FOR THE FEAST OF SAINT THOMAS, APOSTLE

84.1 [i]     First Point

Saint Thomas, whose zeal impelled him to urge the other apostles not to leave Jesus Christ, but rather to die with him,[ii] nevertheless was not willing to believe, on the report they gave him, that Jesus had risen, and he told them he would not believe until he had seen him.[iii] People criticize very much the incredulity of Saint Thomas on this occasion, and they are right, because no doubt he should have put faith in what he was told by the other apostles who had seen Jesus Christ. Still, the majority of Christians are even more unbelieving than Saint Thomas, because they do not believe in Jesus Christ.

               For Jesus said in the Gospel: Blessed are the poor,[iv] and they consider them unfortunate. Jesus Christ says that it is necessary to do good to one's enemies and to pray to God for them,[v] and they think only of getting revenge for the outrages they imagine someone did to them, and doing harm to those who have injured them in some way. Jesus Christ says that it is necessary to carry one's cross daily,[vi] and they seek all possible ways to escape suffering. Is that to have faith and to believe in the Gospel when they act this way?

               Do not be so blinded, for you have the advantage of reading the Gospel and meditating on the truths found in it every day, and you are responsible to teach these truths to others. Show, by the way your actions conform to these holy maxims, that, in fact, you do believe them by putting them into practice.

84.2                Second Point

Saint Thomas revived his faith as soon as Jesus Christ appeared to him and made him touch his sacred wounds. Although he was able to see only the wounds of a mortal man, he immediately cried out that the One whom he saw was truly his Lord and his God.[vii] Saint Thomas' unbelief, says Saint Gregory, is of much greater use to us than the faith of the other apostles, who believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as soon as he appeared to them. For the incredulity of Saint Thomas has helped us, adds this Father, to make our own faith firmer, because although he saw only a man, he confessed that this man was his God.

               It is by thinking of what Jesus Christ has suffered for us that we will reanimate our feeble and wavering faith, and dispose ourselves to suffer for God and to practice the maxims that are the most opposed to the feelings of nature. Indeed, if we truly believe and are truly convinced that Jesus Christ has suffered for us in all the parts of his body, how can we love the pleasure found in the use of creatures, knowing that Jesus Christ loved nothing in this world except suffering, and that as Saint Paul says, he bore his cross and yearned to be attached to it?[viii] This example should be for you, as it was for Saint Paul, a great source of comfort, and should encourage you, as it did him, to be filled with joy in all your suffering.[ix]

84.3       Third Point

Saint Thomas demonstrated his faith with distinction when he brought the Gospel to the most distant lands and sealed it with his own blood. This profession of faith of this great apostle was so effective that there are still many Christians in the country where he died who, to show that they are the descendants of those who were formed as Christians by him, are called the Christians of Saint Thomas.

               It is in vain that you believe what Jesus Christ proposed to you in the holy Gospel if your actions do not give proof of your belief; in such a case your faith is in vain.[x] Make it known by your actions that you guide yourselves as children of those who were instructed by the holy apostles in the truths of the faith. Are you ready, as they were, to die to prove the good quality of your faith? Or on the contrary, might you not be disposed to lose the grace of God and heaven in order to escape suffering? How do you show that you possess the spirit of Christianity? Be assured that to possess it your actions must not give the lie to the faith you profess, but rather be a lively expression of what is written in the Gospel.

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The only reliable details about the life of Saint Thomas are those in the Gospel.  His name in Syriac means twin; Didymus is the Greek equivalent; when Jesus was going to Jerusalem to raise Lazarus, some of the Apostles reminded him that his life had recently been threatened there; then it was that Thomas said, Let us also go that we may die with him; at the last supper Thomas asked our Lord, How can we know the way where you are going? to which Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life;  most memorable is the Gospel account of Thomas' doubts about the resurrection, and our Lord's special appearance to him. Tradition says that Saint Thomas suffered martyrdom in India, that part of his relics are there at Mylapore.  The Roman Martyrology mentions that some of his relics were moved to Edesa on July 3, and it is on this day that his feast is now celebrated.