The first thing that comes to mind about Thomas is that he is a person like many of us, combining faith with little faith. But Thomas differs from us in this: although he was nicknamed unbelieving, he nevertheless possessed far greater faith than many of us who would like to compare our excessive rational skepticism, which eats away at the soul, with Thomas's desire to find firm foundations for faith. Let us not forget that Thomas was ready to follow the Teacher to the end, and he proved this by his whole life. But what is true is true: it was hard for him to trust immediately any news he heard; he wanted confirmation and proof.

There is truth in such caution: how many rumors there are about "spiritual manifestations" produced by a game of telephone or by hallucinations, or even coming from a poisoned source. Christ, by the way, did not reject Thomas's desire to be convinced through personal verification, and He gave him that opportunity.

There are iconographic depictions in which Thomas literally puts his finger into Christ's wound, but the Gospel text does not say that he used the opportunity given to him. It tells something else: immediately after Christ invited him to put his hand into His side, Thomas confessed Him as his Lord and God. Christ did not count Thomas's doubts as sin.

No doubts, not one difficult question, will in the end remain without God's answer. Only let doubts not become a pretext for the self-assertion of a proud sophist, who, like Pilate, rejects the possibility of knowing the truth, but instead arise from a conscientious desire to overcome the difficulties on the way to it.

When reading the accounts of the Resurrection, the fact becomes obvious that the apostles, despite everything Jesus had told them during His earthly ministry, were completely unprepared for the meeting with the Risen One. John does not mention the burial garments ("linen wrappings") by chance; they were what first made the apostles think that something unusual was happening (vv. 1-9). Indeed, according to Jewish custom, the body was wrapped in a shroud so tightly that it was practically impossible to unwrap it without damaging the fabric. Meanwhile the apostles saw the shroud in which Jesus' body had been wrapped not only whole, but evidently not even disturbed, so that the head covering with which the head of the deceased was usually bound ("the face cloth," v. 7) remained lying separately, apparently in the place where the Savior's head had been before the resurrection. There was no way to explain what had happened except as a miracle. But the apostles, apparently, still did not understand very well what exactly had happened.

Of course, Mary Magdalene saw the risen Jesus at that same time in the garden and immediately reported this to the apostles (vv. 11-18), but her testimony was probably not enough for them. The real meeting took place that same evening (vv. 19-23), and then the apostles were finally able to be convinced that their Teacher was truly alive. Jesus does not accidentally give them the opportunity to look at His hands, feet, and side (v. 20): the marks of the wounds were meant to convince the apostles that before them was not a ghost, not a shadow that had come out of the tomb, as they might have thought after hearing from Mary Magdalene that the Risen One did not allow her to touch Him (v. 17).

This was extremely important, for the issue was not only the Person of the Risen One, but also the nature of the Kingdom. If it were no different from the world of shadows and spirits, then its influence on the world would be no stronger than the influence exerted on it by shadows and spirits, which can sometimes reveal their presence but are unable to affect the existing order of things seriously, and still less can they change it radically, in the way the world changes when it becomes part of the Kingdom.

But, evidently, for all its objectivity and tangibility, the Kingdom still differs in some essential ways from our world, which is not yet transformed. It is not by chance that the Lord nevertheless places Thomas's desire to feel Jesus' wounds with his own hands below trust in testimony (vv. 24-29). After all, the main thing in the Kingdom is determined by trust - trust in God, trust in Jesus, trust in one another. It is the foundation of everything. Without it there is no Kingdom. And it cannot depend on the possibility of touching with one's hands what one believes in or the one whom one trusts. Not because this is forbidden, but because the main thing in the Kingdom cannot be touched with hands. The main thing in the Kingdom can be touched only with the heart. And everyone who wants to live the life of the Kingdom must be ready for this.

This verse is often mentioned when disputes begin about what it was like for those who saw the Passion of Christ. It is usually perceived as consolation for us, who did not see the living Christ: we did not see, but still believe, though our faith has fewer grounds than the faith of the apostles who saw the incarnate living God.

One does not need to see in order, after reading the descriptions of the Passion in all their vividness, to understand that the death of Jesus was tormenting and terrible. And then "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" means something quite different. We are "blessed" not because the faith of those who did not see makes them saints at once. We are blessed, that is, happy, because we did not see the Crucifixion. It is easier for us to believe that Christ is risen, since we did not see His death, did not see how real it was. We can in fact never fully realize that our God was a corpse, that there was no more hope at all. Holy Week in our life is still already illumined by the light of the coming Resurrection, and this is our happiness, our blessedness.

This does not mean that we should not try to experience the pain of the Crucifixion as deeply as possible. Some saints are given to experience it with almost the same force with which the Mother of God experienced it; some are given stigmata. But they are also given faith such that no pain can obscure faith in the Resurrection.