St. Thomas Sunday, the eighth day after the resurrection, Antipascha, stands at the opposite end of bright week from Pascha, embracing an extended invitation into the resurrected life in the kingdom. The day also inaugurates the second week of Pascha which offers a continuous reflection into St. Thomas' encounter with the risen Lord expressed in Jn 20:19-31, of which the most relevant portion reads as follows:
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (Jn 20:24-29)The hymns throughout this second week echo the themes of this text with experiential and theological meditations on their meaning. Let us consider a few of the hymnic threads that weave this week's tapestry.
Entering through closed doors
The Gospel text is emphatic that the disciples, both on Pascha night and on the following Sunday, were hiding behind closed doors out of fear. Without ignoring the fact that Christ comes to bring peace to his troubled followers, the hymns emphasize a theological point, namely that the resurrected Christ is not constrained by the impermeable boundaries of our world."Just as you did not break the seals of your tomb at your awesome resurrection, O life-giving Christ, so you entered into the midst of your glorious apostles even though the doors were locked, and you filled them with joy." (Sunday Matins, Praises)The suggestion is that the stone was rolled away from the tomb after Christ had risen, after he had passed through the rock-hewn and sealed tomb, so that others could see into the empty tomb, not so that he had a way out. That the crucified Christ is not restricted by limitations is extended to hades:
"The gates of hades, O Christ, could not hold you back, nor could the seals on the tomb, nor the locked doors." (Canon of the Feast, Ode 1)Finally, our Lord's boundlessness extends from the material and the spiritual worlds to our psychological world.
"Today the air is filled with the fragrance of spring and blossoming flowers, and the new creation exults with joy; today the Lord passes through closed doors and shatters the bonds of doubt by his presence." (Exapostilaria for the Feast)Neither doors behind which we hide, nor gates that imprison us in death, nor doubts that paralyze our responsiveness are sufficient to impede the Good Shepherd's loving search for his sheep. He comes to find us, to let us encounter him as the risen Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
Transforming the mystery of unbelief into belief
While the risen Christ is not himself constrained in any way, he does not enter though closed doors to compel or to constrain Thomas, but to invite out of a desire to be known which will require a response:
"O Thomas, be not unbelieving toward me who were wounded for your sake. Touch the wounds in my hands and my feet with your hand. Be of one mind with the Apostles who have seen me, and join your voice to theirs to proclaim that I am the living God." (Exapostilaria for the Feast)
"It pleased you to be known, O Christ, Lover of mankind. Thus you led Thomas to that knowledge: in the face of his doubt, you invited him to examine your side." (Canon of the Feast, Ode 4)
"What a wondrous mystery: unbelief becomes an assured belief as Thomas says, 'Unless I see, I will not believe.'" (Sunday Vespers, Aposticha)
"In our hymns we sing of your blessed tongue, O Thomas: it was the first to piously confess Jesus, our Lord and our God, as the source of our life, after the touch which filled you with grace and truth." Canon of the Feast, Ode 4)
St. Thomas' encounter with and subsequent belief in the risen Lord makes him not only the first to confess Jesus as Lord and God, but opens the door through which the whole world may enter; the emphasis, however, is that it was his unbelief that occasioned the transformative meeting.
"Thomas doubted what he was told in order to turn the steps of unbelievers toward the Faith." (Sunday Vespers, Stichera for Lord I call)
"How beautiful is the mystery of Thomas' unbelief for it leads the hearts of believers to the knowledge of God." (Sunday Vespers, Stichera for Lord I call)
"Your unbelief will teach everyone of my passion and resurrection from the dead; and they shall all shout with you, 'My Lord and my God, glory to you!'" (Sunday Vespers, Stichera for Lord I call)
"Having drawn deeply from the inexhaustible treasure of your side pierced with the soldier's spear, Thomas filled the creation with the wisdom and knowledge of God. (Canon of the Feast, Ode 4)
And lest we miss the personal encounter offered in these general statements ("everyone", "the creation"), the hymns make explicit that the invitation extends to each us:
"By his impudence, Thomas the Twin makes us beneficiaries of his doubting belief. (Canon of the Feast, Ode 7)
"You have shown us, O Lord, how the doubt of Thomas can lead us toward belief. In your wisdom, you arrange all things for our God, O Christ, Lover of mankind." (Canon of the Feast, Ode 5)
"O come, all you faithful, in our hymns let us bless the memory of the apostle and disciple of Christ who touched the nail-prints and divinely imprinted on our hearts that sure faith which he sought to make firm throughout the universe. Now he implores the savior to grant great mercy to our souls." (Tuesday Matins Sessional Hymns)
Confessing the God-Man
What did Thomas see? What did he believe? He saw with the eyes in his head wounded flesh. Seeing with the eyes of his heart, with his noetic eyes, he believed and confessed, 'My Lord and my God!" Thomas experienced the God-Man, the theanthropos.
"'Thomas, touch me!' said the Lover of man who had risen from the dead on the third day. 'See my hands and the holes in my feet and the opening in my side. Know that my divinity suffered no change, but rather I assumed an earthly nature and suffered in the flesh through it.'" (Tuesday Vespers, Stichira of Lord I call)
"Though the doors were closed, O Lord, you appeared in the midst of your disciples, revealing the splendor of your divinity.... saying clearly, 'Behold, I have flesh' .... Having been assured of your humanity and divinity by his own hand, the disciple [Thomas] was filled with awe and cried out in belief, 'My Lord and my God, glory to you!'" (Sunday Vespers, Stichera for Litia)
"With awe, Thomas put his hand into your life-giving side. He perceived the double energy of your two natures, O Christ our Savior, united in you without confusion." (Canon of the Feast, Ode 7)Thomas' encounter is with the incarnate living God, the I AM of the burning bush, the Fire which consumes the unworthy. Accordingly, the Church reflects with its customary amazement on the divine-human encounter with words that are echoed in our pre-communion prayers.
"O Thomas, ... you had the boldness to touch the side shining with the Fire of the divinity." (Canon of the Feast, Ode 5)
What a wondrous mystery: the grass can touch fire and not be consumed; for Thomas put his hand into the fire of the side of Jesus Christ our God, and he was not consumed in touching him." (Sunday Vespers, Aposticha)
Why did the hand of the apostle not melt away when he approached the burning side of the Lord? Who gave him the boldness to touch him? Surely it was the one who was touched. If he had not given the power to that frail hand, how would it have been able to touch the wounds that made heaven and earth tremble? Thomas received the grace of touching Christ and crying out, "You are my Lord and my God!'" (Canon of the Feast, Ikos)
"Your life-giving side was touched and examined by the weak hand of a mortal, and you did not permit him to be burned by the fire of your immaterial divinity: we magnify you with hymns." (Canon of the Feast, Ode 9)
Healing the world
Thomas' experience of the God-Man directs us to the cosmic healing of these wounds on the Lamb who was slain from the very foundation of the world, and to the availability of that healing to all through the mysteries of the Church."Blessed are you who touched the wounds of the savior and the opening in his wondrous side by which he healed the immense wound of Adam;" (St. Thomas Friday, Matins Sessional Hymn)
"You came and stood before your disciples, O Christ, though the doors were closed, and Thomas was not with them. But it was providential, for he said, 'I will not believe unless I see for myself the Lord, and see the side from which blood and water came forth for baptism, and see the wounds through which he healed mankind from the great wound, and see that he is not a ghost, but truly has flesh and bones.'" (Sunday Vespers, Dogmatikon for Lord I call)
Experiencing the reality ourselves
Finally, as we noticed above in passing, the hymns are relentlessly personal--directed at us, inviting us. We are not signing about something that happened far away in time and space to someone else. We are ourselves entering into that very same encounter with the healing and life-giving God-Man.
"Teach us to cry out to you with Thomas, 'My Lord and my God, glory to you!'" (Sunday Vespers, Aposticha)
"I feel great joy, O Savior, when I see your resurrection confirmed by the boldness of Thomas. Thanks to him, we have been able to affirm the union of your divinity and your humanity in a duality of natures and energies which are united in you." (Tuesday Vespers, Stichira of Lord I call)
"O faithful let us strive to sanctify our hands by abstinence from the passions, so that we too may touch the savior's side." (St. Thomas Wednesday, Matins Apostica)
"We have seen you now, O King of the universe, not with our bodily eyes, but with love in our hearts; we believe that you are God, and we magnify you in our hymns." (St. Thomas Thursday, Matins, Aposticha)
Through the prayes of St. Thomas, may we come to experience so vividly the risen God-Man that we might cry out with him, "My Lord and my God! Glory to you!"
