558. July 3, St Thomas Apostle

Meditations no. 488 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Thomas’ disbelief gives way to an act of faith in Jesus Christ after the resurrection.

The Gospel at Mass recalls one of the times Jesus appeared to the Apostles after his resurrection. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came, St John writes. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

The Apostles were little inclined to admit anything that exceeded the bounds of their experience and reason. They do not seem to have understood Jesus when he announced that he would rise from the dead, as Thomas shows by his reaction. However, eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, ‘Peace be to you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.’

Today, as we consider the initial disbelief of Christ’s first followers and their subsequent unshakable faith, we ought to make an act of faith, which neither the holy women nor the disciples did in the initial moments following the resurrection. Don’t you remember? Peter, chief of the Apostles, wavers at Mary Magdalene’s announcement, but he sets out running, with John, to the tomb. John, since he’s younger, arrives first, but he does as you would do, and shows respect for his elders. He doesn’t enter the tomb, but his curiosity gets the better of him. He bends down to look inside and sees the wrappings and veil that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had placed on our Lord’s body and head. Yet, many of them still don’t believe! They don’t believe until He appears to them in the upper room; and one of them refused to believe until he touched the wounds with his own hands.

I well understand Thomas’ confusion before our Lord, and the marvellous act of faith and love that bursts forth from him, Dominus meus et Deus meus! (Jn 20: 28). He touched Christ as we do in the Eucharist, when we receive him each day in the sacred Host. And as we touch him in the effectiveness of our apostolate. There is not a single child of mine who has not raised the dead to life, brought light to blind eyes, made paralyzed limbs become supple and strong once again, and loosed the tongue of the dumb, helping them recover their speech. Miracles! Yet, how goes our faith?

Although God permitted St Thomas to doubt at the start, tradition tells us that afterwards this Apostle preached the Gospel in Asia and spread the faith of Christ in India so effectively that centuries later many still preserved the faith on their own. Today we ask our Lord to strengthen our faith. Through St Thomas’ intercession, may we attain eternal life by believing in Jesus, whom Thomas acknowledged as Lord.

We need to profess our faith outwardly.

Besides our internal acceptance, we also need to profess revealed truths outwardly, since man, composed of body and soul, affirms his interior acts by external signs. We do so when we receive the sacraments, and also on all the occasions required by the Church. In addition, we strive to make the word of God present in our dealings with relatives, friends and acquaintances, at work and in all our activities. It is especially important to do so whenever our silence or way of acting could imply a denial of the faith, disrespect for religion, or scandal to our neighbour.

This is not a merely hypothetical case, since there are Catholics who, through passivity, reluctance to commit themselves or lack of formation, daily show that they do not adhere fully to revealed truths, nor regard the teachings of Jesus Christ as a vital element in their conduct. To help them by our example and strengthen the faith of the wavering, we should profess our faith externally with naturalness.

Once while preaching on the need to bear witness fearlessly to the faith, our Father recalled: I remember witnessing a scene quite a few years ago in Saragossa in a cafe that may no longer exist, for all I know. A group of men were in the cafe, among them a famous bullfighter. People stopped to look at him. A child stepped out of the crowd and ran his hand over the suit of the man whom all were admiring. Then, with a radiant face he turned and shouted, ‘I touched him!’

My dear children, you and I touch Christ every day. The sense of touch is the crudest sense, but it can be ennobled; I would even say that we have an obligation to ennoble it. Thomas had the good fortune to touch Christ’s wounds because, as often happens to us, he did not have faith. He did not believe what he saw with his own eyes; his blindness prevented him from understanding what the others were telling him.

The Apostles were filled with affection and admiration. But what often seems to be lacking is faith, a strong, sure faith. What a contrast with the poor Canaanite woman! He treats her harshly, comparing her to the dogs; or better said, she is the one who uses that comparison, but Jesus lets her. She is ready to gather up the crumbs that fall from her Master’s table, like the small dogs do… .

The leaders of Israel, in contrast, weren’t consistent. They wanted to kill Christ as soon as they see him raise a dead man: Lazare, veni foras! (Jn 11: 43). And the one who had been dead for four days already, whose flesh had begun to rot-iam foetet!-walks out of the tomb, bound hand and foot. What a strange reaction! Instead of recognizing that he must be God, since he gives life to a dead man, which no one else could do, they say: let’s kill him!

We too should consider whether our faith might not also be weak, whether at times we pay heed to the voice of our soul’s enemy, who keeps us from expressing our faith publicly by telling us that we are fanatics. This isn’t fanaticism. It’s faith! Have a strong supernatural faith. Be certain that we will move mountains, we will raise the dead, we will give speech to mute tongues, we will enable crippled bodies once again to undertake useful deeds. It isn’t fanaticism to know and believe this, to be sure of our Lord’s help at every single moment. It is to believe in the risen Christ, without whose resurrection inanis est et fides vestra (1 Cor 15: 1), our faith would be vain.

We must bear witness to our faith in Christ by our life and deeds.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, our Lord said to Thomas. St Gregory the Great comments that undoubtedly this statement refers to those of us who profess with our soul what we have not seen in the flesh. It signifies us, on the condition that our works reflect our faith. For he who practises what he believes is the one who truly believes.

Christian doctrine is not merely speculative or theoretical. It requires a life lived in conformity with that doctrine. Our Father asks us for words and deeds, faith and conduct, in a unity of life. Faith leads us to give doctrine, and to give example so that the doctrine may be effective. When we are with a person who does not have faith, and we fail to live what we preach by our words, how will we convince him to accept any position different from that which we have taught by our life?

The testimony we must render is the affirmation provided by ordinary Christians by the upright and responsible practice of their profession or job, by the faithful fulfilment of all their civic duties, by the practice of all their rights, which are also a duty, by the way in which they face up to and resolve the daily problems and toils of their life in the world: in a word, by all their human relationships, inspired by their Christian faith and lived in a Christian way, for a supernatural motive, out of love for God and for neighbour.

We must be daring in always expressing our faith in deeds wherever we may be. My children, our Father says, let us calmly face all the difficulties that we may find in life, in our service to the holy Church. Let us love Christ and holy Mary, the mother, daughter and spouse of God; let us love the Pope and all souls, all men and women. Here lies our lack of fanaticism. Fanaticism doesn’t lie in the abundance of faith nor in the sincere, consistent profession of our faith by our life. Fanaticism is found where charity is lacking.

My children, a strong faith!-without fear of being fanatics. If anything doesn’t go well, it’s due to our lack of faith. For the word of God can never fail. Heaven and earth will pass away first (cf Mt 24: 35). If anything doesn’t work out well, it’s because we haven’t asked for it with sufficient faith and constancy.

I don’t know what you have obtained from this meditation, my sons. I have obtained more faith… more faith and the knowledge that to speak with Christ and to touch Christ is not a lack of faith! It is happiness. It is wonder. It is love. The risen Christ! We believe in you, risen Christ. We love you, risen Christ. We hope for everything from you, risen Christ, everything great, everything divine, everything human. Christ, the conqueror, miserere nobis. Give us your grace to be faithful, to profess our faith without fear of anything or anyone! Give us perseverance in our vocation and joy.

Holy Mary will strengthen our faith, if we have recourse to her with the confidence of children.