The Eighth Day of the Week! Anti-Pascha is Not Food!

The Eighth Day of the Week
Anti-Pascha or Thomas Sunday

The name of today’s Sunday “Anti-Pascha” sounds a little strange. It sounds as though something were opposed to Pascha. It is also called “The Second Sunday of Pascha” – as though there had been a Sunday in between. Very strange indeed! What is going on?

The eighth day after Pascha as the ending of the celebration of Bright Week was a special celebration since ancient times, as if it replaced the very same Day of Pascha and was called Anti-Pascha and means instead of Pascha. From this day the cycle of Sundays and weeks of the entire year begins. On this day the commemoration of the resurrection of Christ is updated for the first time. This Sunday of the Anti-Pascha was called the New Sunday, i.e. the first day of renewal or simply renewal. The more proper name is the real day, the eighth day after Pascha, that on this eighth day the Lord Himself willed the renewal of the joy of His resurrection with a new appearance to the Holy Apostles. In a way we have entered into another state of being, another experience of time which is more than linear. We do not celebrate the Lord’s life, and the life of His Church simply as historical dates, things of the past. We celebrate them as though we were participating in a contemporary reality. For indeed the Risen Christ is among us! He has walked through the doors we locked and invites the doubter to touch His wounds and be no longer unbelieving but believing.

We recall the agony of Thomas. He had not been with the other disciples when the Lord appeared to them last Sunday. Something had prevented him. For a week, while the other disciples rejoiced in their experience of having been with the Risen Lord, Thomas had known pain and sadness because he could not share in their joy. Not because he did not want to! Oh no, he loved the Lord! He had even said when Jesus had shown Himself determined to go to Jerusalem even though the disciples warned Him that His life would be in danger there: “Let us go up and die with Him”. Thomas was convinced that the other disciples were in illusion. His conviction made him very sad indeed, but he was not going to settle for an easy “believism”. He simply could not.

Then on the next Sunday (the Sunday opposite to Pascha – further down the trail of time) his special miracle arrives. This time he is present when the beloved Guest enters – through the locked doors! And that Guest is not angry with him for doubting. No! He graciously removes and heals, his doubt with the words: “Be no longer unbelieving, but believe!” He does indeed offer to let Thomas touch His wounds, as Thomas had said his doubt required, but the Gospel account does not say that Thomas does so. Instead in relief, in joy, in faith he cries out: “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas’ week of crucifixion by doubt has brought him – and the community of believers with him – further than anyone had dreamed possible: a door has opened to a marvelous insight which the Church embraces for all time! It is as though time has indeed been telescoped, as by some sort of warp (a faith warp if you will) and we see that the Risen One is not only our Beloved Teacher and Friend Who has been wonderfully and unexpectedly restored to us. He is more! He is the Almighty Himself manifest irrevocably as one of us – God and Human in Him are one and the same!

It is strange and unsettling – and also wonderful!!! How could it be that the One Who made Heaven and earth, Who sustains it and rules over it, could have gone through such pain, could be so very present to us? How could we, full of doubt, ignorance and sinful thoughts and habits, as we are, survive such a meeting? Why are we not consumed as other sinners have been when they encountered the Living Lord? Why is His presence joy and gladness to us instead of pain and punishment?

It is because we have found at last that what we had heard and hardly dared to believe is indeed TRUE: His attitude towards us is not one of anger and indignation – He LOVES us! He has united physically with us. He has united us to Him. Having passed through the portals of death into Life Eternal, He brings us and all humanity with Him!

Thank you, Thomas! Thank you for not settling for easy “believism”! Thank you for the faith in your doubt! Now we, too, can be among the blessed who have not seen, yet believe. We, too, can come to terms with our doubts – not denying them, but facing them – confident that we are not rejected, not shut out because of them.

“Anti-Pascha” turns out to be Pascha again, only more so. It is the Second Sunday of Pascha, not the First Sunday after Pascha. There is no Sunday after Pascha! Every Sunday is now Pascha for us! The Day, the eternal Day of the Resurrection. Christ is risen and the demons are fallen….. Let us joyfully cry out with Thomas, our brother: “My Lord and my God!”