20200703 COMING TO FAITH IN THE RISEN LORD
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Red.
First reading
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Ephesians 2:19-22 ©
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In Christ you are no longer aliens, but citizens like us
You are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household. You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone. As 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.
Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 116(117):1-2 ©
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Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
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Alleluia!
O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
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Alleluia!
Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever.
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
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Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation
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Jn20:29
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus said: ‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
Alleluia!
Gospel
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John 20:24-29 ©
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'My Lord and my God!'
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I 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.’ 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. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
COMING TO FAITH IN THE RISEN LORD
03 July, 2020, Friday, St Thomas, Apostle
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ EPH 2:19-22; PSALM 117:1-2; JN 20:24-29]
St. Thomas the Apostle is commonly known as the “Doubting Thomas” because he refused to believe the disciples who told him that the Risen Lord appeared to them on the evening of the resurrection. He said to them, “Unless I 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.” Of course, this statement sounds rather dramatic, as if the holes that the nails made in the body of Jesus would be big enough for Thomas to shove his hands into Jesus’ side! This same kind of dramatic expression also occurred earlier when Thomas said to the Lord, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (Jn 11:16)
Yet, the incredulity of Thomas speaks about the process of faith in every potential disciple of the Lord. Being incredulous actually is a positive stage in arriving at faith. Being too credulous makes us rather naïve and gullible. Having faith in Christ does not mean that we simply believe without the marks of credibility. In Christian theology, we speak of the credibility of faith. Making the act of faith is an intelligible, reasonable and free act of the human person. Faith does not go against reason even though it is beyond reason. So the doubting of Thomas in truth is not confined to him alone.
Indeed, the beginnings of the discovery of the Empty Tomb followed by the announcement of the angels and the appearances of Christ to the disciples were initially met with disbelief. After the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene and she told the disciples about it, “they would not believe it.” (Mk 16:11) Again, when the Risen Lord “appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.” (Mk 16:12f) Later when the Lord appeared to the Eleven, “he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.” (Mk 16:14)
These stories were told not to discredit the witness of the apostles but they serve to strengthen the testimony of the apostles. It showed that they were not susceptible believers to the resurrection simply because their fellow disciples told them. They were suspicious, hesitant and skeptical. Their reservations about what they heard served to strengthen those who claimed that their faith in the Risen Lord was due to psychological suggestions. Indeed, they were not suffering the delusion of wishful thinking or some fantasy or psychotic imagination of Jesus “living again” in their own minds and hearts. On the contrary, they questioned, they interrogated and they were slow to believe. In this way, the testimonies of those who had seen the Lord actually provided more weight.
And this is true for all of us in the process of coming to faith as well. We need time to see the signs of the Risen Lord so that we can believe in Him. It is true of any human relationships in life. We do not simply believe in someone who tells us that he or she loves us or that he or she will help us. We need to go out with the person, relate with him or her, get to know his or her character, and see the way he or she treats us and others as well. Only then can we come to know through his signs of love and care that his or her love is genuine and can be trusted; and that he or she is not putting up an act. Even then, the person could actually be deceiving us until we discover the true nature of the person much later. So an act of faith in the person’s love is still necessary in spite of the signs the person could have exhibited for us in demonstrating his or her love. There is no fool proof of a person’s love. This is the same in our coming to faith in God as well. Like Thomas, we need to see the signs of His love in the holes that the nails have made so that we can verify that He is truly the Risen Lord.
Indeed, the greater the doubt, the greater the faith. How often have we encountered people who do not trust us or reciprocate our love in spite of the fact we have constantly shown our love to them? This could be due to many reasons, such as the failure of past relationships. Some have been cheated before, many times. Some have been wounded so badly that they are afraid to trust again. Some have gone through traumatic experiences in their childhood and so their trust in people is weak. It has become a psychological conditioning. But if we persevere in loving the person long enough, that person, no matter how skeptical or indifferent he is to our love, will eventually open up and learn to appreciate our love, and to trust us. But it will take quite some time and lots of patience to win over that love. Once we are able to win the trust of that person, then the relationship gets deeper and stronger because it has been tested many times before.
Isn’t this also the way we relate with God? Many people like Thomas and the apostles have been hurt and suffered great disillusionment in life. We can imagine how difficult it was for the apostles to believe that the Lord could have risen from the dead. They saw him tortured, nailed to the cross and pierced with a lance. How could such a bruised and disfigured lifeless body be resurrected? It was unbelievable. Even for the women who heard the announcement and saw the Lord, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mk 16:8)
But once they have encountered the Risen Lord themselves, their faith changed radically. From being cowards and timid apostles hiding in the Upper Room, they broke free and stood before the crowd on Pentecost, proclaiming the resurrection of the Lord. St Peter gave his first homily testifying to the resurrection of our Lord. As a consequence, three thousand were added to the community that day. (Acts 2:14-31) When they were brought before the Sanhedrin, they were no longer afraid of the rulers and authorities but spoke with boldness in the name of the Lord. The Jewish leaders “saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.” (Acts 4:13) When they were ordered “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus”, Peter and John in defiance said, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20)
So too in the process of faith we need to come to touch Jesus more and more if we are to be able to surrender ourselves completely to Him. Faith therefore is a progressive process. It becomes stronger and stronger when there is a renewed encounter with the Lord. This is true in every human relationship. It gets stronger when there is constant communication between the two parties. When we stay away from the Lord, like Thomas, the love gets weaker and leads to misunderstanding due to the lack of trust. So in our relationship with the Lord, moving from unbelief to belief requires new revelations. Those disciples who have encountered Him earlier moved on to a deeper level. Thomas was not able to do that initially because he lacked the foundation of the first encounter with the Risen Lord.
To move to another level of relationship, we must shift gear from unbelief to belief. Jesus challenged Thomas to give up his unbelief to that of belief. Either we are growing in faith or losing faith in God. Faith is dynamic and never static. If our faith in God is to grow, then we need to renew our contact with Him again and again. This is the reason why the Lord offered Thomas a chance to feel his wounds. Whether he really touched His wounds or not, it is unclear. But he certainly was jolted to a higher level of faith in Jesus than just believing that He was risen. He could immediately make the confession, “My Lord and my God”, which is the climax of the gospel. This is the faith we must arrive at as well, as St John wrote, “these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:31)
What was the reply of our Lord? “You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.” In other words, the Lord invites us all to go further than Thomas. If it is true that seeing is believing, then believing is also seeing. What ultimately matters is that our relationship is established with the Lord by faith. This faith is not merely an intellectual assent to some truths, but an openness to the Risen Lord through the witnessing of those who have seen Him and have given their testimonies of how they encountered the Lord. Those of us who have yet come to faith in the Lord should therefore be receptive, open to the testimonies and witnessing of those who have seen Him. It is this openness that will lead to our own personal encounter with the Risen Lord. This believing is reiterated by St Peter later when he commended the Christians, “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pt 1:8f)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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