Posted on 05/07/2016 8:49:12 AM PDT by Salvation
Question: My father constantly holds up the example of St. Thomas the Apostle, who doubted that Jesus had risen even when the others said so. He says this is why it is OK that he should question everything — that doubt isn’t wrong even regarding the teachings of the Church.— Tom O’Neil, via email
Answer: Yet the fact is, the Lord rebukes Thomas; he does not praise him for his stubbornness or resistance to believe. He instructs Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe” (Jn 20:27).
Consider, too, the enormous blessings Thomas missed failing to gather with the others (i.e., the Church) that first week before when Christ appeared. He missed seeing the Lord in his risen glory.
Thomas’ declaration “I will not believe” to the declaration of the early Church — “We have seen the Lord!” — is not praised.
For we who are baptized, the Church is an object of faith. We say each Sunday in the creed and what was affirmed at our baptism: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” To refuse to believe what the Church professes and declares to be revealed by God is for us therefore a sin against faith.
Thanks be to God, St. Thomas’ journey does not end with his refusal. At some point, he relents and is gathered with the community of the early Church the following Sunday. The Lord, in his mercy, grants Thomas’ request to see and touch the wounds, but teaches that this is an exceptional mercy: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (Jn 20:29). Thus, the mandate to believe without seeing is emphasized, and Thomas’ insistence on seeing is rebuked.
It is true that Thomas’ journey yields an extraordinary testimony: “My Lord and my God!” God sometimes does permit our stubbornness to believe to yield even stronger faith (e.g., St. Paul and St. Augustine). God can write straight with our crooked lines. But he shouldn’t have to.
The story of St. Thomas ends happily, but it does not follow that the story of every doubter or denier of the Faith will end happily, and your father is under the same mandate from Christ that any believer is to “Repent and believe” (Mk 1:15).
Monsignor Pope Ping for OSV column
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I always saw Jesus’ response to Thomas as one of mercy, compassion, and encouragement.
I suppose it depends some on the view one has of God, whether that of a loving heavenly father or a taskmaster who is upbraiding people for not being perfect.
For born again believers, CHRIST is the object of our faith.
Satan will glorify anything as the object of faith, so long as it is Not The Christ.
Was it Thomas who took the Gospel to the shores of India and was pierced by a Brahman sword?
I understand that Thomas went to India and died for Christ but do not know how he died.
Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs, observed that he could understand why Thomas didn’t accept the unsupported word of the other Apostles, given that they were still cowering after (they said) seeing the risen Jesus.
None of them understood, at that point, how the coming of the Holy Spirit would change them.
That’s a really good point.
They sure weren’t acting like Jesus was alive.
“We have seen the Lord!”
“Yes, and?”
“Uh, well ... nothing ...”
Until the Holy Spirit came into them to empower them think about the atmosphere around Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin was trying to convince everyone that these disciples had stolen the body. The Roman governor was concerned that people would believe Roman soldiers were so corrupt that they would be bought off to lie, creating a schism between the Jews and the government, perhaps to give Pilate an excuse to crush the populace. The people had not seen the Risen Lord and were not hearing persistent claims from the disciples, so the entire scene was surreal. The day of the crucifixion had been an amazing darkness from an ‘unpredicted eclipse’ (their only explanation) and on the day of His resurrection ghostly figures were appearing all around Jerusalem, of deceased Jewish relatives!
Thomas said, "Let us go with Him that we may die with Him."
He should be called "Faithful Thomas".
I wouldn’t be convinced either.
After all, he saw Jesus raise the dead and he heard what Jesus said about being killed and raised again.
I’d say what he doubted more than that Jesus could be raised from the dead was the words of his cohorts.
None of them grasped the idea of the Resurrection until well after it happened!
He was certainly compassionate and understanding. We forget that God calls us to “reason together”. Most of those in that room with Jesus HAD already seen the risen Lord. Thomas wasn’t with them when they had. Peter refused to believe the women who had FIRST seen him and he and John raced to the tomb to check.
Mnsr. Pope imagines everyone must just take whatever the Catholic church proclaims as the truth and not bother to verify if what they say is Biblical. You have to wonder, then, why we even have the written word - a “more sure word of testimony” - if this church authority supersedes what Divinely inspired Scripture says. They actually have it backwards as the church is to be in submission to God’s word. That was how the early church operated. In fact, Paul said if they don’t obey the word they are to be corrected and fellowship removed should they prove obstinate.
Poor old Caiaphas believed what Jesus said about ‘destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up’, believed it enough to demand guards at the tomb. ... But Jesus left the scene of the tomb without rolling away the stone. He just stepped into another where/when upon rising from the dead. The guards, tough as they were, got the scare of their lives when that Angel rolled the stone away so the women could look in and see the empty tomb.
He [Jesus] just stepped into another where/when upon rising from the dead.
Good point. The Gospels don't ever describe his walking out of the tomb when the stone was removed, as Lazarus did when he was returned to his natural life.
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