Homily

In today's tropar, we sang, "Though the tomb had been sealed, from the tomb You arose, O Life and Christ our God. Though the door had been locked, You appeared among the disciples . . . . ." I love that coupling: the tomb was sealed but you got out, the door was locked but you got in. St. John in his gospel is trying to show up something of a change in Jesus: this is not ghost, no apparition, no dream, no product of the disciples' minds, no hallucination. It is really Jesus because they see him, and not just because they see Him, but also because they can touch Him. In the Kontakion today the presumption is not that Thomas could have touched Jesus but that he did touch Him, for it says, "Thomas placed his restless hand into Your life-giving side, O Christ our God." Every once and a while I will ask in a class here, "Does Jesus have a body in heaven?" Heaven is like spiritual not material, Jesus is in heaven, so Jesus has to be spiritual not material, so I kind of assume Jesus doesn't really have a real body in heaven, but now that you're asking this question, I'm not so sure so I'll let somebody else answer." Wise move, that's what got you through school! But of course Jesus has a genuine human body. He did not shuck it off somewhere between Galilee and the Pearly Gates, like some old coat that was no longer suitable for wear. Jesus became a human being at a moment in time in the womb of Mary, but He is a man forever and ever. His resurrected body is substantially different than it was before His death. It is no longer subject to decay or need or corruption, and He can appear before or leave His disciples in an instant, not subject to the laws of physics, and yet at the same time He can be touched. It is still a human body.

So I'm not surprised at the disbelief of Thomas when the other disciples tell him that Jesus, risen from the dead, appeared to them. I'm not surprised when he says he won't believe it unless he can touch Him. Even Jesus is not surprised at Thomas. Instead, He invites him to come and touch Him and see for himself how real this body is. And Jesus says how blessed are those who have not seen, do not see and yet they still believe. Of course that is us. We haven't seen the Risen Christ as the disciples did, but we still believe, but at the same time our faith is not as strong as we would like it to be.

We are so deeply rooted in this physical world, in this material life, this existence of flesh and blood. And in this real world we can see beautiful creatures, beginnings, growth, and positive experiences. But all of these are very temporary, and sadly few in number. More than the good, what fills a larger portion of our lives seems to be pain, sorrow, loss, and the threat of pain, sorrow, and loss, just as Thomas did after the death of Jesus. We hope for miracles, we hope for the touch of the divine and for an experience of God, someplace where we can put our restless hands and say, "My Lord and my God!" but it's so very hard for us to do so. We tend to stick with what we have right now, right here in this physical world, just the way we see it coming at us, and when we see the world coming at us, it can be so overwhelming that we leave Christ aside so busy are we gathering all of our forces to meet the challenges that are coming our way. That's the battleground we too often find ourselves in.

It's hard to keep our focus on the divine life we've received, because we are so tempted to limit ourselves, very often, to what is material, visible, touchable. When a new baby is born, it's so easy to see the hand of God in this miraculous creation of a new life. A few years down the road when that little life is saying to us, "No, I won't do it, I hate you." it's a little harder to see the divine gift of life.

There are beautiful moments in our lives but most of the time we experience the threat of, or reality of loss, pain, decay, and the grappling hooks of death that seem to be pulling us closer and closer to our end where what is earthly will be returned to the earth. All is in decay—that's our big fear. Just last week I read that the moon is moving away from the earth about an inch and a half every single year, and I thought, "Great! What next?"

Like Thomas it can be hard to believe life can follow death. It can be hard to believe that divine life exists for us in this material existence. It can be hard to find the Spirit when all we feel is flesh and blood, and maybe it's aching.

But I remind us all that we can indeed touch the resurrected body of Christ as Thomas did 2000 years ago. We not only can touch Him, we can actually receive Him, body, blood, soul, and divinity; for every time Thomas received the Holy Eucharist, he touched the body of Christ, and ever time we receive this same Eucharist we touch Him, we receive Him Who is material, we receive Him Who is God. We receive Him Who offers us His own immortal life even now in mortal bodies living in this physical world, we do not touch His wounds, but He comes to touch ours.

We see, we taste, we feel bread and wine, but they are bread and wine no longer but only Christ, so that we can say to Him truly, carried now by us: "My Lord, and my God!"

So as a little physical aid today, I've asked Mike just to sing the Communion verse once after I start distributing the Eucharist, so that the quiet, and the change from routine might help us to focus ourselves today, so that we can better touch Him. We feel so deeply tied to the material world which is passing away, even as we are passing away—let us embrace Him Who offers to us the gift of eternal life in loving communion with Him and His first words to us today, as they were in the Upper Room, are, "Peace be with you!"