Deacon Prodencio Bognay reads and reflects on the Gospel of John (20: 24-29) which tells the story of Thomas’s doubts about the Resurrection of Jesus.
Deacon Prodencio says that when it comes to the uniqueness of the Apostles, Thomas is known to be the doubter of the twins because he is inquisitive about what to believe. He just doesn’t believe easily what is offered to him. He looks for real and concrete evidence.
Among the things we might appreciate about this approach is that believing becomes more real and more organic. In this approach, we just don’t accept a proposition because it sounds logically convincing. Beyond logic and sound reasoning we connect our beliefs to the concrete reality. We look at how the contents of our faith are true in the events around us.
In the case of Thomas, believing in the Risen Jesus meant he has to see Jesus alive again. In our case, we might think of believing in the Risen Jesus in the sense of having that strong feeling where we could really tell that Jesus is present in our midst.
In the case of believing in the Kingdom of God, it is not only believing that somewhere in a far distance place there is such a thing as the Kingdom of God rather it is sitting into our everyday reality how we are experiencing such a kingdom.
This doubting Thomas’s approach makes us avoid the temptation of taking our faith for granted. It makes us ground our faith into reality. Time and again we might find ourselves entertaining some doubts to our beliefs, like Thomas the doubter, but if there is one good reason why to pay attention to our own doubts may it be to find connection to our beliefs in our everyday reality.
As we celebrate the feast of St Thomas today, let us ask for his intercession that like him may we come to the point in our journey where we can say with full conviction ‘My Lord and my God’.
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