First Sunday after Easter

- Sunday of St. Thomas -

"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!"

In the sermon on the first Sunday after Easter, delivered in the Cathedral of Saint Hubert, His Grace Ioan Casian spoke about the special importance of this Sunday:

“This Sunday is particularly important because it is related to the trust and strengthening that Christ gives to the disciples, particularly to Thomas, and through him to the whole Church. Also during the 40 days, the Risen Savior shows Himself in different places to the disciples, to Luke and Cleopas on the way to Emmaus, to the Myrrh-bearing women, to the 500 brothers on the shores of Lake Galilee.”

The hierarch continued to develop the most important aspects of the Gospel read:

“Evangelist puts before us the true work of the Church. The Gospel of John 20: 19-31 says that on the first day of the week, where the disciples were gathered, Jesus came and stood in their midst, saying to them, "Peace be with you," that is, urging them to share into the peace of the Kingdom of God. And He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples were still troubled by the violent end of the life of their Master Christ who ends up in the tomb. This is the dilemma of the disciples. They rejoiced to see the Lord, so they recognize Him. Here is the first of the three stages of the Christian mission: "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Here, we as Christians follow the example of Christ who obeyed the Father, becoming incarnated and taking the risk of death. It is a parallel that Christ draws between His mission and our mission.

" If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." What do we do in this reference? If we perform the Holy Sacraments, we do so because Christ first performed them. As St. Ambrose says, the work of Christ is the work of the whole Holy Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The sending in this mission brings with it the forgiveness of sins, for what has diverted our world through passion is precisely the departure from God's command in Paradise. We see the results of sin today; evil is everywhere, but so the good is.

After eight days the disciples had gathered, and Thomas was also present. The Savior enters through the locked doors, for the disciples were barricaded for fear of the Jews. Christ addresses Thomas directly: "Bring your finger here and see My hands and bring your hand and put it on My side and do not be unbelieving, but believing." And He continued after: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!" This shows us that it is no less a gift to be a disciple in the Church, to believe based on the word received from the Scriptures and from the holy people . Through the work of the Holy Spirit we have the same experience of God's presence. Christ is present in our midst, as He was in the midst of His disciples, we are in the presence of the Risen Christ.

“What does it mean to us that the Savior Christ goes through the locked doors? St. Gregory the Great says that there are at least two meanings: Christ shows us what the new life consists in: His body was incorruptible, without being kept by the laws of this world; His body was palpable, though incorruptible. The body with which Christ is resurrected and the body with which we will be resurrected at the end of the ages will be the same, with one difference: a different level of glory. Our body will be the same, with the same identity, but transfigured, spiritualized, as the Savior was seen on Mount Tabor and after the Resurrection, showing the quality of the body after the resurrection. With it we will go to the kingdom of heaven.”

The hierarch of Canada concluded the sermon by summarizing the key aspects of this Christian missionary mission:

“I want to conclude with this: First of all, we are each one sent on a mission as Christians, not just those who preach. Leadership is needed in every society and in the Church, which is a work of God. Second, this missionary work involves the forgiveness of sins, because sin generates evil in the world. And third, the One who accompanies us on this journey and who has performed this restoration, is the crucified and risen Christ, who appeared to the disciples, the myrrh-bearing women, to Luke and Cleopas, to Thomas after eight days. This work of ours in the Church is done through the work of the Savior Christ, as the Son of God who sacrificed Himself for us and for our salvation.”

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Photo: Holy Monastery of Celic Dere