20140703 SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING
SCRIPTURE READINGS:
Ephesians 2 : 19-22
19 So
you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the
holy people of God and part of
God's household.
20 You
are built upon the foundations of the apostles and
prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.
John 20
: 24-29
25 So
the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord,' but he answered,
'Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my
finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I
refuse to believe.'
26
Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with
them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. 'Peace
be with you,' he said.
27 Then
he spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me
your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.'
29
Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet believe.
Contrary
to the commonly accepted cliché that “Seeing is believing”, today’s scripture
readings tell us otherwise: that “Seeing is NOT believing!”
Why is that so?
Firstly,
to say that “seeing is believing”, is a contradiction in itself.
If you see something, it is a fact. When something has been
objectively proven by science, there is no room for belief or unbelief.
It is a matter of whether one agrees with the objective findings or not. We can
dispute the fact, but if it were a fact, one must accept. So if the color
of my hair is brown, but because you are color blind and you see it as green,
that does not make it green. So for an objective reality, no belief is
necessary. It is fact.
Secondly,
“seeing is not believing” because what we see might not be truly objective.
Take magic for example. We know that magic has everything to do with
illusions and tricks, rather than the supernatural. We could be deceived
by what we see.
For
this reason, faith is required even when we see the object. For
example, many miracles of healing have happened in Lourdes, and even in our
lives, yet not all believe that it is the work of God. When baffled by such
miraculous cures, science simply states that such a phenomenon cannot be
explained at this point of time because of the lack of information. So,
whether we believe in a religious experience or not, depends on whether we
choose to conclude that it comes from God.
Even St
Thomas in today’s gospel required faith to encounter the Risen Lord.
Although he had originally demanded to touch Jesus as a condition for his
belief, when he actually saw the Risen Lord, he immediately exclaimed and
confessed, “My Lord and my God!” The gospel never said that he touched
Jesus. His response was an act of faith, not of seeing, but a ‘believing
seeing’. After all, what he saw could have been a ghost, or a Jesus
resuscitated from the dead, not the Risen Lord.
What
is said of St Thomas is also true of the other apostles and disciples as well. Like the doubting Thomas, the
apostles and disciples of Jesus were initially reluctant to believe the Good
News that Jesus is risen, in spite of the testimonies of those who had seen
Him. And even when Jesus appeared to them, they thought He was a ghost,
until Jesus assured them otherwise. So they, too, had to make an act of
faith.
So
how did they believe?
Yes, they saw something, or someone. The Risen Lord certainly gave them
some signs that He was the same person as the Jesus of Nazareth. Upon seeing
the signs, they made the judgment that “it is the Lord!” Of course, the
testimonies of the women, the other apostles or disciples who claimed to have
seen Him would have bolstered their confidence that the encounter was real and
not conjured. So what we actually have are signs that lead to
identification with what we see. Signs are not proofs as in the world of
science. They are indications of the truth of the objective
reality. Signs imply that the judgment of faith is still needed, since it
cannot be proven materially. Signs therefore are important for faith,
otherwise we would be accused of being credulous. Although faith is
beyond reason and cannot be proven, it is not irrational or totally subjective.
Faith must not contradict reason and the latter supplies the preambles for a
credible faith.
But
then we might ask, “Why should the apostles’ testimony be believed?”
How can we be certain that their claim was not falsified or misguided in any
way? We know the truth of their claim by the testimony of their own
lives. Before they encountered the Risen Lord, they were cowards.
But after their encounter, their lives were radically transformed. They
not only boldly proclaimed the death and resurrection of the Lord, but they
were even willing to die for their belief. Besides their conviction of
Jesus’ resurrection, they manifested the power of the Risen Lord in their
ministry through the miracles worked in the name of the Lord Jesus.
What
about us? Where does our faith come from? Isn’t it also from the faith of other believers,
especially our loved ones? But how do we know that what they say is
true? By virtue of the same signs, namely, their conversion of lives,
their love, peace and joy, their testimonies of how God worked in their
lives. We know what they say is true, even if not scientifically
demonstrated, because they are our friends and they would not deceive us. That
is why faith is imparted, not taught.
But
where did their faith come from? It came through the Church, its teachings, sacraments and
liturgy. St Paul affirms that we, the Church, as the community of faith,
“are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations,
and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.” The Church, guided by the
magisterium, continues to mediate to us our faith in Christ. She ensures
orthodoxy of faith through right doctrines, worship and practices.
But
where did the faith of the Church come from? It came from the apostles. This explains why
the true Church of Christ must be apostolic both in terms of succession and in
doctrines. Bishops are the true successors of the apostles and together
they, as a college under the leadership of the Pope, transmit the teachings of
Christ and all the saving realities for our salvation. By so doing, they
make Christ present, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist, since the
Church is the Sacrament of Christ. This is what St Paul meant when he
wrote that we are “part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for
its foundations.” It is this assurance that our faith comes from
the apostles that we accept the teaching authority of the Church.
But
where did the faith of the apostles come from? It came from Christ Himself. St
Peter and St Paul, whose feasts we celebrated recently, are acknowledged as the
two pillars of the Church because of their personal faith in Jesus. St
Peter was the spokesman of the Church in professing Christ as the Son of the
Living God whilst St Paul was given a special revelation from Christ on his way
to Damascus. One became the shepherd of the Church and the other
the great apostle to the gentiles.
So
we have reached full circle in the transmission of faith. Faith comes from Christ through
the apostles to the Church and the community of faith. But we cannot
remain contented with merely an inherited faith. Nay, we are adopted sons and
daughters in Christ, thus it behooves us to make the faith of Peter and Paul
and Thomas our own. We cannot simply remain as secondary recipients of
faith. The purpose of their testimonies is to lead us to the threshold of
faith, but we must take the leap of faith once we come to it. Until we do
so, this faith is not yet ours. And till we interiorize the faith of the
Church, we are not yet truly the superimposed stones on the foundation of the
apostles and Christ our cornerstone.
Today,
as we celebrate the feast of St Thomas, we must strengthen our belief by
the faith testimonies of others, especially by developing a personal
relationship with Christ through an encounter with the Risen Lord in prayer and
in worship. We must enter into the house of God ourselves. We are
not aliens or even visitors, but “citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s
household.” Let Christ be our cornerstone, for when “every structure is
aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him,
are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.”
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOHARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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