A Vigil Light upon the Hill

A strong relationship with Christ cannot be hidden. It manifests itself in how we treat those around us. The Lord said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Love for Christ is not an isolated, internal affair. It flows outward. A man who claims closeness to Christ yet carries grudges, resentment, or indifference towards others is self-deceived. The Apostle John writes without ambiguity, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars” (1 John 4:20). It is impossible to love the Head while scorning His Body.
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The Sunday of Apostle Thomas, known in Russian as Antipascha (“opposite Pascha” or “after Pascha”), is the first Sunday following the Feast of the Resurrection. It commemorates the Apostle Thomas’s encounter with the risen Christ eight days after the Resurrection, as recorded in John 20:24–29. This event is central not only to the post-Resurrection appearances of Christ but also to the Church’s proclamation of the reality of His bodily resurrection. Among the Orthodox Old Believers, this feast carries a particular depth of meaning, bound to our emphasis on continuity, physicality, and uncompromising faithfulness to the traditions handed down from the pre-Nikonian Church.

The key passage is from the Gospel according to John: “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!'” (John 20:27–28)

Thomas is often unjustly called “Doubting Thomas,” as if he were some sort of sceptic or unbeliever. This label is both misleading and unfair. Thomas was not doubting the possibility of Christ’s resurrection in a rationalistic or modern sense; he was demanding to see the marks of the nails and the wound in Christ’s side because he knew what had happened at Golgotha. He had seen the crucifixion with his own eyes. He had seen the Lord’s body broken, His side pierced, His blood and water poured out. He wanted to be certain that the one appearing to the other disciples was not a vision, not a ghost, and not a deception of grief or the imagination. He was not content with second-hand reports, even from the other Apostles. He wanted personal knowledge. His words—“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25)—were not words of defiance, but of rigorous integrity. He would not proclaim the Resurrection unless he was certain that it was the crucified Lord Himself who had risen.
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In this homily I want to offer a bold and uncompromising reflection on a particular statement made by St. Arseny Uralsky, a hierarch of the Old Believers’ tradition, whose teaching stands in stark contrast to the diluted religiosity of the modern age. Citing the words of the Lord from John 3:36 and Mark 16:16, St. Arseny proclaims that salvation is inseparably tied to true faith in Christ and baptism into the life of the Church. His words reject the ecumenical pretences and relativistic theologies which dominate contemporary discourse, affirming instead the apostolic truth — that outside of Christ there is no life, and that rejection of Him is not a harmless difference of opinion but a path to condemnation. True faith liberates man from death—not in metaphor or sentiment, but in reality. We will examine how this liberation is ecclesial and sacramental, grounded in the Mystery of Baptism and the obedience of faith within the ancient Apostolic Church. I hope it will help expose the false assurances of modern spirituality, the errors of sentimental universalism, and the betrayal of apostolic doctrine by those who water down the Gospel to suit modern appetites.
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In an age of noise, distraction, and spiritual confusion, many have forgotten the reality of God’s presence. They chase after visions, feelings, and signs, thinking that God must be summoned or provoked to appear. But the living God is not like the idols of the nations. He does not hide behind curtains of emotion or spectacle. He is not silent because He is absent, but because He is near—too near for those who have dulled their hearts with the world. The Apostolic Church, faithful to ancient teaching and the witness of the saints, confesses that God is always present. He upholds all things by His Word. He sees, knows, and acts in every moment. To forget this is not just ignorance—it is outright rebellion. To remember it is the beginning of wisdom, the root of repentance, and the path to life. What follows is not speculation or opinion. It is the testimony of the Bible, the teaching of the Fathers, and the lived experience of the Church throughout the ages.
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Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!

Today, my beloved in Christ, we stand not at the grave of a dead teacher, not before the tomb of a fallen prophet, and not at the end of some moral philosophy. We stand before the empty tomb of the Living God. Death has been conquered, the grave has been shattered, and the ancient tyranny of sin has been undone. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is not an allegory, not a metaphor, not an invention of the weak-minded, but the central and unshakable fact of human history. If Christ is not risen, then all our faith is in vain, and we are the most pitiable of all people. But as the Apostle proclaims, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” (1 Corinthians 15:20)
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The words of our Saviour in Matthew 7:13-14 stand as a sharp rebuke to the easy-going spirit of this present age, and to every soft-hearted delusion which imagines that the Kingdom of Heaven is obtained without effort or cost: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” These words are not the ornamental advice of a religious teacher seeking admirers, nor are they the sentimental platitudes of the modern pulpit. They are the command of the King, the Creator, the Judge of the living and the dead. Our Lord does not give permission for men to fashion their own path toward salvation. He gives clear instruction. The wide and easy road leads to destruction — not to temporary misfortune, but to eternal ruin, and the Lord adds with dreadful clarity that many walk it. This is the true state of the world. Few will take the narrow road, because few are willing to sacrifice their self-will, to crucify their pride, and to tear out their sinful pleasures by the root. The wide road promises comfort, ease, and worldly satisfaction, but it is nothing but the road to Gehenna.
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Today we stand on the threshold of Holy Week. The Church sets before our eyes the Lord’s approach to His Passion—not in isolation, but in the context of both a great miracle and a great betrayal. The Gospel passage for Palm Sunday is not limited to the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem; it begins in Bethany, where the scent of pure nard and the stench of impending death intermingle.

Let us think about each of the verses with attention to what the Church has always known, what the Fathers have always taught, and what Holy Scripture reveals without ambiguity.
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The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, is not an abstract principle or a vague influence. He is God, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son—“the Lord, the Giver of Life,” as we confess in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which was formulated and defended by the Fathers of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils against the heresies of their day.

From the beginning, the Holy Spirit has been active. In the first words of Genesis, “the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) This is not poetic imagery. It is the Spirit Himself, hovering, preparing, ordering, bringing forth creation. He is not limited to a moment in history. His work is continuous. He gives breath to man, wisdom to the prophets, strength to the martyrs, grace to the saints, and unity to the Church. As we read in the Psalms, “When thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the ground.” (Psalm 104:30, RSV-CE)
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