The Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead

“The third day he rose again from the dead.” The glory of Christ’s resurrection cast its splendor over everything that before had looked like weakness and frailty. If a little while ago it seemed impossible to you that an immortal being could die, you now see that he who has overcome death and has risen again cannot be mortal. But see in this the goodness of the Creator: as far as you cast yourself down by sinning, so far did he come down in following you. And do not charge God, the Creator of all things, with lack of power, by imagining that his work ended in a fall into an abyss which he, in his purpose of redemption, could not reach. We speak of the world below and the world above because we are bounded by the fixed outline of the body and confined within the limits of the region assigned to us. But to God, who is present everywhere and absent nowhere, what is below and what is above? Even so, through his taking on a body, there is room for these too. [a]

The flesh that had been laid in the tomb is raised, so that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled: “You will not let your Holy One see corruption.” He returned, then, as a victor from the dead, leading with him the spoils of hell. For he led out those who were held captive by death, as he himself had foretold when he said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” The Gospel bears witness to this when it says, “The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose, and appeared to many, and went into the holy city.” That city, no doubt, is the one of which the apostle says, “The Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.” As he says again to the Hebrews, “It was fitting that he, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” So, sitting at the right hand of God in the highest heavens, he placed there that human flesh, made perfect through sufferings, which had fallen into death by the fall of the first man, but was now restored by the power of the resurrection. That is why the apostle also says, “He has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places.” For he was the potter who, as the prophet Jeremiah teaches, “took up again in his hands and formed anew, as seemed good to him, the vessel that had fallen from his hands and was broken to pieces.” And it seemed good to him to place the mortal and corruptible body he had taken on, this body raised from the rocky tomb and made immortal and incorruptible, not on the earth now but in heaven, at his Father’s right hand.

The Scriptures of the Old Testament are full of these mysteries. No prophet, no lawgiver, no psalmist is silent about them; almost every one of the sacred pages speaks of them. It seems unnecessary, then, to spend long collecting testimonies. Yet we will cite a few, sending those who want to drink more deeply back to the springs of the divine books themselves.