Unfaithful Thomas

It is a remarkable thing that we do not direct our lives only according to what immediately surrounds us. The beautiful thing is that we don't draw our life inspiration exclusively from the events of our own life. Rather, as literary and spiritual beings, we have the opportunity, through getting to know history, art and church traditions, to bring into our souls the contents of past times, other people's experiences, and those events in which we did not participate.

The Church, to a good extent, bases its announcement and its science on exactly that - to teach people from the experiences of long past times. But not because of the desire for people to go back in time, to return to the past - but precisely because of that, to prepare a person for the events that lie ahead. This is how, this year, we celebrate Easter, singing, painting and recounting the events that happened two millennia ago, in Jerusalem and its surroundings. And among the many topics brought to us by the Gospel story about Christ's Resurrection, the most intriguing is certainly the one that tells about the meeting of the apostles with the resurrected Master.

When it comes to the Gospel accounts, they will remain a challenge for both believers and unbelievers until the end of the world and the ages. We know today that we live in a civilization that is built on faith (trust) in the truth of the gospel. However, we also know that behind us we also have an entire culture created on doubt about what the evangelists wrote. Thus, the story of the meeting of the apostles with the Resurrection of Christ remains always new, equally surprising - for all generations of people from the new, Christian era of humanity.

Faith in the unseen, conviction in what is unprovable to reason and senses - is the basis of the Christian faith. "Confirmation of things unseen" - as the Holy Apostle Paul would say.

And that is the foundation of everything that is important and unavoidable for people, on an emotional and psychological level, in our everyday human lives - regardless of whether we are believers and regardless of which confession we belong to. Everything that is truly valid among people - neither you can, nor should you prove it with material evidence. It is simply felt, and it is believed.

But it's nice when you get a nice gift from a loved one. It's good when a loved one calls me and asks "How are you... Do you need anything"? An outpouring of tenderness, an expression of attention - is not out of place, even in these cruel times of ours and accumulated prejudices, according to which showing emotions is "an expression of weakness". Apostle Thomas did not want to believe until he saw with his eyes and felt with his fingers. And the Lord who says "Blessed are those who believed and did not see", a God who admires the living faith of people, and praises man for that "Just say the word and my servant will be healed"...is that and such a God, out of love for the apostle who he followed and followed him all the time, he allows his "wounds to be felt". And he does this not to promote suspicion, but to "reward the seeker". To show how I am above the topics I see-I do not see; I believe-I don't believe; I know-I don't know... magnificently exalts love.

Thomas is not the originator of unbelievers and atheists. He is not an example to those who reject the possibility of God's miracles. No, he is a grieving soul, a wounded friend and a grieving disciple, who seeks and does not give up. He is one who believes, but does not tolerate pranks and fraud. Tom is the forerunner of those scientists and researchers of the world, who strictly adhered to the system of positive, material proof of some hypotheses, and who, after a life spent in scientific research, confirmed their faith in the Creator.

Like Louis Pasteur, the father of biology, who exclaimed at the end of his scientific career: "I have the faith of a Breton peasant"!

So here we are, full of love for our loved ones, we know how much they love us and we believe in their affection, but when we receive a gift from them (material confirmation of that love), we feel in our hearts that everything is somehow more beautiful. That gift doesn't prove anything, but it beautifies. Just as Thomas beautifies the assembly of the Holy Apostles with his image and way of faith.

Then, let's gift each other with smiles, kind words and appropriate gifts.

Happy Easter!

The author is the rector of the Cetinje seminary