Saturday 03 July

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

 

SAINT THOMAS

 

Introduction

The gospel has some beautiful texts about St. Thomas. Not only the “My Lord and my God” after his doubt and hesitation to believe, but also “Let us too go and die with him,” and the question “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How could we know the way?” And the Lord’s, “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Tradition has him go as far as Persia and the Malabar region in India, where the Christians are still called “the Christians of St. Thomas.”

 

Opening Prayer

Our living God,
on this feast of St. Thomas we pray:
Our eyes have not seen your son Jesus Christ
and our fingers have not touched the scars of his wounds,
yet we have come together in his name.
Make our faith in him deep and lasting,
that the Spirit may breathe new life in us
and make us look with new eyes
at the world and at people,
so that we can bring them
the love and the peace and the justice
of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.

 

Reading 1: Eph 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.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 117:1bc, 2

(Mark 16:15)
Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

For steadfast is his kindness for us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

 

Alleluia: Jn 20:29

Alleluia, alleluia

You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;

blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe!

Alleluia, alleluia

 

Gospel: Jn 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 Thomas said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nail marks
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 him, “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.”

 

Intercessions

• For our shepherds in the faith, that they may place the powers of healing, pardon and peace entrusted to them by Jesus in the service of the people of God and of all who seek the truth, we pray: R/ Our Lord and God, hear our prayer.
• For all who doubt and seek, whether in the Church or outside, that they may encounter the living Christ in us, we pray:
• For this and all Christian communities, that our faith in Jesus may lead us to have faith in each other’s goodness and to be united in faith, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

God our Father,
in these simple signs of bread and wine
your Son Jesus will make himself present among us.
Yet we cannot see him with other eyes
than those of deep faith.
May he encounter us here
and let him strengthen our hesitant faith.
Make us recognize him unhesitatingly
and to say to him:  “Our Lord and our God,”
now and for ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

God our Father,
we thank you for Jesus, your risen Son.
He who loves us is alive.
Give us eyes of faith to see
that all that we are and do
has a meaning and purpose
and that your Son is with us and guides us
through our darkness and hesitations
to the fullness of life and joy.
Let him always stay with us
now and for ever.

 

Blessing

We have to be grateful to St Thomas, for thanks to his hesitation and question to see clearer, our faith is confirmed. May God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

We are intimate and close to God, brought so nearby Jesus and those who came after him, prophets, apostles, other disciples. And we are built up into one household of God rising on the foundations they first laid. We are the dwelling place for God in the Spirit-do we keep that in mind? This is not a description of us individually but as a people, a church, the whole people of God. Can anyone tell?

Thomas, like the other apostles, betrayed Jesus. He is absent (some think because as a twin he was hiding under that alter-identity) when the Risen Lord comes and gifts them all with peace, with the power of the Spirit and sends them into the world to forgive and hold bound those that need it. And he refuses to believe any of them, articulating his own crude criteria for belief. And so he stifles the Spirit and stops the Good News from getting into the world. Jesus comes after him, holding him bound to his words and blessing all those who will follow (like us) who will believe the words of others who tell us of resurrection life.