Synaxarion for the Sunday of Saint Thomas

On this day, the second Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate the renewal of the resurrection of Christ & the touching [of the Lord] by the holy Apostle Thomas.  

Verses
If hades and the seal of the sepulcher did not hinder Thee,
How will the lock of the doors hinder Thy movement, O Savior?

That which is called a “new feast”, committed to perpetual commemoration, was in antiquity celebrated on the occasion of any noteworthy event. Thus, when the cycle of time brought round the day on which the event took place, the ancients celebrated an annual commemoration thereof, so that great deeds would not pass into oblivion. Hence, the Jews first celebrated Passover in Galgala, to commemorate the passage through the Red Sea. Likewise, and moreover with solemnity, was celebrated the festal commemoration of the Tabernacle of the Witness; likewise also the reign of David, and another, so that each event would not be observed only once. And since, of all the events in the life of Christ, the resurrection is by comparison far the greatest, more exalted than any other, we celebrate it and commemorate it not only every year, but always, additionally, on the eighth day. And the first festal commemoration is the actual Sunday which one may quite legitimately call the eighth and the first, the eighth, counting from Pascha, and the first, as the beginning of others. Furthermore, it is called the eighth because it is set forth as an image of that endless day in the age to come, which will also be the first and only one which will not be cut short by night. This is what the feast of renewal is. What happened with Thomas is this: on that day when the resurrected Christ appeared in the evening to the disciples, Thomas was not among the others [who were assembled] out of fear of the Jews. A little time afterwards, when he came to them and learned of the appearance of Christ, he refused to believe not only the disciples, that they had beheld Him risen, but, alone among the twelve, that Christ had risen at all. But God, Who arrangeth all things for good, and careth even for the one, and likewise, in His exalted dispensation, so as to establish faith in the resurrection among later generations, and even more, to excite the utter love of that one, having waited eight days, that he who did not believe might impart to all a most assured faith in the resurrection, He came again and, the doors being closed as before, but Thomas being there, He entered and gave [them] His peace, as usual. Then, He gestured to Thomas and said: “Bring hither thy finger, and behold My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and probe My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing. But since thou didst desire to convince thy mind not through sight alone, thou, being hasty, didst remember feeling as well. (And He showed them that when [Thomas] had said these things to the disciples, He [the Lord] had heard them.) Wherefore, thrust thy hand into My side.” And He showed that the wound in His side was wide enough to admit a whole hand into its depths! And Thomas, having probed carefully, and come to faith by touching (for it was permitted him both to see and to do this so as to be convinced, even though it involved the incorrupt and deified body), proclaimed the proof: “My Lord and my God!” — the one for the sake of the flesh, the other for the sake of the divinity. And Christ said to him: “Thou has believed because thou didst see Me; but blessed are they who have not seen, yet have believed.” Thomas is called the Twin, either because he was born a twin, or because he was of two minds concerning the resurrection, or because by nature his middle finger grew longer than the so-called index finger; but it would be more accurate to say that he was of two minds and desired to touch with these lengthened fingers. Others say, and this is more in accordance with the truth, that the very name Thomas means Twin. This was the second appearance of Christ. The third was by the Sea of Tiberias when, after the draught of fishes, He partook of food prepared over a divine fire, as He Himself knew, thereby showing forth His resurrection as beyond doubt. Later, He appeared in Emmaus; a fifth time in Galilee; and even, as they say, to the eleven, before ascending into heaven. And appearing after the resurrection, He performed many extraordinary works in the sight of the disciples (yet showed them to few). The Evangelists do not record them, because it would not have been possible for many of the people in the world to hear of them, so greatly did they transcend nature. O Christ our God, through the supplications of Thine Apostle Thomas, have mercy upon us! Amen.

Translated from the Church Slavonic by Monk Joseph (Isaac) Lambertsen.
Copyright Lambertsen Foundation. All rights reserved.