Sermon 375C
Sermon 375/C
TREATISE ON THE FIFTH DAY OF HOLY EASTER
The unbelief of Thomas.
Today's reading from the holy Gospel once again revealed the Lord to the servants, Christ to the Apostles, and convinced the unbelieving disciple. For one of the twelve disciples, the Apostle Thomas, did not assent to the news of the resurrection of the Lord Christ reported not only by women but also by men. And certainly, he was to be made an apostle to preach the gospel. So when he later began to preach Christ, how did he want to be believed in what he had not himself believed? I suppose that he was ashamed of himself when he reproved the unbelievers. His fellow disciples, indeed co-apostles, said to him: "We have seen the Lord." And he responded: "Unless I put my hands into His side, and touch the places of the nails, I will not believe." He wanted faith to be brought to him by touch. For if the Lord had come to be touched, how then in that reading, which is read before, does He say to Mary: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father?" He says to the believing woman, "Do not touch me"; He says to the unbelieving man, "Touch." For Mary had already run to the tomb and had first thought the standing Lord was the gardener, and said: "Lord, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him." The Lord, however, answered her name: "Mary." At once she recognized the Lord by the voice of her own name: He called, and she recognized; He made her happy by the calling, giving her recognition. Immediately, therefore, when she heard her name from that authority and tongue with which He was accustomed, she also responded as usual: "Rabboni." So Mary had already believed, and the Lord said to her: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father."
Humanity assumed by Christ.
Just now in that reading, which most recently sounded in your ears, what did you hear Thomas saying? I do not believe unless I touch. And the Lord to Thomas himself: Come, touch, put your hands into my side, and do not be unbelieving but believing. He said, If you think it too little that I offer myself to your eyes, I offer myself also to your hands. For perhaps you are one of those who sing in the Psalm: In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord with my hands, and my hands were stretched out in the night without ceasing. Why was he seeking with his hands? Because he was seeking in the night. What does it mean, he was seeking in the night? He was carrying the darkness of disbelief in his heart. However, this happened not only for himself but also for those who were going to deny the true flesh of the Lord. For Christ could have healed the wounds of his flesh in such a way that no marks of the scars would appear: he could, therefore, not bear the marks of the nails on his limbs, not bear the mark of the wound in his side; but those scars were allowed to remain in the flesh so that the wound of disbelief in human hearts would be removed, and the signs of the wounds would cure true wounds. For he who allowed the marks of the nails and the spear to be in his body knew that there would be wicked and perverse heretics who would say that our Lord Jesus Christ had feigned his flesh and had spoken lies to his disciples and our evangelists when he said: Touch and see. Behold, Thomas doubts. How does he doubt? Unless I touch, I will not believe: he places belief beyond touch. Unless I touch, he says, I will not believe. What do we think the Manichaean says? And Thomas saw, and Thomas touched, and Thomas felt the places of the nails, and it was false flesh. So then, if he had been there, he would not have believed even by touching.
Thomas is allowed to touch Christ, Mary is not allowed.
Therefore, let your Love heed the horrendous destruction, the detestable deceit, the incredible impiety. See how great is the difference between holy Mary Magdalene, who, when she heard: 'Mary,' believed in the resurrection of Christ at one word, and those who, as soon as they saw Christ in the breaking of the bread, immediately believed. What do we think is the difference between her faith and theirs? What? She saw in a somewhat obscure way, they saw very clearly; yet both she and they believed by seeing. Afterwards, He appeared to all: they thought they were seeing a spirit. He dispelled their vain opinion and inserted the most certain truth. They thought they were seeing a spirit. This is what the Manicheans also think, that Christ was a spirit, not having flesh. Remain in such faith if Christ wished His disciples to remain in it. If you think Christ was a spirit and appeared as a phantom, that is, as if His flesh were not true, this is what the disciples thought: you are wounded with the disciples, be healed with them. When the disciples thought this, that Christ was a spirit, and what they saw was more of an appearance than a reality, what did the Lord do? He said, 'Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?' No external enemy has come to you, and internal thought strangles your souls. You are thinking about me: 'Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?' What thoughts? Because they thought they were seeing a spirit. The Lord fears such thoughts, lest they destroy the faith of the disciples; therefore, fear to have such thoughts: what the physician fears, the sick person is not safe from. 'Why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet; handle and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.' They saw, and touched, and believed, and proclaimed: and the Manicheans still contradict about Thomas: 'I will not believe unless I touch.' Therefore, do not be unbelieving. Were the wounds of the Lord false, and are the words of the Manicheans true? God forbid. Rather, the words of the Lord are true, the Lord showed true bones: true wounds: true members lifted to heaven; but corruption was not lifted to heaven. Flesh, he said: death is dead.
Christ is the way, Christ is the homeland.
Let us return to that question about Saint Mary. Behold, He is touched by the disciples: Feel and see, because a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have. He is touched by doubting Thomas; he exclaims: My Lord and my God! And to him the Lord says: Because you have seen, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen, and believe. To whom you announce me, they surpass your faith. You announce what you have seen, you announce what you have touched, you announce what you have hardly believed by seeing and touching; and yet someone will believe you who has neither seen nor touched. You see me, and you do not believe me: you touch me, and you hardly believe me; another hears you, and believes in me. But you ask: Why is it that Thomas is allowed to touch, and Mary is told: Do not touch me? Here He Himself said the reason: For I have not yet ascended to the Father. What does this mean? You are here on earth, and you forbid yourself to be touched: when you ascend, who touches you? Situated on earth you repel a nearby hand. Here we can very elegantly surmise, and say: The Lord rightly kept His touch for the unbelievers; He forbids her to touch, because she had already believed. For what need was there to touch and seek, whom she had recognized by hearing? But yet He did not keep silent, afterward He stated the reason. Do not touch me. Why? For I have not yet ascended to my Father: touch me when ascending to the Father. What does it mean, touch me when ascending to the Father? Touch the one equal to the Father. What does it mean, touch the one equal to the Father? Touch God, that is, believe in God. It is easy what you see: the form of a servant is assumed for your sake, it is the garment of God; it is not great to see the flesh. The Jews saw, who killed Him; the Gentiles did not see, and believed. Therefore, He says, just as you see me, in bodily limbs, the appearance you know, just as you see, do not touch me: that is, do not remain there, do not intend only up to there, do not let your faith end here. Indeed, I want you to believe that I am a man, but do not stay there; extend the hand of faith, do not remain there.
Faith is like touching Christ.
Do not touch in the way that the heretic Photinus did: he said that Christ was a man, nothing more; therefore he did not grasp, did not understand, did not touch. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That she might not think Christ to be just a man: Do not touch me this way: my garment is before you; keep what is done in heaven, extend the hand of your heart; and then you touch me when I ascend to the Father. Those who confessed this way have touched: He ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father. Behold, this is how the Church touches, whose figure Mary bore. Let us touch Christ, let us touch. To believe is to touch. Do not extend your hand only to the man; say what Peter said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Therefore do not see Christ as only a man; because if you touch as the heretic said, you will be like Photinus. But again, do not avoid the man Christ, but do not remain there. I do not say to turn away; what do I say? Do not remain there: he does not reach the mansion who wants to remain on the way. Rise, walk: man Christ is your way, God Christ is your homeland. Our homeland, truth and life; our way, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We were lazy to walk, the way came to us; because the way came to us, let us walk. Man Christ is our way: let us not abandon the way, to reach the only begotten Son of God, equal to the Father, transcending all creation, coeternal with the Father, without day, the day, the creator of faith. For this reason let us walk, that we may touch this.
Christ God, Christ flesh.
Thus finally she touched Him, who was suffering from an issue of blood. Such was her faith in Him, that the Lord said to her: Now come forward and reveal yourself to the crowd; obtain praise, from whence you obtained salvation! Go, daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace. If you ask what faith this is, listen. She said in her heart: If I touch the hem of His garment, I shall be saved. She touched so that she might obtain what she believed; she did not touch so that what she had not believed might be proved. Then the Lord asked, saying: Who touched me? So, do You not know, Lord, who touched You? You see the thought, and you ask about the act? What does it mean, who touched me? I will show you who touched me: faith touched me; it made power go out from me by its touch. Where I was not, where I did not walk, where I was not born, there I was believed in: A people I did not know served me. Oh touching! Oh believing! Oh demanding! And this woman, exhausted by her bloody afflictions, like the Church afflicted and wounded by the shedding of blood in martyrs, but full of the virtues of faith; she had previously spent her substance on physicians, that is, the gods of the nations, who could never cure her: to which Church the Lord did not present His bodily presence, but a spiritual one. Now therefore both the woman touching and the Lord touched know each other. But so that those who needed to know salvation might be taught to touch, He said: Who touched me? And the disciples responded: The crowds press upon You, and you say, who touched me? As though You were in some high place, where no one could touch You, so You ask who touched, when the infinite crowds press upon You? The Lord said: Someone touched me: I felt more one touching, than a pressing crowd. A crowd easily knows how to press: would that it could learn to touch!
What does faith teach about the incarnate Son of God?
Let our conclusion, brothers, be that we believe our Lord Jesus Christ to have existed before Abraham, before Adam, before heaven and earth, before angels and archangels, and thrones and dominations, and principalities and powers, before all things created and made, whether seen or unseen, without any lapse of time, without any count of years, coeternal with the Father, equal to the Father, the true Only-begotten of the Father, the power and wisdom of the Father: equally everlasting, equally immortal; and truly immortal, because completely unchangeable; equally invisible, because incorporeal; equally powerful, and indeed omnipotent himself. Let us believe such of the Only-begotten Son of God. But remember, when we say: And Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, remember what follows: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Born of a mother without a father here below on earth, who was already above with the Father before time, born without a mother, destined to create time. In true flesh now at the end of times, born from true flesh: but his flesh had the semblance of sinful flesh, it was not sinful flesh. And from where did it have semblance of sin? Because it was mortal. And from where was it not sinful flesh? Because it came through the faith of the virgin. That same flesh of Christ itself grew, itself reached the age of youth. In it, Christ hungered, thirsted, ate, drank, grew weary, rested, slept: in all these things, sin was nowhere to be found. In it, he suffered, in it, God hidden as man was manifest, seeking man in man, seeking the lost through what he had taken on. In it, then, he suffered unworthy things from men on behalf of men. It was true flesh which was held by the Jews; it was true flesh which ate the Passover with the disciples. The Jews slapped true flesh; the Jews placed thorns on true flesh; unbelievers hung true flesh on the cross; infidels and wretches pierced true flesh with a spear after the soul had departed; the disciples took true flesh down from the cross and laid it in the tomb; truth resurrected true flesh; truth showed true flesh to the disciples after the resurrection; truth demonstrated the scars of true flesh to the hands of those who touched. Therefore, let falsehood be ashamed, because truth has conquered.