First reading: Acts 5:12–16

Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s portico. None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them. Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them. Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them. A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

Second reading: Rev. 1:9–11a,12–13,17–19

I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus. I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet, which said, “Write on a scroll what you see.” Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.

When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead. He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld. Write down, therefore, what you have seen, and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards.”

Gospel: Jn. 20:19–31

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” 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.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

In other words

by Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD (Divine Word School of Theology, Tagaytay City)

In the past it has been observed that ordinary Pinoys will often respond to inquiries with “Yes,” even when they don’t actually know the answer (so as not to appear ignorant), or are only half-convinced about the issue (in order not to be different from the others). There you see hiya at pakikisama in action. And so, I tell my students that admitting ignorance or uncertainty is healthy, and that my best learners were not the docile types but those who asked questions the most. This is true particularly of moral and religious issues: just as conscience can be autonomous or heteronomous, faith can either be grounded on personal conviction or only based on another’s testimony. Borrowed faith will share the same fragilities of a borrowed conscience.

The apostle Thomas provides us with important insights on each of his reactions mentioned by John. When Jesus decided to condole personally with Lazarus, he met stiff resistance from his apostles who considered his return to Judea ill-advised, given the plots against his life. Thomas alone dared the others, “If he’s going to have himself killed, let’s all go join him then” (see Jn. 11:16).

At the Last Supper Jesus announced that he was leaving to prepare a home where he would be rejoined by his followers. Amid the puzzlement and sadness, again it was Thomas who dared to say the unspoken: “I don’t get it; please speak about this more plainly and directly.” Thanks to his questions, Jesus stated explicitly that he was the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn. 14:6).

Hearing how Jesus had risen from the dead and had appeared to his peers, Thomas the contrarian demanded empirical proof for himself. While we must admire those who believe even without the benefit of proof, we learn from Thomas’ hesitancy Jesus will not hesitate to meet the incredulous precisely where they need to believe (Jn. 20:24–29).

The disparaging label of “Doubting Thomas” seems thus unfair, since his honesty has taught us more about faith than about doubt, or at least about their tension and coexistence. Some scholars claiming Chapter 21 was a later addition even contend that John originally intended to end his Gospel at this point, making Thomas’ affirmation of “My Lord and my God” its dramatic climax.

Faith is not a blind leap into the unknown but the honest admission that mystery eludes our finite intellect. It is more a leap into the “unseen” where one trusts in someone one knows through the heart rather than through the mind.

Faith is not the outcome of an intellectual win but a gift of recognition made possible by God not just in our kaloob-looban but even more so in our kaluluwa or soul. And so it was that Christ met Thomas on his terms: touch and feel, if that is what will convince you.

A faith community helps, for personal faith is often forged in the matrix of a community with similar questions, struggles and surrenders. Faith is recognizing too how our lives change from allowing the Lord to touch us where we are, as we are. Only through encountering Christ in our here and now will we too grasp Thomas’ capitulation in “My Lord and my God!”