Believing Thomas

My Lord and My God! (John 20:28b)

St. Thomas will never live down the nickname that he has been given because of his response to the news that Jesus had risen. He will forever be known as "Doubting Thomas." I would ask, however, how you would have responded to the news that Jesus had been seen after his death by crucifixion? Perhaps you would not have expressed your doubts in words, but I daresay that we have all heard people tell us that they have "seen" someone one who is recently deceased. It is hardly uncommon for loved ones to report that they have "dreamed" or "seen" a dearly departed loved one shortly after his or her death. However, St. Thomas is recorded as having spoken out loud the words we have all thought.

I prefer to remember St. Thomas for another reason. When he saw Jesus standing before him, his response was immediate. He declared his faith that Jesus was God. For this statement, the only one like it in the entire Gospel, this man should be remembered as "Believing Thomas." The Gospel of St. John begins with this verse: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) This assertion is, I fear, taken for granted. St. John (or his community) had come to believe after nearly a full century that Jesus was more than a prophet, more than the Messiah, more than a Son of God (every prophet and king of Israel was so called). The first chapter of St. John's Gospel actually uses all of these titles to illustrate that this is what former Christians had come to understand about Jesus. However, St. John and his community had moved beyond these "low Christology" titles to the realization that Jesus was God-in-the-flesh, the Incarnation of God. In the twentieth chapter of that Gospel, which was originally the last chapter of the Gospel, that belief, that realization is spoken out loud by Thomas when he exclaims, "My Lord and my God."

As we celebrate his feast day today, his words should echo in our prayers.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator