By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“You did not leave Thomas, O Master, as he was being submerged,
in the abyss of unbelief, stretching out Your palms for investigation”
(Ode 6 of the Canon of Thomas Sunday).
We are accustomed to speaking about the unbelief or distrust or little faith of the Holy Apostle Thomas, because he did not accept the testimony of the other disciples that they had seen the Risen Christ. “Unless I see, I will not believe,” he told them. And the Lord granted him this grace and (when of course he was found together with the other apostles, showing his good disposition and his inner struggle) called him “with His own hands” to be assured of His risen body. Yet He also expressed His complaint that “he believed because he saw Him and touched Him with his bodily senses,” without reaching the higher faith and vision that exists, that is, the blessedness of those who believe without seeking to see Him with their bodily eyes. Of course, the hymnography of the Church takes this event as an occasion ultimately to “praise” this unbelief of Thomas — “O good unbelief of Thomas,” because the Lord “rejoices in being investigated” — which gave and gives the opportunity through the ages for the Resurrection of the Lord to be proclaimed even through the touching of the body of the Lord, made fiery by His divinity; but also for the true meaning of theology to be emphasized, as a reality grounded in the experience of Christ, whether through the touching of His breast by John the Theologian or through the touching of His hands pierced by the nails and His side pierced by the spear, and not in an ideological and “thin”, bare, approach to faith.
Thus we are accustomed to speak of “unbelieving” Thomas. However, both the Gospel and the hymnography of the Church do not cease to note that the unbelief or little faith of Thomas was also possessed by the other disciples of the Lord, with the foremost among them being the chief of the disciples, the Apostle Peter. And the poetry of these days comes precisely to remind us, beyond other “unbeliefs,” of the little faith of Peter confirmed by the Lord Himself, when he saw the Lord, before His Resurrection of course, walking upon the waves of the Sea of Galilee and asked Him, if it was indeed He, to permit him to come to Him, walking himself upon the stormy sea. And what was the result? Peter, as long as he looked at the Lord, was able to walk as though upon dry land; but when he realized the “reality” of his surroundings, he began to sink, because he lost faith. Does not the Hymnographer of the above troparion have this event in mind, though now speaking of Thomas? He uses the same image, in a metaphorical way: Thomas too was sinking in the waves of unbelief, in danger of being drowned. Yet the Lord does not leave him; just as He stretched out His hand and caught Peter, rebuking his little faith: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”, in the same way He stretches out His palms to the faint-hearted Thomas in order to save him as well. And almost with the same manner of rebuke: “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The crucial and decisive point in both interventions of the Lord toward His faint-hearted or unbelieving disciples was that both ultimately turned toward Him: Peter in the direct way of his anguished cry, “Lord, save me,” Thomas in the indirect way of his coming into the circle of the other disciples — this too was a “cry,” since he left his isolation and solitude. And this point is critical also for every disciple and believer of His in all ages, even today: we may doubt and be of little faith, but what the Lord expects from us is that we ultimately turn to Him and cry out. Not outwardly, but inwardly and secretly, in the depth of our heart. But with the observation that He Himself made to His disciple Judas (not the Iscariot), about how after His Resurrection He would appear to people: not outwardly as if wishing to “subdue” them with a shocking manifestation, but through the keeping of His holy commandments.
The Lord was absolutely clear and entirely consistent: “whoever keeps My commandments shows that he loves Me, and thus he will see within his very being the love of God the Father and My own love, as well as My manifestation within him.” In other words, the Resurrection of Christ, after His continuous appearances for forty days to His disciples, will be experienced by the faithful to the degree that they open themselves to seeking Him through the application of His holy will. Christ, if the expression may be allowed, has put us in “checkmate”: only the experience of Christ will confirm faith and His Resurrection. Any other approach will be a futile pursuit of human egoism, and therefore will constantly end in failure. In a word: where there is no true and sacrificial love, as Christ showed and lived it, there Christ is not; there whatever words and whatever shouting amount to a “clanging cymbal.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
We are accustomed to speaking about the unbelief or distrust or little faith of the Holy Apostle Thomas, because he did not accept the testimony of the other disciples that they had seen the Risen Christ. “Unless I see, I will not believe,” he told them. And the Lord granted him this grace and (when of course he was found together with the other apostles, showing his good disposition and his inner struggle) called him “with His own hands” to be assured of His risen body. Yet He also expressed His complaint that “he believed because he saw Him and touched Him with his bodily senses,” without reaching the higher faith and vision that exists, that is, the blessedness of those who believe without seeking to see Him with their bodily eyes. Of course, the hymnography of the Church takes this event as an occasion ultimately to “praise” this unbelief of Thomas — “O good unbelief of Thomas,” because the Lord “rejoices in being investigated” — which gave and gives the opportunity through the ages for the Resurrection of the Lord to be proclaimed even through the touching of the body of the Lord, made fiery by His divinity; but also for the true meaning of theology to be emphasized, as a reality grounded in the experience of Christ, whether through the touching of His breast by John the Theologian or through the touching of His hands pierced by the nails and His side pierced by the spear, and not in an ideological and “thin”, bare, approach to faith.
Thus we are accustomed to speak of “unbelieving” Thomas. However, both the Gospel and the hymnography of the Church do not cease to note that the unbelief or little faith of Thomas was also possessed by the other disciples of the Lord, with the foremost among them being the chief of the disciples, the Apostle Peter. And the poetry of these days comes precisely to remind us, beyond other “unbeliefs,” of the little faith of Peter confirmed by the Lord Himself, when he saw the Lord, before His Resurrection of course, walking upon the waves of the Sea of Galilee and asked Him, if it was indeed He, to permit him to come to Him, walking himself upon the stormy sea. And what was the result? Peter, as long as he looked at the Lord, was able to walk as though upon dry land; but when he realized the “reality” of his surroundings, he began to sink, because he lost faith. Does not the Hymnographer of the above troparion have this event in mind, though now speaking of Thomas? He uses the same image, in a metaphorical way: Thomas too was sinking in the waves of unbelief, in danger of being drowned. Yet the Lord does not leave him; just as He stretched out His hand and caught Peter, rebuking his little faith: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”, in the same way He stretches out His palms to the faint-hearted Thomas in order to save him as well. And almost with the same manner of rebuke: “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The crucial and decisive point in both interventions of the Lord toward His faint-hearted or unbelieving disciples was that both ultimately turned toward Him: Peter in the direct way of his anguished cry, “Lord, save me,” Thomas in the indirect way of his coming into the circle of the other disciples — this too was a “cry,” since he left his isolation and solitude. And this point is critical also for every disciple and believer of His in all ages, even today: we may doubt and be of little faith, but what the Lord expects from us is that we ultimately turn to Him and cry out. Not outwardly, but inwardly and secretly, in the depth of our heart. But with the observation that He Himself made to His disciple Judas (not the Iscariot), about how after His Resurrection He would appear to people: not outwardly as if wishing to “subdue” them with a shocking manifestation, but through the keeping of His holy commandments.
The Lord was absolutely clear and entirely consistent: “whoever keeps My commandments shows that he loves Me, and thus he will see within his very being the love of God the Father and My own love, as well as My manifestation within him.” In other words, the Resurrection of Christ, after His continuous appearances for forty days to His disciples, will be experienced by the faithful to the degree that they open themselves to seeking Him through the application of His holy will. Christ, if the expression may be allowed, has put us in “checkmate”: only the experience of Christ will confirm faith and His Resurrection. Any other approach will be a futile pursuit of human egoism, and therefore will constantly end in failure. In a word: where there is no true and sacrificial love, as Christ showed and lived it, there Christ is not; there whatever words and whatever shouting amount to a “clanging cymbal.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
