Doubt

As humans, it is in our nature to require proof of events - "seeing is believing".  

This old saying is attributed to either the ancient Greeks or a 17th century cleric, Thomas Fuller.  I find the latter to be easier to "believe" - since the original man who needed to see to believe was the Apostle, St. Thomas Didymus. The coincidence of the first name just can't be ignored.

St. Thomas - walked with Christ during the three year ministry of our Savior.  He was side-by-side with Jesus, witnessing the miracles, the conversions of the Jews.  St. Thomas was there for the radical belief of others.  

I will use that word - radical - quite a bit in this space.  Because for his time - for any time - Jesus Christ was and remains a radical.  His new covenant with the Jews, and then the Gentiles, would transform his world and all the centuries to follow.  Belief in Christ - is transformational.

And there it is - belief.  In a man we won't see while we are alive; a man that no one since the year 33 AD has seen alive.

Save for the Apostles.  Jesus would stay with them for 40 days after his resurrection.  He would literally appear out of thin air.  In today's Gospel from St. John, Chapter 20, we read that in a locked room, Jesus came to them.

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.”

Locked doors.  Did Christ walk thru the walls?  Or the locked door itself?  Imagine, for 1st century individuals, how that would have felt.  You are in a locked room, in hiding, and Jesus just...shows up.

How unnerving.  How scary.  How radical.

Yet even with that unexpected appearance, St. Thomas still doubted.  He needed not only to see Jesus, he required more...to touch Jesus.

And Jesus let him. Talk about unnerving!  Putting your hands into the wounds that you had witnessed the man receiving.  Knowing the horrific death Jesus experienced, you put your hands into his flesh...and there is no pain for Jesus.

Only love for his Apostle. And only wonderment and adoration for St. Thomas.

Then a subtle rebuke, which holds promise for us, 2000 years later:

Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

We who believe in Jesus do so thru that marvelous and inscrutable thing called - faith.

Just off the Loop Road in Acadia National Park

We who believe will only see Jesus when it is our time to, with prayers for mercy, rise to the heavens to fall at his feet in gratitude and great love.

We who believe - wait patiently for that day to come. 

We who believe - do so with no evidence except what we open ourselves up to in our own lives. Prayer to God, thru Jesus, will bring wondrous works into our lives. Truthfully - God is going to work in our lives whether we are aware of it or not. I rather like keeping myself open to what God wants me to see or hear.

What about you? Do you need to see to believe? Whether you do or don't - Jesus loves you just the same.