We celebrate today the feast of Thomas the Apostle. Doubting Thomas, as we are apt to say so often. St. Gregory the Great’s words today about this man are worth considering. Again, my translation from the Italian.
“What, brothers, do you read into this situation? Do you see it purely as Thomas absent by God’s choice, and then returning hearing of the Lord’s resurrection, and then doubting, and doubting then touching the Lord, and touching then believing?
“No, it didn’t happen by chance, but by divine design. The Lord’s clemency worked here in a marvelous way, since this disciple, with his doubts, while he was touching the wounds of the Lord’s body, was healing in us the wounds of unbelief. The unbelief of Thomas brought greater benefit to us in our wounded unbelief than did the faith of the other disciples. (Italics mine.)….The disciple that had doubted and then touched, has become the witness to the truth of the resurrection….
“Jesus said to him, ‘You believe because you have seen.’ (John 20: 28-29) Yet the apostle Paul says, ‘Faith is the foundation for things we hope for, and proof of things we do not see.’ It is clear that faith is proof of things one cannot see. Things we see do not require faith; they, rather, are things of knowledge. But if Thomas saw and touched, how can could Jesus have said, ‘Because you have seen, you believed.’?….. The divinity of Christ we mortals cannot see. Thomas saw then a true man and declared that he was the God we cannot see.” — St. Gregory the Great, Hom.26
Thomas’ doubt brought ironclad assurance to all of us so many years later that Jesus truly rose bodily from the grave and that he is in fact the Son of God. Thomas’s doubt was by divine plan. Through him we can believe.
St. Gregory’s comment on how St. Thomas unbelief brings us greater benefit than the faith of the other disciples is an extraordinary statement I had never considered before. Good food for my meditation today.
