Tuesday 3 July
John 20:24-29 • St Thomas (Feast)
We associate Thomas with doubt. The accent is very much on his unbelief, not on his faith. In fact, he has become a kind of patron saint of our modern world by virtue of the fact that he was definitely an empiricist who, in a pre-scientific period of history, wanted hard evidence. He refused to believe until he had seen the Risen Lord himself and put his hands into his wounds. To be fair to him, once the Lord appeared to him he was repentant and utterly embraced the truth that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. Doubt is often a very important part of the process of faith. Faith is often arrived at through a sea of doubt. We must not be afraid of doubt but wrestle with it and work through it, both in ourselves and in others.
Faith is the currency, if you like, of the kingdom of heaven. At least it is during our life on earth. But what is faith? Pope Benedict has declared a Year of Faith – beginning in October of this year – which will provide us with an opportunity to reflect upon this most important theological virtue.
Faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we cannot see (Heb. 11:1). The comedian Woody Allen once quipped: ‘If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.’ That’s the problem, isn’t it – we want proof, hard evidence, but in a demanding and arrogant way, rather like Thomas. Thomas’s greatest sin wasn’t perhaps his doubt but the arrogance and pride which lay at the heart of his refusal to believe.
The Church, throughout her long history and even today, has been blessed to have within it some of the world’s greatest intellectual minds – St Paul, St Augustine of Hippo, St Thomas Aquinas, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, to mention a few. These great thinkers are well aware of the intellectual arguments for and against the existence of God or Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, but they all have one thing in common: they have sought first to believe, knowing that from this faith understanding will flow. They have not striven to understand first. We are counted blessed if we believe even though we do not see.
‘For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see?’
(St Augustine)
Ephesians 2:19-22 • Psalm 116(117)
John 20:24-29
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