Thomas Sunday 2023

Christ is risen. Pascha is so solemn, so enthusiastic,

so celebratory that there's a danger when we

leave here on Sunday, go back to work and family

cares and responsibilities. that we might fall

into some kind of, I don't know, Paschal slump.

Especially after experiencing Lent and Holy Week

and that structure of services and fasting and

prayers. But the church knows this. Great is

the Lord's strength and great is his power. And

of his understanding, there is no measure, we

sang a whole number of times. And we believe

that. And the church gives us this day and these

particular reunions to excite us again, to give

us some enthusiasm about our faith, and to question

it too. If you recall on Sunday on Pascha at

the Vespers, where the gospel left off, it was

with Thomas saying, unless I see it, I'm not

going to believe it. And again, I will point

out, as I have a number of times, finally we

have this fresco of that scene, Thomas coming,

and it's called The Belief of Thomas. He gets

a bad rap doubting Thomas, but his doubt, which

was not toxic doubt, was not terminal doubt,

led to faith because he questioned something.

He questioned the apostles. So that's where we

left off. And I think it's worth saying that

no arguments from those men who had run away

from Christ in his hour of need, fallen asleep

in Gethsemane, and then left Golgotha. No arguments

were going to confess St. Thomas about some kind

of new life. You heard what the angel said in

Acts to the apostles. Go out there into the temple

and preach all the words of this new life. Don't

be afraid. The angel had released them from prison.

Well, Thomas knew that a Roman execution squad

knew how to beat, crucify, and kill a person,

and they knew when a person was dead. Jesus wasn't

revived. somehow in the tomb without medical

attention, beaten up so bad, and then just came

back. No, he was killed by the Romans. The cross

was a weapon, was a tool of death, and a frightful

one at that. Thomas could not believe the news

of the apostles. Why? They were not yet changed.

They were still the same. They were not transformed.

They were not bearers of the resurrection. But

we can believe the apostles. We can believe the

saints. We can believe the liturgy. We can believe

the scriptures. Seeing how the church has survived

despite whatever opposition and persecution and

martyrdom came, the church flourished. We can

believe. that Christ has risen by looking at

the monastics, by the extraordinary peace of

those who have Christ within them, the holiness,

the countless miracles, the saints after saints

after saints, who all stand and say, my Lord

and my God. All these stand as radiant witnesses

to us of the Lord's resurrection, because Christ's

victory, the gospel story, is the victory over

the most wicked and devious and horrible tyrant,

the devil. And the death that this tyrant, the

devil, promotes as good. Our joy, our boundless

joy, our love for God, is founded how? On an

historical event of God entering this world.

Father Michael used to love this phrase, the

inrushing of God into creation. He was crucified,

buried, and rose again. That's the event. Our

faith starts with an event in history which tells

us that our faith is not about speculation. It's

not about theory. It's not about religious searching

or fuzzy mysticism or myth. It's about the historical

event of the resurrection and those that believed

that it took place. Pascha. And those apostles,

those saints, those martyrs, you brothers and

sisters are witnesses too of the resurrection.

And when we embrace this witness in the life

of the church, We see that the entire purpose

of our life, you might be able to say it boils

down to one thing. To be united to the risen

Christ, the God -man. To see him, not with these

eyes, but like the blind man knew it was Jesus.

To see him in the heart. On Pascha. And every

Saturday night, if we had matins, or Sunday morning,

if we had matins, we would sing, having beheld

the resurrection of Christ. Did you catch that?

Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let

us worship the Holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless

one. And we sing these words on Pascha, and again

and again during Bright Week, if we were doing

matins. How do we see? These words tell us. Let

us purify our senses, and we shall see Christ

shining in the unapproachable light of the resurrection,

and we shall clearly hear him say, rejoice, as

we sing the song of victory. How do we see with

the eyes of our heart, and how do we purify our

senses? What has Lent been about? Usually, our

senses, eyes, taste, touch. hearing, are all

finely attuned to the things of this world. That's

okay. They should be. But when we pursue touch,

taste, sight, and hearing, when we pursue it

as a pursuit of an ongoing goal of pleasure,

then the other sense that we have, the vision,

You see what I mean? The vision is buried. We

have to go the way of the cross. Fasting and

prayer, forgiveness, vigil, these things are

all putting to death the old man and the corruptions

of the flesh, the grabbing and pulling into our

heart, which disfigures that heart. We cannot

see the resurrection. of Christ. It's not just

believing the historical event. It's having Christ

within our soul and living the resurrection.

And because we can do that, and we can, this

is not lofty. This is our goal. This is what

we are here for. Today, to receive Christ within

us, to behold the resurrection as we receive

his glorified body and blood, and to praise him

for his wondrous and amazing work of salvation.

And that power, which we share now, we share

now in baptism and communion and repentance,

that power and our own eventual rising from the

dead tells us something. This is my second point.

That's essential. We do not forget, because in

the world now, there is a powerful opposition

to this thought, to this teaching, which is what?

That what God has made is good. That what God

has made can be holy, can bear the spirit, can

carry the spirit. Yes, we start with our broken

and sinful souls and bodies. That's our starting

point. But we don't normalize sin, the sinful

world within us or around us. We can't normalize

sin. We can't say it's okay. We have to struggle

to keep the commandments, that is to carry the

cross, to deny ourselves, to confess our sins.

Who doesn't feel the pain, the fallenness of

the human body, our brokenness, if I could use

this phrase, our dysphoria. We are not in paradise,

not yet whole, not yet as we should be, not yet

as we will be. The devil tricks us in this most

basic sense that we have that not all is correct.

and offers us and the world all kinds of options.

Transhumanism, you think it's nothing now. It's

coming down the road. Not to mention the assault

on our biology, the body that God has made. Indeed,

things are not the way they will be, but we shall

be, says St. John, as he is, as Christ is in

the resurrection. Don't let sin, don't let current

morality dehumanize you and those that you love.

In all areas of our life, all areas, food, what

we watch, what we listen to, how we comport ourselves,

how we treat our body, especially if this is

clear in terms of sexual morality and sexed bodies,

we remain a creation of God bought with a price.

You are not your own, says St. Paul. You have

been purchased with the precious blood of the

Lord. And we discover at Pascha and this week,

little by little, with some effort, that the

resurrection of Christ proves to us that what

God created in the beginning, when he said, it

is good, It is indeed good. It is godly and capable

of holiness. Such holiness. God has made us body

and soul. In the beginning he created us male

and female. In his image and in his likeness.

And our struggle is not to find ourselves. Which

is what those who are lost always say. I need

to find myself. There's truth in there. Yes.

But looking in the wrong place will bring you

to spiritual death. Find myself how we have been

buried with Christ in holy baptism and died with

him. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives

within me and loves me. This is vital to accept,

brothers and sisters, since the world absolutely

rejects this foundational good news teaching

about our human nature, that by the resurrection,

everything will be healed and as it should be.

St. Paul powerfully says this, be not conformed

to this world, but be transformed by the renewal

of your mind that you may prove what is good

and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Jesus

Christ gives us the starting point and the ending

point. You heard it in the third week of Lent.

Deny yourself. You will find yourself. If you

try to save yourself, you will lose. You will

lose it all. Pick up your cross and follow the

one who will lead you to the resurrection. He's

leading us to the only place that we can go to

be made whole. That is to be holy as he is holy.

Christ is risen.