Homily Three for the Sunday of Saint Thomas
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
“Then the other disciples said to him (Thomas), ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hand, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe’” (John 20:25).
Beloved! The Holy Apostle Thomas, by his unbelief and the sincere faith that followed in the Risen Lord, teaches the weak-believers and all unbelievers sincere faith in Jesus Christ. He especially teaches faith to people who are Christians of our time, who are very, very cautious in faith and are very afraid that they might not believe what they think may not really be, and they do not believe much that really is.
All such people are well taught by the example of the Holy Apostle Thomas. The Lord intentionally allowed him to doubt so much about His resurrection from the dead precisely because He, as God, saw in the future a multitude of unbelievers who needed to be convinced of His Divinity by the example of a man similar to them in unbelief: and such a man is Saint Thomas. He did not believe that Jesus Christ, as God, was resurrected by the power of His Divinity, although all ten Apostles unanimously said to him: "We have seen the Lord," and he promises to believe this only when he sees on Him the wounds from the nails, when he puts his hand into the wounds of the nails and into His side.
Look what the unbelieving Apostle Thomas wants: he wants to put his hand into the wounds of the Lord and into His pierced side. This, it seems, is too much. But what will the Lord not do for us? Having endured the cross and death, He will also endure this unbelief of Thomas, if only everyone would firmly believe that He, our Lord, has risen. And behold, beloved, the Risen Life-Giver condescends to the desire of an unbeliever. He deliberately appears to the Apostles when they were all together, and Thomas with them, and says to Thomas: "Bring here your finger, look at My hands; bring here your hand and thrust it into My side; and do not remain in unbelief, but believe." Thomas answered and said to Him: "My Lord and my God." After this the Lord said to him: "You have believed, having seen Me: blessed are they which having not seen, have believed" (John 20:19–29).
Beloved! Many of us act like Thomas. Do we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as we should believe, with all our hearts and constantly? Perhaps we can say that we do not believe so sincerely. Our life confirms this. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ more only when we see Him, that is, when we make use of His obvious mercies to us, when we receive from Him the absolution of our sins, when the good and light yoke of Christ is on our soul, when our affairs are going well, when we are healthy, prosperous in everything. But when passions torment our soul and our soul is burdened with the heavy burden of the sinful flesh and the devil, when sorrows of the heart, physical illnesses, failures in service and in business in general make our life burdensome, then we very often lose faith in the Lord and Benefactor and often dare to think that there is no loving Father and Provider over us – God. Thus, the fickle human heart is ready every time to sincerely believe in the Lord in favorable circumstances and is capable of unbelief in sorrowful, unfavorable circumstances, while the truth of the Lord remains forever unchanged. The Lord is always the same Lord, whether He has mercy on us or punishes us. The Lord "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Remember the Lord, who rose from the dead. He is eternally unchangeable. Let us take every measure to ensure the constancy and immutability of our faith. Let us remember the Lord, who rose from the dead, more often. Let us remember that we too will all rise from the dead at the General Resurrection and at the Dread Judgment of Christ we will give an answer about our lives - and then we will go either to eternal blessedness or to eternal torment. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
