Keep in touch

Sometimes we need not to see Thomas as “doubting” but as someone who is “needing.” While we may clearly see that his ‘belief’ is conditional with human desire for the satisfaction of senses, I believe what he is longing for is the assurance of what he had always believed in would be fulfilled.

I believe it is less of a doubt but more of a need, the need for assurance; assurance that the Lord who spoke about future glory would fulfill his word, assurance that the Lord who called him and spoke about rooms in the house of the Father would come back and give them exactly that.

While in the episode today he is presented as doubting, I really don’t agree that this is unbelief that Jesus is incapable of glorious things like resurrecting himself from the dead. Thomas was an eye witness to the many miracles of Jesus including the raising of Lazarus to life. Before Jesus went to Bethany to raise Lazarus to life, Jesus invited the disciples to come with him that they may become witnesses to the raising of the dead, and Thomas was very certain that this will come true and so he exclaimed “Let us go also, that we may die with him” (John 11:16) It is an expression of faith and hope, a profession of certainty.

We are also given the impression that Thomas is a naive person who is slow to believe. Our Gospel today is the classic proof, and the other is when Jesus was talking to the disciples about the house of the Father where he would be going to which Thomas replied: "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (Jn 14:5). This indicates faith and hope which however is coated with innocence and naïveté.

Thomas is a person needing for assurances. Aren’t we all?

Yet, in our Gospel for today, he unconsciously seeks for a tangible and physical form of assurance; to touch, to touch the risen Master.

How many benefits does touching give to human heart? Touching may mean the world to a person who was deprived, broken, misunderstood, defied, disobeyed, betrayed, insulted and turned down by the cruelty of the world and other people. Sometimes, touch could heal, could encourage, could mean support, could mean endearment and sometime be therapeutic.

Thomas may well be a person like the rest of us, a person broken by the cruel and bloody events in calvary that he is needing of touch and assurance, of healing and uplifting. Let us show our love and care for our sisters and brothers by touching them, tapping their shoulders, hugging them if we may;

Unfortunately today, the benefits of touch is discouraged because it could be a way of transmission of the virus. But like the song of Barry Manilow: I’ll see you then, when the good times come again.

For now, let ur prayers, presence and smiles and greetings be our way of assuring our loved ones, our confereres, and our friends that they are remembered dearly even in the midst of pandemic.

---

First Reading | Ephesians 2:19-22

So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God's household. You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone. Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel | John 20:24-29

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord,' but he answered, 'Unless I can see the holes that the nails 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 again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. 'Peace be with you,' he said.

Then he spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.' Thomas replied, 'My Lord and my God!' Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.