A search that never gives up (St Thomas the Apostle)

-
In Ephesians 2:19-22, St Paul describes YOU and I as members of God’s household, a household built upon the foundation of the apostles. By this, he is making reference to the “Church” as the people of God. We are a people who have been built upon the foundation of the apostolic faith: on the profession and confession of faith by the apostles. And today, we are celebrating an apostle who is famous for his initial lack of faith in the resurrected Jesus. Now, how and why should this “doubting” Thomas (who obviously expressed his lack of faith) be part of this foundation of faith?

In John 20:24-29, when Thomas was told that Christ appeared, he doubted. When Christ appeared again, Thomas was made to search by touching the holes in the hands and side of Jesus in order to know and believe that it was Jesus. Having SEARCHED, he KNEW; and having known, he finally BELIEVED. From his doubt, he journeyed to faith. Between his moment of doubt and arrival at faith, there was a search which never gave up, a search which insisted until it ended up in MY LORD AND MY GOD.
 
Sometimes, assent of faith can be as difficult as we can experience from time to time. There are certain things about our faith that we may hear and find it difficult to believe. When things continue to be unclear to you, don’t give up! When you find it difficult to understand what is going on in the Church, don’t walk away. There are many people who have left the Catholic Church because of crisis of faith. Things they expected to see, they did not see. Things they did not expect to see, they saw. Things they have wanted to know, they have not been able to know. And for this reason, they have chosen to walk away and try some other place. We must understand that faith involves an act of searching. In Mathew 7:7, Jesus himself says that “we should search and we will find”. Our doubts should not make us to give up and walk away. Rather, just like Thomas, our doubts should stimulate us to search until we end in faith. And with the help of his experience, we have come to understand what it means to journey towards faith.   

His assent to faith should strengthen our own faith and heal the wound of our unbelief.        




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts versus the Giver (Monday, Week 20, Year II)

-
Image
A gift, by the virtue of what it is, is given. In other words, there must be a giver. Gift can come or be in the form of a good friendship or relationship, material thing, good job, personal talent, and so on. Every cherished gift is the delight of our eyes, the pride of our power and the desire of our souls. The gifts that we possess should then remind us of the giver. It smacks of arrogance and ingratitude when gifts are used without acknowledging or making reference to the giver. For the Jews, the Temple or Sanctuary was the delight of their eyes, the pride of their power and the desire of their souls. It was a precious gift which they jealously guarded. However, they adorned the Sanctuary but did not truly adore the One for whom the Sanctuary exists. They were too attached to the “gift” (sanctuary) but were completely detached from the Giver of the gift – from Yahweh. Ezekiel prophesied to them that this sanctuary which was their delight will be profaned and taken away from them. M
Read more

Persecution and Triumph, the Two Realities of Christian life (Saturday, Week 33, Year 2, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

-
Image
The book of Revelation is full of symbols and imageries that need to be carefully interpreted for us to understand the message they communicate. In today’s first reading (cf. Rev. 11:4-12), John was told about two olive trees and two lamp stands serving as witnesses to the Holy One. Who or what do these two sets of witnesses (olive trees and lamp stand) stand for? When we read further in order to understand what happened to these two witnesses, it may be a bit clear to us that the “two witnesses” may be pointing to Moses and Elijah, judging from what they did on earth and what they stand for. Moses stands for the Law; and Elijah stands for the Prophet. Anyone who bears witness as Moses bore witness to the Law of God must be persecuted by the beast as the first reading (from the Book of Revelation) recounted. Anyone who bears witness to the messages of truth as Elijah and other prophets did must be persecuted just as the prophets were persecuted. Persecution is a fate that awaits every
Read more

Enkindle the Embers of Unity, Quench the Fire of Disunity (Wednesday, Week 22, Year A)

-
Image
For some time now, we have heard Paul talk about the spiritual and the unspiritual: what it means to live and operate on the level of the Spirit (the spiritual) and on the level of the flesh (the unspiritual). Paul was very emphatic about this topic possibly because he was addressing a group of people who were too intellectual and academic in their approach to the things of God and all of that. Remember that the Corinthians were Greek; and the ancient Greeks were known to be too particular and more interested in intellectualism, sophistry, philosophy and human wisdom. And we must not forget that Paul has been very suspicious of over-reliance on worldly/human wisdom in understanding and appreciating the things of the Spirit. To rely more on human/worldly wisdom is a sign that one may be operating on the level of the flesh; and to operate on the level of the flesh breeds a whole lot of vices such as division or sectionalism, hedonism, and so on. In today’s section of that letter to the C
Read more