“Seeing is believing,” as the popular adage goes. The idea is that only so-called evidence that convinces the material senses is sufficient for belief. Such an assertion goes to the heart of our modern struggle with faith. Thomas Aquinas felt compelled to argue the case for a scientific explanation for why the precious and holy Body and Blood of Christ remain in appearance bread and wine, the so-called “accidents.” The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason followed, all emphasizing the physical and material necessity of reason and the ‘scientific method’—its supremacy in convicting us of what we should or shouldn’t believe.
From an Orthodox perspective, such an emphasis on physical and material evidence as a precondition of faith belies an arrogant pridefulness, narcissism, or just plain ignorance of the transcendence of God, He who is both known and unkown and in whose hand is held the whole universe. In our modern emphasize on the ‘rule’ of science and the scientific ‘method,’ we’ve put God in the position of proving Himself to us, rather than understanding ourselves in the context of the divine revelation of God Who condescended to became incarnate for us that we may know Him as far as we are able. The words of St. John ring in our ears: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5). C.S. Lewis puts it this way, we’ve “put God in the dock,” that is, we demand of Him that He defend Himself to us. This prideful insistence is at the root of all disobedience to the divine teachings and truth of God.
But mankind’s struggle with faith, the demand for physical proof, is itself nothing new. The Apostle Thomas, as we hear in today’s Gospel, demands of Christ: I will believe in Your resurrection, Jesus, if I have proof! He says, “Unless I see the print of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Indeed, what Thomas sums up for us is a struggle for faith at work throughout history: The people of God saw Him deliver them from slavery in Egypt, but they doubted, grumbled against Him, and exchanged their relationship with the living God for a golden calf. God promised to give them the Promised Land, showed it to them, but they failed to trust God, preferring in their sin to stay in the wilderness. He gave them the birds of the air and manna to eat and still they doubted. The prophets foretold of Messiah’s coming, He who would save the world from sin, and they killed those same prophets to silence them.
When Jesus came, He did all the works that the prophets foretold and miracle after miracle, and they still sought to put Him to death to silence Him. And now, standing on this side of His glorious resurrection, Christ shows them and us His empty tomb. He visibly appears to His disciples, proving to them that He is the Giver of Life, God Himself. He grants them His peace. In all, He appears to some 500. Again, we read, “but some doubted.”
After all the events, all the miracles the disciples witnessed, after Jesus gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, fed the 5,000, cast out the demons, turned water into wine, and, raised the dead, and most important of all, raised Himself, appearing to over 500, still, some doubted.
And truly, this is our perennial problem with faith too: If we could only ‘see’ God at work, ‘see’ His miracles, or, some may even go as far as to say, ‘see’ God, if God would only send me a ‘sign’—a miracle—or… then, O yes, then, I’d believe God can accomplish His work in me.
So, it’s clear that seeing is not believing; it takes more than sight to believe. In fact, many of those who had material witness to believe, still chose not to. In our own lives, there are miracles all around us, even in our own lives: steps we’ve taken forward in faith, passions we’re being healed of, the joy of the Kingdom we’ve experienced, changed lives in ourselves and others. But still we doubt, still we grumble against God. We doubt because we fail to have enough faith, enough trust in God, because we fail to humble ourselves enough to have faith to really ‘see.’
In fact, seeing and touching, as St. Thomas insists on, isn’t even helpful for most of what we need faith for, which necessitates that the soul see. Is growth in love, healing from addictions and passions, growth in humility and Christ-likeness, our ability to grow in loving others more, and focusing less on ourselves, any less ‘tangible’? This is what we need ask ourselves. Peter, after his three denials, was ready to run to the empty tomb at the testimony of the myrrh-bearing women. He didn’t need to see because his heart was ready, humbled, chastened by his denial.
Faith starts and is built on a desire to believe, a desire to grow closer to God. Faith can and will grow in us if we desire it to, if we’re open to receiving more from God. Faith is watered by this desire: to know God, to be in relationship and communion with Him, to love Him more.
These historic, eyewitness accounts of Christ’s life are true; their historic reality and continuity is unmistakably evident for all open to see. But reason can get us only so far. We can’t “convince” ourselves to have faith any more than we can wish ourselves to be Saints. Instead, faith’s built through cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, step by step through obedience and repentance, humility, prayer, worship, and the Sacraments—the recipe Christ has left us through His Body, the Church. If we don’t have faith, we have ourselves to blame. But we don’t have to stay there—in that ‘desert’ of prideful self-dependence, disbelief. God’s patient with us as He was with His people Israel, but His will is clear—to save us!
We participate in our growth, our healing, by being open to God’s work in our lives, even pleading for God to help us trust Him more, by praying diligently, daily, for more faith, more trust we need. We pray daily for the things we’re lacking in faith and against those things that hold us back and cause us to sin (i.e., move away from God), and which are a reflection of our brokenness. God doesn’t let these prayers go unanswered.
We’re inheritors of the faithful who’ve come before us—who’ve believed even though they’ve not seen with physical eyes. The reality of this new life in the risen Christ is seen through the lives of all those countless Saints before us, whose lives witness to the truth of the resurrection. Those of us who’ve journeyed through Holy Week have spiritually seen the holy and historical events of Christ’s Passion transformed into Resurrection before us.
In Thomas’ case, he was blessed with a physical encounter of the risen Lord. His profession of faith was as strong as his doubts. He went on to preach the Good News of Christ’s resurrection. My prayer for each of us is that these seeds of faith, planted in us by these holy and life-saving events we’ve just experienced during Holy Week and Pascha will continue to be watered by our desire for more of God and more of the life that’s only in Him. Through our daily prayers, our repentance, our willingness to change, even our mere attendance at church, God enables us make more use of the tools of salvation He’s lovingly entrusted to us through His Church.
This Pascha can be the beginning of a great furtherance in Christ’s Kingdom and our witness to the Reality of that Kingdom. May we be faithful in our continued struggle for furtherance in all good things, so that, we along with others will come to see what only the eyes of faith can enable us to see, growing us in the knowledge and love of God, bringing healing and life our own souls, and making us faithful witnesses to the timeless truth of Christ for those in the world around us.
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
19 April 2015
Thomas Sunday, Second of Pascha
Epistle: Acts 5:12-20
Gospel: John 20:19-31
