I have long thought that the gospel writer included the story of
doubting Thomas so that all of us who sometimes struggle to believe
could have a patron saint. Thomas’ reaction to his fellow apostles when
they told him that Jesus was alive and had appeared to them was so very
human and, I think, probably not all that different from the way I would
have reacted: ‘Preposterous! Impossible! I'll believe it when I see
it....’ And Thomas did, of course. A week later, when Jesus
appeared again to the apostles and Thomas was there, the doubter made a
dazzling act of faith – one of the greatest, if not the greatest - in
all the gospels: "My Lord and my God!"
But was that really an act of faith that Thomas
made? To my way of thinking, it was less an act of faith than it was a
cry of wonder and awe because, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us,
“Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Once Thomas had seen the
risen Christ, he really had no need for faith, did he? Because has to do
with things unseen. Despite the old saying, seeing is not believing.
Seeing is just that and nothing more!
So even though Thomas may not be the patron
saint of believers, he certainly gives hope to everyone who has ever
doubted. And he’s not alone. So do those frightened disciples of Jesus
who, after the crucifixion, huddled together behind locked doors. They
even huddled behind closed doors after the risen Christ had appeared to
them! If those apostles hadn’t been so fearful, and if Thomas hadn’t
doubted, they would be less believable and I think we would find it
harder to believe ourselves. Every part of this story is there for us,
then: the apostles’ fear and cowardice, Thomas' dogged doubt, and, we
can throw in Peter’s repeated denials, too. Each of those very human
failings makes it possible for us lesser mortals to believe and to
accept our call to discipleship!
And, my friends, I would add that, our
faith is in some ways more remarkable than that of those disciples
because we have never had the face-to-face encounter with the risen Lord
that they had. We haven’t seen him pass through locked doors or heard
him greet us with words of peace. Nor have we probed the nail prints
with our fingers or put our hand into his side. No. Our encounters with
him, while powerful and wonderful, have taken place only in Word and
Sacrament - and in one another. That puts us squarely among “those who
have not seen yet have believed” – which is another way of saying that
it puts us among the very ones Jesus called “blessed!”
Father Michael G. Ryan
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