On the second day after Easter, according to the Orthodox tradition, Holy Week begins – a time in which the holy apostles and the Holy Mother of God are glorified.
Holy Week ends with the second Passover on Sunday. It is called Light because the Resurrection of Christ brings enlightenment to all.
It is also called New Sunday, because it begins the cycle of Sundays that mention Christ’s Resurrection. It is also called Thomas Sunday, because on this day the Gospel reading is read about the appearance of Christ to his disciples, among whom was the apostle Thomas.
Holy Week or Thomas Sunday is closely related to the name of Thomas – one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, who did not believe in Christ’s Resurrection. When the rumor about the body of the Lord missing from the tomb spread, the only apostle Thomas did not believe in this sign and asked to see for himself by touching the wounds from the nails of Jesus nailed to the cross.
Eight days after the Resurrection, Christ appeared to Thomas, and so he convinced himself of the truth, fell on his knees and begged God to forgive him.
Since then, the nickname Thomas the Unfaithful has remained, and the Sunday of Holy Week is called Thomas Sunday.
On the days of Holy Week, the saints are blessed: on Holy Monday – the holy apostles, on Holy Tuesday and Wednesday – the Holy Mother of God, St. Archdeacon Stephen and St. Andrew, on Holy Thursday – St. Ap. John and Jacob, on Good Friday – St. Ap. Peter, and on Bright Saturday – St. John the Baptist.
It is no coincidence that for all Christians, the Resurrection of Christ is the greatest and most revered of all Christian holidays, which brought the light of Salvation and enlightenment to all people on earth. The essence of this holiday is the promise that people will be able to return to the paradise from which they were expelled. And Holy Week is the first of a series of Sundays when this bright news should reach everyone.
God the Father’s idea is not to make man suffer and live in this painful and mortal world.
He wants people to be happy in eternity. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” wrote the evangelist John.
On the days of the services, almost all the texts of the scriptures from the New Testament speak of the last days – the Day of the Apocalypse, the sufferings and disasters that will befall the entire Universe before the second coming of the Savior.
With his Resurrection, Christ the Savior has laid the beginning of Eternity and that, when the souls are separated from the body, they can go peacefully to where they deserve. But the way to Heaven is only one – Jesus Christ. “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me,” are His words in the gospel of John 14:6.
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