In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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 St John, where the Saviour sees Nathaniel under the fig tree, and tells him about this when Nathaniel comes to meet the Saviour for the first time. When the Lord says: “I saw you under the fig tree”, Nathaniel says: “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel”. The Saviour said: “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, you believed. You shall see more important 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. But there are eyewitnesses of His Crucifixion, His Death, and His Resurrection from the dead. There are eyewitnesses – that’s what these Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are about. They are eyewitness accounts of the Life, the Death, the Resurrection from the dead of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, His Ascension into heaven, and His Sending of the Holy Spirit.
On television, radio, newspapers, and magazines today there are people who try to pretend that the Gospel accounts are made up. But they are not made up at all. They are eyewitness accounts, just as the Apostle John says: There are so many things that Jesus did in His days amongst us that there is not enough room in the world to contain all the books that could be written about it. It is not only the eyewitness accounts of the Apostles on which we depend. It is also the common person-to-person experience of the Risen Jesus Christ that Orthodox Christians have. For two thousand years we, Orthodox Christians, when we are praying, when we are living our lives, have a personal encounter with this 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.
The Apostle Thomas, because he was so reassured by the Saviour’s Resurrection appearance, first went to Egypt, and preached the Gospel together with the Apostle Mark. Then he left Egypt, and went to India, and preached the Gospel (lived the Gospel I should say, because when we talk about preaching the Gospel, it is mostly 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. Most of the Apostles went 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 Orthodox Christians in south India (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. They 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 two thousand 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 personal experience in Jesus Christ. Generation after generation descending from these Apostles have shown Christ. They 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 of the Balkan countries, in Japan, and elsewhere, people are turning to Jesus Christ because of the faithful, loving witness of the lives of Orthodox Christians.
Our own St Herman of Alaska is a perfect example of such a person. This man came with other monks from Valaam Monastery two hundred years ago to Alaska. The other monks were either killed or died. St Herman (just a monk - not a priest, not 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, and what is good in the life of St Herman, and they came to Christ. In Alaska, there are Orthodox Aboriginal families that two hundred years later still know their ancestor who was converted to Jesus Christ by St Herman. They love Jesus Christ because their ancestors two hundred years ago – their great-great-great-great-grandparents – came to love Jesus Christ through the love of St Herman.
In this city, we have the same responsibility as Orthodox Christians. 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. 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 it 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”. But this is not just the Orthodox kind of 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 answer to this proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ. May we all together without fear, glorify our beloved Saviour, the Risen Christ, together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.