2nd SUNDAY
OF EASTER
Revelation 1:9-13, 17-19
John 20:19-31
“Have you come to believe because you have seen?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Last Easter Sunday, we saw how empty was first revealed to the three fortunate people. We learned how the empty tomb enkindled the faith of John, enlivened the hope of Peter and enhanced more the love of Magdalene. But we also knew that the empty tomb was not a proof but only a sign of the Lord’s resurrection. Thus, the faith of the three and of the early Christians was to be founded not on the empty tomb but on the consequent apparitions of the risen Lord. Today, the same gospel John relates to us the appearances of Jesus on that Easter evening and on the week later. This Johanine account puts the doubting Thomas, who was absent at the first appearance but was present at the next, at the center of the story. With his encounter with the risen Lord, John’s gospel certainly invites us to meditate on the person of Thomas and learn there from the meaning and importance of faith.
1. The gospel seems to suggest two levels of faith: human and divine. The human level of faith is shared by all, and so, it is common. It is the kind of faith that we put in things, which our very own experiences confirm. “To see is to believe,” is the most familiar saying that befits this level. And since everyone – and no one seems to be an exempt – has this kind of attitude, it was simply normal for Thomas to say: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hands into his side, I will not believe.” If we had been at the shoes of Thomas, perhaps we have no good reason to convince the world that we could have acted and reacted much better than he did. If practically all the apostles, except John, faded away on that tragic Good Friday, if Peter who was fortunate enough to have experienced the glory of the transfiguration even denied Jesus so out rightly and not only for once, what assurance can we guaranty that our faith and courage would not falter? We are no better than Thomas, and this particular gospel is not and must not be a basis for us to condemn him.
In the most normal course of human life, faith is like this. So, too, is authentic witnessing a teacher or a preacher becomes credible because he gives witness to what he believes and says just in the way he lives. And the people, on their part, believe in him not only because they hear what he says but also and mostly because they see with their eyes the living proof of his eyes in the very life that he leads. The reason why Jesus appeared to the disciples was precisely for them to see and believe. The fact that no one among them believe in the risen Lord before he appeared shows how human they all were to rely on things that their very eyes could see. And as Jesus used to handle things in the most human way, he then appeared to them to give fulfillment to their basic longings and expectations. Appearing to his seemingly desperate disciples was therefore the human way of instilling faith in them. And he was not in vain. They came to believe in him and in the resurrection because they saw the risen Lord. It just so happened that Thomas was the last one to see, and thus he was the last one to believe. But hail to Thomas. He was the only one who ever made the greatest profession of faith.
2. The other level of faith is what we may call divine. This is the kind of faith that we give even in things, which our senses cannot confirm. It enables us to accept a particular truth as valid not because our eyes see the proof of it nor our intellect understands it just perfectly well. Rather, we accept it because this faith convinces us that such truth comes from someone who can neither deceive nor can be deceived. Thus, such truth can in no way be false and the faith that believes in it can never be in vain. This is why as Jesus accepts the challenge of Thomas to put his finger on his nail marks and his hand on his side, Jesus also counter challenges Thomas to do away with his doubt and unbelief. It is even at this point that Jesus insists that over and above what the eyes could see is a reality that only the higher level of faith could ever understand: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Thus, while Jesus acknowledges the fundamentality of the human level of faith, he also awakens the eyes of his disciples to the importance and necessity to arise into the higher level of the divine.
In this sense, the profession of Thomas shines as a paradigm to all who believe and even to those who struggle so much to advance in the life of faith in midst of doubt and despair. The beauty of this profession lies precisely in the honesty of the person of the Doubting Thomas. Thomas did not pretend to be better and holier than he was. He knew how weak he was, but he also knew where he stood upon. He was neither a Judas who betrayed the Lord with a kiss nor Peter who promised loyalty to the Master but only to end up denying him. All that we see in Thomas was a definite expression of his humanity: doubt! But after his challenge was challenged by the very Lord whom he first doubted, what we find in him was a perfect humility that enabled him to utter the profoundest profession of faith no man on earth had ever mad: “My Lord and my God!” From then on, the profession of Thomas has become the profession of the church.
3. In most cases, when one becomes unbelieving he is dubbed at once as a Doubting Thomas. In other simple words, Thomas becomes sadly the stereotype of the unbeliever or the doubter. And this happens most often to things concerning faith and religion. The reason perhaps of this sad fact is that many of us have wrongly identified doubt with sin and guilt. Meaning, when one starts to doubt his faith he also begins to feel guilty of committing a serious sin. The message of today’s gospel seems to run contrary to this. This is one point the gospel wants to teach: doubt and sin are not one and the same thing. On the first place, faith is not a whole sale business. It does not come to us ready made, as if it were a ready-to-wear suit or garment that the moment we put it on everything becomes perfectly well. No. Rather, faith is a gift that flourishes just the way we handle it. It becomes firmer and stronger at the passage of times and trials. As gold is tested by fire, the ultimate test of faith is doubt. And faith gains that corresponding amount of strength from the amount of doubt it surpasses. Saints attest to this. They advance in faith precisely because of how they wrestled with doubt at the beginning of their spiritual journey. Thus, they end up spiritual champions.
“Have you come to believe because you have
seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed…?