, acting with me with philanthropy, have mercy. May these words of my prayer be as intercessors for me both living and dead; may this confession and the tears as incense before You be rightly directed. I, however, daily await the day of inevitable death. And my miserable body, committed to the tomb, shall be corrupted, and it shall be dissolved into those things from which it was composed—which You, Giver of Life, will raise up incorruptible at the time of regeneration; but my spirit I commend into Your hands. Grant it rest, holy Lord, in the light of the living and in the dwelling place of those who rejoice; and my parents, ancestors, brothers, and servants who were upright: for even if we have sinned, we have not departed from You, nor did we stretch out our hands to a strange god; but we have known You, we have loved You, we have believed in You, and we worship You, the One in Trinity; A in You we pray to God, and in You we have placed our hope of salvation. Have mercy on us according to Your great mercy, and save us for Your heavenly and eternal kingdom. Yes, I beseech You, my Lord, Lord, let these things be so for us who hope in You, on account of Your great and immense goodness and for Your ineffable mercy and clemency; through the intercessions of the most glorious, most celebrated, blessed above all, and grace-filled our Lady, the most holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, of the heavenly and intelligible virtues, and all those who from the ages have been pleasing to You. Amen.
SPURIA. ON THE NEW SUNDAY, AND ON THE APOSTLE THOMAS.
I have come with haste, intending to pay the remainder of my debt. For although I may be poor, I shall attempt to satisfy your worthiness. I pledged that I would show the incredulity of Thomas; I am here now, and I shall pay the debt: for my mind bids me settle former debts, lest I add interest to interest. B Bring me help, therefore, for the payment of this debt, and pray to Thomas that, by placing his holy right hand, which touched the side of the Lord, upon my lips, he may strengthen my tongue for the narration of those things which you desire. I, indeed, trusting in the intercession of the apostle and martyr Thomas, proclaim both his first doubt and his second confession, the base and foundation of our Church. When the Savior entered to His disciples with the doors closed, and departed again just as He had entered, Thomas alone was absent (John 20:24). This, however, was a work of divine dispensation, that the absence of the disciple might be the occasion for greater security and firmness. For if Thomas had been present, he would certainly not have doubted; if he had not doubted, he would not have searched curiously; if he had not searched, he would not have touched; if he had not touched, he would not have declared Him Lord and God; if he had not declared Christ to be Lord and God, we would not have learned to celebrate Him as such. Therefore, it was not that Thomas was present, but rather that he was our guide to knowing the truth, and then, by coming later, he made us firmer in the faith. C The disciples, therefore, said to Thomas, who arrived later: "We have seen the Lord; we have seen Him who said, 'I am the light of the world'; we have seen Him who said, 'I am the resurrection and the life and the truth' (John 11:25). We see Him shining through the very things themselves. We have seen Him who said, 'After three days I will rise' (Matt. 27:63), and having seen the resurrection, we have worshipped Him who had risen; we heard Him saying to us, 'Peace be with you,' and we turned the tempest of sorrow into the tranquility of joy; we have seen His hands pierced by the point of the nails; we have seen hands crying out against the madness of the dogs who impugn His divinity; we have seen hands which wove for us incorruption; we have also seen the side which, more than any herald, proclaims the splendid mercy of the Wounded One. We have seen that very side which angels celebrate, which the faithful worship, and which the demons dread. We have received also the divine insufflation of His divine mouth, the spiritual insufflation, D that insufflation which brings every grace. We were ordained by the Lord that we might have the power of remitting sins, that we might have the power of judging sinners—this word we received from Him as a pledge: 'Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose you shall retain, they are retained' (John 20:23). We enjoy such gifts: for we could not fail to be enriched with so rich a Lord; but you, Thomas, remained poor while you were absent. What then did Thomas say to them? 'You have seen the Lord? You do well. Whom therefore you have seen, you worship more; whom you have beheld, you preach. I, however, "Unless I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe" (John 20:25). You did not believe unless you had first seen; so neither will I believe unless I see.' Persevere, O Thomas, in this desire, persevere studiously, so that as you see, I may be firmer in spirit; persevere by seeking Him who said, 'Seek, and you shall find' (Matt. 7:7); do not pass on lightly in your searching until you find the treasure which you desire; persevere by knocking at the door of knowledge which cannot be denied, until He opens it to you who said, 'Knock, and it shall be opened to you.' I love your doubt, in that it cuts away every doubt; I love your fervor for learning, which removes all contention; I willingly hear you saying: 'Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, I will not believe.' For by your not believing, I learn to believe; by your tongue, like a hoe, digging up the field of the divine body, I reap fruit without labor, and I accumulate it within myself. Unless I see with these my eyes the furrows in His holy hands which the impious made, I will not acquiesce to your words; unless I place this finger of mine in the hollows of the nails, I will not let go of your good words; unless I touch that side with this hand of mine, I will not believe your dogma, as a suspicious witness of the resurrection. For a word strengthened by all things is firm and certain; but a voice void of the testimony of facts and works vanishes, diffused through the air from the lips. I am about to preach the miracles of the Master to men: how then shall I tell in words those things which I have not perceived with my eyes? How shall I persuade the incredulous to believe those things which I myself have not followed? Shall I say to the Jews or to the Gentiles that I saw my Lord indeed crucified, but did not see Him risen?"
A through the door, that there might be the same identity of the event and the miracle, and that he might confirm the promise of the apostles, and present the precision of his second coming. Then he says to Thomas: *Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands.* O height of boundless love! O sea of unmeasurable condescension! He did not await the arrival of the disciple, he did not wait for the one in need to approach, to entreat, and to obtain what he desired; he did not deprive him, not even for a short time, of the grace; but He, the Beloved, compelled the lover toward the Desired One; He Himself with His voice drew the finger of the one craving toward Him; He Himself with His Lordly tongue attracted the servant's right hand, saying to him: *Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands.*
I heard, Thomas, though I was not present as a man, yet I was present as God, those things which you spoke to your brothers. I was present with you in my divinity, separated from you in my humanity. Do you wish that I should remind you of the words you spoke earlier? Did you not say, *Unless I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe*? Did these words not flow from your lips? Do these words not represent your thoughts? It is for these reasons that I have come again, for the very reasons that you doubt; it is for the very things you desire that I have approached a second time. And now, I have come to you, I who for the sake of the straying sheep descended from the heavens, without having abandoned the heavens. Do not, therefore, be ashamed to learn what you desire, do not be ashamed to examine what you seek; do not refuse to place your finger upon these my hands. I endure even an inquisitive finger, just as I endured the nails; I undergo the curiosity of the one who loves, just as I underwent the injury of those who hate. When I was crucified by enemies, I did not show indignation; and shall I not endure being examined by you? *Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands* which were wounded for you, so that the bruises of your own souls might be healed.
B Behold my hands, and consider within yourself: am I the one who was willingly crucified, or someone else besides him? Behold my hands, which I have allowed to keep the symbols of Jewish madness, so that when the Jews customarily act shamelessly on the day of judgment, and say to me, "Lord, we did not crucify you," I may point out to the enemies the hands in this form, and by their appearance put the faces of the Jews to shame. Behold my hands and the truth of my resurrection; do not think it to be some phantom. Take hold of these hands, as hostages of your own rebirth; take hold of these hands, as pledges of the rising again from the tombs; take hold of these hands, as the anchor of the abyss in Hades. Do not fear any worldly storm, do not shudder at any worldly tempest, do not fear the blasts of opposing winds, do not worry about the gusts and the hidden rocks of the sea of enemies. Sail the ocean of life with confidence, sail holding fast to the anchor of the Spirit, sail looking towards heaven as your harbor, sail fearing only the shipwreck of my denial; laugh at death as if it were a corpse, play with corruption as if it were powerless, embrace the end that comes for my sake as the beginning of a deeper life, and stretch out your hand, and put it into my side; draw out with your hand from my life-giving fountain the desired drink, and appease your own thirst. Stretch out your hand, and put it into my side; lead your right hand into the physician’s office of nature, and bring out the medicine for your own soul; I offer the application of a loving hand, having received the wound of a lance. *Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands*—reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side, so that you may have reason to contend for it, so that you may have something to say to those who speak against the truth: that after the resurrection you saw me, and studied me, and touched me precisely. Stretch out your hand, and put it into my side; for your sake I left it thus, I who healed the bodies and souls of others, foreknowing as God that you would wish to see it thus, so that you, seeing the signs of the passion of my flesh, might heal the passion of your own soul. Stretch out your hand, and put it into my side, which I kept thus, as you see, so that when I arrive again from the heavens, and sit as Judge of the living and the dead, the Jews might see the works of their own evil handiwork appearing face-to-face, and become self-condemned.
*And be not faithless, but believing.* Unbelief is a bad thing; it sinks the mind. Faith lifts it up to heaven; unbelief blinds the soul; faith illuminates thoughts; unbelief ignores even what is visible; faith sees even the invisible; the unbeliever knows nothing at all. *Be not faithless, but believing*; drive away the cloud of unbelief, and behold the pure rays of faith. Become in all things an apostle worthy of my divinity; become such as it behoves one who has met me and obtained those things that you have obtained to be. You were called similarly to the other apostles, you were honored similarly to them, you were armed similarly to them; you have seen similarly to them what they saw, you were trusted similarly to them, as a friend, C with my entire mystery; preach similarly to them my power. Do not say again, after having seen once: *Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, I will not believe.* While I am with you, investigate as you wish; while you have the heavenly vine standing before you, explore all of its branches and clusters. For I shall go up to the heavens, whence I came to earth; I shall go up where I am; I shall go up in my humanity whence I descended to you in my divinity; I shall go up with this body, having departed from there without it, and remained there; I shall go up with your nature to the ancestral bosom, to the bosom of the Father; for I have finished the work, for which I have done this.
Thomas, therefore, having touched the Lordly hands and the divine side, and being filled with both fear and great joy from the sight of what he had desired, at once moves his tongue to hymnody, crying out to the Lord: *My Lord and my God.* You are Lord and God, you are also man and lover of mankind, you are the strange and paradoxical physician of nature; you do not cut sufferings with iron, you do not burn ulcers with fire, you do not gather the strength of medicines from herbs, you do not bind up ailing wounds with visible bandages; you have invisible bandages of compassion, invisibly binding together those things that have been dissolved; you have a word sharper than iron, you have speech more powerful than fire, you have a nod more gentle than medicine. As Creator you sanctify the work without labor, as Fashioner you reshape your creations without fatigue. You scrape away leprosy as you willed, you showed the lame to be swift, you made the paralyzed to carry their own beds, you ordered the blind from birth to wash away their darkness, you banished the demons from your own works, you let yourself be held by your enemies when you wished, you willed to suffer all things in the flesh at the hands of the Jews for my sake. *My Lord and my God.* I have recognized my Master, I have recognized my fisherman and guardian, I have recognized my king and Lord. *My Lord and my God.* I believe, Master, in your dispensation, I believe in your condescension, I believe in your taking upon yourself my beginning, I believe in your worshiped cross, I believe in your sufferings of the flesh, I believe in your three-day death, I believe in your resurrection; henceforth I do not inquire further; I believe, I no longer reason; I believe, I no longer weigh in the balance; I believe, I no longer investigate; I believe with my eyes, I believe with my right hand. I learned from what I saw not to reason; I learned from what I touched to worship, not to struggle in logic; I know one Lord and God, the Master Christ, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
On the holy Stephen I
The memory of the struggles endured by those who have been proven in their excellence adorns the athletes; yet let our discourse also adorn them, as much as possible, by proclaiming their accomplishments through eulogy to them; for the recalling of their virtue is sufficient instruction for our own ways. Let us, therefore, make a beginning toward the