Homily on Thomas Sunday (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily on Thomas Sunday 

About Doubt in Faith

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29)

Christ is risen!

Beloved faithful,

On the first day of Holy Pascha, in the evening, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John tells us, Jesus Christ risen appeared to His disciples, hidden for fear of the Jews, in a locked room in Jerusalem, and He said to them: “Peace be to you!” After He calmed them, because they were troubled and seized with fear, and assured them of His Resurrection from the dead, showing them His hands and His side pierced by nails and spear on the Cross, He added: “As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you” (John 20:21). Through these words the Lord sent the Apostles to preaching, having the mission to proclaim the gospel of salvation to all the nations of the earth.

But in order to strengthen them with power from above for this divine mission of renewal of the world, the Savior breathed upon them the Holy Spirit, and gave them power to forgive the sins of men, saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit! Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them; and whose you retain, they will be retained” (John 20:22–23). No one can preach Christ if he is not sent by God and if he is not strengthened and sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. However, it is not enough for salvation only to read Holy Scripture and to listen to the word of the Gospel. We must also do it. It was not sufficient for the Apostles and the disciples of the Lord only the preaching of the word. It alone cannot save without repentance. The Apostles had the duty to teach them the will of God, but also to cleanse them of sins, that is, to loose their sins through confession, without which there cannot be forgiveness, repentance, and salvation. Therefore the Lord now establishes the Mystery of Holy Confession, so that their successors, the bishops and the priests, may confess those who believe and loose them from sins. This is the only path of salvation of Christians: right faith in God, the fulfillment of the evangelical commandments, and the loosing of sins through confession.

But, by divine ordering, the Apostle Thomas was not present with the other Apostles when the Lord appeared. And when they all told him: “We have seen the Lord!”, he neither rejoiced nor wished to believe, until he saw with his eyes and touched with his hand the wounds of the Savior (John 20:25). After eight days, that is, on the second Sunday after the Resurrection, Jesus Christ again appeared to His disciples, passing through the locked doors. Then Thomas was also present. After He again said to them: “Peace be to you,” He said with reproach to Thomas: “Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing!” (John 20:26–27). And Thomas, touching and seeing the wounds of the Lord, seized with fear and amazement, cried out with humility and faith: “My Lord and my God!” But the Savior reproved him for his little faith, saying: “Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed!” (John 20:28–29).

Thomas was a doubtful apostle. He believed only after he saw and examined the truth, touching the wounds of Christ. For this reason the Lord also reproved him, for faith comes from hearing, and not from touching and seeing. Faith comes from within, from the heart, and not from outside. Faith comes from the word. From the word of teaching heard from the mouth of mother and father. For bodily parents are our first teachers of religion in life. Then, our faith in God comes to us and is strengthened in us also from the preaching of the priest in the church, from the counsels given by the elders, from the reading of the holy books, and especially from the words and teachings which we hear and read daily in the Holy Gospel.

In our spiritual formation and in the growth of right faith in our hearts, the greatest role is held by the bodily parents who gave us birth and the spiritual parents who taught us and raised us in the fear of God, that is, the priest of the village, the confessor, and the godfather of baptism. When the bodily parents and the spiritual ones are good and fulfill their Christian duty toward the souls which they raise and shepherd, then good Christians are born and formed, children obedient to parents, youths well-behaved and devout. But when the bodily parents are unbelieving and dominated by passions, and the spiritual ones are indifferent and careless toward their spiritual children, then the children are bad and disobedient, the youths are unbelieving or doubtful and seek visible proofs, like Thomas, in order to believe in the unseen God. Those who are married come rarely to church, being surrounded by earthly cares; many kill their children, and some destroy their family and the peace of the soul through divorce. But also the elderly who did not have in youth a deep religious life end their life in drunkenness and religious indifference, to the condemnation of their souls.

If we will reflect more on the doubt of the Apostle Thomas, we will understand better the weakening of faith in God in our days and its terrible consequences, which we are living.

Beloved faithful,

The doubt of Thomas at the Resurrection of the Lord also had a providential role. For, by the touching of the Savior’s wounds, Thomas proves to the unbelievers that Christ truly had a human body, like ours, except for sin, and that He suffered in the body on the cross for the salvation of the world. And if Thomas doubted the Resurrection of the Lord, after he placed his hand in His side, he repented of his unbelief and, falling on his knees, confessed with tears both his faith and his sin through these words: “My Lord and my God!”

But how many of today’s Christians do not fall into the sin of doubt and unbelief in God? Yet do they return to faith, with repentance and humility, like the Apostle Thomas? Because of fear, Peter also denied Christ through the words: “I do not know this man!” (Matthew 26:74). But immediately after the cock crow, in the middle of the night, Peter went out and wept bitterly. All his life Peter repented of his fall and his unbelief. But among us, how many Christians do not doubt the existence of God? How many do not curse Him and blaspheme Him? How many do not seek proofs and say: “I do not believe until I see!” How many do not seek to touch the wounds and the side of the Lord, seeking proofs of the existence of God through the earth, through ancient testimonies, through the mysteries of the planets and of the universe? How many among Christians say: “Here is heaven and hell! Here on earth is everything!” And when they find themselves sick, in the face of danger, of poverty and of death, not even then do they repent like Thomas, to say: “You are my Lord and my God! Now I believe in You, Lord, that You created me and saved me. Forgive me for my unbelief!” Not even in old age do they return to God to weep bitterly like Peter over their life from youth, spent in debauchery, in wickedness, and unbelief.

Few are those who repent of sins in old age. Most die as they have lived, in unbelief and without repentance, unto their eternal condemnation. Truly, great is the gift of faith in God accompanied by good works! Therefore the Savior also said to Thomas the tenth beatitude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!” (John 20:29). And on another occasion He said to His disciples: “Blessed is he who shall not be offended in Me” (Matthew 11:6). That is, who will not be scandalized from the right faith in God, as many have been scandalized in our days.

Why do you think that some Christians are scandalized in Christ and fall from the right apostolic faith into all kinds of sects and religious groups? Because they want to grasp with their mind the mysteries and dogmas of the faith. They want to touch with their limited reason the hands and the side of the Lord—that is, they want to understand the unfathomable depth of the faith more than it is given to man to understand.

But most renounce and are scandalized by the Church founded by Christ because of their pride and disobedience. They are scandalized by the Mother of God and, out of pride and disobedience, they slander her, saying that she was an ordinary woman. They are scandalized by the Holy Cross and for the same reasons say that it is a sign of shame, and not the weapon of Christians against the demons, sanctified by the blood of Christ. They are scandalized by the holy icons and call them idols, not understanding their spiritual meaning. They are scandalized by the saints and by the honor given to them and call them ordinary people, while calling themselves righteous and saved.

They are scandalized by the priests, they do not recognize the grace of the Holy Spirit received at ordination and they judge them. They are scandalized by the Mysteries of the Church founded by Christ, through which the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured out, and they reject them all. They are scandalized by the teaching of Holy Scripture and distort it according to their own will and mind, unto their condemnation and the deception of many.

But if we remain steadfast and obedient in the bosom of the Orthodox Church and preserve with holiness the right faith given to us by Christ, we shall be delivered from the unbelief of Thomas, from the religious scandal of the sects, and we shall understand how the teaching of the Holy Gospel must be understood in the true sense of the two beatitudes: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!” and “Blessed is he who shall not be offended in Me!”

Beloved faithful,

It is fitting for us today to rejoice that we stand unshaken in the right faith and are sons of the Church of Christ for two thousand years. The unbelievers renounce and seek to see God with bodily eyes; the doubtful want to touch the wounds of the Lord; the weak in faith seek miracles; the sects abandon the Church, distort the dogmas of the faith and proclaim another gospel; those enslaved by passions postpone repentance—but we, the sons of the Resurrection and sons of God by grace, must remain faithful to Him to the end, knowing that "he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 24:13). Today, the eighth day after Holy Pascha, the Risen Lord appeared to the Apostles and gave them the peace of the Holy Spirit for which the whole world longs. Today the Savior convinced Thomas that He has truly risen and also assures us that we shall all rise at the Last Judgment.

Therefore let us rejoice in the Resurrection. Let us rejoice in the confession of faith of Thomas and let us pray to God that the other doubters in faith and seekers of signs and miracles—young or old, relatives, neighbors, and even children—may also confess Christ together with the Apostle Thomas. Let us truly rejoice that we have with us, in our hands, the Risen Lord and that we are delivered from the spiritual torments of unbelief and doubt.

We believe in God and we do not seek to investigate the mysteries of the faith or to touch the side of the Lord. The starry heaven shows us His power. The sun and the moon remind us of His radiance. The flowers of the field and the harmony of creation assure us that God is beauty. Innocent children, like the angels, remind us of the goodness of God and urge us toward holiness. Mothers with infants at the breast, when they pray, remind us of the Mother of God with the Child Jesus in her arms, who prays for the salvation of the world.

For all these things let us strengthen ourselves more in faith and rejoice. We too can touch the Lord—with the heart, with the mind, with the will, and even with the body—but not unworthily or with doubt like the Apostle Thomas. With the heart we touch the Lord through faith, piety, and pure, spiritual prayer. With the mind we touch the Lord through reading Holy Scripture and other soul-edifying books.

With the will we touch the Lord through the doing of good deeds, in love and humility. And with the soul and the body we are nourished and mystically united with Christ the Savior through Holy Communion, which is the highest way of our union with Christ, without which we cannot be saved.

We remind you that today, on Thomas Sunday, also called “the Pascha of the gentle ones” in some villages, the faithful go out to the cemetery where they make memorials, give food to one another, and all together sing the troparion of the Resurrection. Preserve with holiness this Christian custom. Moreover, every Sunday is a Pascha—it is the day of the Resurrection of the Lord, the day of our joy and salvation.

Let us preserve with holiness a pure and fervent faith in God. Let us guard ourselves from unbelievers, from sectarians, and from doubters, so that we may not fall into their snares. Let us carefully preserve the beauty of Orthodox worship and all the ancestral tradition handed down from our forefathers, and let us live in peace and love with one another, so that together we may sing with the angels: “Christ is risen!” Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.