The beautiful unbelief of St Thomas

Τῶν Μαθητῶν δισταζόντων τῇ ὀγδόῃ ἡμέρᾳ, ἐπέστη ὁ Σωτήρ, οὗ ἦσαν συνηγμένοι, καὶ τὴν εἰρήνην δοὺς τῷ Θωμᾷ ἐβόησε· Δεῦρο Ἀπόστολε ψηλάφησον παλάμας, αἷς τούς ἥλους ἔπηξαν. Ὦ καλὴ ἀπιστία τοῦ Θωμᾶ! τῶν πιστῶν τὰς καρδίας εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἦξε καὶ μετὰ φόβου ἐβόησεν· ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου, δόξα σοι.

WHEN his disciples were sunk in doubt that eighth day, the Saviour appeared, in the place where they were met together, and bestowing the peace he cried out to Thomas: ‘Come, Apostle, with thy finger search the palms through which they drove the nails’. Oh! the beautiful unbelief of Thomas! He brought the hearts of the faithful to acknowledgment, and with fear he cried out: My Lord and my God, glory be to thee!

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An icon of St Thomas the Apostle. Monk Moses writes, “Thomas is not a skeptic who is isolated and disadvantaged. He dares, he searches, he investigates, he inquires”.

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For the story, see John 20:19-31.

τῶν Μαθητῶν δισταζόντων “while the Disciples were doubting/hesitating” suggests that Thomas was not alone in his doubts, even though the others had seen Jesus already and he had not.

καλὴ ἀπιστία is generally translated “good unbelief”, but καλός carries more of a sense of “beautiful” than simply “good”. St Thomas’s unbelief was a thing of beauty. One way of looking at this is given to us by monk Moses of the Holy Mountain, praising Thomas because “he dares, he searches, he investigates, he inquires. He asks for the truth, to have direct contact with it. Christ did not have problem offering it to him. He came back to meet him. He comes back to everyone of us”. As St Peter of Damaskos wrote,

ONE cannot become a craftsman simply by hearsay: one has to practice, and watch, and make numerous mistakes, and be corrected by those with experience, so that through long perseverance and by eliminating one’s own desires one eventually masters the art. Similarly, spiritual knowledge is not acquired simply through study but is given by God through grace to the humble.

See also Psalm 33[34]:8-10 and 1 John 1:1-4.

St Symeon the holy Martyr led his flock to a heavenly sheepfold

Τῆς ἄνω Σιών, πολίτης γενόμενος, τῆς κάτω Σιών, τὸν θρόνον ἐγκεχείρισαι, καὶ καλῶς τὸ ποίμνιον, ὁδηγήσας πρὸς μάνδραν οὐράνιον, ἐσταυρώθης Χριστῷ Συμεών, τὸ θεῖον πάθος αὐτοῦ μιμησάμενος.

“WHEN thou hadst become a citizen of the Sion which is above, thou wast entrusted with the throne of Sion which is below; and when thou hadst led well thy flock to a heavenly sheepfold, thou wast crucified with Christ, O Symeon, in the likeness of his divine Passion.”

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An icon of St Symeon the Apostle, second Bishop of Jerusalem (following St James the brother of the Lord) and a step-cousin to Jesus: Symeon’s father Clopas was a younger brother of St Joseph the Betrothed. The Roman imperial government feared further revolts after the Jewish Wars of AD 66-70, and they executed anyone who might claim descent from King David, first torturing and then crucifying the aged St Symeon early in the second century.

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“Sion” is a name for Jerusalem, appearing in 2 Kingdoms [2 Samuel] 5:7 as the name of the Jebusite fortress conquered by King David which stood on the hill where Solomon’s Temple was later raised. That Temple was held to be the dwelling place of God himself among his people, “in their midst” (Ezek 37:26-28).

The Epistle to the Hebrews says that the Temple in Jerusalem was simply a copy of a heavenly sanctuary (Heb 8:5) into which Christ has now gone as a more perfect priest and sacrifice (Heb 9:11-12). Another prayer today sings to St Symeon,

THOU hast departed in sacred fashion unto a heavenly Temple, standing in the holy place, blessed saint, by blood; and thou art beside the Trinity, richly illumined by the dazzling lights that burst forth therein, truly happy saint; wherefore we rejoicing celebrate thy holy memory, O Symeon, receiving by thy intercessions release from those things wherein we have failed.

The Apocalypse also depicts this heavenly Jerusalem (Apoc 21:2-4). However, while this heavenly Jerusalem does not belong to this world, we are already enrolled as citizens and live under its law of liberty, rather than the law of the earthly Jerusalem (Gal 4:22-31). St Hesychios the Priest explains to us what the difference.

THE Old Testament is an icon of outward bodily asceticism. The Holy Gospel, or New Testament, is an icon of attentiveness, that is, of purity of heart. For the Old Testament did not perfect or fulfill the relationship of the inner self to God – ‘the law made no one perfect’, as the Apostle says (cf Heb 7:19) – it simply forbade bodily sins. But to cut off evil thoughts from the heart, as the Gospel commands, contributes much more to purity of soul than an injunction against putting out a neighbor’s eye or knocking out his teeth. […]

If we preserve, as we should, that purity of heart or watch and guard of the intellect whose image is the New Testament, this will not only uproot all passions and evils from our hearts; it will also introduce joy, hopefulness, compunction, sorrow, tears, an understanding of ourselves and of our sins, mindfulness of death, true humility, unlimited love of God and man, and an intense and heartfelt longing for the divine.

Political ideologies such as fascism, communism, and socialism and many religions all try to get to man’s heart through regulating his outward behaviour. This does not work. If it did work, then God’s holy Law would have made us perfect (Gal 3:21). That is why these ideologies, despite the best intentions of Christian socialists and others, historically always end in persecution for the Church and misery for untold millions.

Thou hast renewed a right Spirit in us, thou the life and resurrection of all

Apolytikion

Ἐσφραγισμένου τοῦ μνήματος ἡ ζωὴ ἐκ τάφου ἀνέτειλας Χριστὲ ὁ Θεός, καὶ τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων, τοῖς Μαθηταῖς ἐπέστης ἡ πάντων ἀνάστασις, πνεῦμα εὐθὲς δι’ αὐτῶν ἐγκαινίζων ἡμῖν, κατὰ τὸ μέγα σου ἔλεος. (γ’)

“THOUGH the grave was sealed, thou didst arise from the sepulchre, O Christ God, who art the Life; and though the doors were fast shut, thou wast present among thy Disciples, who art the Resurrection of all; and through them thou hast renewed a right Spirit in us, in accordance with thy Great Mercy.” (Thrice)

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A 15th century Russian icon of the Belief of St Thomas

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About This Prayer

THIS PRAYER is the Apolytikion or Dismissal hymn on the Sunday of St Thomas, the Sunday immediately following Easter Day (Pascha), which is also called Antipascha. Jesus, following his resurrection, appeared to his Apostles (though the door of their room was locked) and showed them the proofs of his Passion: the marks of the nails and the cleft in his side where a lance had been thrust to prove that he was dead. St Thomas however was absent, and on returning he would not believe unless he could thrust his finger into the wounds for himself. Jesus appeared a second time, and St Thomas humbly confessed: “My Lord and my God”. See John 20:19-29.

The Sealed Tomb and the Locked Door

Ἐσφραγισμένου τοῦ μνήματος, a genitive absolute, “the grave being sealed off”. The tomb of Jesus was sealed on Pilate’s orders, and placed under armed guard, in the hope that he could head off an attempt to steal the body and claim that Jesus was still alive. This is parallel to τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων, “the doors being shut”, also a genitive absolute. κεκλεισμένων is a perfect tense participle, implying absolute security, so I’ve added the adverb “fast”.

The Healing Sun Arises

ἀνέτειλας (“you arose”) is from ἀνατέλλω, meaning “I rise”. It is especially suitable for speaking of the rising of the sun, and is the word used by the prophet Malachi when he promises to us, “And unto you that fear my Name a Sun of Righteousness shall arise, and healing shall be in his wings” (Malachi 4:2). Nikitas Stithatos writes movingly of the healing changes to our character which prayer and repentance bring.

FOR those who fear Me, says God, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. They will go forth from the prison-house of the passions and, loosed from the bonds of sin, they will leap like calves. On the day when God restores them they will tread the wicked and the demons under their feet like ashes; for they will be exalted by all the virtues and because of their wisdom and spiritual knowledge they will be made perfect through communion in the Spirit.

“If you search out the Lord and patiently wait for Him until the firstlings of His righteousness grow in you” Nikitas assures us, “you will reap a rich crop of divine knowledge”; we will experience, he writes, “the true fulfillment of the Lord’s words, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from the heart of him who believes in Me’ (John 7:38)”.

Temples of the Spirit

πνεῦμα εὐθὲς ἐγκαινίζων ἡμῖν (“renewing a right Spirit in us”) is a reference to Psalm 50[51],

CREATE in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit in my inward parts. (Psalm 50:10)

ἐγκαινίζω (“renewing”) can be used to mean an inauguration or dedication ceremony for a holy place. (An εγκαίνια is an inauguration or dedication ceremony.) The word is used, for example, in 3 Kings 8:63, “and the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord”, that is to say, the Temple at Jerusalem. It is also used in this sense in the Epistle to the Hebrews, to speak of the consecration of a new and heavenly Temple through Christ’s Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension (Heb 10:20).

Consecration of a chapel originally founded in 1545, by Metropolitan Seraphim of Kythera and Antikythera. Photo by Stratos Charchalakis.

We could take “renewing” to indicate our consecration as temples of the holy Spirit, as Paul describes us (1 Cor 3:17, 1 Cor 6:19).

KNOW ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Cor 6:19)

The prayer closes with κατὰ τὸ μέγα σου ἔλεος, “according to thy great mercy”, from the opening lines of the same Psalm.

The Spirit and the Apostles

The prayer tells us that our renewal comes δι’ αὐτῶν, “through them [the Apostles]”. St John the Evangelist (who was one of the Apostles) tells us that at his first appearance to the Apostles, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit onto them, not for themselves, but as a commission to found his Church in the world.

THEN said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:21-23)

This is why we do not reject the idea of the Church. Whatever its faults as an institution, whatever the faults of its officers, God chooses to share his Spirit with us through the fellowship of the Church and the ministry of her officers.

A New Spirit, a Pure Heart

The reference to Psalm 50:10 and the making of a clean or pure heart within us brings us back to St Thomas. He was told,

THOMAS, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. (John 20:29)

But Jesus also said,

BLESSED are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

The Orthodox tradition strongly discourages us from wanting to see Christ with bodily eyes, because the devil can devise lying apparitions to match our images of Christ, leading to delusion (so says St Peter of Damaskos). We sing today,

Νῦν σε Παμβασιλεῦ, ἰδόντες οὐ βλεφάροις, ἀλλὰ καρδίας πόθῳ, Θεὸν πεπιστευκότες, ἐν ὕμνοις μεγαλύνομεν.

NOW do we magnify thee in hymns, O King of All, beholding thee not with our eyelids, but rather, because we have truly believed thee to be God, in the yearning of our hearts.

We see Christ with the eyes of the heart, that is, with the nous, which is how we will see him in the Kingdom to come. As St Theognostos indicates, this inner sight is not a convenient excuse for seeing nothing with the bodily eyes. Those who see Christ with the eyes of the heart experience something far more real and life-changing than an external vision.

NOTHING is better than pure prayer. From it, as from a spring, come the virtues: understanding and gentleness, love and self-control, and the support and encouragement that God grants in response to tears. The beauty of pure prayer is made manifest when our mind dwells in the realm of  intelligible realities alone and our longing to attain what is divine is endless.

Then the intellect, tracking its Master through the contemplation of created beings, and ardently thirsting to find and see Him who cannot be seen, or else contemplating the darkness that is His secret place (cf. Ps 18:11), in awe withdraws again into itself, for the moment satisfied and encouraged by the vision revealed to it for its own benefit; but it is full of hope that it will reach the object of its desire when, set free from appearances and the shadow-like fantasies seen indistinctly, as in a mirror, it is granted a pure unceasing vision ‘face to face’ (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).

(St Theognostos, ‘On the Practice of the Virtues, Contemplation and the Priesthood’.)

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Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down death; and to those in the tombs he has given life. Amen.

“Our sweet Jesus. The only love.” (Elder Joseph the Heyschast.)