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Dear Friend, All of us have moments
of doubt, moments of uncertainty, moments when we are not sure of where we stand
or what to believe. We like certainty, we like absolute proofs so we can
believe. We want things to be black of white, not shades of grey. It is
normal to have doubts, even saints and sages had their moments. The question
is: what do we do with our doubts? Are we ready to search, to confront our
doubts and bring them to the Lord? Are we ready to face the truth no matter
what the consequences? Are we ready to stay with doubts to discover the
truth? Have a doubt-dispelling weekend encountering the risen Lord! Fr. Jude Botelho |
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The first reading speaks of one of the fruits of
the resurrection being life in common, life in the community. This reading from
the Acts, which records the life in the Spirit, details essential elements of
the whole Christian Church: faithfulness to the teaching of the apostles, the
sharing of goods, union of hearts, prayer and the breaking of bread, joy that
characterized the community life and their zeal to spread the faith. People
often ask, “What is the Church?” Today’s reading has given us a graphic and
dynamic description of the Church that Jesus came to found on earth. In his letter Peter praises
and thanks God for the new life, the spiritual rebirth bestowed on the
Christians through the power of the resurrection. This gift of life we first
received at baptism, but this spiritual life is never secure and we are frail
and weak and need the strength of the spirit to live this life to the full.
The Christian lives in constant hope and is confident that he will reach the
end of his faith journey because of Christ who accompanies him in life. He
can even rejoice in his trials because he knows that through them he can gain
salvation. The Christian’s love for the Lord he has not seen, and still
without seeing him, helps him to find joy in his faith. Living faith The gospel narrates how nothing could
stop the risen Lord from joining his own disciples. The doors of the house in
which the disciples were huddled together were closed yet nothing could keep him
away from them. The risen Lord who could pass through closed doors was proof
that he was no longer subject to rules that bind ordinary mortals. He comes
with his greeting of peace. “Peace be to you! Do not be afraid.” The ordinary
Jew believed that peace was a gift that came from God. Now when the Lord
bestows his peace he binds them to himself and to one another. He comes to
bring them joy and the Spirit and the power of forgiveness. But when he
appeared to the disciples Thomas was not with them and when told of the
vision and encounter with the risen Lord he refused to believe. He had his
own conditions and demands for belief: “Unless I see the holes that the nails
have made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and
unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.” Eight days
later the disciples were in the house and Thomas was with them when Jesus
again came and stood among them offering his gift of peace: “Peace be to
you!” He them addressed Thomas and was ready to comply with Thomas’s demands.
“Here Thomas, feel me, touch me and banish your doubts. Doubt no longer but
believe!” Thomas humbly responds with
a profound profession of faith:”My Lord and my God!” Jesus then says to him
and to all believers “You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who
have not seen yet believe.” The story
of doubting Thomas shows that the disciples who have seen the risen Jesus
have no real advantage over those later disciples who did not have that
opportunity. Jesus seems to remind us that there is no need of such a proof
and we can reasonably believe on the evidence and testimony of others. Thomas
represents all of us who must believe without seeing. Believing in the risen
Lord we can experience his peace and joy and the forgiveness of our sins. “The
Risen Christ had appeared to the disciples in the absence of Thomas. Then
came Thomas, and careless of what others thought, said flatly: “Unless I see,
I refuse to believe.” Thomas the apostle was a forthright and honest man: his
mentality is revealed in various places in the gospels. Here he shows us that
in what concerns the adventure of faith, he is not easily convinced. How like
ourselves he is, in his pursuit of the real, the tangible, mistrustful of
ideologies unless they are vouched for by everyday experience. Yet God is not
displeased at this! The most amazing thing about faith is that one can
believe. The Lord understands this, and a week later takes him at his word
and submits to his demand: “Give me your hand and put it into my side. Doubt
no longer but believe.” And what about us, twentieth century believers: are
we going to drift through the liturgical season of the Easter season,
repeating abstractedly: “Happy are they who have not seen, yet believe?” We
ought rather to follow Thomas in trying to see the power of the resurrection
manifested in our lives –as individuals and as a community! We should ask to
see this power healing the wounds of our brothers; undoing oppression;
bringing back from the dead those men and women still engulfed in sin.” –
Glenstal Bible Missal Touch Him in people Several years ago a Joy of Life program was put on by
the University of St. Thomas in Houston. The program featured outstanding
people from the Houston area. Some of these celebrities were on television
and stage, others from professional football and the opera. But of all the
people who appeared in that Joy of Life program the one who stole the
show was a 6 year-old mentally deficient girl. When the spotlight focused on
her, a sign on her back could be read: “I am retarded, but I am glad to be
alive.” What an affirmation of faith on the part of her parents! Their 6
year-old daughter was retarded but they were glad she was alive, and made her
feel glad that she was alive. It was an affirmation of faith comparable to
Thomas in the gospel: “My Lord and my God.”
In fact their faith surpassed the faith of Thomas. He believed because
he saw the Lord. These parents believed even though they had not seen the
Lord. Thomas had to touch the Lord’s hands and side before he believed. These
parents could touch our Lord only by faith. Every time they held their
retarded daughter they believed they were touching the Christ living in her
by baptism. Their affirmation of faith is what Jesus praised in the gospel
when he said: ”Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” During
the liturgy we profess our faith in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
At the end of the liturgy we will be sent to “Love and serve the Lord” –to
love and serve the Lord in mentally deficient 6 year-old children and in
teenage rebels; to love and serve the Lord in alcoholic parents and senile
grandparents. We are challenged not to persist in our unbelief, but to
believe –to believe in the risen Lord, and to believe that he still lives in
his people. Do we have enough faith to take our hands and touch him in his
people? Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ “Thomas remains forever a symbol of the power of doubting. He is
a model of how doubt can sometimes lead one to the truth much more
effectively than blind faith can. In order to be fruitful, doubt must be
carried out with a thorough honesty. The most important single step in the
art of doubting is: to be willing to confront the possible truth. If Thomas
had not been willing to come face-to-face with Jesus, he would never have
known that Christ had risen. When facing Jesus, if he had refused to engage
in a confronting dialogue, he may never have known that this was really the
same person with whom he had walked the streets of Jerusalem. The person who
doubts and then avoids the subject, or laughs at it, or considers it too
insignificant to deal with, is a classic fool. His or her doubts causes the
person to live on the periphery of reality, in a dull routine that gets a bit
shaken every time to truth gets near. We must be willing to carry our doubts
as did Thomas. Doubt that seeks to confront has far more power to lead one to
the truth than dull acceptance which seeks not to be bothered.” –
Eugene Lauer Too good to be true! A wealthy businessman in a mid-western town had signs
printed and placed all over the town. They stated that if any man in the town
who owed debts, would come to his office on a certain day between nine and
twelve in the morning, he would pay the debts. Naturally, that promise was
the talk of the town. Very few believed it. They thought there was a catch
somewhere. The day came and the businessman sat in his office at nine. By ten
no one had come. At eleven a man was seen walking up and down outside, glancing
occasionally at the office door. Finally, he opened it, put his head in and
asked, “Is it true that you will pay any man’s debt? “That’s right,” the rich
man replied. “Are you in debt?” “I certainly am,” the caller answered. “Do
you have along the bills or statements to prove it?” The visitor produced the
documents and the businessman wrote out a cheque covering all of them. Before
twelve o’clock two other men came and also had all their debts paid. People
outside could not believe it…. But there was no time left for them to have
their bills paid. –If people do not believe in the goodness of man, how can
they believe in the goodness of God? - Arthur Tonne May we see and feel and touch
him in his people! Fr. Jude
Botelho |
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