Thomas Sunday 2021

Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.

Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.

Today is Thomas Sunday. And you heard why? You

heard the gospel account. Thomas was not in the

right place at the right time. But you are. You're

here at the right place, on the right day, at

the right time. So we glorify God. Isn't it interesting?

You know, the Gospel says things very simply.

What's the word? Laconic? Just a few words to

describe something incredible. Notice, in the

Gospel of St. John, The disciples were in a room.

The doors were locked. They were afraid. Their

master had been crucified. If they have done

this unto me, they will do this unto you. Jesus

warned them about the suffering to come. And

they were afraid. But then we get the epistle

today, which tells us about the life of the early

church. Now, it's after Pentecost, of course,

which we haven't celebrated yet. to get a sense

of the boldness and the spiritual life of the

Christians, that reading and the readings from

Acts are given to us. Notice, they're preaching,

they get arrested, an angel comes to release

them, and the angel says, go to the temple, stand

in the midst of the temple, and preach all the

words of this life. It's interesting, too, that

the gospel ends with the phrase that you may

believe so that you will have life. What is this

life? The life of the resurrection. The Christian

life is not about something just in the future.

Yes, we await the redemption of the children

of God, and all of creation is groaning, says

St. Paul, for that day. But we live the life

of the resurrection. Now, our participation in

Holy Week and Pascha is a participation in the

life of the resurrection. We carried candles.

We followed the life giver Christ who, it says

in that prayer, that wonderful sermon of St.

John Chrysostom. Hell, Hades, Hades, death, the

grave, the evil one took a body, And met God.

It encountered what it saw. But crumbled before

what it did not see. That is the power of God.

The Lord releases the prisoners. This is our

life. So we followed him on Pascha. Out of the

grave. Out of the tombs. Out of sin. With our

candles. And we entered into paradise. The lights

blazing on Pascha. The love of God pouring out

upon us and all creation. The Lord of the living

and even those in the grave. Which is why we

say, death, where is thy sting? Oh, Hades, where

is thy victory? For Christ is risen and the demons

are overthrown. And not one dead remains in the

grave. So we have lived through Pascha. That's

the whole point of all of that. To make us participants

in that event, the life of the resurrection,

the life that the angel says to the apostles,

go speak all the words of that life. And we believe

so that we may have life eternal. That's what

this gospel is about today. Isn't it also incredible

that the church, On Pascha Day, and I mention

this on Pascha, gives us a gospel that ends with

the words of Thomas. The gospel ends with these

words. Unless I see, I won't believe. The choir

sings, Glory to thee, O God, glory to thee. And

we move on with the service. But today, we hear

the rest of the story. You see, during the week,

we have to fill in what that means to believe.

This is our task. I'm not talking about doubts

and all of that stuff. No, I'm talking about

commitment to Christ. Being in the right place

at the right time helps. Thomas had a very bad

week. The apostles met Christ first. Christ comes

to them and says, peace be unto you. And it says

in the gospel, the disciples were glad when they

saw the Lord. Glad, they rejoiced. They were

speechless. The dead Christ, completely beat

up by the Romans and crucified and laid in the

grave. They didn't know that he was working his

glory to save those in Hades. He appeared to

them and they were glad. And he said, peace be

unto you. Do you know, any time a priest comes

out and says, peace be to all, those are the

words of Christ. I don't have any peace to give

you. This is not from me. This is from the Lord,

which is why we say his words. And that peace

is filled with content if we but open our hearts

to it. I'll give you an example. There was a

man in our parish long ago. I'd say 90 % of you

wouldn't have known him. And he was a catechumen

for a while, a long time. And he was baptized.

And then not long after his baptism, the bishop

came. The bishop came out with his tree curry

and tea curry. I didn't do a very good job catechizing

him. And he's very kind of straightforward by

the book, not emotional, just regular person.

Bishop comes out with the tree creed and the

decree, those three candles and the two candles,

and blessed the congregation. And when he turned

to this side where my friend was standing, my

friend said to me later, I saw, not with my eyes,

streams of light come right to us from those

candles. And I thought, yeah, we don't see that

because he had recently been baptized because

our eyes are covered with sin and noise. Noise.

Yes, eyes and noise. I know it's a mixed metaphor,

but it's true. if you want to hang on to the

glory of Pascha, the intensity of Holy Week and

Lent, don't immerse yourself in the noise of

this world. The peace be unto all is a real thing.

The Lord said that to the apostles. They were

glad, and he had to say it again. They were so

shocked. And then he said unto them, Whosoever

sins, You forgive, they're forgiven. Whosoever

sins you retain, they're retained. He breathed

on them and gave them the Holy Spirit. This glorious

moment is the record of the institution of the

holy mystery of confession. When we go to confession,

just like you hear the words of Christ, peace

be unto all, it's Christ. When you go to confession,

when we stand before that icon and that cross

and that gospel, we are with Christ. It's not

a legal transaction taking place. It's not something

that you have to do so that you can stay orthodox.

It's something you want to do because the Lord

is there. And he says those words through us.

Your sins are forgiven, brother and sister. That

moment on the first day of the week, what riches

we've been given there. But Thomas was not there.

And then eight days later, today, the eighth

day, the day after, the week after Pascha, Thomas

comes. And Jesus comes into the room. Once again.

And says peace be to you. And he knows what Thomas

is thinking. He knows what Thomas has said. After

Thomas' miserable awful week. And Thomas. How

did he react? He says. St. Gregory the great

says. He saw one thing with his eyes, Christ,

the risen Lord, physically risen from the dead,

but he perceived another with his soul. And he

said, my Lord and my God. First off, we don't

call Thomas Doubting Thomas. We call him Believing

Thomas. The doubt that led to belief. We don't

take a snapshot of a person at their weakest

moment. At their sinful moment. And define a

person like that. We take a picture. We understand

that person at the end of their life. You want

a good example? The thief on the cross with the

Lord. You want another example? The Apostle Paul,

who is executing Christians. What about the Apostle

Peter, who denied the Lord three times? Who even

said earlier, when Jesus spoke about the cross,

No, Lord. This is not going to work. You're the

Messiah. Messiahs don't get crucified. Get behind

me, Satan. Moses the Black. Augustine of Hippo.

On and on, brothers and sisters. You and me,

too. We don't take a snapshot of that dreadful

time in our life. We wait until the fullness

of time. And so we have Thomas, the great apostle

to India. The great apostle, the fearless one.

We might wonder now why the Lord doesn't appear

just to everybody the way he appeared to Thomas.

No man has seen God at any time, says St. John,

the theologian. So no, he's not in outer space,

as Yuri Gagarin said. I couldn't see God when

I went up there. It sounds like a cliche. But

the Lord speaks to us in the inner space of a

person. Where we now see Christ, since his glorious

ascension, where? We perceive him in the poor,

in the least of these, my brethren. We perceive

him in prayer. We perceive him in the icons and

the lives of the saints. And those righteous

people that you meet. We perceive him in the

Eucharist. We perceive him in confession. We

perceive him in the scriptures. We meet him there

where he speaks to us. Unfortunately, a Pew Research

poll from a few years ago tells us that only

29 % of Orthodox Christians read the scripture

once a week. And that's a high. Faith is in the

heart. This is why God doesn't appear into the

temple. Here I am, I'm risen. It's plain to us

that faith is the evidence of those things that

are invisible, said St. Gregory of Rome. For

things that are visible do not result in faith,

but in knowledge. God invites. He comes to the

heart of a person. The Savior approaches each

one. We know how to receive Christ. All those

things that I just listed. He doesn't advertise

himself to the mass of humanity via social media

or the news. Oh, I missed the news. Did you see

that about that Jesus? No. Jesus is not a celebrity

with followers. He is the Lord of heaven and

earth. The God -man who entered death and rose

again. Everything has changed since that day.

This day has given to us the peace, the forgiveness,

the incredible confession of faith of Thomas

the Apostle. It takes 21 chapters of the Gospel

of John until someone says, my Lord and my God.

Ten chapters of three years of Jesus' life. Ten

chapters of one week. And finally at the end,

someone says, my Lord and my God, and peace be

with you. The ending of the gospel on Pascha

Day, unless I see and I will not believe, and

the conclusion of the story today with Thomas'

confession, are the means. the church gives us

today to deal with our own doubts about the faith.

And I hope our parish is healthy enough to provide

a loving space for those who question wrestling

with God. These are opportunities for discovering

something deeper, without which, if we do not

struggle, then when resistance comes to us, in

the form of the world, the flesh, that is impulses

within us that are not godly, and the devil,

we will be pushed around and float downstream

for a long time, and it's very hard to come back

up. So this is an opportunity today to strengthen

our faith. I'll end with these words of the elder.

and St. Lee Emilianos of Mount Athos. I've read

this book, I don't know, a dozen times, and every

time I read it, there's something new. In his

current state of blindness, man clings to various

visions of the future. In his doubt and disbelief,

he believes in the promise of tomorrow, when

he hopes to attain all that he longs for. longing

for a future that never comes. Apart from God,

man is dead, blind, without breath, without life.

He can only grow up for God in the darkness,

and because God knows this, he presents himself

living to the apostles so that they can bear

witness, they bear witness that God is risen

from the dead and lives. And when I receive Christ,

when I see him, in all those ways that I mentioned,

I feast my eyes on the living God and rejoice

in him, even in my state of spiritual darkness

and decay, even in my sin, into the abyss which

I've fallen, the dark cloud that overshadows

me sometimes, in my midnights. I can still remember

that the apostles have assured me that they saw

the living Christ. Thus Christ lives. He who

is my life lives. And at any moment, and with

one, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy

on me, that life can become mine. And dead as

I was, I am filled to bursting with life. Christ

is risen.