Showings And Ascension

Cur secundum Mattheaum et Marcum mandat discipulis: Praecedam vos in Galiliaeam, ibi me videbitis: secundum Lucam vero et Joannem etiam intra conclave obtulit se vivendum? Et quidem quod se videndum frequenter obtulerit, et plusquam quingentibus fratribus, et Patro, et Jacobo, etiam Apostolico probavimus testimonio. Et Lucas in Actibus apostolorum docuit quod discipulis manifestaverit se vivere post passionem suam, in multis argumentis apparens his, et disputans de regno Dei. Ergo quia saepiius et diversis apparuit, cum in Galilaea quando sit visus, nequaquam praescriptum ac definitum tempus Scriptura designaverit: in Hierusalem quando se obtulerit, et diem et horam expresserit; timidiores intra conclavia revisuntur, fortiores ad montem convenerunt. Denique intra conclave, ostiis clausis, inducit Joannes discipulos congregatos propter metum Judaeorum: quos non undecim Lucas, sed plures scripsit fuisse: istos autem Matthaeus undecim solos in Galilaea convenisse non siluit. Denique sic habes: Undecim autem discipuli abierunt in Galilaeam, in montem ubi constituerat illis Jesus, et videntes eum adoraverunt: quidam autem dubitaverunt. Quibus docendi et baptizandi tribuit potestatem. Undecim quoque discumbentibus discipulis et Marcus in fine apparuisse scribit quando similitar praecandi his totum orbem mandat officium. Unde hoc conventientius arbitror, quod Dominus quidem mandaverit discipulis ut in Galilaea se viderent: sed illis metu intra conclave residentibus, primo se obtulisse, postea vero confirmatis animis, undecim illos Galilaeam petisse.Vel certe, hoc quoque diligentibus scriptoribus placuisse reperio, nihil obstat si dicamus pauciores intra conclave, in monte complures fuisse. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Evangelii secundum Lucam, Liber X Source: Migne PL 15.1850b-d

Why according to Matthew and Mark did He command His disciples: 'I shall go before you into Galilee, 1 there you will see me,' 2 but according to Luke and John He brought Himself into the room to be seen? 3 And certainly He often brought Himself to be seen, 4 even to more than fifty, and to Peter, and to James, for we approve the Apostolic testimony. 5 And in the Acts of the Apostles Luke teaches that He had manifested Himself to His disciples after His passion, appearing to them in many ways, and speaking of the kingdom of God. 6 Therefore because He often appeared, and in different ways, Scripture does not designate a definite and foretold time as to when He would be seen in Galilee, but it tells the day and hour when He brought Himself to Jerusalem, so that the more fearful within the room, seeing Him again, be made stronger, that they might gather at the mount. Finally John introduces the disciples gathered in the room with the doors closed on account of fear of the Jews, 7 and in Luke there were not eleven of them but he wrote there were more, 8 and Matthew was not silent that only these eleven gathered in Galilee. So he has: 'The eleven disciples went out to Galilee, onto the mount where Jesus had commanded them, and seeing Him they adored, but a few doubted.' 9 To whom He gave the power of teaching and baptising. Mark, at the end of his Gospel, also writes that He appeared to eleven sitting disciples. 10 when similarly He bestows on these the office of preaching throughout the whole world. Whence I judge this is most appropriate: that the Lord certainly announced to His disciples that they would see Him in Galilee, but since they were fearful in the room, He first showed Himself to them there, and after, when their souls had been fortified, the eleven went to Galilee. Or certainly, and this report has also pleased dutiful writers, there is no obstacle if we say that there were fewer in the room and more on the mountain. Saint Ambrose, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Luke, Book 10 1 Mt 26.32 2 Mk 16.7 3 Lk 24.36 4 Jn 20.19 5 1 Cor 15.6 6 Acts 1.3 7 Jn 20.19 8 Lk 24.33-36 9 Mt 28.16-17 10 Mk 16.7