The Sunday of St. Thomas
With Easter the Church puts before us all the sacraments week after weak until Pentecost. We may not recognize them as such because we are used to the naming and numbering of them from more modern catechisms, but there are there nonetheless.
On Easter evening a Gospel from John was read at vespers telling of Jesus appearing to the company of disciples and breathing on them and bestowing on them the ability to bind and loose in heaven and on earth. One can rightly see our practice of sacramental confession here; but a far more important element is the Church itself as the arch-sacrament. And in exploring the Church, we look at faith and “repentance,” a change in mind and attitude that faith brings about. Repentance is not simply absolution from sin, it is opening to new growth and awareness. That is, precisely, the fruit of faith. When we believe—when we put our trust in Christ—it changes the way we look at things, the way we understand things, and the way in which we react to, or deal with, things.
Let us look at what happened on Easter evening. Most of the disciples were gathered in the upper room. Thomas was not with them. The first lesson is so obvious we probably miss it: distance yourself from believers and you probably lessen your chances of ever acquiring faith. Because you have some bad memories of some pastor who disappointed you or treated you harshly you won’t go to church. Well, here were the leaders who all fled Christ at his arrest, and one of them even denied knowing him. Yet here is where Christ comes! But Thomas, who may have already given up hope, was absent. And just when does Thomas hear the news? An hour later? Not likely, because the Scripture says it was late when Jesus met with the group on that Easter Sunday night. A day later? Two? All we know is that on hearing the news Thomas brushed it off and said he would not believe unless it could be proved to his satisfaction.
On the following Sunday evening Thomas is with the group. What brought him back? Boredom? Loneliness? A nagging curiosity about what the others had said? We don’t know; but we do know he was there. Jesus comes and invites Thomas to “see for himself,” and handle the scars that should prove the truth of the resurrection. In spite of Thomas’s foolish arrogance the Lord approaches him and Thomas is swept up into belief.
I think that John is trying to deal with essentially the same reality, the process of coming to believe, that Luke dealt with in his story earlier this week of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. They were obviously gone before Jesus appeared to the group in the upper room. Thomas is absent in John’s story; the two disciples are leaving Jerusalem—turning their backs on it—in Luke’s story. Thomas won’t believe unless the proof meets his standard; the disciples can’t get past their discussions, rehashing the details over and over. Thomas doesn’t believe until he comes to see Jesus amid the group; the disciples don’t recognize Jesus until he breaks the bread. The disciples on the way to Emmaus represent those just beginning to search into the possibility of faith, tender little budding Christians we might say; while Thomas is someone well versed in the theory of Christianity but reluctant to take the plunge into full faith, like a man who can’t get up the courage to propose to the woman he loves.
Beyond both stories lies the same principle: faith is a process, even when—as in the case of St. Paul—it seems to blaze up all of a sudden. Some people resist Christ only to throw themselves at his feet in one critical moment; others have a faith that grows as slowly as any crop in the field; but in both cases faith develops. If we do not do the things that nurture faith, if—as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews warns—we abandon the community, the chance of faith growing in us is greatly reduced. Christ is risen, and even if we know Christ according to the flesh, that is, if we know all the facts about him from his ministry before the resurrection (II Corinthians 5:16), once we accept him as the risen Lord it changes us and we become a new creation, “the old is gone, the new is come.” Here is the good news: in spite of refusing to believe, Thomas was given an opportunity to believe, and so will we, if we do not abandon the community, the Church.