The Sermon of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on the Apostle Thomas's Week after the Liturgy at the Holy Cross Exaltation of Jerusalem

On April 15, 2018, on the 2nd Feast of Pascha, the Apostle Thomas, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Cross Exaltation Jerusalem Stauropegial Convent . At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the believers with a sermon. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Today, on the first Sunday after Easter, we remember the resurrection of the Resurrected Savior to disciples (John 20: 19-31) and the associated belief of Thomas. You all know this story. On the day of the Resurrection, when the Lord appeared to the disciples, among them there was no Thomas, and he did not believe in what had happened. A week later, the Savior again came to the disciples and suggested to Thomas to touch His sores. When Thomas did this, the Lord said that blessed is not he who sees, but who believes. Faith is a great power, without which salvation is impossible. St. John Chrysostom says this: "Faith is not enough for our salvation, but that God does not save us without our participation, He demands faith from us." In fact, if a person were saved without applying his own efforts, automatically, then this would not be a salvation. Each of us knows that we consider important those events in which personally participated. Even very important events that take place somewhere outside do not become part of our biography. But if we ourselves participate, then even an event that is not too large becomes meaningful personally for us. If man did not participate in the work of salvation, if the redeeming sacrifice of Christ the Savior was sufficient for this, if it were sufficient for the Holy Spirit to be reduced to the apostles and the creation of the Church, then man could not be saved. It requires the participation of people - and in the sacrifice that Christ brought, and in those things that the holy apostles performed; and all this is our participation in the life of the Church. That is why our wonderful theologian, Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), said the amazing words: "Outside the Church, there is no salvation." And these words were not some kind of innovation, uttered in the 20th century by a Russian theologian. These words are rooted in the remarkable words of Saint Cyprian of Carthage: "For whom the Church is not a mother, for that God is not the Father." We receive salvation by the power of God's grace - through the atoning sacrifice of Christ the Savior, through His Resurrection, through the Descent of the Holy Spirit to the apostles. The driving force that transforms us according to the Divine plan is the grace of God, it saves us. But if this happened automatically, without our participation, then salvation could not take place - after all, what do the events of two thousand years ago mean for a modern person if he does not believe in them if they do not exist for him as a reality? But if we believe in the Lord of the Risen, if we believe in everything He said, in the Divine letters He left, if we believe that His work lives in the Church and the power of the Holy Spirit is poured out into the world through the Church, then we must clearly understand that it is this power that saves us. No human merit can save us, but we can enter this salvation space only if we have the key to the door - and this key is our faith. Not faith saves, but it is a condition of our salvation. Without it, all that the Lord has done for us and for our salvation will not spread to us. That is why today the preaching of faith, the call to believe in the Lord and the Savior to those who do not believe, the call to keep faith to those who begin to waver is the most important message that the Church turns to the world. Again and again we say that salvation is from God, but we can obtain this salvation through faith and through acceptance of the Divine grace that is given to people in the Church. We live in a world where almost everything is questioned. Even the obvious things connected with the experience of the people, with its culture, with its traditions, are very often questioned. And we know how these doubts often divorce people from their people, from their culture, their traditions, making them strangers among their own tribesmen. We know that this phenomenon is very dangerous, because the national tradition is the source and means of transferring the values ​​that our people have lived, thanks to which it has survived in history. We recognize the role of tradition in the history and life of the people. But how much more should we recognize the importance of staying in the Church and remember that the Lord extends to us the salvation brought to us through our faith and through participation in the life of the Church! And today, when we remember the event in the light of Easter joy, in the light of the Resurrection, connected with the assurance of the apostle Thomas, it is natural for us to think about our own faith. Is it really so strong that we are ready to oppose this faith to many temptations, temptations, difficulties of life? Is it really so fundamental for us that on this faith we are ready to build the building of our life? The Lord convinces us that faith and all that flows from it are essential for our life in this world and in the next century. So today, as always, our prayer is for the Lord to strengthen our faith so that He will help us build the foundation of our life on this faith. Then we will be together with the Lord, then we will enter the blessed space of the divine grace in which the salvation of man is realized, and the passage into this Divine space will be our faith. May the Lord help save this great feeling, without which there is no salvation and there is not even a hope for salvation! And let today's event help us again and again realize the importance of what the Lord Jesus Christ told His unbelieving disciple the Apostle Thomas. Christ is Risen!