Feast of Saint Thomas, apostle
(Ephesians 2:19-22; John 20:24-29)
In John’s gospel Jesus comes as “the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist proclaimed this truth at the
beginning of the gospel. After Jesus’ crucifixion
his disciples have difficulty believing it.
Then Jesus appears. Seeing him, the
disciples can believe that Jesus is God’s agent who has brought salvation to the
world.
Not part of the original group who see the resurrected Jesus,
Thomas‘ experience is actually not different from theirs. He too sees before believing. Then he expresses a fuller faith. Jesus is not only God’s agent who redeemed humankind. He is God Himself! “MY Lord and my God!” It should not be thought
that Thomas touched Jesus’ side. For
him, as for the other apostles, seeing was enough for believing.
Today we celebrate Thomas for his statement of faith and for
carrying out the implication of the statement.
If Jesus is God, one should be willing to die for him. We too are called to die for Jesus although it
is not likely that we will be martyred. But
we can die to ourselves for Jesus’ sake.
We can give up our desires for pleasure, prestige, and power as Jesus showed us.
