Resurrection and Instruction

Per dies quadraginta apparens eis, et loquens de regno Dei, et convescens, etc Ad instruendam Dominus fidem suae resurrectionis, saepius apostolis post passionem suam vivus apparuit, cibos sumit, eamdemque quam a mortuis suscitaverat palpandam carnem exhibet. Sed altiori mysterio per hanc quadragesimam dierum cum discipulis conversationem, significat se occulta praesentia quae promiserat impleturum. 'Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi'. Iste enim numerus hanc temporalem terrenque vitam vel propter quator anni tempora, vel propter quator ventos coeli designat. Nam postquam consepulti fuerimus cum Christo per baptismum in mortem, quasi Rubri mari calle transito, necessarium in hac solitudine Domini habemus ducatum, qui nos ad coelestia perducat, et imaginis suae denario remunerans, praesentia sancti Spiritus quasi vera jubiliaei quiete beatificet Sanctus Beda, Super Acta Apostolorum Expositio

Through forty days he appeared to them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and ate... 1 The Lord, for instruction of the faith of His resurrection, often after His passion appeared alive to the Apostles, and He took up bread, in the same way as from the dead he had taken up the palpable flesh. But there is a higher mystery in this forty days of conversation with his disciples, for it signifies hidden things present which he promised to fulfill. 'Behold I am with you for all days, even to the consummation of the age.' 2 This is the number of the temporal and worldly life, either on account of the four seasons of the year, or the four winds of heaven. For after we are buried with Christ through baptism in death, as we take the path through the Red Sea, it is necessary in this desert that we have the Lord leading, who brings us through to heaven, and giving the reward of the denarius of His own image, with the presence of the Holy Spirit he blesses us with the true peace of the Jubilee. Saint Bede, Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 1 Acts 1 3-4 2 Mt 28.20