Are you a doubting Thomas?

Blessed are You have not Seen and yet STILL BELIEVE!

Saint Thomas, apostle - Feast                       Wednesday, 03 July 2013

Ephes. 2:19-22.

Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Ps 117(116):1.2.

Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!

For steadfast is his kindness for us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.

John 20:24-29.

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

 Commentary of the day :
Have you ever been called a 'Doubting Thomas' and wondered what the origin of the expression was? Well, now you know. Thomas didn't see Jesus and refused to believe the testimony of his friends until Jesus Himself stood in front of him to show His wounds. So you are a Doubting Thomas if you refuse to believe someone who tells you something credible.
But the final words of Jesus are very encouraging today because they apply to all of you who are reading. "Blessed are you for believing" even though you have never met or seen Jesus.
You will be rewarded. Read what an early Church bishop had to say:

 Saint Peter Chrysologus (c.406-450), Bishop of Ravenna, Doctor of the Church
Sermon 84 ; PL 52, 438

The testimony of Thomas

Why did Thomas seek proof for his faith in this way?... Your love, my brethren, would have preferred it if lack of faith had left no one in doubt after the resurrection. But Thomas bore the uncertainty not only of his own heart but of all people. And since he was to preach the resurrection to the gentiles (now Jewish pagans) he sought out, like a good workman, what he would base a mystery on that demands so much faith. And the Lord showed all the apostles what Thomas had sought so late. “Jesus came... and showed them his hands and his side” (Jn 20,19-20). The person who entered, in fact, when the doors were shut, might have been taken for a spirit by the disciples if he had not been able to show them that it was none other than he, the wounds being the mark of his Passion.Then he came to Thomas and said to him:”Put your hand in my side and do not be unbelieving but believe. May the wounds you are opening once more make faith flow into the whole world, those wounds that have already poured out the water of baptism and the blood of redemption.” (Jn 19,34). Thomas replied: “My Lord and my God!” Let unbelievers come and hear and, as our Lord said, let them no longer be doubters but believers. Thomas makes known and declares that this is not just a human body but that, by the Passion of his body of flesh, Christ is God and Lord. He who comes out alive from death and who rises from his wounds is God indeed.