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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
For here He no more looketh to heaven, nor performeth those human acts, showing that those also which He did were done by way of condescension. And to show that He remained not with them continually, nor in like manner as before, It saith that, "This was the third time that Jesus appeared to them, after that He arose from the dead." And He biddeth them "to bring of the fish," to show that what they saw was no appearance. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
The Evangelist says: "This is now the third time that He showed Himself," and by this he indicates that He did not associate with them constantly, nor as before.
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
"This was now," he says, "the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from the dead." And this we are to refer not to the manifestations themselves, but to the days; that is to say, taking the first day when He rose again, and the [second] eight days after, when the disciple Thomas saw and believed, and [the third] on this day when He so acted in connection with the fishes, although how many days afterwards it was that He did so we are not told; for on that first day He was seen more than once, …
Thomas Aquinas
The Evangelist summarizes the appearances by saying, This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples. According to Augustine, if this third time refers to the number of times, it is not true. For as was said, on the first day Christ appeared five times, again on the eighth day when Thomas was present, again by the Sea as recorded here, again on the mountain in Galilee (Mt 28:16), again when they were at table (Mk 16:14), and again on the day of his ascension, when "as they were looking on, he was lifted up" (Acts …
Bonaventure
It is asked: Why did the Lord manifest himself to the disciples at intervals and was not with them continuously until the ascension? And Chrysostom responds that "he withdrew himself from their sight at times, so that he might be sought more eagerly, and being sought might be loved, and being loved might be venerated more remarkably and more devoutly." Another reason: because the disciples, as long as the Lord was with them, loved him carnally; in order to dispose them to spiritual love and through this to the reception of the Holy …
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