Servants of Charity

St. Thomas, the stubborn doubter leads us forward in our life of faith, as we begin to tread this month of July. He becomes a forerunner and model for all believers for the passage from doubt to faith, from fear to boldness, from despair to hope. From our own experience we all know that it is not very easy and handy to lead a life of faith. Life is not going the way I thought and believed. Life of faith goes beyond my senses and my empirical world. I am so afraid whether this would happen or not; at times I begin to wonder why this happened to me and why this did not happen to me. Because suffering, sickness, disappointments, failures and many other factors of this sort put our faith to the test and we tend to ask, “Is there a God? What is He doing? Why is God silent?” 
But St. Thomas, of whom the synoptic Gospels speak very little, for the first time comes out as a courageous follower of Jesus by his spontaneous yes. “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (Jn 11:16), a complete surrender even to lay down his precious life, when Jesus was proposing to go to Bethany endangering His life over the sudden death of Lazarus. Thus he teaches us a great lesson that human calculations are nullified and have to become secondary before God’s plan. God takes precedence in life even if it will cost me much. 
St. Thomas is widely known as someone who asked for proofs to believe in the risen Lord. But we see from the Gospel accounts even before him, both Peter and John did not believe the words of Mary of Magdalene, rather they ran to the tomb to verify if what she said was true (Jn 20: 2-9). For eight days He would have heard from many of the disciples of their experience with the risen Lord, but his asking for proof can be also understood as his longing to meet the Lord personally. This instance insists on the importance of our personal relationship with the risen Lord. 
People were trying to understand Jesus by saying prophet, teacher; "You are Christ, the Son of the living God," (St. Peter); "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," (John the Baptist); "Truly this man was the son of God," (Centurian). But St. Thomas makes the culmination and summary of discipleship by his affirmation “My Lord and My God”. This is the summary of the entire prayer of the Church and the exclamation of the faithful at the encounter with the Eucharistic Lord in today’s context. This discipleship and sequela Christi is possible when two wounds meet together. The wound of disbelief, dissatisfaction, despair of us is healed at the encounter with the wounds of Jesus “Reach your finger here and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side” (Jn 20:27).
"St. Thomas is the first to doubt and first to believe."

– Pope Benedict XVI

Fr. Ronald J, SdC

Provincial Superior