One of the old names for our church is the Armenian Apostolic Church. We very much like to stress that our church has a direct connection with the apostles who had a direct connection with our Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the Gospels, we emphasize that other aspects of our faith; sacraments, church hierarchy and liturgy were authorized by eyewitnesses to Jesus, his apostles.  We preserve and practice direct experiences with Jesus seen and heard, touched and felt by the Apostles themselves. Well we in the twenty first century don’t have that first-hand experience with Christ, we are forced to rely on the apostles’ testimony, and for many modern people that is troublesome. Our knowledge of Jesus seems much less reliable than what the apostles had. Like Thomas, we want to see it for ourselves.  But this weekend, our church calendar raises before us another apostle whose knowledge of Jesus wasn’t first hand, but whose faith was perhaps the strongest of all. His second hand testimony, was the impetus for first-rate Christian faith, dependent on faith more than seeing, dependent on the lived experience of others, more than anything else.