Sunday of Divine Mercy

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 Lectionary: 45

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

The key to our salvation, as Saint Paul insists, is our faith in Jesus Christ.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we await the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5: 5-6)

The Gospel of Saint John also demands a ready belief in Jesus; we must take him at his word. The Fourth Gospel describes several wonderful signs but none are so overpowering that we are stunned into unquestioning acceptance. His miracle are never proofs of his divinity. Nor has the Lord come to browbeat us into faith; he will not exhaust us emotionally or spiritually and render us helpless before his demand. That kind of compliance, were we to render it to God or the Church or some maniac preacher, is not faith. 

But Saint John's gospel recalls with approval those who accept the Word of God from the mouth of Jesus. And so we're given the story of the royal official in Chapter 4. He begged the Lord to come to his home, "Sir, come down before my child dies!" Jesus did not go to the man's home but told him, “'You may go; your son will live.' The man believed what Jesus said to him and left."

The Lord is just as close to us in his absence as in his presence, and his authority demands the same obedience. The royal official's faith is a blessed righteousness which receives a powerful grace to heal his child, as Saint Paul said of Abraham: 

"He did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God. and was fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do. That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4: 20-22 & Genesis 15:6)

Today's story of Saint Thomas brings the Gospel to a fitting climax as Saint Thomas declares his faith in Jesus, "My Lord and My God!" Jesus, speaking more to us than to the foolish apostle, declares, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Many people suppose that doubt is the opposite of faith. I don't think so. Doubt is the negative which invites a positive response. Faith acts in the moment of doubt, fulfilling its expectation like a positive electrical charge which floods the negative readiness to receive it. But there's nothing automatic or reflexive about faith; it is a decision -- often courageous -- to trust God and his Son Jesus. 

 

The opposite of faith is not doubt but betrayal. All four gospels horrify us with the story of Judas Iscariot, "who betrayed him." The Evangelists only suggest why he betrayed the Lord. His accepting thirty pieces of silver certainly looks like greed. But there are a million reasons for the failure to act generously, graciously, and courageously. And only the Lord and his Mother never sinned against faith. 

We need not condemn Thomas for his doubt. The Evangelist only says he "was not with them when Jesus came." There is no judgement in that flat statement. But he failed to accept the Apostolic authority -- the Magisterium -- of the nascent Church, as you and I have done; and for that he earns Jesus's bemused rebuke. 

Thomas did not betray the Lord, nor do we in those moments of anguish when we feel lonely, separated, or abandoned by the Presence of God. Rather, we take the opportunity to turn to God in the silence and invite the Spirit to charge us once again with the courage and confidence to carry the cross with Jesus.