July 3 – St Thomas, Apostle (Feast)

Antiphons at Lauds - Psalms of Sunday of the 1st week

1. Thomas said: Lord, we do not know where you are going; how may we know the way? Jesus answered him: I am the way, the truth and the life.

2. Thomas, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him: We have seen the Lord.

3. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more, but believe.

Eph. 2, 19-22

Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. In him all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord: in him also you, through the Spirit, are built together in a habitation where God dwells.

Brethren, let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. As for me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yes, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollo for your sakes; that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who makes you differ from another? And what is it that you have that you did not not receive? Now if you have received it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it? Now you are full, now you are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you. For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honourable, but we are despised. Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we pray: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be you followers of me.

The Divine Liturgy of St. Thomas reminds us that the Apostles are the foundation of the Church, of which Christ is the chief corner-stone, and that is why their feasts were formerly kept like Sundays.

In the famous scene which occurred in the Upper Room after the Lord's Resurrection, St Thomas doubted: and it was only when Jesus made him put his finger into his wounds that, passing suddenly from incredulity to ardent faith, he exclaimed: "My Lord and my God." That finger, says a Father of the Church, has become the master of the world because it showed him the reality of the flesh of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word.

The elevation of the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass was instituted as a reply to Berengarius who denied the real presence. In it we contemplate in a spirit of faith the sacred elements when they are raised and say with St Thomas "My Lord and my God," In the double elevation we recall the real separation of our Lord’s Body and Blood on the Cross.

This great Apostle had the vocation of hearing continually the word of Christ and of enjoying his intimacy: "I have called you friends because I have made known to you what I have heard from my Father." For "God has chosen him from among all men. He has given him his commandments, and law of life and of instruction," according to Sirach.

Also according to the same Old Testament author, God "has given him his share of inheritance among the twelve tribes." The country of the Parthians and Persians was allotted to St Thomas when the Apostles divided the world among themselves. For St Thomas was indeed chosen by Jesus to be one of the twelve Princes who would govern his Church, crowning him with glory and honour and giving him authority over the works of his hands.

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