WEBVTT

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Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.

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Christ is risen. Christ is risen. Christ is risen.

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Christ is risen. Christ is risen. In the name

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of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

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Spirit. Amen. Just as the apostles gathered on

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the first day, That is the day when Jesus rose.

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We gather. And he says to us, peace be to you.

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Just as the apostles again gathered eight days

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later. So we've gathered eight days later after

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Pascha. And we hear the words of the Lord, peace

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be to you. And just as there are some, many,

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who struggle with doubt. So the Lord comes to

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each of us and says, peace, just as he said to

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Thomas. And all those words that we heard in

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the gospel today, St. John says, are written

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so that you may believe and believing you may

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have life. We think we have life because we have

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biological life. That's not really life. So let's

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talk about life. Rather, let's talk about death.

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We Christians don't regard death as the end of

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this life. Death as commonly understood, the

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breakdown of the body, stopping of the heartbeat,

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stopping of breathing. And for us, the separation

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of the soul from the body. That's not, for us,

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death. Not really. We call the separation of

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the soul and the body, we call rest, the body's

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resting. We call it a falling asleep in the Lord,

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because the body is laid aside as a garment.

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Here's how St. John Chrysostom says it, and I've

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quoted this to you. probably every single year

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on Thomas Sunday for the last five years. So

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if it sounds familiar, that's why. If it doesn't

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sound familiar, you haven't been listening. St.

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John Chrysostom says, it is true, we still do

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die, as before, but we do not remain in death.

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And this is not to die. The power and the very

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harshness of death is that a dead man has no

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possibility of returning to life. This is what

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Thomas understood. Never happened. Why should

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I believe what you say? You haven't changed enough

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for me to know it. And St. John goes on to say,

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but if after death a person is to be bodily quickened

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and moreover to be given a better bodily life,

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without death and sickness and suffering and

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sorrow and tears, then this is no longer death.

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This is a falling asleep. And St. Paul wrote,

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he said these words, We also eagerly wait for

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the Savior. We wait for the Savior, the Lord

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Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body

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that it may be conformed to his glorious body.

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It's Philippians 3. And to the congregation at

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Corinth, he wrote these words. Now, Christ, risen

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from the dead, has become the first fruits of

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those who have fallen asleep. First fruits. For

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since by man came death, by man also came the

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resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, the

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first man, all die, even so in Christ, all shall

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be made alive. And he says in another place about

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death and about our bodies. When we see a body

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here in the church, in the coffin, and then we

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go to the cemetery and we're going to lower it

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in the ground, we must think of this. What is

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sown in corruption, that's breakdown, decay.

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What is sown in corruption is raised in incorruption.

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What is sown in dishonor is raised in glory.

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What is sown in weakness is raised in power.

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So then, what is death? Death is separation from

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Christ. Death is separation from Jesus Christ.

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And we call Christ our Savior because without

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Him, this separation, we are perishing. I want

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to quote to you some words of St. Theophan the

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Reckless from just his daily entry. Thoughts

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for every day. Thoughts for Thomas Sunday. The

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feeling of salvation, he says, is closely related

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to the feeling of perishing. Do you know what

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it means to perish? Have any of you, before you

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met Christ, felt as if you were perishing and

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God saved you and you'd be dead without him?

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Have any of you felt that? I know many of you

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have. The feeling of salvation is closely related

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to the feeling of perishing, out of which the

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Savior pulls whomever he saves. For a man who

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is life -loving by nature and who knows that

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he cannot save himself, the feeling that he is

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perishing forces him to seek the Savior. When

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he finds him and feels the power of salvation

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proceeding from Jesus Christ, the resurrected

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one. He grasps him tightly and does not want

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to be torn from him, though he be deprived of

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life itself for this. In the spiritual life of

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a Christian, such events are not only imagined

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in the mind, but experienced in actuality. Then

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both his faith and his union with Christ become

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firm like life and death. Only such a person

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can sincerely cry, who shall separate me from

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Christ? Perishing, salvation, resurrection, death.

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Our Orthodox faith isn't about accepting someone's

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teaching about a spiritual afterlife. Our Orthodox

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faith isn't about someone's teaching about some

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sort of heavenly reward if we are good people.

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Our Orthodox faith does not come from someone's

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vision or someone's book of what religion ought

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to be. Our faith is founded on one thing. Jesus

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rose bodily from death after being beaten, crucified

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by professional executioners who knew he was

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dead for sure. They did it all the time and buried.

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And his body, after rising, was the same in a

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way. To say, he ate and he drank in Emmaus with

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disciples. He made a fish breakfast for the apostles

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on the shore. But he was totally and utterly

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different. right because of that, that St. Thomas

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was hesitant to simply accept someone's word

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about something that had never happened before

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in history that he knew of. He wanted to encounter,

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if it's real, the real Jesus, just as we do.

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St. John the Evangelist records at the end of

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the Gospel account that he wrote, that Jesus

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came to the disciples. This is John 20, verses

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19 to the end of that. He wrote that Jesus came

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to the disciples on the first day, and they believed.

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Thomas was not there. But when he came at the

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end of the week, and Jesus came and said, Peace

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be unto you, Thomas' confession was, My Lord

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and my God. Now, it's taken 20 chapters for St.

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John to tell us of the things that happened to

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Jesus and what he said and what he did. 20 chapters

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from the time we heard last Sunday. In the beginning

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was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word

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was with God. And that this is Jesus. 20 chapters.

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If you remember how we celebrated last week.

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And now we hear St. Thomas saying finally. My

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Lord and my God. Isn't this what we're all supposed

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to experience? Isn't Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha

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not religious holidays that we keep somehow with

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kulich and cheese pascha and Easter eggs? Those

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things are great, but that's not what it is.

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The fasting, the prayers, this is all a walk.

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with St. Thomas and the apostles, so we can hear

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the Savior say, blessed are you that have not

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seen, yet believed. Because belief does not come

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from signs and wonders. It seems like that's

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going to work, and that's what we want. And many

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people say, if I had been there, I would have

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believed. But that's just not true. The scribes

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and the Pharisees knew all about the miracles

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of Christ. And every time they were faced with

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the divine work of forgiving, of healing, of

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raising, they became more rooted in blasphemy.

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Having found that Christ had healed the blind

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man, instead of praising, they cursed. This man

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is a sinner. And you'd know it, but you are in

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your sin altogether. Having heard that Christ

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had resurrected a four -day stinking dead man,

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they decided they wanted to kill him, kill Christ

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and Lazarus. You see, these aren't proofs that

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enter the heart and the soul. They are signs

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of God's power in this world. The disciples themselves

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did not believe the report of the women who came

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from the grave. Belief in Christ comes from knowing

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you're perishing. That's why people who are rich,

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for the most part, and Jesus says, a rich man,

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it's very hard to enter the kingdom of heaven.

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For the most part, they don't feel they are perishing.

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Belief comes from suffering. And realizing that

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sickness, ignorance, sin, and death are killing

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us and that only Christ can save us. And encountering

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Jesus Christ can come at a moment when we understand

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that we are perishing. It's a different kind

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of proof and it's a different kind of experience

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than signs and wonders. We come. As the prayer,

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the hymn that the choir sang last week. We come

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to church for Holy Week. For all of Lent, for

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Holy Week and Pascha. So we can say these words

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and mean them. Let us purify our senses and we

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shall see Christ. Shining in the unapproachable

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light of the resurrection. We shall clearly hear

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him say rejoice as we sing the song of victory.

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But we must purify our senses to see Christ.

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And then when we gather together and we hear

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peace be unto you, we know it's the words of

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the risen Lord that has changed us and saved

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us from perishing. To our Lord who is risen and

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glorified and sits at the right hand of the Father

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be glory and dominion together with his Father

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and the Holy Spirit now and ever. And to ages

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and ages.