Catholic Commentary
The Risen Jesus Appears to the Women
9As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.10Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Matthew 28:9–10 records the Risen Jesus meeting the women at the tomb, greeting them with "Rejoice" and commanding them to tell his disciples to go to Galilee where they will see him. The passage emphasizes Jesus' physical resurrection, his reversal of human fear through death's defeat, and his elevated relationship with the disciples, whom he calls "brothers" rather than disciples, signaling their new status through resurrection.
The Risen Christ's first act is to call the broken disciples "brothers"—not to punish their failure, but to remake their identity.
Matthew 28:9 — "As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!'"
Matthew's narrative logic is precise: the women are already in motion, obeying the angel's command (28:7) to report to the disciples, when the Risen Christ intercepts them. The adverb "behold" (idou in Greek) signals a sudden, arresting divine irruption into ordinary time — the same word used at the Annunciation (Luke 1:28) and at Jesus' baptism (Matt 3:17). It marks theophanies and moments when heaven breaks into earth.
The greeting "Rejoice!" (Chairete) is deceptively rich. On the surface, it is the standard Greek salutation (chairein), but in this context — spoken by the Risen Lord to women who had witnessed the crucifixion — it is nothing less than the announcement that mourning is over. Many Church Fathers, notably St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom, note that this single word reverses the sorrow of Eden: where Eve received the curse, here women receive the first Easter greeting of joy. The parallel to the angelic greeting of Mary at the Annunciation (Chaire, Luke 1:28) is not accidental — Matthew frames the Resurrection as a new beginning as epochal as the Incarnation.
The women respond by clasping his feet and worshipping him (prosekunēsan). This gesture is bodily and deliberate: they do not bow from a distance but make physical contact, affirming the corporeality of the Resurrection against any proto-Gnostic reduction of the appearances to visions or spiritual states. The act of grasping his feet echoes Elisha's disciple clinging to the prophet (2 Kings 4:27) and anticipates Thomas's invitation to touch the wounds (John 20:27). Faith and physicality belong together.
Matthew 28:10 — "Don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me."
"Don't be afraid" (mē phobeisthe) is the classic angelic reassurance formula throughout Scripture (Gen 15:1; Luke 1:30; Rev 1:17), but here it is spoken by the Lord himself, who has passed through the very thing that fear most dreads — death — and emerged victorious. The command is not merely psychological comfort; it is an ontological re-ordering. The source of humanity's deepest fear has been defeated.
The phrase "my brothers" (tous adelphous mou) is electrifying in context. The disciples have just abandoned, denied, and fled from Jesus. Peter denied him three times; all fled at Gethsemane. Yet Jesus does not call them "my disciples" or "those men" — he calls them brothers. This is the first time in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus uses this term for the Twelve. It signals not merely forgiveness but elevation: through the Paschal Mystery, a new familial relationship has been constituted. The Risen Lord folds the broken community back into himself with the language of kinship. St. Augustine writes that this word "brothers" is the sound of the new creation, where shame is replaced by adoption.
The direction to Galilee is theologically loaded in Matthew. It was in Galilee that the ministry began (4:12–17), fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of "Galilee of the Gentiles" — the land of those in darkness seeing a great light (Isa 9:1–2). By sending the disciples back to Galilee, the Risen Christ traces the arc of mission from its origins outward to the ends of the earth. The Great Commission (28:16–20) will be given on a Galilean mountain, completing the typological parallel with Moses receiving the Law on Sinai.
Typological and Spiritual Senses
Typologically, the women at the tomb recapitulate Mary Magdalene and the holy women as figures of the Church — the Bride who seeks and finds. Their commission to "go and tell" mirrors the prophetic vocation, and Catholic tradition has seen in them an icon of the Church's own apostolic nature: not the source of resurrection but its first, joyful witnesses. Allegorically, the movement from tomb to announcement is the movement of every soul from death in sin through baptismal grace toward the proclamation of new life.
Catholic tradition brings several distinctive lenses to these verses. First, the Church has consistently honored the women at the tomb — and especially Mary Magdalene — as apostolae apostolorum, "apostles to the apostles," a title traced to St. Hippolytus of Rome (Commentary on the Song of Songs) and Pope St. John Paul II (Mulieris Dignitatem, §16). This is not a modern accommodation but an ancient recognition: the first witnesses of the Resurrection were women, chosen by the Lord himself, commissioned by him personally. The Catechism notes that "it is love that impels them" (CCC 641), and their witness stands at the heart of the Easter proclamation.
Second, the bodily Resurrection is strongly affirmed here. The Catechism teaches that "the Resurrection of Christ is not a return to earthly life" but a transformation into glorified bodily existence (CCC 646). The women's grasping of the Lord's feet demonstrates that the Risen Body, though transformed, is genuinely physical — a point the Church has defended against Gnostic, Manichean, and later spiritualist distortions. The Fourth Lateran Council and the Catechism (CCC 999) insist on the resurrection of the body, grounded in precisely these appearances.
Third, the word "brothers" opens onto the theology of divine filiation. By adoption in Baptism, Catholics share in the Sonship of Christ (CCC 1996); the disciples are "brothers" of Jesus because through him they have become children of the Father. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae III, q.55, a.1) reflects that Christ's appearance to the women first was an act of divine condescension and mercy, rewarding their persevering love and teaching the Church that humble, faithful presence near the Cross is the disposition that encounters the Risen Lord.
Contemporary Catholics face a culture pervaded by ambient fear — fear of death, of meaninglessness, of social ostracism for faith. Jesus' double address in these verses — "Rejoice!" and "Do not be afraid!" — is not a spiritual platitude but a direct command grounded in the one fact that changes everything: he is risen. The practical challenge these verses present is to ask honestly: Am I living as someone who has received Easter news, or as someone still at the tomb? The women did not stay to contemplate the empty grave — they were sent moving, in mission. Catholic life is not merely interior devotion but the outward movement of bearing resurrection to others, beginning with the communities closest to us, however broken they may be. Notice also that Jesus sent word to disciples who had failed him. The Catholic is invited to bring the Easter message precisely to those who feel most disqualified — including the voice of self-condemnation within. The first Easter word to the unfaithful was "brothers."
Commentary