Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

For: Friday, July 3, 2009

Feast: St Thomas, Apostle

From: John 20:24-29

Jesus Appears to the Disciples (Continuation)
------------------------------------------------------------------
[24] Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when
Jesus came.  [25] 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 be-
lieve."

[26] Eight days later, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was
with them.  The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and
said, "Peace be with you."  [27] 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."  [28] Thomas answered Him, "My Lord and my God!"
[29] Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen Me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

24-28. Thomas' doubting moves our Lord to give him special proof that His risen
body is quite real.  By so doing He bolsters the faith of those who would later on
find faith in Him.  "Surely you do not think", [Pope] St. Gregory the Great com-
ments, "that is was a pure accident that the chosen disciple was missing; who
on his return was told about the appearance and on hearing about it doubted;
doubting, so that he might touch and believe by touching?  It was not an acci-
dent; God arranged that it should happen.  His clemency acted in this wonderful
way so that through the doubting disciple touching the wounds in His Master's
body, our own wounds of incredulity might be healed.  [...] And so the disciple,
doubting and touching, was changed into a witness of the truth of the Resur-
rection" ("In Evangelia Homiliae", 26, 7).

Thomas' reply is not simply an exclamation: it is an assertion, an admirable act
of faith in the divinity of Christ: "My Lord and my God!" These words are an eja-
culatory prayer often used by Christians, especially as an act of faith in the real
presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist.

29. [Pope] St. Gregory the Great explains these words of our Lord as follows:
"By St. Paul saying 'faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things unseen' (Hebrews 11:1), it becomes clear that faith has to do with things
which are not seen, for those which are seen are no longer the object of faith,
but rather of experience. Well then, why is Thomas told, when he saw and
touched, 'Because you have seen, you have believed?'  Because he saw one
thing, and believed another.  It is certain that mortal man cannot see divinity;
therefore, he saw the man and recognized Him as God, saying, 'My Lord and
my God.'  In conclusion: seeing, he believed, because contemplating that real
man he exclaimed that He was God, whom he could not see" ("In Evangelia
Homiliae", 27, 8).

Like everyone else Thomas needed the grace of God to believe, but in addition to
this grace he was given an exceptional proof; his faith would have had more merit
had he accepted the testimony of the other Apostles.  Revealed truths are nor-
mally transmitted by word, by the testimony of other people who, sent by Christ
and aided by the Holy Spirit, preach the deposit of faith (cf. Mark 16:15-16).  "So
faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes from the preaching of
Christ" (Romans 10:17).  The preaching of the Gospel, therefore, carries with it
sufficient guarantees of credibility, and by accepting that preaching man "offers
the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals, willingly assenting
to the revelation given" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 5).

"What follows pleases us greatly: 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe.'  For undoubtedly it is we who are meant, who confess with our soul Him
whom we have not seen in the flesh.  It refers to us, provided we live in accor-
dance with the faith, for only he truly believes who practices what the believes"
("In Evangelia Homiliae", 26, 9).

*********************************************************************************************
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries".  Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.  We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ."  --  St Jerome

"The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever
in everlasting silence: and in silence the soul has to hear it.
   --  St John of the Cross