n. Suddenly Our Lord came and walked and talked with them, but
they did not know Him. They asked Him to stay that night at their house,
for it was growing dark. He did not stop with them, and at supper they
knew Him, and then He vanished from their sight. An ordinary person
would have to get up and walk away; but He vanished, showing on this
occasion the second quality of His glorified body--agility. (3)
Subtility; that is, such a body can go where it pleases and cannot be
resisted by material things. It can pass through closed doors or gates,
and even walls cannot keep it out. It passes through everything, as
light does through glass without breaking it. At one time after Our
Lord's resurrection the Apostles were gathered together in a room, for
they were still afraid of being put to death, and the doors were tightly
closed. Suddenly Our Lord stood in the midst of them and said: "Peace be
to you." (John 20:19). They did not open the door for Him; neither wood
nor stone could keep Him out: and thus He showed that His body had the
third quality. (4) His body had the fourth quality also--impassability,
which means that it can no longer suffer. Before His death, and at it,
Our Lord suffered dreadful torments, as you know; but after His
resurrection nothing could injure or hurt Him. The spear could not hurt
His side, nor the nails His hands, nor the thorns His head. Shortly
after His resurrection Our Lord appeared to His Apostles while Thomas,
one of them, was absent. (John 20:24). When Thomas returned, the other
Apostles told him that they had seen the Lord risen from the dead; but
he would not believe them, saying: "Unless I see the holes where the
nails were in His hands and feet, and put my finger into His side, I
will not believe." Now Our Lord, knowing all things, knew this also; so
He came again when Thomas was present, and said to him: "Now, Thomas,
put your hand into My side." Thomas cried out: "My Lord and my God!" He
believed then, because he saw. Now if this body of Our Lord's had been
an ordinary body, it would have caused Him pain to allow anyone to put
his hand into the wound; but it was impassable. It seems very strange,
does it not, that Thomas would not believe what the other Apostles told
him? God permitted this. Why? Because, if they all believed easily, some
enemies of Our Lord might say the Apostles were simple men that believed
everything without any proof. Now they cannot truly say so, because here
was