Homily on Thomas Sunday - Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov) #
Brothers and sisters, today we commemorate the holy Apostle Thomas. The Gospel read at the Divine Liturgy tells us of a significant and instructive event. On the evening of the day of Christ’s Resurrection, when the doors of the house where the disciples had gathered were shut for fear of the Jews, Jesus Christ suddenly appeared and, standing in the midst of His disciples, said to them, “Peace be unto you.” Having said this, He showed them His hands, His feet, and His side. The disciples rejoiced greatly when they saw the Lord.
But when they later announced this to the Apostle Thomas, he replied, “Except I shall see the wounds in His hands and put my finger into them, I will not believe in His Resurrection.” Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered together, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, though the doors were shut, greeted them again with the words “Peace be unto you,” and turned to Thomas: “Behold My hands, and reach forth thy hand and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.” Then the Apostle Thomas, convinced of the Lord’s Resurrection, exclaimed: “My Lord and my God!” To this Jesus said: “Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:19).
The first words spoken by the Savior after His Resurrection—“Peace be unto you”—are of great significance. This astonishing greeting reveals that peace among Christ’s disciples, and indeed among all mankind, is by God’s design the highest spiritual good. Without peace and love, there can be no fullness of happiness, joy, or wellbeing. And this wish for peace is particularly vital in our own day, when divisions and conflicts are multiplying, when peace is shattered by violence and war.
The Apostle Thomas doubted Christ’s Resurrection when the other disciples told him about it. But who was Thomas, and why did he doubt? The Gospel first speaks of him when Christ tells His disciples that He must return to Judea to raise His friend Lazarus. The disciples tried to dissuade the Lord because of the danger of being killed, but only Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (John 11:16). Out of love and loyalty to Christ, Thomas was prepared to die with Him, to share His fate. Such words are not often heard. They are not forgotten—neither by men, nor by God.
The Lord appeared to Thomas because Thomas, even before he knew of Christ’s triumph over death, was already ready to die with Him.
And so this Apostle, who had shown such loyalty that he was ready to share in Christ’s death, now refuses to believe the disciples’ report that they have seen the risen Lord. Why? Perhaps because, before the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles to strengthen their faith, they were still fearful and hesitant. How could Thomas believe that Christ had risen when those who claimed to have seen Him were hiding behind locked doors? To accept the news of the Resurrection—that God had truly conquered death—Thomas needed a confirmation more profound than joyful words. For this message was meant to transform the whole world from temporal life to eternal life.
And when the Savior stood before him in the power and radiance of His glory—yet with the body of the crucified Christ, bearing witness to His suffering and God’s infinite love—Thomas believed. He bowed before Him and confessed with triumphant faith: “My Lord and my God!”
And although the Lord reproached him with the words, “Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed,” did Thomas even hear this reproach? Did he grieve over it, overwhelmed as he was by the joy of beholding once more his Lord and God? It seems likely that now Thomas was prepared not only to endure rebukes, but to suffer anything, if only to prove his faith and love for the Savior Jesus.
The firmness of his faith the Apostle Thomas, like the other apostles, later manifested to the whole world. But can those to whom we today, as believers in the Resurrection of Christ, proclaim His rising from the dead—can they believe us? Can they truly receive the message that He is risen, that He has conquered death? How can they believe, if we, like His disciples once behind closed doors, merely rejoice in the message of the Resurrection while remaining the same untransformed people, fearful of death and suffering?
Bishop Mikhail Semyonov writes: “Does our life always testify to faith in the Risen One? Has this faith left its seal upon our deeds? Does it make us radiant amid a dark world, and do our works shine before men such that they glorify our Father in heaven because of us?”
Therefore, we who believe in Christ’s Resurrection must become a chosen, renewed people—those new men and women who live in the faith of life everlasting. Having partaken in Christ’s victory over death, we must live in the triumph of this victory, in the eternal life of the Risen Lord. Then we will no longer fear suffering or even death; we will fear nothing in this world, for no one can take our life from us. And thus others will see in us people who live by eternity—who have learned to love sacrificially, even at the cost of suffering and death; who have learned to believe, to hope, and to conquer, just as our Lord and our God has conquered in love and in triumph over death.
The Lord promises us blessedness if we, having not seen Him, yet believe—if we understand that faith and unbelief are not abstract questions, but matters of life and death. For the joy of encountering Christ, the joy of believing without evidence—that is itself the foretaste of the blessedness of meeting Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed, therefore, is the Apostle Thomas, who saw and believed; and blessed are all who have not seen, yet have believed, and live with unwavering hope in the encounter with the Lord.
True, fervent, and steadfast faith is not easily attained—it is both a gift of God and a labor of man. Faith is the key to the Kingdom of God. Concerning it, the Apostle says: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). A living, heartfelt, and firm faith fills the hearts of Christians with joy and gives them great boldness in approaching God in prayer.
Yet, along the path toward faith, one who sincerely seeks the truth may encounter doubt, a distrust of others’ witness, a desire to be convinced through personal experience. Such was the Apostle Thomas—genuinely seeking truth, but wavering in faith in the Risen Christ before meeting the Lord after His Resurrection. For this miracle, by its very nature, surpassed the capacity of the human mind. Such hesitant unbelief cannot be called malicious or sinful; nevertheless, we must strive to avoid it as a mark of spiritual imperfection.
But there is another kind of unbelief—embittered, willful unbelief. This afflicts those who do not want or cannot bring themselves to believe in God, even when faith persistently knocks at the doors of their hearts. They demand empirical, scientific proofs of faith, but even when such proofs are given, they remain unmoved. These people may be scientists who dream of transforming and blessing humanity through their research, while at the same time rejecting the truth of divine Revelation and the very being of God.
Such intellectually proud and self-willed unbelievers were those ten Russian academicians who signed an open letter to the President of Russia, warning against the danger of cooperation between the state and the Church. The same kind of unbelief afflicted the chief priests and scribes in the time of Jesus Christ—we know to what tragic end these blind leaders led the Jewish people. Even today, stubborn deniers of God, who consider themselves educated and enlightened, are leading society to moral ruin and the destruction of the nation.
But there is yet another kind of unbelief—thoughtless unbelief. This is the unbelief of those who do not make the effort to seek and understand the truth. They yield easily to the influence of unbelievers, have no firm convictions, and are easily led astray by false preachers and all sorts of heresies. This kind of unbelief, which is particularly common among the youth, can often be overcome through good Christian upbringing—within the family and within the Church.
Let us strive, dear brothers and sisters, to turn away from all forms of unbelief, recognizing it as a kind of spiritual illness and even a sin. Let us instruct and strengthen our loved ones in the faith—especially our children—guiding them toward the path of truth by offering them the personal example of a sincere and unwavering faith, free of hesitation and doubt. Repeating the Gospel words, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,” let us pray that the Lord may strengthen us on the path to truth, just as He strengthened the apostles, forgiving them their moments of doubt and faintheartedness. Afterward, they bore witness that whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins through His name (Acts 10:43). For their living and active faith, the Lord granted them the grace of His communion—and He will likewise grant us His gracious fellowship and eternal salvation in the Kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, though we do not see the Savior with bodily eyes, let us look upon Him with the eyes of faith, fulfilling His holy commandments. And let us hope that, in reward for our faith, the generous and all-merciful Lord will bring us into the dwellings of paradise—where there is no sorrow, no sighing, but life and joy everlasting in communion with our risen Lord Jesus Christ!