Thomas Sunday 2025

Today is what the church calls Thomas Sunday.

If you need a visual reminder, well there's an

icon here, but the magnificent fresco at the

top of this triangle shows the disciples, the

apostles gathered together and Thomas is has

been invited to touch the Savior, to reach him.

The other apostles are anxiously looking on.

The Savior has come through closed doors. Wasn't

last week just amazing? All those commemorations

and services and hymns and readings on Thursday

night brought us... to the reality of what it

means that our Lord and Savior, so humble, our

humble God, gave himself in that way and was

so violently mistreated. But that pain, that

sorrow, that betrayal, everything transformed

to joy. Everything transformed to joy on Holy

Saturday. And in the evening, we come together

when it's dark. like the women going to the tomb,

but not like the women, because we had all these

newly baptized people with us to proclaim that

the light overcomes the darkness. And we went

out into the night with our candles, and we proclaimed

that message that shakes the entire world, that

has changed everything about every culture, about

every life. About the direction of everything

and abolishes, if we can truly enter into it,

abolishes the fear of death. And takes away sin.

And lets us be with Christ. We hear that Christ

is risen message and we're singing it over and

over again. It's the pinnacle of our life to

be at Pascha. It's the service where even those

people who don't hardly ever come to church,

come to church. Because... they have this sort

of inkling awareness, like, they've got to be

there. This is what it's all about. Everything

flows, like from the Garden of Paradise on the

mountain in the beginning, and the river is flowing

down. Everything flows from Pascha. So we're

not done. We have just begun Pascha. And the

church puts before us this... Pretty amazing

scene. Out of all the things that the church

could say, look, the week after Pascha, this

is what we should meditate upon. But we're given

Thomas, which the church doesn't call doubting

Thomas, by the way. That fresco up there is called,

it's kind of high, so it's called The Belief

of Thomas, or The Touching of Thomas. The hymns

from last night, all... Focus on not his doubt,

some kind of, you know, looking for the facts.

I just want the facts. I mean, they didn't think

that way back then, right? Looking for the truth.

You can read the paper, get lots of facts, but

did you get the truth? And that's what this day

is about. The faith that brings the truth to

us. So the Lord comes. My feeble mind, you know,

and the life of the age to come, if I'm blessed

to enter paradise, I'm going to want to ask Thomas,

not those deep philosophical questions, but like,

where were you that whole week? What were you

doing that you weren't there with the others?

Well, Thomas was a practical man. He said, I'm

done with this. This is over, obviously. It failed.

We gave it a good run. We thought he would be

the one to redeem Israel, said the other two

on the road to Emmaus. Well, Thomas wasn't there,

but today, today we commemorate that he was eight

days later, just like today. So brothers and

sisters, you don't want to miss. It's like Thomas

missed. That first appearance of Christ and that

soul -changing, that soul -changing greeting

from he who is the peace, the wisdom, and the

word of God, who came to those scared, those

frightened men and said, peace be to you, shalom.

Peace be to you from he who is peace. We don't

want to miss, and when we miss services, this

is what happens. We miss something so rich that

will change and transform our souls. Be consistent

in your church life. Coming to church, praying

at home, all of that. Be consistent. So you can

mature in the faith. Otherwise, we stay at Sunday

school level. Sunday school is great for little

kids. But we're adults now. We need to be fed

not milk, but the meat of the gospel. So be consistent.

Know what you're missing. Thomas is in that room

and Christ comes right up to him. Doesn't have

to say anything about Thomas' doubts. He knows

what he's thinking. If you want to verify my

resurrection by poking a finger into my wounds,

then do it, but that is not the right way. Blessed

are those blessed. This is a blessing. This is

not a vague hope that it might happen. This is

a blessing. Blessed are those who have not yet

seen, yet believed. Someone once said, is the

willingness, I think it was Alan Watts, someone

once said, faith is the willingness to embrace

whatever the truth turns out to be. Faith is

not blind acceptance. It's not wishful thinking.

Faith is trust in a messenger and the messengers

because they were changed. They spoke the words

of life. This is what the angel told the apostles

when they were in the jail. You heard that in

Acts. Read Acts. It's so wonderful. It's so dramatic.

It's such a great story. The apostles were ministering

to all these people on the street, healing them.

They weren't just preaching at them. They weren't

hitting them with, you know, these days what

we would call the Jesus stick. They were healing

them. And they were arrested because the Sadducees

saw this messing up their whole operation at

the temple. And the angel comes and says, preach

to the people all the words of this life, the

life of the age to come, the life of the resurrection.

You can trust those messengers. Faith, trust

in Jesus Christ as the risen Lord to whom all

power is given. he says, both in heaven and on

earth. It doesn't come in a limited way, limited

to the physical dimensions of space and time

or what we see or what we can touch. No, faith

comes by the illumination of the Father to us.

And Christ is to us and claimed it for himself,

the truth, the way leading to the door, and he

comes through that door. Nothing can stop him

from coming through any door except ourselves

if we keep it locked from the inside. You remember,

on Thursday night, we heard those Gospels, and

one of them, well, more than one, had Christ

before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who

really didn't want to get involved. And he has

this conversation. with Jesus, he cynically asked

Jesus, what is truth? It's not what, obviously,

it's who. You know, the word truth in Greek,

aletheia, aletheia, it means that which reveals

itself, unconceals itself, it's not hidden. St.

John tells us the same this way, all things were

made by him, And without him was not anything

made that was made. In him was life, and that

life was the light of men. And that light shineth

in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome

it. So the Lord presented himself to the apostles.

And when we come to church, this is the miracle.

He presents himself to us. Blessed are those

who have not seen. yet believed. Again, that's

not hopeful merely, but a blessing that we will

be given grace to have spiritual eyes to see.

It's as if Christ is saying, today I present

myself to you as living. But from now on, he

says to the apostles, from now on, It will be

the kingdom itself that you will preach. The

church itself that will make me present. From

now on... Whenever you gather together, Christ

is saying to his apostles, as it were, you will

be my living person and my image. This is why,

brothers and sisters, we need to mature in our

faith so that we have the words of life in us,

so that we are not alive when we stand before

someone and say, I'm an Orthodox Christian. You

don't have to say more than that, because the

love in your face. The conviction that Christ

is risen and that you are sharing in that risen

life here now in the church by receiving communion,

by worshiping together, by praying together.

That will be obvious without any words to those

who are thirsty. To those like the Sadducees

who find it, that truth to be something they

don't want. You know, alternate facts and so

on. They will reject you. From now on, it's as

if Jesus is saying, whenever you come together,

you will be my living witness and person. How

did Thomas know it was Christ? By the wounds.

By the wounds. The real Christ presents himself

to Thomas by his wounds, his side, his hands,

his feet. The church. You won't find the perfect

church on this earth. You will find us all with

wounds. And that's how you know it's true. Not

wounds of the sort that our theology is deficient.

That our worship is not proper. But the wounds

that we each bear. And we're looking for healing

from the Lord. Of course. When we say church,

that people will know Christ by the church. This

means much more than what the word church means

to most people, right? When we say church, as

in the creed, I believe in one holy Catholic,

not Roman Catholic, but Catholic, full, complete,

perfect, one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

We mean the living, glorified body of Christ

where sins are forgiven, where divine food is

offered, where worship is true, where we have

fellowship with the saints and the apostles and

the mother of God, where we are in the kingdom

and the kingdom is in God. And that's the body

of Christ. even with its wounds. It's as if Christ

is saying, I found a way to keep you from falling

away from me. Unless, of course, that is what

you deliberately choose. Or absent yourself.

In my wisdom, it's as if Christ is saying, these

are words of Elder Emilio Nos of Mount Athos,

in my wisdom, in my infinite love, I have found

the perfect way. which is also the most human

way and the easiest way for you to love and possess

me, says Christ. When you gather in my name,

when you join together for worship in the life

-giving assembly, I live in you. I become you.

In other words, because you cling so closely

to the earth and are not willing to be raised

up from there. You are not capable of becoming

living revelations of God, and that is why I

stoop down and humble myself and become as you

are. There I am in the midst of you. Tell me

then, what more can I do for you? How low shall

I bend? How close shall I come to you? How deeply

shall I enter into your life, into your being?

Tell me. Tell me. In order to touch me, you don't

even have to stretch out your hand. Isn't it

amazing that we read at the very beginning of

the Gospel of John, as we did on Pascha, In the

beginning was the Word, and the Word was with

God, and the Word was God. And all things that

were made were made by him. Nothing that was

made was made without him. and he was the light

of men, and the darkness could not overcome it.

And then we spend the whole Gospel of John reading

about the confusion of everybody, the apostles.

We see the Samaritan woman, of course. She's

an exception. And it takes to chapter 20 for

anyone to say, my Lord and my God. That's the

way we are. That's why it's that way. So let

us, brothers and sisters, look into our souls

today and give glory to God and thanksgiving

for he is our Lord and our God. And to him we

offer glory now and ever to ages of ages. Christ

is risen. He is risen.