Homily Four for the Sunday of Saint Thomas
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
“And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28)
So resolutely did Thomas believe in the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead, when he felt the wounds on His hands and the wound in His most pure side: "You are my Lord and my God!" that is:
You have conquered by the power of Your Divinity the universal death of fallen Adam and granted resurrection to the entire human race;
You are the conqueror of hades;
You have opened again the gates of paradise to the fallen and You restored the human race.
Thus did Thomas, who had previously been an unbeliever, believe! Do we now believe in the Risen Lord in the same way? Do we have proof that we truly believe? Do we feel in ourselves and upon ourselves the divine actions of our Savior? Now we not only, like Thomas, touch our Savior, but we partake of His most pure Body and Blood. What then? Do we feel at this time His Divinity as the Apostle Thomas felt by touch? Does our soul then cry out inwardly, like the Apostle Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" that is:
I see that You are in me, my Lord and my God, and I in You; for You have taken from me the burden of sins;
You have destroyed the bonds of sin and death in me;
You have healed my spiritual wounds;
You have miraculously revived my soul and body, having granted me divine peace, boldness, light, strength, all blessings.
Thus the Lord is now tangibly recognized by all who truly partake of His most pure Body and Blood. Here is our blessedness, our joy, our strength! We do not envy Thomas, who touched the Lord after His Resurrection and was convinced by touch and convinced the whole world with his blessed unbelief in the Resurrection of our sweetest Lord! We ourselves constantly touch the Lord and see, we see Him with the eyes of the heart and always feel Him in ourselves. God grant that everyone would have such tangible faith.
May God grant us all to live and act according to faith, and to love the Lord as a Father who loved us, and to love one another as He commanded, and to keep His commandments. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
