Second Sunday of Easter, 11 April 2010 (Divine Mercy Sunday)

A grandfather of mine was named Thomas. I never knew him as he died before I was born. By all that I have heard about him, he had great faith and loved his God. He worked on the railway all his life as did my own father after him.

But that is not the only reason that I like the name, Thomas. I like it also because it reminds me of the journey of faith that a person makes and how fragile our faith can be. We have a light grasp on this most precious gift from God.

Thomas, the Apostle, was a cautious man. He didn’t accept the word of the others who told him that Jesus had risen and had come back to visit them. Unless Thomas could see and experience for himself that this was true, he would not believe.

Then the chance came for Thomas to fulfil his desire to prove that Jesus was back. In front him stands Jesus and with great love simply says to Thomas, “Put your finger here: look here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe”. Jesus could not do more than invite Thomas to do exactly what he told the others would prove to him that Jesus really had risen.

Thomas reply is brilliant in its simplicity – “My Lord and my God!” That was Thomas seeing that proof is not possible. You either accept the Risen Jesus in front of you who shows you the marks of His Passion, the signs of His love for you or you don’t. We need to study and to reason, to probe and to question. But the act of faith is a gift when we look into the eyes of Jesus and whisper our act of faith: You, Lord, are there and I love you. Thomas, I suspect, never forgot that meeting with Jesus. It is said that he went on to become a great missionary preacher of the Gospel. He could do this because he never forgot the day he met Jesus and read the signs of the Passion in His body.

There is in me (and possibly in you) a fear of making a fool of ourselves. Where believing anyone or anything, I tend towards caution. Maybe we want to be sure of what it is we are asked to believe. Like a scientist, I want to probe, to see, to touch, to examine carefully before giving my assent. We want to show that we are not naïve people. That goes with learning from life and its challenges.

Please don’t be insulted by what I am going to say to you next. To be a believer, we need to become more like a child who sits in wonder and amazement and becomes totally absorbed in whatever they are watching or looking at. A child trusts, will take your hand, will sleep in the arms of a parent, will be comforted by warmth and security, with a fundamental need to attach and be loved. That makes the child so special but also so vulnerable. But a child, according to Jesus, is the model of His Kingdom, model of belief.

‘Big’ people like me grow out of that way of believing in God. Thomas was sure that he had outgrown the simplicity of the child until he heard Jesus’ voice asking him if he wanted proof. At that moment, Thomas became child-like and melted into total belief in the Friend, Jesus, who now stood Risen before him. I hope I never grow up so much as to forget how simple faith, like that of Thomas, really can be. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

Aidan Troy, C.P. [Aodhn Troighthigh, C.P.]