Слово на вечерне, в день Пасхи

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hand, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I have no faith” (John 20:25). What an immoderate, daring tongue! What stubborn disbelief! And who speaks like this? One of the twelve apostles. When does he speak? On the very day of the Resurrection of Christ, immediately after His appearance to the ten other apostles. How could he not believe his brothers, who had no reason to present before him as truth what they had not seen? How could one not read on their very faces, previously darkened with sadness, but now shining with joy, that something extraordinary happened to them, and that they really saw the Risen Lord and their Teacher? - But Foma doesn’t believe it! He cannot point to any reason for his doubt, but he does not believe. He feels, without a doubt, that he is insulting his peaceful brotherhood with his distrust, but he does not believe. And not believing, he could have expressed his doubt in some more modest way, but Thomas now expresses himself in a way that at another time he would not have allowed himself to think. “Unless I put my hand into His side, I have no faith.” Such is our fallen nature! Denial and doubt became her natural element, as it were, from which the very title of an apostle does not save her. Such is the nature of unbelief: it knows no other language except the most daring! Since we will return to Thomas’s unbelief on the next Sunday, when it will be resolved into the most living and sublime faith; then now let us consider only two things: what was the reason for his unbelief, and what was its consequence. How did Saint Thomas fall into unbelief? The reason for this was the simplest and most ordinary. He was not with the apostles at the time when the Lord first appeared to them. Thomas, says Saint John in his Gospel, “is one of two,... was not with them when Jesus came” (John 20:24). Let's take a closer look at these words. Why is there an indication here that Thomas was one of two? We already know this from the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, in which Thomas appears to be speaking and acting. It is obvious that the evangelist seemed to want to express in secret these words the idea that Thomas should have been at this time among his fellow apostles, at such a decisive time when they, in all likelihood, were expecting the appearance of the risen Teacher, and yet, he was not there, “not with them when Jesus came.” We don’t know what was the reason for Thomas’ absence from the circle of apostles at this time. But, without any prejudice, we can assume that in this case some kind of improvidence was involved, from which the wisdom of God derived the greatest benefit for the work of faith, but which, consisting in some misuse of his time in the apostle, brought upon him the saving punishment of deprivation of faith in the resurrection of his Teacher. You might be interested in: