20250703 COMING TO FAITH IN THE RISEN LORD
03 July 2025, Thursday, St Thomas, Apostle
First reading |
Ephesians 2:19-22 |
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 |
Psalm 116(117):1-2 |
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
or
Alleluia!
O praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
or
Alleluia!
Strong is his love for us;
he is faithful for ever.
Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | Jn20:29 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Jesus said: ‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 20:24-29 |
'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
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EPH 2:19-22; PS 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 had 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. It implies the nail wounds would be large 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, Thomas’s incredulity speaks to the process of faith in every potential disciple of the Lord. Being incredulous is actually a positive stage in arriving at faith. Being too incredulous can make us rather naïve and gullible. Having faith in Christ does not mean we simply believe without marks of credibility. In Christian theology, we speak of the credibility of faith. 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, Thomas’s doubting, in truth, is not confined to him alone.
Indeed, the discovery of the Empty Tomb, followed by the announcement of the angels and Christ’s appearances to the disciples, was 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 apostles’ witness, but rather to strengthen their testimony. They showed that they were not easily susceptible to believing in the resurrection simply because their fellow disciples told them. They were suspicious, hesitant and sceptical. Their reservations about what they heard served to strengthen the claims of those whose faith in the Risen Lord might otherwise be attributed to psychological suggestion. Indeed, they were not suffering from 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.
This holds true for all of us as we journey toward faith. We need time to see the signs of the Risen Lord before we believe in Him. It is much like any human relationship. We do not simply take someone’s word when they tell us they love us or will help us. We need to spend time with them, relate to them, get to know their character, and observe how they treat us and others. Only then, through their signs of love and care, can we genuinely come to know if their love is genuine and trustworthy, and that they are not just putting on an act. Even then, there is always the possibility that they are deceiving us, until we truly discover the person’s true nature much later. So, an act of faith in a person’s love is still necessary, despite the signs they may have shown. There is no fool proof way to prove a person’s love. This same principle applies to our journey of faith in God. Like Thomas, we need to see the signs of His love – even the “holes the nails have made”- to verify that He is truly the Risen Lord.
Indeed, it can be said that the greater the doubt, the greater the faith. How often do we encounter people who do not trust us or reciprocate our love, despite our consistent efforts? This could be due to many reasons, such as deep hurts and betrayal from past failed relationships, leaving them afraid to trust again. Some may have even endured traumatic childhood experiences, leading to a psychological conditioning that makes trusting others difficult. However, if we persevere in loving such a person long enough, no matter how sceptical or indifferent they may seem to our affection, they will eventually open up, learn to appreciate our love, and begin to trust us. This will take quite some time and lots of patience to win over that love. Once we are able to earn that person’s trust, the relationship often becomes deeper and stronger precisely because it has been rigorously tested.
Isn’t this also the way we relate to 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, disfigured, and lifeless body be resurrected? It was unbelievable. Even the women who heard the announcement and saw the Lord, “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 had 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 defiantly 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 with each renewed encounter with the Lord. This is true in every human relationship; it strengthens with constant communication between the two parties. When we stay away from the Lord, like Thomas, love can weaken and lead to misunderstanding due to a lack of trust. Thus, in our relationship with the Lord, moving from unbelief to belief requires new revelations. Those disciples who have encountered Him earlier progressed to a deeper level. Thomas, however, was initially unable to do so because he lacked the foundation of that 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 transition from his unbelief to belief. We are either 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 why the Lord offered Thomas a chance to feel his wounds. Whether he actually touched His wounds or not is unclear. However, he was certainly 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 also arrive at, 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 not yet come to faith in the Lord should therefore be receptive and 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)
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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