Faith
This past Sunday, the Gospel reading was the story about “Doubting Thomas,” the follower of Jesus who needed to see the Risen Lord for himself to believe that Jesus was truly risen from the dead. This is a familiar story. It is familiar because this story is read every year on the Second Sunday of Easter, and it is familiar because it is a very human story.
Over the years, I have encountered many “Thomases,” people who could not accept the resurrection “on faith.” This is a common reaction because our modern world often equates faith with belief. Yet, in the Scriptures the word faith is most frequently used to mean trust, especially in a relationship. And this is the invitation that Christ extends to each of us–the opportunity to begin a relationship with Him, but all too often, we get bogged down trying to give intellectual assent to something that seems too good to be true. This is what happened to Thomas. In the shock, sorrow and fear he felt after the Crucifixion, he forgot to trust in the person of Jesus. So when his friends told him that Jesus had been raised, he refused to believe what he “knew” was too good to be true. His doubts were the honest reservations of one who had lost sight of the personal relationship with his Lord, and his doubts echo our own.
Jesus understood Thomas’s doubt and came to him to reestablish their relationship; and Thomas, for all his doubts, was open to that. And that is faith, a personal relationship with Christ. It involves a transference of trust from fallible, sinful self (intellectual assent) to the totally reliable God. When we allow that trust to take root in us, a miracle happens. The floodgates of God’s love, joy and peace are opened and we find ourselves, like Thomas, not left to fend for ourselves, but to enjoy the company of God’s Spirit and the fellowship of the saints. It is in that Spirit and fellowship that we can appreciate St. Paul’s declaration that “[i]t is God himself who has called you to share in the life of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; and God keeps faith.” (1 Corinthians 1:9 NEB)
In the midst of his doubts and questions, Thomas learned that the God who calls us is to be trusted–so can we.
