In novam dominicam et in apostolum Thomam

Spurious. On the New Sunday and on the Apostle Thomas. I have come, eager to pay the remaining debt. For even if I am poor, I compel your gratitude. I promised to demonstrate Thomas’s disbelief; and indeed I am present to render this to you. For I am eager to pay off the first debts first, so that I may not be held back by the accumulating interest. Therefore, cooperate with me in the payment of the debt, and entreat Thomas, so that, placing his holy right hand—the one that touched the side of the Master—upon my lips, he may strengthen my tongue for the exposition of what you desire. And I, trusting in the intercessions of the apostle and martyr Thomas, proclaim his former doubt and his later confession, which serves as the foundation and base of our Church. When the Savior entered to his disciples with the doors closed, and again departed as he entered, Thomas alone was left out.

And this too was a work of divine economy, so that the separation of the disciple might become the cause of greater security and certainty. For if Thomas had been present, he would certainly not have doubted; and if he had not doubted, he would not have inquired curiously; and if he had not inquired, he would not have touched; and if he had not touched, he would not have proclaimed him Lord and God; and if he had not called Christ Lord and God, we would not have been taught to hymn him in this way. So Thomas, even when absent, guided us toward the truth, and when he later arrived, he made us more steadfast in the faith. The disciples, then, said to Thomas when he entered last: We have seen the Lord, we have seen the one who said, I am the light of the world; we have seen the one who said, I am the resurrection and the life and the truth; and we found the truth of the words shining in the deeds; we have seen the one who said, After three days I rise; and having seen the resurrection, we worshipped the risen one; we heard him saying to us, Peace to you, and we turned the storm of grief into the calm of joy; we beheld his hands that received the points of the nails, we beheld the hands that cried out against the madness of the god-fighting dogs, we beheld the hands that wove incorruption for us, we beheld also the side that cries out more brightly than any herald the compassion of the one who was struck; we beheld that very side which angels hymn, and believers revere, and demons shudder at.

We received also a divine breath from his divine mouth, a spiritual breath, a breath that supplies every grace. We were ordained by the Master as masters of the remission of transgressions; we became also lords of the judgment of sinners, having received from him such a word as a watchword: “If you forgive some their sins, they are forgiven; if you detain some, they are detained.” We have reveled in such words of the Savior, we have enjoyed such gifts; for it was not possible that we should not be enriched, having encountered a wealthy Master. But you alone remained poor, not being present. What then does Thomas say to them? “You have seen the Lord? Good. Therefore, reverence more greatly the one you have beheld; continue proclaiming the one you have gazed upon. But I—unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. But you would not have believed unless you had first seen; so too I, unless I see, will not believe.” Persist, O Thomas, in such longing, persist zealously, so that while you see I may be confirmed in soul; persist, seeking the one who said, “Seek and you will find”; do not pass by simply searching, unless you find the treasure you seek; persist in knocking at the door of incontrovertible knowledge, until the one who said, “Knock, and it will be opened to you,” opens it for you. I love your discord of thoughts, as it cuts through every discord; I love your love of learning, as it cuts off every contentiousness; I gladly hear you often saying, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, I will not believe.

For if you are unbelieving, I am taught to believe; as you dig with the mattock of your tongue the furrows of the divine body, I effortlessly reap the fruit and gather it to myself. Unless I see with my own eyes the furrows in his holy hands, which the impious plowed, I will by no means agree with your words; unless I put my finger into the hollows of the nails, I will not accept your Gospel; unless I grasp with this hand that side, the unsuspecting witness of the resurrection, I would not believe your teaching. For every word that possesses the support of all facts is strong and secure; but every voice deprived of the testimony of deeds is evanescent, poured from the lips into the air. I am about to proclaim to men the wonders of the Master; how then shall I tell in words what I have not received with my eyes? How shall I persuade the unbelieving to believe, when I myself have not yet followed these things? Shall I say to the Jews and the Greeks that I have seen my Lord crucified, but have not seen him risen, but only heard? And who will not laugh at my voice? Who will not spit upon the proclamation? For hearing is one thing, and sight another; and the report of words is one thing, and the sight and experience of deeds another. Thus, since Thomas possessed knowledge so uncertain, after eight days the Master again came to his disciples gathered together.

He left Thomas to be catechized first in the intervening days by his companions; he allowed him to be inflamed with the thirst of seeing him; and when his soul had been vehemently kindled with the longing for the sight, then at last the longed-for one overtook the one who longed. And likewise, just as before, with the doors closed, he did this, and again, as also earlier, he said to them, "Peace to you," so that there might be identity both of the event and of the miracle, and so that he might confirm the promise of the apostles and establish the exactness of his second coming. Then he says to Thomas, "Bring your finger here, and see my hands." O height of boundless love for humanity! O sea of immeasurable condescension! He did not wait for the disciple's approach, he did not wait for the one in need to come and entreat and obtain what he wished, he did not deprive him even for a short time of his prayer, but the beloved himself compelled the lover toward the longed-for one, he himself by his voice drew the finger of the one longing toward himself, he himself with his Lordly tongue pulled the servant's right hand, saying to him, "Bring your finger here, and see my hands." I heard, Thomas, not being present as a man, but being present as God, what you spoke to your brothers; I was with you in divinity, separated from you in humanity. Do you wish me to remind you of the words spoken earlier? Did you not say, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe"?

Were not these words poured forth through your lips? Are not these words the product of your reasoning? For this I have come again, for the very things about which you are in doubt. This second time I have drawn near, for the very things you desire, I have arrived. And now for your sake, the one, I have come to you—I who came down from the heavens for the wandering sheep, and did not abandon the heavens. Do not then be ashamed to learn what you yearn for, do not be embarrassed to examine closely what you seek. Do not refuse to place your finger upon these hands of mine. I endure even a meddlesome finger, as I endured the nails. I tolerate the curiosity of one who loves, as I endured the insolence of those who hate. Being crucified by enemies, I was not indignant; and being examined by you, shall I not bear it? Bring your finger here, and see my hands, wounded for your sake, so that the wounds of your souls may be healed. See my hands, and consider within yourself whether I am the one who was willingly crucified, or someone else besides him. See my hands, which I have left bearing the marks of Jewish madness, so that when the Jews shamelessly deny on the day of judgment and say to me, "We did not crucify you, Master," I may show the enemies my hands in this form, and by the sight put the faces of the Jews to shame.

Behold my hands and the truth of my resurrection; do not think it is some apparition. Take hold of these hands, as pledges of your regeneration; take hold of these hands, as securities of the emergence from the tombs; take hold of these hands, an anchor in the abyss of Hades. Fear no storm of life, shudder at no worldly gale, fear the blasts of contrary winds not, heed not the squalls and reefs of the enemy sea. Sail confidently the sea of life, sail holding the anchor of the spirit, sail looking to heaven as a harbor, sail fearing only the shipwreck of my denial; laugh at death as a corpse, mock corruption as powerless, embrace death for my sake as the beginning of a more inward life, and bring your hand and place it in my side; draw through your hand from my life-giving spring the longed-for drink, and assuage your thirst. Bring your hand and place it in my side; introduce your right hand into the surgery of nature, and extract the remedy of your choice; I bear the touch of a loving hand, I who received a wound from a spear. Bring your hand and place it in my side, that you may have something to contend for, that you may have something to say to those who speak against the truth, that after the resurrection you saw me and examined and touched me precisely. Bring your hand and place it in my side.

For it was on your account that I left this wound thus, I who healed the bodies and souls of others, foreseeing as God that you would wish to see it in this way, so that you, beholding the marks of the passion of my flesh, might heal the passion of your soul. Bring your hand and place it in my side, which I have preserved thus as you see, so that when I come again from the heavens and sit as judge of the living and the dead, the Jews may see the works of their evil labor confronting them face to face, and become self-condemned. And do not be faithless, but faithful. Evil is faithlessness; it sinks the mind. Faith lifts it to heaven; faithlessness blinds the soul; faith illumines the thoughts; faithlessness overlooks even visible things; faith beholds even the invisible; the faithless man is utterly ignorant. Do not be faithless, but faithful; drive away the cloud of faithlessness, and behold the pure rays of faith. Become through all things an apostle worthy of my divinity; become such as one must be who has met with me and obtained these things which you have obtained. You were called like the other apostles, you were honored like them, arm yourself like them; like them you have beheld what they saw, like them you were entrusted, as a friend, with my whole mystery; like them, proclaim the

my power. Do not say again after seeing once: "If I do not again see in his hands the mark of the nails, I will not believe." While I am with you, as you wish, be curious; while you have the heavenly vine standing before you, examine all its branches and clusters. For I will ascend to the heavens, whence I came to earth; I will ascend to where I am; I will ascend in humanity from whence I descended to you in divinity; I will ascend with this body, I who departed from there without it and remained there; I will ascend with your nature to the paternal bosom, I who am in the bosom of the Father; for I have accomplished the work for which I made this journey. Then Thomas, having touched the Lord's hands and divine side, and filled with both fear and joy from the sight of what he had desired, immediately moves his tongue to hymnody, crying out to the Lord: "My Lord and my God; you are Lord and God, you are both man and philanthropist, you are a strange and paradoxical physician of nature; you do not cut passions with iron, you do not burn wounds with fire, you do not gather the strength of drugs from herbs, you do not bind ailing wounds with visible bandages; you have invisible bandages of compassion, invisibly binding together what is broken; you have a word sharper than iron, you have a speech more powerful than fire, you have a nod more gentle than medicine. As a creator you painlessly sanctify the creation, as a molder you tirelessly reshape the molded.

You scraped away leprosy, as you wished; you made the lame swift runners; you caused paralytics to carry their own beds; you commanded the blind from birth to wash away the darkness; you banished demons from your creations; you were seized by enemies willingly; you suffered everything according to the flesh at the hands of the Jews for my sake, my Lord and my God. I have recognized my Master, I have recognized my fisher and guardian, I have recognized my king and lord, my Lord and my God. I believe in your economy, Master; I believe in your condescension; I believe in your assumption of my origin; I believe in your venerated cross; I believe in the sufferings of your flesh; I believe in your three-day death; I believe in your resurrection. No longer do I pry; I believe, I no longer reason; I believe, I no longer weigh; I believe, I no longer investigate; I believe my eyes, I believe my right hand. I have learned from what I saw not to reason; I have learned from what I touched to worship, not to contend. I know one Lord and God, the Master Christ, to whom is glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.