NOTES for Joh 20:29

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.