Faith in the midst of fear and doubt, and the calling to trust our Lord with everything, even when it rattles our understanding.
Today the reading from the Gospels are about Christ calming the fears of the disciples, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”
Then [Christ] arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marvelled, saying “Who could this be that even the winds and the waves obey Him!
The Gospel reading come after St Thomas Sunday, when Christ appeared to him and allowed him to empirically verify that He had indeed risen from the dead. St Thomas says, “Now I know that you re ended the Son of God.” And Christ replies,
Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed (St John 20:19-31).
The Lord is telling us, as we are back into our busy schedules from Holy Week, not to fear anything–the storms of our lives, the stresses of the world, the fear of creating art–but to have faith in Him and the power of His Resurrection.
St John Chrysostom comments on the scripture above that,
For this is of faith, to receive things not seen; since faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). And here he pronounces blessed not the disciples only, but those also who after the \m should believe … When therefore anyone in the present day say, I would that i had lived in those times and had seen Christ work miracles, let them reflect that Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.
Søren Kierkegaard does such a good job of breaking down the believer at first hand, those like St Thomas and the others who were with Christ at the time of His Resurrection and appearance. Because it is a question we all at some point ask ourselves: would it be easier to believe if I had been there? But this is the issue with skepticism: it really doesn’t matter if you’re a believer at first or second hand. Thomas was there, and didn’t believe. That God become man, died, and rose from the dead conquering sin and death and hell transcends human understanding anyway, whether you are standing next to Him or not. What would it actually mean to understand, say, the Resurrection rationally or outside of faith?
The question really is then about us.
The point of all of this is Chris is in our midst. His Resurrection transcends time and space. He offers His Body and Blood to us in chronos and kairos time. The readings are calling us, exhorting us to hold onto our faith–even now when our fasting is over and there are no more all night vigils and the banquet is so long that we have wandered outside and fallen prey to sin and doubt and unbelief. Christ is saying, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”
In the midst of the storms of our day, Christ remains in the boat of our hearts, and call us to trust in Him, the Uncreated Logos of God the Father, the Being, the One Who Is.
St John Chrysostom …
How did they know He was a man? They could see Him sleeping. He commanded a ship. So why were they so perplexed about His humanity, saying, “What manner of man is this?”
His sleeping showed He was a man. His calming of the seas declared Him God
(The Gospel of Matthew, Homily).
And then, after the charge of Christ, “Blessed are those …” We have todays Catholic Epistle from the Gospel according to St John 1:1-7,
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life–the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested to us–that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And those things we write to you that your joy may be full.
This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and Him there is not darkness at all … [And] if we walk in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
So for those of us who have not seen and thus are blessed, we receive the blessing of St John who gives us his testimony, his witness, that he has seen, and the apostles have seen, and witnessed that Christ the Son of God, and not only that but that the Blood of christ cleanses us from all sin. This is the gospel–the good news.
So in all that we’re doing, in all that we read about or watch about the state of the world, let us not forget this Bright period in which, as the world turns, Christ is King of the Cosmos, and reigns in us and casts out all fear and draws us ever closer to HIm.
