Word XIII

On Saturday, May 5, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev served the Liturgy at the St. Petersburg Ioannovsky Convent, before a great gathering of pilgrims. Four priests and two deacons also took part in the service. At the end of the service the highly venerated pastor delivered a teaching approximately as follows.

Today is the last day of Thomas Week. On the evening of the day of the resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples behind closed doors. The disciples rejoiced, seeing the Lord and receiving from Him the authority to bind and to loose the sins of men. But among them at that time was not the apostle Thomas. When the other disciples told him that they had seen the Lord, Thomas had the boldness to answer: if I do not see on His hands the wounds from the nails, and do not put my finger into the wounds from the nails and do not put my hand into His ribs, I will not believe (Jn 20:25). And this very unbelief of Thomas, by the will of God, served for the clearer witness of the truth of Christ’s resurrection, both for the Apostle himself and for all Christians. Condescending to Thomas’s weak faith, the Lord appeared again to His disciples on the eighth day, and said to the unbelieving disciple: reach your finger here, and see My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Then Thomas, convinced of the truth of Christ’s resurrection and of His Godhead, cried out: my Lord and my God! Jesus said to him: you have believed because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed (vv. 27-29).

Among these, whom the Lord calls blessed, we too are numbered, brethren, when, not seeing the Lord with our bodily eyes, we nevertheless firmly believe in Him as Creator, Redeemer, and most Righteous Judge, and live according to this faith—especially when we partake of His most pure Body and Blood, and through Communion, though invisibly, yet truly are united with Christ. Then we are truly blessed, for through Communion the Lord cleanses us, sanctifies, strengthens, enlightens, and unites us with Himself forever. The Godhead of Christ becomes so clear, so tangible, so evident to a worthy communicant, that, having communed, he boldly says with Thomas: my Lord and my God!

After Thomas Sunday there follows the week devoted to the remembrance of other truthful witnesses of Christ’s resurrection—the Myrrh-bearing Women. For their fervent love toward the Savior, they were the first found worthy to see the risen Christ; to the Myrrh-bearing Women the Risen One appeared before anyone else: go, tell the disciples; go, announce it to My brethren (Mk 16:7; Mt 28:10).

Besides these faithful witnesses of the resurrection of Christ the Savior by the power of His own Godhead, Holy Church sets before us a countless multitude of other witnesses, in the persons of the holy Hierarchs, Martyrs, Venerable Fathers, the Righteous, and all the saints, honored by the Church in her daily services. The very word martyrs (in Greek, martyres) means witnesses, because by their firm confession, their complete devotion to the Lord, their unshakeable courage amid fierce sufferings, they testified to their faith in the Godhead of Christ and His redemptive providence for men. And not only in the first ages of Christianity, but also further on, across many ages, even to our own day, we have a multitude of witnesses who, by their own lives, convince us of the truth and saving power of our faith.

One would think that unbelief could not possibly exist amid such an abundance of witnesses! And yet, in our own day, a multitude of unbelievers has arisen, both from the intelligentsia and from the common people, thrown by the example of unbelieving people onto a false, ruinous path. How, then, did godlessness and every false teaching arise? This is explained by the fact that many have fallen away from the Church, do not wish to read or hear the Word of God, and are carried away by the spirit of this age, which easily enslaves the careless and inattentive to various passions. And so people are caught alive in the enemy’s net, perish themselves, and draw others to perdition, weaken the foundations of family, society, and state, seek to shake the royal throne, and to bring complete disorder and anarchy upon the country. The chief cause of all this is unbelief.

— O Lord! by whatsoever judgments You know, turn back those who err onto the path of truth and salvation, for a fearsome punishment awaits him who tramples underfoot the Son of God, and counts the blood of the covenant, by which he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and does despite unto the Spirit of grace (Hebr 10:29).

Dear brothers and sisters! Be, then, faithful followers of Christ, having before you so many examples of holy life in the persons of the Apostles, Prophets, Hierarchs, Martyrs, Venerable Fathers, and Saints. Having around ourselves such a cloud of witnesses, let us cast off from ourselves every burden and the sin that trips us up, and with patience let us pass through the course lying before us, looking upon the Author and Finisher of the faith, Jesus Christ (Hebr 12:1-2).

Strive earnestly, brethren, for your own salvation; do not slumber, lest the last day find you asleep: watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come (Mt 25:13). Amen.

All who were present at the service listened with great attention to the words of their dearly beloved pastor, for one could feel in his speech a strong faith, a deep conviction, a holy zeal for the salvation of all, a fervent care for a better future for our dear fatherland. And we thought how good it would be if the holy faith of Christ might once again triumph over unbelief, as it did in the first ages of Christianity, when it was a bright feeling penetrating the whole soul, a passionate conviction, to which men gave themselves without reserve, for which they laid down their lives. By the testimony of the Apostle, not having seen the Lord, they loved Him, and, believing in Him, rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1Pet 1:8). In our own times this spirit of holy conviction shows itself only extremely rarely.

We have lost that Christian world-view which transfigures the whole man, and under whose influence the Christians of the first ages lived. Oh, where now are those pure impulses of the soul, where the bright raptures of the heart, the holy moments of fervent prayer, the heartfelt feelings of the peace of grace?

If we do not have strength of spirit enough to order our whole life by the teaching of Christ, and, walking steadily and evenly, to rise from strength to strength, from perfection to perfection, let there at least appear in us, even if only rarely, under the influence of holy impressions, a bright feeling, a good impulse, a victory over some passion. Even if only for a time, these feelings will bring light and comfort into our over-troubled soul, and let us taste the sweetness of another, better existence.

Thanks be to the Lord God, who even now sends us these holy impressions through His chosen ones.