Reply Obj. 5: As Augustine says (De Consens. Evang. iii): "We can
understand one angel to have been seen by the women, according to
both Matthew and Mark, if we take them as having entered the
sepulchre, that is, into some sort of walled enclosure, and that
there they saw an angel sitting upon the stone which was rolled back
from the monument, as Matthew says; and that this is Mark's
expression--'sitting on the right side'; afterwards when they scanned
the spot where the Lord's body had lain, they beheld two angels, who
were at first seated, as John says, and who afterwards rose so as to
be seen standing, as Luke relates."
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QUESTION 56

OF THE CAUSALITY OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION
(In Two Articles)

We have now to consider the causality of Christ's Resurrection,
concerning which there are two points of inquiry:

(1) Whether Christ's Resurrection is the cause of our resurrection?

(2) Whether it is the cause of our justification?
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FIRST ARTICLE [III, Q. 56, Art. 1]

Whether Christ's Resurrection Is the Cause of the Resurrection of Our
Bodies?

Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Resurrection is not the
cause of the resurrection of our bodies, because, given a sufficient
cause, the effect must follow of necessity. If, then, Christ's
Resurrection be the sufficient cause of the resurrection of our
bodies, then all the dead should have risen again as soon as He rose.

Obj. 2: Further, Divine justice is the cause of the resurrection of
the dead, so that the body may be rewarded or punished together with
the soul, since they shared in merit or sin, as Dionysius says
(Eccles. Hier. vii) and Damascene (De Fide Orth. iv). But God's
justice must necessarily be accomplished, even if Christ had not
risen. Therefore the dead would rise again even though Christ did
not. Consequently Christ's Resurrection is not the cause of the
resurrection of our bodies.

Obj. 3: Further, if Christ's Resurrection be the cause of the
resurrection of our bodies, it would be either the exemplar, or the
efficient, or the meritorious cause. Now it is not the exemplar
cause; because it is God who will bring about the resurrection of our
bodies, according to John 5:21: "The Father raiseth up the dead": and
God has no need to look at any exemplar cause outside Himself. In
like manner it is not the efficient cause; because an efficient cause
acts only through contact, whether spiritual or corpo