The Sunday of Thomas #

Today’s Sunday bears several names in the Church’s tradition: Antipascha, New Sunday, and the Sunday of Thomas. The name “Antipascha” in Greek means “in place of Pascha,” just as the prosphora, distributed to the faithful after the Liturgy, are called “antidoron,” meaning “that which is given instead of the Holy Gifts.” Likewise, today is the first among all Sundays of the year that renews the day of Christ’s saving Resurrection. In this sense, every Sunday may be called an Antipascha, or a “little Pascha.”

In the previous article, dedicated to Bright Week, we spoke in some detail about the symbolism of the seventh day, representing the created world subject to the laws of time, and the eighth day, representing the renewed and immortal world, the world in which “God shall be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28), where “time shall be no more” (Revelation 10:6), for instead of the visible sun, for those who fear the name of Christ, “the Sun of Righteousness shall arise” (Malachi 4:2). Thus, today—the eighth day after Pascha—serves as an image of the “day without evening” of Christ’s Kingdom. Saint John of Damascus also writes of this in the canon for Matins: “As the first and sovereign of days is this radiant day, in which it becomes the new and divine people to rejoice with trembling; for it, as the conclusion of the eight days, bears within itself the image of the age to come” (Ode 7).

Thus, the holy hymnographer points out that today, the “new and divine people” also celebrate the feast of their renewal and calling—that is, the children of the Church of God, whom the Lord has gathered from the ends of the earth by the grace of the Holy Spirit and by the preaching of the Gospel, “as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” (Matthew 23:37). It is about us, the nations established in Christ by the labors of the Apostles and the blood of the martyrs, that the word addressed by Christ to the Apostle Thomas is spoken: “Thou hast believed because thou hast seen Me; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

The Gospel recounts it thus: at the Lord’s first appearance to His disciples, on the evening of the very day of His Resurrection, one of them—Thomas—was not among them, having hidden himself out of fear, just as they had on the night when Jesus was seized. When Thomas came out of hiding and met the other Apostles, they told him everything that had happened at the Lord’s tomb, about the disappearance of the Lord Jesus’ body and His appearances to them. To this Thomas replied: “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” (John 20:25). In other words, for Thomas it was not enough to see; he needed to be physically convinced that it was not a phantom that had appeared to the Apostles, not a self-delusion or a figment of imagination, but that the very One who had suffered and died on the Cross had truly risen from the dead.

The holy theologians and hymnographers exclaim: “O good unbelief of Thomas, which led the hearts of the faithful to understanding”; “O wondrous miracle! Unbelief hath given birth to certain faith” (stichera at Vespers). The unbelief itself is not praised—especially on the part of a disciple who had only recently witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus—but such stubbornness was allowed to the Apostle so that he, and through him the other disciples, might be yet more firmly convinced of the truth both of the Passion and the Resurrection, and might understand that in Christ the divine and human natures are united, and that the human nature, having suffered in His person, was truly redeemed and partook of divine glory.

Thus, eight days after the Resurrection, when the Apostles were again gathered together behind closed doors, just as they had been the first time, the Lord entered and said: “Peace be unto you!” Then He said to Thomas: “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered and said unto Him: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:26–28).

The whole miracle of Christianity, as the unity of God and man, was revealed in that moment—both in the tangible touching of the suffering and risen flesh of the Lord, and in the Apostle’s exclamation of ecstatic faith, now darkened by no doubt whatsoever. For the first time, Christ is confessed as God. Here we cannot but recall the passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where, many centuries before the coming of the Lord, it was foretold of Him: “and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).

That God truly came to mankind, became one of them, and—the only Sinless One—suffered for their sins; that He rose again in glory, breaking the strongholds of death and Hades, trampling down the laws of corruption—all this was suddenly unveiled to the spiritual sight of the Apostle.

It was at this moment that he heard the words of Jesus, in which there was less a tone of reproach and more a joy concerning those who were yet to partake of the mystery of faith: “Thou hast believed because thou hast seen Me; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Even before His Passion, the Lord rejoiced in the Spirit, exclaiming: “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matthew 11:25–26). Now, that joy is fulfilled.

For from this moment, the words of the Apostles are endowed with conquering power. Delivered from the fear which had only recently held them captive, they now proclaim Christ with great boldness and authority. Unlearned, simple fishermen confound the hypocritical devices of the scribes and Pharisees, bringing ever new souls into submission to the truth of Christ. Those who but recently cried out to Pilate, “Crucify Him!” now, with contrition, repentance, and faith, fall at the feet of the disciples of the Crucified One, who, in His name and by His power, work miracles of healing.

Of this we hear today, on the feast at the Divine Liturgy, in the reading from the Acts of the Holy Apostles:

“In those days, by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.” (Acts 5:12–16).

May the Lord likewise strengthen our faith today, we who are Christians of this age, by the power of His life-giving Spirit, so that by our example we may draw others to faith in Him—those who see and hear us—in fulfillment of His words: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Thus may we also one day hear from His own lips that which we hear today in our churches in the Holy Gospel: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Sticher at the Stichera on “Lord, I have cried,” Tone 4

O wondrous miracle! Unbelief hath brought forth steadfast faith.
For Thomas said: “Except I see, I will not believe.”
But when he touched the side, he acknowledged Him who was incarnate;
thus he recognized the Son of God, who had suffered in the flesh,
and he proclaimed the risen God, and cried out with a radiant voice:
“My Lord and my God, glory be to Thee!”

Kondak, Tone 8

With inquisitive hand, Thomas explored Thy life-giving side, O Christ God.
For when the doors were shut, Thou didst enter with the other Apostles,
and he cried out unto Thee: “Thou art my Lord and my God!”

Ikos

Who preserved the hand of the disciple from being consumed,
when he drew near unto the fiery side of the Lord?
Who granted it boldness, and enabled it to touch the flaming bone,
which in truth is untouchable?
For unless the side had imparted strength to the mortal hand,
how could it have dared to touch Him who by His Passion shook the heights and the depths?
This grace was given to Thomas—to touch,
and to cry out unto Christ: “Thou art my Lord and my God!”

Sticher at the Praises, Tone 1

After Thy fearful Resurrection from the tomb, O Giver of life,
just as Thou didst not break the seals of the grave, O Christ,
so also didst Thou enter unto Thy glorious disciples when the doors were shut,
granting them joy, and bestowing upon them Thy right Spirit,
because of Thine immeasurable mercy.