderness into bread to satisfy his own hunger, or to cause water to gush out of a rock to slake his thirst. Instead he asked a woman to let down her bucket to give him a drink. Our Lord explained why he worked miracles. He said, If I act like the son of my father, then let my actions convince you where I cannot. So you will recognize and learn to believe that the father is in me, and I in him. And on another occasion he said, The actions which my father has enabled me to achieve, those very actions which I perform, bear me witness that it is the father who has sent me. If it was God's will to give a revelation, miracles were very well fitted to certify and guarantee that message is true. If a miracle occurs in connection with the word or act of a person who professes to deliver a revelation from God, the coincidence proclaims the divine approval of both the teacher and the message. The miracles therefore were seals which God set upon his revelation of Christ as Christ his divine son. And if Jesus himself shows that it is by his own power that he works a miracle, he proves himself to be the very Lord of the universe and to be God. Another characteristic of the miracle and miracles of our blessed Lord is that there is nothing silly or unreasonable in any of them that were recorded. They were subject to the tests of everyone. The vast majority of the miracles were never miracles which took place in the inner secret places of people's lives but in what might be called the physical world, where they could be verified scientifically. Our Lord never performed a miracle unless there were witnesses present. When he healed the leper, there was a great multitude following him. In the healing of the centurion's servant, he did not even go where the servant was dying. When he raised Peter's mother-in-law from her sickbed, the apostles and others were present. Our Lord never went up into a mountain to perform some miracle alone, with no person being present, and then come out and say that he had done it. His works were accomplished before the eyes of multitudes of people, and that is why none of the miracles of our blessed Lord were ever actually denied, not even his resurrection. The apostles were forbidden to teach it and to preach it, but the miracle itself was never denied. The third characteristic of his miracles is that they are inseparable from his person. His miracles differed from that of prophets and others inasmuch as theirs was an answer to a prayer granted by a higher power, but his flowed from the majestic life that was resident in him. That is why St. John calls them his gospel signs or works, meaning that they were the sort of thing that might be expected from him, being what he was. They were evidences of his divine revelation, but they were even more, for they testified to as redemptive action as the Savior of the world. By healing the palsied and the lame and the blind, Christ clothed with visible form his power to cure spiritual diseases. These physical diseases were to him symbols of that which was spiritual. He often passed from the physical fact of a miracle to its symbolic and spiritual meaning. For example, blindness was a symbol of blindness to the light of faith. By casting out devils from those who were possessed, he pointed out his victory over the powers of evil, whereby men would be freed from slavery to evil and restored to moral liberty. If you expel the miracles from the life of Christ, you destroy the identity of Christ and the Gospels. Even a neutral attitude toward the miraculous element in the Gospels is impossible. The claim to work miracles is not the least important element of our Lord's teaching, for are the miracles which were wrought by him merely an ornament to his life? The miraculous is interwoven with his entire life. The moral integrity of our Lord's character is dependent upon the reality of his miracles, for if he was a deceiver, he was not what he claimed to be. So we cannot put asunder two things which God has joined together, namely, the beauty of Christ's character and the reality of the miracles which he worked. How many miracles did he work? Well, the specific number of miracles that are mentioned in the Gospels are thirty-five. Twenty of these miracles tell of raising of the dead, one a child, the other a young man, and the other an adult. Nine relate to nature, and twenty-three to healing. In addition to these, there are miracles related to the life of Christ himself, like the virgin birth, resurrection, ascension, and so forth. But though there are only thirty-five specific miracles that are mentioned, it must not be thought that these are the only miracles that our blessed Lord ever worked. Listen to the way St. John concludes his Gospel. There is much else besides that Jesus did. If all of it were put in writing, I do not think the world itself would contain the books which would have to be written. In other words, there must have been miracles beyond counting. And that is why when the multitude had witnessed one miracle, they said, can the Christ be expected to do more miracles that is coming than this man has done? In other words, it was preannounced that when the Messiah, or the Christ, came, he would work miracles. But this one has worked miracles in abundance, therefore he must be the Christ. Now we're going to take one miracle in particular and study it, and that is the most important one of all, namely the resurrection. There are five distinct accounts of the resurrection in the New Testament, and all of them are independent. Four are of the Gospels, one of St. Paul. It is to be remembered that St. Paul had conversed with Peter and James about three years after his conversion, and therefore was in personal relationship with the Apostles. These five distinct records give eleven, at least eleven, accounts of the resurrection of our blessed Lord and of his various appearances, in one instance an appearance to five hundred people. The fact is that our blessed Lord died on the cross, was buried in a hundred pounds of spices, as was the custom, and a watch, or a guard, was set. In the history of the world, only one tomb has ever had a rock rolled before it, and a soldier set to guard it, to prevent a dead man from rising, and that was the tomb of Christ on the evening of the Friday called Good. What spectacle could be more ridiculous than armed soldiers keeping their eyes on a corpse? But sentinels were set, lest the dead walk, the silent speak, and the pierced heart quicken to the throb of life. They said he was dead, they knew he was dead, they said he would never rise again, and yet they watched. They remembered that he called his body the temple, and that in three days after they had destroyed it he would rebuild it. They recalled too that he had compared himself to Jonas, and said that as Jonas was in the valley of the whale for three days, so would he be in the valley of the earth for three days, and then would rise again. After three days Abraham received back his son Isaac, who was offered in sacrifice. They were familiar with that idea. For three days Egypt was in darkness, it was not of nature. On the third day God came down on Mount Sinai, and now once again there was worry about the third day. Early Saturday morning, therefore, the chief priests and the Pharisees broke the Sabbath and presented themselves to Pilate, saying, Sir, we have recalled it to memory that this deceiver, while he yet lived, said, I am to rise again after three days. Give orders then that his tomb shall be securely guarded until the third day, or perhaps his disciples will come and steal him away. If they should then say to the people he has risen from the dead, this last deceit would be more dangerous than the old. The request for a guard until the third day had more reference to Christ's words about his resurrection than it did to the fear of the Apostle stealing a corpse and propping it up like a living thing in simulation of a resurrection. But Pilate was in no mood to see this group, for they were the reason why he had condemned innocent blood. He had made his own official investigation. Christ was dead. He would not submit to the absurdity of using Caesar's armies to guard a dead Jew, and Pilate therefore said to them, You have guards away with you. Make it secure as best you know how. The watch was to prevent violence, the seal was to prevent fraud. There must be a seal, and the enemies would steal it. There must be a watch, and the enemies must keep it. The certificates of the death and resurrection must be signed by the enemies themselves. The Gentiles were satisfied through nature that Christ was dead, and the Jews were satisfied through the law that he was dead. Then, as the Gospel of Matthew puts it, they went and made the tomb secure, putting a seal on the stone and setting a guard over it. The king lay in state with his guard about him. The most astounding fact about this spectacle of vigilance over the dead was that the enemies of Christ expected the resurrection, but his friends did not. It was the believers who were the skeptics. It was the unbelievers who were credulous. His followers needed and demanded proofs before they would be convinced. How suppose we do not accept the witnesses of the resurrection and other proofs of miracles attesting the trustworthiness of Christ? How explain then the empty tomb? How account for the fact that the apostles went about preaching the resurrection and no one denied it? Well, the two popular explanations that are given by those who deny the resurrection are the following. First, the lie theory. This theory says that the apostles lied about the resurrection, as well as every other witness who claimed that he had seen the risen Christ. Now, this theory is manifestly very false. For what chance was there of persuading the world that he had risen from the dead if he had not done so? For nothing less than the conviction of the Lord's resurrection could have induced men to have ventured their lives on it. Furthermore, their conduct proved that they believed in it overwhelmingly. They preached the crucifixion in the very place where he was crucified, and in the very place where they had to suffer for preaching it. Persons do not suffer for what they believe to be false. The resurrection was not a lie. But there's another theory to explain away the resurrection, and it can be put in popular psychological language of the day as follows. This theory holds that the apostles were very anxious to see the risen Savior. They had heard him say that he would rise from the dead. And all of these words about the resurrection seeped down into their subconsciousness. The ideas rested there as a kind of a desire. Then, good Friday, there came the terrible defeat and crucifixion. They knew their cause was lost. Then it was that their very desire to see the resurrection became the father to the thought that there was a resurrection. Having been defeated in their messianic hopes by seeing their Savior killed and crucified, they now began, according to this theory, to imagine his resurrection. They believed that they had seen him. So thoroughly were they convinced that he said he would rise. Now, this theory is false for many reasons. First, it does not correspond at all with facts. The apostles themselves knew the difference between a trance and reality. In fact, there are many passages in the scriptures concerning this difference. Then, too, the appearances did not take place when the disciples were at prayer, at worship, or subject, or when they might have been subject, to religious fancies. But the appearances of the risen Christ took place in the ordinary, everyday occupations. When they were going for a walk, or seated at supper, or out fishing, they took place in the most trivial of circumstances, quite different from that which enthusiasts would have imagined, or where visions were likely to occur, namely in sleep. And, too, the most astounding thing about the resurrection is that no one expected it. The Lord indeed said that he would rise from the dead. None of his followers believed it. That is why the women brought spices on Easter Sunday morn, and they brought spices wide, to anoint and embalm a dead body, not to greet a risen one. Furthermore, the appearances of Christ were not while people were looking for him, nor were they anticipating him, even hoping for a resurrection. When Mary Magdalene, for example, found the tomb empty, it never occurred to her that he had come to life. She said that somebody had moved him from one burial place to another. And furthermore, when the news of the empty tomb was brought to Peter and John before they had seen the risen Lord, their exclamation was, Oh, it's a woman's story. You know how women are, always imagining things. There was one apostle that remained doubtful for a whole week, and that was Thomas. Then another argument against this vision or subjective or psychological theory is that visions do not occur to different persons simultaneously. A man's private illusions, like his dreams, are his own. Men do not dream at once, and all at the same time, exactly the same dream. So is there any evidence that when Christ appeared to the five hundred, that any one of them doubted the reality of him? Then, too, as regards this subjective theory, a vision, for example, could never roll away the stone from the door of the tomb. And there was the Jewish guard, there were soldiers there. Furthermore, persons could not have honestly visited the tomb and found it empty if the body were there all the time. They would never have had that kind of a vision. If the resurrection were merely an illusion, the touching of the body of Christ, the putting of the finger into the hand, and the hand into the side, as Thomas did, would certainly have cured any such illusion. Furthermore, when our Lord appeared, he ate food. They saw the food vanish. He took bread. They saw the bread break. On another occasion, he gave them bread and fish, and they were satisfied of their hunger. And this certainly does not happen when there's only a dream or an illusion. And so the fact is that none of the apostles expected a resurrection. They had to be convinced. They had to be convinced the hard way, as Thomas had to be convinced. Believe me, the skeptics of today cannot compare with the skeptics of those days, namely, the apostles. They were the doubters. And when they were convinced, they proved that they believed in it by having their throats cut for that cause. So that our blessed Lord went before the world with another argument of his divinity. Many miracles were assigned to his divinity. Now that he had risen from the dead, he asked men to be prepared to die to what was knowing them in order that they might rise again. God love you. This has been Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. For more information about this series, contact St. Joseph Communications at 1-800-526-2151. Outside the U.S., call 818-331-3549. And please join us again next time for Life is Worth Living with Archbishop Fulton Sheen on EWTN Global Catholic Radio.