Antipascha

The Sunday after Pascha is the Antipascha — the “New Sunday,” the renewal of the Paschal feast and the close of Bright Week — on which the Church reads the appearance to Thomas (John 20:19–31) and so keeps the day as Thomas Sunday. This file sets out the name and place of the feast in the Paschal cycle and the propers appointed for it in the Pentecostarion — the Gospel, the troparion, the kontakion, and the stichera that sing the doubt turned to confession.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

The Name and Its Meaning

The first Sunday after Pascha bears in the Orthodox books the Greek name Antipascha (Ἀντίπασχα). The prefix anti- here does not mean “against” but “in the stead of” or “facing/corresponding to”: the day stands opposite Pascha at the close of Bright Week and renews the great feast, so that the Pentecostarion and the liturgical commentators speak of it as the day on which “Pascha is renewed” (the Synaxarion for the Sunday of Thomas; Pentecostarion, HTM 1990). It is also called the New Sunday (Kainē Kyriakē) or the Sunday of Renewal — both because it is the octave day, the eighth day after the Resurrection on which the Lord appeared again to the disciples and to Thomas (John 20:26), and because the eighth day is the Fathers’ figure of the new creation and the age to come (Gregory the Theologian, Oration 44 (On New Sunday); NPNF II/7). And it is called Thomas Sunday (Kyriakē tou Thōma), from the Gospel of the day. The three names name one feast under three aspects: the renewal of Pascha, the new creation of the eighth day, and the confession of Thomas.

Its Place in the Paschal Cycle

Antipascha closes Bright Week, the seven days following Pascha during which the Church keeps the Resurrection with unbroken festivity, the Royal Doors standing open and the Paschal hours sung in place of the ordinary offices. On Bright Saturday the special observance of the week ends; and on the eighth day, the Sunday of Thomas, the Church returns to the ordinary order of services while still in the radiance of the feast, “renewing” Pascha rather than departing from it (the rubrics of Bright Week and the Sunday of Thomas, Pentecostarion; see The Church Calendar). From this Sunday the Pentecostarion numbers the Sundays of the Paschal season — the Myrrhbearers, the Paralytic, the Samaritan Woman, the Blind Man — that lead to the Ascension and Pentecost. Antipascha is thus the gateway of the whole post-Paschal cycle: the first Sunday that is “of” the Resurrection rather than “in” Bright Week, and the day on which the Resurrection’s bodily reality — confirmed by and through Thomas — is set as the foundation of all that follows.

The Gospel of the Day

The Gospel appointed for the Divine Liturgy of Antipascha is John 20:19–31 — the two appearances in the upper room: the first on Pascha evening, with the giving of the Spirit (John 20:19–23); and the second “after eight days,” with Thomas present, his confession “My Lord and my God,” and the beatitude on those who believe without seeing (John 20:24–29), closing with the Evangelist’s statement of purpose (John 20:30–31). The reading is the same passage that gives the day its character, and the whole hymnography is built upon it (the lectionary of the Sunday of Thomas, Pentecostarion, HTM 1990; the Gospel of the day is also among the eleven Matins resurrection Gospels in its own place). At Matins the resurrection Gospel and the Paschal canon’s renewal give way to the proper canon of the feast, the work of the hymnographers on the theme of Thomas.

The Propers from the Pentecostarion

The propers of the day turn the Gospel into prayer, and they do so with the characteristic Orthodox boldness of calling Thomas’s doubt a blessing. The troparion of the feast addresses the risen Lord who came through the shut doors and gave peace and faith to the apostles: “While the tomb was sealed, Thou, O Life, didst shine forth from the grave, O Christ God; and while the doors were shut, Thou didst come unto Thy disciples… renewing in them an upright spirit” (troparion of the Sunday of Thomas, tone 7; Pentecostarion, HTM 1990). The kontakion names Thomas directly and turns his probing of the wound into a thanksgiving: “With his searching right hand, Thomas did probe Thy life-bestowing side, O Christ God; for when Thou didst enter while the doors were shut, he cried out unto Thee with the rest of the Apostles: Thou art my Lord and my God” (kontakion of the Sunday of Thomas, tone 8; Pentecostarion, HTM 1990).

The stichera at Vespers and the canon develop the paradox the whole feast rests on — the “good unbelief” of Thomas. The Church sings of “the right good disbelief of Thomas,” which “brought the hearts of the faithful to knowledge,” and blesses him because, “doubting, he was the cause of our sure faith” (stichera of the Sunday of Thomas; Pentecostarion, HTM 1990; cf. Nassar, Divine Prayers and Services, the Sunday of Thomas). Far from passing over the doubt in embarrassment, the hymnography makes it the very ground of praise: because Thomas demanded to touch, the Church need not, and his hesitation became her certainty. The feast thus keeps not only the confession but the whole movement from absence through doubt to faith, and offers it as the pattern of the believer’s own coming to the risen Lord.

The Faith of Those Who Have Not Seen

Running through the propers is the Lord’s beatitude that closes the Gospel: “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). The Church applies it to herself, the assembly of those who keep this feast without having seen, and who confess with Thomas’s words what they have received on the apostles’ testimony (see Faith and Sight). Antipascha is therefore not only the commemoration of an event in the upper room but the annual renewal of the Church’s own Paschal faith: the day on which she, not having seen, says again with the once-doubting apostle, “My Lord and my God” (the kontakion; Pentecostarion).

See Also

References

  • The Pentecostarion. Trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston: HTM, 1990. (The Sunday of Thomas / Antipascha: the Gospel John 20:19–31, the troparion, kontakion, stichera, and Synaxarion.)
  • Nassar, Seraphim. Divine Prayers and Services of the Catholic Orthodox Church of Christ. 3rd ed. Englewood: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, 1979. (The Sunday of Thomas.)
  • Gregory the Theologian. Oration 44 (On New Sunday / On the New Lord’s Day). In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 7. (The eighth day and the renewal.)
  • The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. (John 20:19–31.)