Sermon by Cardinal Albino Luciani for the Easter Vigil, Venice, 21 April 1973
«Saint Paul says: “He was buried... he rose again on the third day... he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then he appeared in a single time to more than five hundred brethren, of whom the majority are alive up to today... Furthermore he appeared to James, then to all the apostles; last of all he also appeared to me” (1Cor 15, 4-9). Four times here Paul uses the verb ‘appeared’, insisting on visual perception; now, the eye does not see anything inside, but outside us, a reality distinct from us, that imposes itself on us from outside. That removes the thesis of an hallucination, of which, for that matter, the apostles were the first to be fearful. They thought in fact at first they were seeing a spirit, not the real Jesus, so much so that the latter had to reassure them: “Why are you disturbed? Look at my hands and feet, for it is truly me. Touch me and look, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I do!” (Luke 24, 38). They still didn’t believe and Jesus said to them: “‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They set him before a piece of roast fish. And before their eyes he took and ate it” (Luke 24, 41-43). The initial incredulity, then, was not only Thomas’, but of all the apostles, healthy people, robust, realistic, averse to any phenomenon of hallucination, that only gave way before the evidence of the facts.
With such human material it was also very improbable to pass from the idea of a Christ worthy of reliving spiritually in their hearts to the idea of a bodily Resurrection by force of reflection and enthusiasm. Among other things, in the place of enthusiasm, after the death of Christ, there were only dejection and disappointment in the apostles. And then there wasn’t time: it’s not in fifteen days that a largish group of people, not accustomed to speculating, changes mentality en bloc without the backing of solid evidence!»
