Saint Thomas

July 3, Saturday

THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

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.”

 

First Reading: Ephesians 2:19-22

That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

 

Gospel: John 20:24-29

But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.”

But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”

 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.”

 Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”

 Thomas said, “My Master! My God!”

 Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

 

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. Amen.

 

Reflection:

The Twin

Evangelist John introduces Thomas as Didymus which means ‘twin’. He is the twin of someone… of whom? Fr. Armellini, would explain this as our Twin, the Twin of every disciple! We are his ‘twins’ because we are like him.

He is a “twin” of those who suffer, of those who had bitter experiences from the community – the Church and leave this community for a time. He is a “twin” of someone who loves Christ and his Church, but got disappointed and annoyed by moments of discouragement, has a difficult time, but then returns to the community because he or she knows that the Lord always wanted his Church of brothers and sisters to be together.

The disciples, the ten of them, who had seen the Risen One approach Thomas… they tried to convince him. ‘We have seen…’. They told him about their experience. But Thomas does not want to believe because of someone else’s experience. Here, Thomas is our ‘twin’ because we too would like to have proof of what we believe in.

Eight days later Thomas was also together with the disciples. Eight days after the Easter is the Sunday – the Lord’s Day. Jesus stands amidst the disciples and greets them: “Peace be with you.” It is the same greeting we hear on the Lord’s Day, pronounced by the priest, at the beginning of the Eucharistic: ‘Peace be with you’. John is telling his readers that on the Lord’s Day when they gather together, although the doors are closed for the fear of the emperor, be assured that that Jesus stands amidst them.

The disciples had abandoned and denied Jesus. But the Risen Jesus does not rebuke them, he always gives them his peace. On the Lord’s Day, when we present ourselves with all our weaknesses, the Lord does not rebuke us either. The greeting is always peace. “I give you peace.”

Then he says to Thomas: Look at my hands and touch my wounds; reach out and feel my side.” It is not a reproach to Thomas. Jesus fulfils the desire that Thomas had, to touch, to see his hands and his wound that has left his side open. When we are at the Mass, Jesus invites us to do the same: “See my hands and touch my wounds. Experience me.” We the twins of Thomas are given exactly the same invitation, to contemplate his hands and his open side.

As Thomas does, we should nurture the desire to touch him, because if we do not have our eyes fixed on those hands and on that side, we will not be able to reproduce the presence of Christ in the world. Thomas our Twin who was presented as having a hard time in believing, has now on his lips the most beautiful profession of faith: “My Lord and my God.”

 

Video available on Youtube: The Twin