Priests, pastors, and ministers of all Christian denominations have for generations lamented Thomas Sunday for its perennially poor church attendance. For several reasons, their congregants take a break, or a "vacation," from church, perhaps be it because they are tired or "churched out." This is both sad and unfortunate, for Thomas Sunday has many lessons for us, but then again, Thomas himself was conspicuously absent when our Lord appeared to His Disciples after His Three-Day Resurrection.

           We know the passage well. On the First Day of the Week, the ten disciples gathered together (the first synaxis post the Resurrection) in the upper room and closed the doors, for fear of condemnation and persecution of their own people. Judas had hung himself, and Thomas, being distraught, was not there, so there were now only ten.

We can only imagine the trepidation, the despondency, the shock, the disappointment, even the despair that they were experiencing. They gave up everything to follow Jesus, and He was betrayed, humiliated, crucified, and killed. What were they to do now? Their own people and the Roman authorities would come for them next. The Jews to annihilate Christ's Teaching and extirpate their following, and the Romans to stamp out any ostensible sedition or rebellion.

           Yet, in this atmosphere of fear, distrust, and despair, Jesus appears to them. Out of His Infinite Love, The Resurrected, Transfigured, and Triumphant Lord would not let any barrier come between Him and His Disciples.

As His Incarnation miraculously occurred through the attentive and obedient ear of a Pure Virgin and her gates were unopened, as He was born through her doors that were unopened, as He arose through the unbroken sealed tomb, so He appeared through the closed doors to His assembled disciples.

 

He resurrected and showed Himself to His disciples with His transfigured Body, as Man, and as Jesus Who was crucified, for not only did they see Him, but the disciples also recognized Him as Jesus with the wounds and signs of His Crucifixion, as the "Crucified One."

           As with His Incarnation, so with His Resurrection, He could be seen, heard, touched, and indisputably experienced and thoroughly known, for He once again came and revealed Himself. His miraculous birth from the Womb pointed to and was fulfilled in His miraculous Resurrection (Birth) from the Tomb.

In answer to Nikodemos' question, "Can a man enter his mother's womb and be born again?" Yes, as he was once born below in flesh in time, he can be born again above in spirit for eternity; and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Son of Man, has made this all possible through Him. Born of the Father above before time without a mother, and born of a Mother below in time without a father, Jesus Christ, as God-Man, has reconciled all things. Jesus Christ is The Answer to Nikedomos’ question, as He is The Answer for Salvation.

           As Man, Jesus voluntarily dies for us, so as God, He may give life to us. In Christ, death is no longer the end, but instead, it is now the beginning (a new Genesis). Through Christ, death becomes a passage from earth to heaven, for Christ became and is our Passover as the Fulfillment of the first Passover which prefigured His Passover.

All things become new in Him, for the former things have passed away through the One Who is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. In Christ, the expected Messiah, the Anointed One of God, all is accomplished for eternal salvation, and all things that came before, had to be so.

           Imagine the overwhelming joy of the disciples when they saw their Resurrected Lord and Saviour. Their despair was transformed by the Presence of God into ecstasy. They literally must have been "outside of themselves" in the intimacy and mystery of the room, closed in with the Resurrected God and Man, their Teacher and Master, Jesus Christ, the One Who was Crucified, Buried, Resurrected, and now, with them.

In their presence, Jesus immediately gives them His Peace and Breathes upon them as He once breathed into the nostrils of the First Man, He in His Body, redeemed, as the Second Man. He gives His disciples His Peace, a Peace from above, and not from below. It is the Peace of the Most High God that is guaranteed and eternal, unlike any worldly peace that is but a mere, fleeting interlude between wars.

Man's peace is but a paper piece that can be ignored, discarded, burned, or torn up. It is only as good as the paper and the ink which will inevitably decompose, fade, and be no more. However, God's Peace is Perfect. This is the Peace that Jesus puts into their troubled hearts, and it will be this Peace that they will take to the ends of the world unto the ages down to us who freely accept His Gift for eternity. For only this Peace, His Peace, this Peace from above avails for eternity, for it only is Divine, embodied in Him, and given unto us.

           Jesus made a point of showing His disciples His Hands and His Side. By doing this, He made irrefutably clear that He Resurrected from the dead with His Very Same Crucified Body. Thus, we believe in the Bodily Resurrection, and thus, we believe in the dignity and sanctity of the Body both created lovingly by God and assumed perfectly by God in order to save us perfectly.

The Body is the Temple of the soul. In His Infinite Wisdom, He gave us a body to experience and know Him, and in His Infinite Love, He gave us a body to Be in Communion with Him. (For this, even the Angels envy us.) How can we, therefore, question the Wisdom of God and the Means of our Salvation and Communion with Him?

 Moreover, Christ, Resurrected from the Dead, breathed upon the disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit. Their bodies thereby would be vessels of the Holy Spirit and His means by which to mysteriously convey His forgiveness and His sacraments to their fellow man in a very real, tangible manner that gives a sacramental presence and personal fellowship.

           Now of course, we know that Thomas was not there to experience and receive. (Sort of like we need to come to Church to experience and receive the transformative Presence of Christ.) Thomas was very angry and distraught. He felt betrayed. He was like any one of us who are devastated, hurt, and disappointed. His belief and trust were shattered. He loved, but as we know, Love is risky. When you love, you put yourself out there, and you make yourself vulnerable, and so, you can be betrayed and devastated.

 Thomas thus resolved that he would no longer blindly and foolishly believe or trust. Understandably, he doubted. From now on, he would only use logic and reason. His faith in someone would likely be disappointed again, and he would not put himself through it again or take that risk again. He would no longer be a fool. In his mindset, this was no longer a case of Blind Faith, for he viewed himself as a Blind Fool.

 

When his fellow disciples told him that they had seen the Lord, Thomas immediately chose not to believe. Indeed, the Greek employs the double negative (ου μή πιστεύσω.) which meant he certainly--and adamantly--would not believe. He was not going to go through this again. He needed verifiable and undeniable proof. He would no longer suspend his logic. Unless he saw and felt, and totally experienced, His Crucified Lord Risen from the dead, he would not believe.

 

           Eight days later, on the First Day of the Week of The New Creation and New Beginning in our Resurrected Christ, Thomas was with his fellow disciples in the closed room, and Jesus appeared again through the closed doors, stood in their midst, gave them His Peace, invited Thomas to put his hands in His wounds, and told him: "Do not be unbelieving, but believing."

Whereupon, Thomas immediately proclaimed: "My Lord and my God!" And thus, God used Thomas the Doubter as His chosen vessel to proclaim to the universe, and for eternity, that Jesus Christ is my Lord and God, your Lord and God, our Lord and God.

As God used Peter the Denier to be His Chief Apostle, and as He would use Paul the Persecutor to be His Apostle to the Nations, so He used Thomas the Doubter, and hence, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we must pray that God will use you and me for our part in His Plan for the salvation of the world and our salvation together, thereby.

           Prayerfully yours in our Risen Lord,                                          

†Father Jim