Called to Believe
A Reflection for St. Thomas Sunday
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
Today, on the first Sunday after the glorious Feast of Pascha, the Church calls us once again to contemplate the wonder of the Resurrection – and she gives us the figure of the Apostle Thomas, sometimes called “the Doubter,” but perhaps better called “the Confessor.”
The Gospel reading from Saint John (20:19–31) tells us how Thomas, who was not present when the Risen Lord first appeared to the disciples, refused to believe their testimony alone. “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side,” he said, “I will not believe.”
Many throughout history have spoken critically of Thomas, as though his caution were some great fault. But notice carefully: Our Lord does not reject Thomas for his doubt. He does not shame him. He does not cast him aside. Instead, He meets Thomas in his weakness and offers him the proof he needs. Our Lord comes again – eight days later – and stands in the midst of His disciples, just as He had before. He speaks peace to them. And then He turns, personally and tenderly, to Thomas: “Put in thy finger hither, and see My hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.”
Thomas is not condemned for questioning; he is invited to come closer, and therein is the key. Christ does not demand blind faith, but neither does He leave us in doubt. For those who seek Him sincerely, He provides grace – sometimes through miracles, sometimes through the quiet witness of the Church, sometimes through the touch of His presence in prayer, and sometimes by entering even a room where the doors were shut. Thus the doubt of Thomas became the occasion for an even greater confession: “My Lord and my God!” These words, spoken with love and awe, have echoed down through the centuries and are still repeated in the hearts of the faithful at every Holy Liturgy.
We live now in a world not so different from the one Saint Thomas knew. Doubts abound. Many are wounded by falsehoods, by betrayal, by scandal, by their own sins or those of others. Faith sometimes flickers in fragile hearts.
Yet Christ’s answer is the same now as it was then: He comes to us. Not to scold, but to invite. He shows His wounds – wounds that are now radiant with the life that death could not hold. He bids us, too: “Put your hand to My side; be not faithless, but believing.”
Thomas’ journey from doubt to faith is not a mark of weakness, but a mirror of the journey each of us must make. We must bring our fears, our uncertainties, even our woundedness to Christ. He invites us not to hide these things, but to place them openly before Him, and there to find peace.
Today, then, let us follow Saint Thomas. Let us cry out from our hearts, without hesitation: “My Lord and my God!” And in doing so, may we be strengthened, like the Apostles, to speak boldly to all the world the words of eternal life.
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
27 April 2025