Thomas Sunday

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Revealing the Light of Christ
Thomas Sunday
14 April, 2007


In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is risen

When hearing the words of the Gospel today, we may be reminded of the call of Nathaniel at the beginning of the Gospel according to Saint John. Our Saviour has seen Nathaniel under the fig tree, and He tells him about this when Nathaniel comes to meet our Saviour for the first time. When our Lord says : “‘When you were under the fig tree, I saw you’”, Nathaniel says : “‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’” Our Saviour replies : “‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these’” (John 1:48-50). He says the same thing to the Apostle Thomas (as it were) : “Because you are able to touch My wound and to know that I am truly risen from the dead, you believe. However, there are more important things than these by which to believe”.

For us, it is important that the Apostle Thomas was doubting, because there always have been, even until this day, people who do not accept that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. However, there truly are eyewitnesses of His Crucifixion, His Death, and His Resurrection from the dead. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the writings of such eyewitnesses. On television, radio, newspapers, and magazines today there are people who try to pretend that the Gospel proclamation is made-up fiction.

However, the Gospels are not made up at all. They are eyewitness accounts, just as the Apostle John says : “There are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). It is not only the eyewitness accounts of the apostles on which we depend, but it is also the common person-to-person experience of the Risen Jesus Christ that Orthodox Christians have. Over the last 2,000 years, in our prayers and in our lives, we Orthodox Christians have been having a personal encounter with this very Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. Our experience of Him is the same as the experience of the apostles about which they wrote in the Gospel.

Because he was so reassured by the Saviour’s Resurrection appearance, according to some source the Apostle Thomas first went to Egypt and preached the Gospel, as did the Apostle Mark. Then he left Egypt and went to India and preached the Gospel (lived the Gospel I should say, because when we speak about preaching the Gospel, we mostly mean living the Gospel). He went and lived the Gospel, first in north India, and then in south India. Finally he was killed by Hindu priests near the city of Madras. Most of the apostles went abroad bringing the truth of the love of God in Jesus Christ, and most of them were eventually killed. However, they sowed the seed of Christ’s love everywhere they went. The seeds that were planted by the Apostle Thomas remain in south India to this day. There are tens of millions of Orthodox Christians in south India, and even though they are not in communion with us, they still consider themselves to be Orthodox. These Indian Christians in south India take very close care of their family genealogies. Some families can trace their ancestors in these original Christian families in India back to the first persons who were converted by the Apostle Thomas in south India 2,000 years ago.

We, likewise, even if we cannot trace it, have a similar genealogy. Maybe we are not descended from the original converts by blood, but we are definitely descended from the original converts by faith and by our common personal experience of Jesus Christ. Generation after generation, following in the footsteps of these apostles, have revealed Christ. People have turned to Christ because of their love. To this day in North America, in Russia, in Ukraine, in Georgia, in all the Balkan countries, in Japan, in China, in Indonesia and elsewhere, people are turning to Jesus Christ because of the faithful, loving witness of the lives of Orthodox Christians.

Our own Saint Herman of Alaska is a perfect example of such a person. This man came with other monks from Valaam Monastery 200 years ago to Alaska. The other monks were either killed or died. Saint Herman (just a monk – neither a priest nor a deacon) was left, and he lived with the Aboriginal people of Alaska for the rest of his life. He taught them, but mostly, he loved them. Because he loved them, they accepted Jesus Christ. They could see what is different, what is positive and what is good in the life of Saint Herman, and they came to Christ. In Alaska, there are Orthodox Aboriginal families that 200 years later still know their ancestors who were converted to Jesus Christ by Saint Herman. They love Jesus Christ because their ancestors 200 years ago – their great-great-great-great-grandparents – came to love Jesus Christ through the love of Saint Herman.

In this city, as Orthodox Christians, we have the same responsibility. The Lord put us here, whether we were born here or whether we moved here from somewhere else. He put us here to live the life of the love of Jesus Christ in the Orthodox way because this city needs the love of Jesus Christ. Let us look out and see the sorts of things that are advertised and done here, defying Christ – people who are lost, looking for the Truth, but struggling. It is our responsibility to show the light of the love of Jesus Christ to this city which so much needs the light of Jesus Christ. This city once knew the love of Jesus Christ, but this knowledge is now gone.

The Lord has given us the responsibility to renew this light in n. That is one reason why this church is where it is. It has been in this area for so long, because the light of the love of Jesus Christ must shine here in the heart of n. It is our responsibility, following in the footsteps of the Apostle Thomas and the other apostles of Christ, to bring the light of the love of Jesus Christ with us wherever we are, whatever we are doing in this city, everyday.

When someone says : “Christ is risen”, we answer : “Indeed He is risen”. However, this is not merely the Orthodox response at Pascha. This is the proclamation of who we are, and why we are. That is why I am so glad that I hear it answered so strongly here. May the Lord grant that your lives be equal in love for Jesus Christ (at least equal if not double) to the strength with which you respond to this proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ. May we all together without fear, glorify our beloved Saviour, the Risen Christ, together with the unoriginate Father, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.