SAINT THOMAS: THE HERO OF FAITH

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, by Caravaggio, AD 1602

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

A SERMON FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PASCHA (LOW SUNDAY)

I will say these things to you now, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, we stand today within the radiant afterglow of Pascha, with the Paschal Troparion still ringing in our ears, in that sacred octave wherein the Church does not merely remember but abides within the Resurrection. The light has not dimmed; the tomb is yet empty; the wounds of our Savior yet shine with glory. And Holy Mother Church, like a wise nurse, calls unto us with the voice of Saint Peter: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.” For we are not yet masters of this mystery, but are like newborn babes, born into it.

And it is here, precisely here, that the Church giveth us the holy figure of the Apostle Thomas. Not only as a warning, but also as a guide.

For too long he has been called “Doubting Thomas,” as though his name were a byword for unbelief. Yet the Gospel itself does not condemn him, nor do the Holy Fathers speak of him with scorn. Rather, they see in him something deeper, more searching, more necessary for the life of the Church, and especially in an age like ours. So, let us consider St. Thomas rightly as we celebrate this First Sunday After Great and Holy Pascha!

THE COURAGE OF THOMAS

St. Thomas is first introduced to us not in doubt, but in courage. When our Lord set His face toward Jerusalem, and the shadow of death lay heavy upon the road, it was Thomas who said unto the others: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” (John 11:16) This is no timid soul. This is no skeptic by temperament. This is a man who loveth Christ unto death. And yet, when the Resurrection comes, he is absent.

The doors are shut. The disciples are gathered in fear. Christ appears and speaks: “Peace be unto you.” He shows them His hands and His side. He breathes upon them the Holy Ghost. He giveth them the authority to remit sins. But Thomas is not there. Why?

The Fathers suggest it was not indifference, but grief. A grief so profound that it separated him even from the fellowship of the Apostles. As St. Gregory the Great saith, “It was not by chance that this disciple was absent… but by Divine dispensation, that through his doubt, our faith might be strengthened.”

St. Thomas did not cease to love Christ, and he simply could not believe that such love could survive the Cross.

THE HONESTY OF THOMAS

When the others tell him, “We have seen the Lord,” he did not pretend belief. He did not conform for the sake of peace. He did not accept second-hand faith.

Instead, he speaks with a terrible honesty: “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails… and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

This is not the voice of rebellion. It is the voice of a man who refuses illusion and cheap consensus.

In the Greek, his words carry a weight of existential finality, “ou mē pisteusō”, “I will certainly not believe.” Not out of pride, but because he knows the cost of belief. He has already followed Christ to the brink of death once. He will not build his life upon rumor or an empty fancy or feeling.

Here, beloved, is a model for our age. For we live in a world of shallow affirmations and borrowed convictions. Many say “I believe,” yet have never wrestled, never wept, never stood in the darkness where God seems absent. This, my friends, is cheap belief, easily forged and fraudulently proffered, and unable to stand the test of time and suffering.

St. Thomas will not do this. And therefore, Christ comes to him.

THE DESCENT OF CHRIST TO THE SEEKER

“After eight days… the doors being shut… came Jesus and stood in the midst.”

He returns, not for the eleven, but for the one. He did not rebuke Thomas first. He did not shame him before the others. Instead, He repeats Thomas’ own words back to him:

“Reach hither thy finger… behold my hands… thrust it into my side.”

Christ meets him precisely at the point of his need.

As St. Augustine declares: “The doubt of Thomas hath done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples.” For St. Thomas requires not merely sight, but contact. Not merely vision, but participation. And here we touch the great mystery.

For the word used, βάλε (bale), a very forceful “thrust”, is the same kind of concrete, physical action that we see in the sacramental life of the Church. St. Thomas doth not become a disembodied, gnostic, symbolic or figurative believer. He comes to faith through the wounded, risen Body of God.

This is the faith of the Ancient Church of the West. Not in abstraction, but in physical participation. Not a philosophy or a prosaic feeling, but as a living, challenging, quivering, transformative and painful communion.

In the Far West, in the Celtic monasteries of Iona and Lindisfarne, in the hidden chapels of the early Britons, the faith was never merely assented to as a mere icon or symbol… it was touched, tasted, received. The Body broken. The Blood poured out. The wounds of Christ made present upon the altar.

St. Thomas believeth because he encountered the same Christ we receive in the Holy Mysteries, in a physical body, in a touchable form.

“MY LORD AND MY GOD” — THE CONFESSION OF THOMAS

And then, without record that he ever did touch, St. Thomas answers: “My Lord and my God.” And this is the highest Christological confession in all the Gospels.

In Aramaic, the tongue he likely spoke, this would bear the force of covenantal intimacy, “Maran w’Alahan”, not merely titles, but a declaration of total allegiance and worship. He does not say, “I believe Thou art risen.” He says: “Thou art my God.” Here is no doubter. Here is the first to proclaim explicitly what the Prologue of St. John would declare: “The Word was God.” And thus, the one who questioned most deeply, confesses most fully.

THE PROCESS OF FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION LIFE

Now we return to our other Scripture readings for today. The Prophet Hosea cries: “After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up.” St. Paul declares: “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” St. John proclaims: “This is the victory… even our faith.”

Faith, then, is not a moment, but is a passage. A dying. A seeking. A being raised. St. Thomas passes through all three, knowingly, painfully, willingly and lovingly.

He loves Christ unto death. He loses Him in the darkness. He seekes Him with painful honesty. He encounters Him in the wounds. He confesses Him as God. This is the pattern of the Christian life and painful, real, transformative discipleship.

As T.S. Eliot wrote: “We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time.”

St. Thomas returns to Christ, but now he knows Him truly for Who He really is!

PRACTICAL APPLICATION FOR US TODAY

Beloved, many in our age live in the space inhabited by St. Thomas. They have known great loss, disorientation, and maybe even the psychological and cultural "Death of God." They have seen death personally. They have known intimacy, love, and family to be frail and limited, falling away in the difficulties of divorce, modern dating, raging and empty feminism and black-pilled manosphere bitterness and looksmaxxing obsession. They have trusted, been betrayed, and have been broken. Many times, beyond what seems to be repaired. And so they say, “I cannot believe unless I see.” Christ did not reject Thomas. The Church does not cast out the doubter. She brings them here: to the altar, to the wounds, and to the Body and Blood. For here, the same Christ says to them what He said to His friend: “Reach hither thy hand.”

And in this Holy Communion, the Postcommunion prayer is fulfilled: that these mysteries may be “for the assurance of our salvation… for the healing of our souls.” Our souls need healing, just as our minds need divine revelation and illumination. We are lost without this healing hand.

St. Thomas is not the patron of doubt. He is the patron of our wounded faith made whole.

FINAL CONCLUSION

Therefore, let us not fear the struggle to believe. Let us remain in the struggle, embrace the process, and cry out for Christ to show Himself to us. Let us come, as newborn babes, desiring the sincere milk of the Word. Let us follow on to know the Lord, as Hosea commanded. Let us set our affection on things above, where Christ is, with His Father in Heaven, “from whence He shall return, to judge the living and the dead.” And when we behold Him, whether in joy or in sorrow, let us say with the beloved St. Thomas: “My Lord and my God.”

COLLECT

Almighty and Everliving God, who didst strengthen the faith of thy holy Apostle Thomas through the sight of thy Son’s most holy wounds: Grant unto us, who have not seen and yet have believed, grace to cleave unto thee with steadfast hearts, that passing through the shadows of doubt into the light of thy Resurrection, we may confess thy Son as our Lord and our God; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.