The forty days that followed the Resurrection were joyful and blessed days during which the disciples lived with the Lord. He visited them, strengthened them, removed their doubts, and confirmed them in faith. They lived with Him, enjoyed His companionship, and their hearts rejoiced when they saw Him. Let us contemplate those joyful days.

The Forty Days

The first thing we notice about the forty days is that they were a period of visitation.

1. A Period of Visitation and Care:
The Lord did not wish to leave His disciples in doubt, fear, weakness, or the psychological shock caused by the events of the Crucifixion.
Those who were in particular weakness, He appeared to them personally.
St. Peter, for example, was in a deep psychological crisis after denying his Master. He was terrified by the Lord’s saying: “Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny before My Father’s angels in heaven.” Therefore, the Lord appeared to Peter and reassured him of his apostleship.
When Christ rose, He did not think of Himself, but of others.
He did not rebuke those who had forsaken or denied Him, but rather healed and visited them with love.
He had trodden the winepress alone; all had forsaken Him. Yet He did not reproach them. His beloved ones had weak faith and were afraid. He did not scold them for their fear or lack of faith but worked to bring faith into their hearts.
For example, when Thomas doubted, the Lord was not angry because of his doubt. He appeared to him, showed him His wounds, removed his doubt, and said: “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Then Thomas cried out, “My Lord and my God.”
Thus, the Lord brought Thomas to faith—not through rebuke, but through love.
Therefore, the forty days were a period of visitation and care, and also…

B. A Period of God’s Presence with Us and His Abiding in Us:
The Lord could have strengthened His disciples’ faith in a single day or less, but He remained with them for forty days because He delights in being with His children—His joy is with the sons of men. He met them in the Upper Room, by the sea, and in Galilee. He visited them repeatedly and spoke to them about the things concerning the Kingdom of God.
Christ not only wants to be with His children, but even more, to be in them—dwelling in them, abiding in them, and they in Him forever.
He said to the Father about them: “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:23). And He said to His disciples: “Abide in Me, and I in you… I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:4–6). And again: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56).
Thus, it is not merely companionship with Him, but mutual abiding.
Christ lives in us, and we in Him. As St. Paul said: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
This abiding in God continues not only in this world but also in eternity, in the world to come.
Therefore, the Lord reassured His disciples, saying: “I go to prepare a place for you… and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). And in His long prayer to the Father, He said: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am” (John 17:24). The heavenly Jerusalem is described as “the dwelling of God with men” (Rev. 21:3).
And on earth, He said to His disciples: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20), and “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Thus, the forty days can be considered a foretaste of the Kingdom—a taste of life with the Lord, preparing them to live with Him forever. He dwells in us, unites with us, and abides in us, and we in Him.

C. A Period of Being with His Own:
Out of His love for those disciples who had experienced His companionship, He called them His own.
The Scripture says: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). They are His own because they are His portion—His inheritance, His clergy. He chose them from the world to be His own and said: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”
He not only called them His own but also His friends and brothers.
He said: “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” And Scripture says that “He was made like His brethren in all things.” He Himself said to Mary Magdalene: “Go to My brethren…” (John 20:17).
Thus, the forty days reveal the depth of the relationship between the Lord and His own.
They were also a period of preparation and handing down of all the sacraments and traditions.

D. A Period of Preparation and Handing Down:
During this time, Christ prepared His disciples for the apostolic work they would undertake, including all matters of the new Christian priesthood. He entrusted to them all the sacraments, rites, and traditions.
He spoke to them about all the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). These mysteries were not for everyone, not a general teaching like the Sermon on the Mount, but for the leaders, who would receive them from Him and pass them on to later generations—as St. Paul said of the Eucharist: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you” (1 Cor. 11:23).
Just as Moses received from the Lord on the mountain all the designs and ordinances for the Tabernacle and its worship, and made everything according to the pattern shown to him.

E. How Should We Receive These Days?
The most important thing during these holy days is to receive Christ into our hearts as the apostles did—to be His own, and to live their life.
Saul of Tarsus was not one of the Twelve, but his inner readiness enabled him to receive from the Lord what the apostles had received, and even to surpass many of them. Let us ask the Lord to reveal Himself to us as He appeared to them, so that we may say with them, “That which we have seen, heard, and our hands have handled.” Or let us ask the Lord to visit us during these holy days as He visited His pure disciples—with care and love.

God Gives More Than We Expect:
The women who loved Christ brought spices and ointments to His tomb. But one might ask: did they have full faith in the Resurrection?
Surely, if they had full faith in the Resurrection, they would not have brought spices, for spices are used for the dead, not for the living!
Christ had already said that He would rise on the third day. Therefore, the angel said to the women: “You seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen as He said” (Matt. 28:6). The angels also said: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen. Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words” (Luke 24:5–8).
The phrase “they remembered His words” shows that they had forgotten about His Resurrection, so the angels reminded them so they might believe.
But the loving Christ did not look at their lack of faith, but at the love in their hearts—their affection, their care in bringing spices, their courage, their lack of fear of the Jews, their willingness to risk danger for His sake, their early visit to the tomb despite the soldiers, the seal, the stone, and the cruelty of His enemies.
Because they had love, though lacking faith, the Lord accepted their love and granted them faith as a gift from Himself.
This same tenderness the Lord showed to the women in their weak faith, to Thomas in his doubt, and to the disciples who did not believe the Resurrection. This gentleness is a great comfort to us when our faith weakens or doubts trouble us.
The saying “According to your faith be it unto you” might frighten some.
What if my faith is weak? Does that mean I will receive nothing? Surely if the Lord judged us always according to our weak faith, we would be lost.
But Christ showed us that love is greater than faith. It is enough first to love, and God will grant you faith as a reward for your love.
This shows that Christ does not work only with the perfect, but also with the imperfect—to make them perfect.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had no faith; they said that Christ “was a prophet mighty in deed and word” (Luke 24:19)—merely a man, a prophet. They neither believed in His divinity nor His Resurrection, nor recognized Him. But Christ granted them faith Himself.
It is good to believe that God can give us faith, can strengthen our weak faith, and does not treat us according to our lack of it. Faith, like any virtue, can grow; it does not begin in perfection but may start small and strive toward fullness.
Christ takes the little we have, accepts it, blesses it, and multiplies it. He takes the mustard seed and makes it a great tree in which the birds of the air find rest.
From all this we see that the forty days were a source of abundant grace for the Church. In them, God granted us faith, strength, and promises, and afterward left us under the care of the Holy Spirit.
May the blessing of these holy days be with us all. Amen

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – El-Keraza Magazine – Sixth Year (Issue Twenty-One), May 23, 1975.

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