Thomas Sunday - Antipascha

Today is the Sunday after the great feast of Pascha, the resurrection of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. On this Sunday we commemorate the Holy Apostle Thomas and the very important scene described for us in today’s Holy Gospel.

In the days and weeks following the crucifixion of our Lord, more and more of the disciples were reporting that they had seen and spoken with Jesus Christ. That He had risen from the dead as He had promised He would. The Apostle Thomas heard these reports from his friends, the other disciples, but he was hindered by doubt and uncertainty saying, ‘Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ Eight days later, the opportunity came for the Apostle Thomas. While they were gathered together in a shut room, the Lord appeared to them and invited Thomas to reach out and touch Him, to feel for himself the wounds of the crucifixion, and to know that this was indeed Christ risen from the dead. Having felt the wounds, Thomas fell at the Master’s feet and said, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus replied, ‘Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’

What an amazing revelation and message we have before us in today’s Gospel!

Let us begin by thinking for a moment about what our Lord did for Apostle Thomas… Our Lord Jesus Christ, the pre-eternal second Person of the Holy Trinity, after having abased Himself to become incarnate, to lie in a lowly manger as a human infant, to subject Himself to this world and to the devil’s temptations, and to the humiliation of His voluntary sufferings and death… After all this outpouring of His Self-sacrificing love, when He has already emerged triumphant and reappears in His resurrected body, He continues now to demonstrate His mercy and His extreme humility and tender lovingkindness by offering and subjecting Himself to physical examination by Apostle Thomas.

What astounding compassion!... Christ does this out of love, out of concern for what is needed for Thomas’ faith and salvation. This is always God’s concern for each and every one of us. He will do with us and permit in our lives whatever is necessary in order to facilitate our salvation.

Think also for a moment about what it is that Christ offers, and that Thomas beholds and touches that gives him his faith. Christ offers to Thomas His wounds. Thomas touches the incision in Christ’s side from the sword that pierced Him, he touches the holes in Christ’s hands from the nails that held him to the cross… Thomas encounters Christ and receives his faith and grace not from the evidence of Christ’s glory, but from the evidence of bearing His humiliation and sacrifice.

I don’t fully understand it, but I am always amazed by it… to think that the resurrected Body of Jesus Christ still bears the wounds of His crucifixion. It is a remarkable and mysterious thing to contemplate and to realize. Christ has trampled down death by death and risen from the grave and still His resurrected body bears the marks of His wounds.

Perhaps this has something to tell us about the wounds that we carry and how those wounds can be transformed from something that may continue to hurt us into something that can bear witness to the resurrection of Christ. Yes, we may bear the wounds of those things that have injured us in our lives, but through the transforming grace of Christ, we can now bear witness to having survived those wounds, of having forgiven such things and having expelled any poison of resentment from our hearts. The scars of those wounds which Christ has healed can be our testimony to His love and can be the cornerstones of our compassions for others in their own suffering.

The Apostle Paul writes: ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.’

You must have courage to have faith in God. The world will surely call you a fool. There is no logical proof that is going to convince you or anyone else of the existence of God. We cannot look to our rational and limited mind and senses for the proof of God. Someone may stand before the mystery of a myrrh-streaming icon or may be present at the Liturgy beholding the Body and Blood of Christ – but if there is no faith they will look with their eyes and not see, they will listen with their ears and not hear.

            The evidence of God’s existence is certainly written large upon the wonder and beauty of the world, and upon the longing within our soul. For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear… God speaks to us. And the more our spiritual antennae are attuned to the frequency of God’s communication, the more clearly we can know that He not only exists, but that He loves us with a love that is beyond anything we can conceive.

The Apostle Thomas struggled to believe… I’m sure we can all relate to this at various points in our life. But let us take a lesson from St Thomas… when he was beset by doubts and his faith was troubled, he did not retreat into the isolation of himself. Instead, the Apostle remained close with the community of believers, he was fearlessly honest about his state of soul, and when Christ approached him, he dared to reach out to Him.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ… the Church places before us on this first Sunday after Pascha the right guidance for us. We are celebrating the bright and radiant good news of Christ’s resurrection. This is a stumbling block to the world, foolishness to modern man… but to those who believe it is the wisdom and power of God!

May God richly bless those who have not seen and yet believe in Him. May we rejoice with gratitude to God for His many blessings and the clear evidence of His glory. May we all with one voice shout the good news of His resurrection… Christ is risen!