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
Spiritus, A to the combat the heavenly umpire trains him: he was not fighting with his body, nor joining his hands for the contest, but sharpening his tongue against those who were fighting with their hands. Let us see, therefore, how the athlete was in all things an imitator of the Master. For he had the same adversaries who had audaciously risen against Him; yet the Saviour’s passion was not enough for their cruelty, but they still thirsted for blood—they who had lately shed the Master’s blood, and who having perpetrated the slaying of the Lord, were with the same affection toward His servants. Let us produce, therefore, that proven athlete. For in outer contests, too, when there is judgment of those who have won the crown, they are accustomed to lead forward the chosen and chief combatants into the lists, so that, according to his strength and prowess, the one who deserves it may be proclaimed crowned. But say here: The first champion, the tower of piety that cannot be conquered (for if anyone shall have said these things of him, he would not be in error), was he who, through his own labors, instructed those who contended after him, and he it was who first seized the crowns, showing those who followed that it is easy to capture enemies who only attack the body, but leave the soul without a wound. For He says: "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul" (Matt. 10:26). Mindful, therefore, of this divine voice, which spurred him on to the struggles, the athlete thus stripped himself for the agones; and striking with his tongue those who were attacking his body with stones, he was shown to be stronger in his words than their missiles. With his body indeed he received the wounds of the stones, but with his words he more sharply attacked those who were throwing, and incited them to wage war against him, so that they might the more quickly prepare his journey to the heavens. And I would have you observe the difference of the stones: for they had buried his body with stones; he, with the words ministered to him by the Spirit, attacked their hearts. For "none," it says, "could resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke" (Acts 6:10). O tongue sounding more than a trumpet! O unconquered soul, firmer than adamant! He saw the Jewish people B compelled against the athlete; and as if he were seeing a mere shadow, thus he despised those who were present, and receiving the hail of stones upon his body, he exulted as if by those stones a tower were being built for him by which he might reach heaven. What could have been firmer than that rational rock? What could be seen as stronger than that pillar of the Church? Faith kept him unmoved; as if sustained by the firmest of fulcra, thus he remained unwounded, while his body was afflicted with various wounds, and he, by his patience, adorned his soul, and with its beauty vied with heaven. For as the heaven, adorned as with doors by the choir of stars, appears beautiful, so also this wonderful athlete, having the tunic of the Lord, covered with wounds as with multicolored garments, was comely, and rejoiced that he bore the stigmata of the Lord in his body, as though they were characters of the Lord. The stones did not encompass the athlete; but like a certain tree reaching to heaven, rooted in the earth, thus he remained unbent, receiving the volleys of stones, and not falling. With justice that prophetic oracle might fit him: "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree" (Ps. 91:13). His body was tinged with a purple color, and irrigated by the flowing blood, receiving frequent waves of stones, and much more was he confirmed like a rock by faith. For he looked to the heavenly umpire, who extends His hand to His athletes, and draws them to heaven, where the rewards of the contests are stored, where the crowns are C proclaimed; and perhaps as Paul cried: "I so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air" (1 Cor. 9:26). "Ye," he says, "are of your fathers who stoned the prophets." For whom, he says, have your fathers not persecuted? (Acts 7:52). You are heirs of an evil succession, imitating their fury: as your fathers, so are you; you have received a paternal murderous spirit. These are the words of Stephen, the crown of the Churches; such are the weapons of the crowned against those who oppose. And as if one should excite a flame in a grove, so did the first martyr provoke their fury against himself more and more. For he saw the Desired One, and he desired Him whom he saw, and perhaps he addressed them with such things: "You seek the outer garment, and cast stones against the body; but you do not know, as it seems, that you are fulfilling my desire. For even I, before Paul, hasten to strip off the outer man, that I may fly naked in soul to heaven, and having traversed the etherial sea, may reign with the Lord. This navigation alone has no shipwreck; this sea-voyage keeps those who sail it without storms. My bark sails without danger; for I have a heavenly pilot, who directs the course with His spiritual rudders. Make my body purple with wounds; for your fathers also made the tunic of Joseph purple with blood, as you also do." It is fitting that the martyr's saying be repeated to them often. You have imitated those who left you an evil heritage; but those too, who sold Joseph, fell from their hope; and you, who stone the corporeal temple, are building a firm temple more beautiful: I behold its facade, which is lifted from the earth to heaven. These words befit Stephen, who, before any of the chosen of the apostles, leaped out to the struggles, and hastened to the end of martyrdom with a faster course; who fought on earth, and was proclaimed in the heavens; who conquered the speaking enemies, and prayed for his stoners; and in this matter, having imitated the Lord, he says to the umpire: "Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59). "My contest is finished," he says, "receive me to be crowned in the heavens, receive the athlete, O granter of prizes: for I run to the crowns, and I strive to report the prizes of my contests." With these things that first martyr received us, conspicuous by his words and his struggles, the head of the martyrs, the crown of the Churches, who hastens to come to the Lord as he runs, and answers Him who calls him in the heavens through that divine voice: "Where I am, there also shall my minister be" (John 12:26). "Set your mind on the things that are above," he says, "where Christ sitteth on the right hand of the Father" (Col. 3:2). He desired that royal throne, toward those prizes of the upward calling he was running; he desired those royal gifts, distributed by the heavenly King to His own combatants. Who then could suffice in speech to celebrate such and so great an athlete according to his merit, who is proclaimed by his works, and like a pillar has left an indelible memory of his own noble deeds? Let us emulate the desire for this one, and imitate his virtue, that we too may enjoy the stored-up crowns, by the grace of the only-begotten Son of God, to whom with the Father be glory, with the holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages. Amen.