St Thomas the Apostle has long been regarded as the patron saint of doubters. This is fitting for someone who refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he had actually seen Christ himself standing in front of him showing the wounds of his Crucifixion. We can all identify with Thomas. It is hard for any of us to believe what we cannot see, despite the fact that we know from our own experience that even so reliable a sense as sight can occasionally deceive us. One has only to think of magicians who can through trickery make us believe that the impossible has happened before our very eyes.
Our tendency is always to want to rely on what we can see and touch and experience directly. Society at large tells us that faith is something completely unreliable and not to be trusted before hard and tangible evidence.
So, Thomas is very human; he is very like us, he wants to believe but he prefers to rely on evidence. He is what you might call an empiricist. He needs, proof or evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. He won’t rely on what others have told him. He needs to verify reality for himself. Lucky enough for him he got the evidence, Christ actually did stand before him with his hands outstretched showing his wounds.
None of us, however, get the opportunity to meet the risen Christ in the flesh. We have to rely on those who saw the Risen Lord two thousand years ago and who have handed down their words through the generations into our own day. Our belief in Christ is solely based on their testimony. Probably the most reassuring words in our Gospel text today are the words of the Lord himself, “You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen me and yet believe.” That’s us! We who cannot see Christ are counted as Blessed by him. Jesus Christ is Lord and God. There is no need to be afraid.
This question of belief is drawn to our attention in the scripture readings quite appropriately on this Sunday right after Easter because it is belief in the reality of the resurrection that concerns us most of all. The existence of Christ in the world is not an issue; not many people question the fact of his birth. People don’t base their faith on his miracles either or even on the content of his teaching.
The key question of faith is whether Christ rose from the dead or not? It is belief in the reality of his resurrection on which our faith is based. Without the resurrection, Christ would essentially be a nobody; a first Century wonderworker who subsequent generations would rightly regard as irrelevant. If the central claim of Christianity was based on a mere hoax or a deception perpetrated by his followers in order for the name of Jesus to be carried on, believe me, Christianity would have just died out, faded away into obscurity.
The question then arises as to why we believe. Of course, it is in large part because we were taught to by our parents. As we grew up they told us about Jesus and taught us to pray and develop a relationship with God in our hearts. This was reinforced by priests and teachers and catechists. We became accustomed to believing in God, in Jesus, in the saints and in the sacraments. Over a period of time we came to see our faith as a logical and coherent thing, something which made sense of the world and therefore a thing to be greatly cherished.
Most of us will have played our own part in this process and have ourselves been involved in handing on the faith to the next generation. We may have done this by being a parent ourselves or by our role as a Godparent or Sponsor or a member of the wider family. But if we think about our own journey of faith we will certainly acknowledge the role that others had in handing it on to us; but we will also realise that there was a point in life when we made a decision of our own. There surely was a tipping point when we decided to wholeheartedly accept this faith that was handed on to us.
I’m sure we all know of people too, who when they came to this point, decided to reject their faith. But since we are a community of faith, we know that our faith is real, because when we arrived at that point of maturity, we chose to accept our faith in Christ and his Church.
Another question that comes to mind when we are thinking about St Thomas is that of those who are afflicted by doubts. Quite a lot of people find that after many years of being firm in their faith they suddenly start to experience doubts. This is a serious affliction and can cause a lot of grief for a person.
At times like this the support of St Thomas the Apostle can be of great help. He is the very best patron for those who doubt and are suffering from lack of faith. Our Loving Lord knows and understands. He was one of us. Jesus knows what it is like to be afraid. He was afraid in the Garden of Olives. His sweat was like blood. But He also trusted in the Power of His Father and our Father and did not let these fears change His determination to do the will of the Father. He sees us when we are afraid. He understands. Yes, it is human to be afraid. And it is human to doubt. Perhaps we feel horrible for doubting Him. Yet his mercy and compassion are stronger than our doubts.
No matter what we are facing in life today, or will face tomorrow, joy or challenge, even when we see the scale of human suffering in our world caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, we look to Jesus; we remember His mercy and compassion, and we join St Thomas in saying, “My Lord and My God.” We make his prayer our own.
God bless you all,
Fr Gerardo.