The Gospel reading tomorrow is from St John and it is the story of ‘Doubting Thomas’. Here is an extract from a homily by St Gregory the Great (540AD-604AD):
‘Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.’ Thomas was the only disciple missing. When he returned and heard what had happened, he refused to believe what he heard. The Lord came again and offered his side to his sceptical disciple to touch. He showed his hands; and by showing the scars of his wounds he healed the wound of Thomas’ unbelief…
After his resurrection Jesus allowed his disciple to doubt, and he did not desert him in his doubt. He became a witness to the reality of the resurrection. Thomas touched him and cried out: ‘My Lord and my God.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Because you have seen me, Thomas, you have believed.’ When the apostle Paul says that ‘faith is the guarantee of the blessing that we hope for, the proof of the realities that are unseen,’ it is clear that faith provides the proof of those things that are not evident; visible things do not require faith, they command recognition. Why, when Thomas saw and touched him, did Jesus say: ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed’? What Thomas saw was one thing; what he believed, was another. A mortal could not have seen God. Thomas saw a human being, but by his words, ‘My Lord and my God’, he acknowledged his divinity. It is by seeing that he believed. He recognised the reality of the man and testified that he was the invisible God.
Let us rejoice at what follows: ‘Blessed are they who have not seen and believed.’ This expression makes special reference to us for we have not seen him in the flesh but know him in the mind. The reference is for us, but only if we follow up our faith with good works. Those who give expression to their faith are the genuine believers.