The teenagers were challenged to ask themselves if they would believe without seeing, if they would continue to act in faith, and if their faith would continue to be the same faith as it was yesterday, today and tomorrow, when life doesn’t go their way. Can you reference other early church fathers who claim this? Because he insisted on being given hard evidence, he found himself alienated by his friends, cut off from the group to which he thought he belonged. And I don’t think it’s fair to fault Thomas for being skeptical at the stories of Mary Magdalene and others seeing Jesus. Those who have been faithful to their religious practice find themselves thinking that they are entitled to better treatment from a God who allegedly loves them.Thomas wanted assurance and evidence. July 3, 2020 - I do not believe that it is a coincidence that today is the Catholic feast day of St. Thomas, the Apostle – Doubting Thomas as we have called him through the centuries!
In the course of our lives, we gain knowledge through direct experience, deduction or reasoning and through putting our faith in what others tell us.
It’s not fair that he’s called “doubting Thomas” because honestly, he is all of us. Maybe fortune, fame, and privilege? He demands empirical proof submitted personally to his lordship: “Unless In justice, Jesus could have just said “enough.” Thomas had already seen so much.
Jesus was saying: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
We all need time on our faith journey. He had seen and felt the fear, doubt and depression that had overwhelmed himself and his fellow disciples in the wake of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. Thomas, however, insisted that they not let Jesus go alone, even if that meant risking their own lives: “Let us also go to die with him” (John 11, 16).
...Isn’t Advent great?
When Thomas returns to the group, he refuses to believe them. After all, the One who had been their focus and point of reference through years of mission and service was gone.
Let’s recap the story and I’ll prove to you that even though you live in 2016 and not back in the day of no transportation or showers, you know you’ve done all these things too. According to the Gospel of St. John, Thomas was the apostle who did not believe that Jesus had resurrected until he saw him for himself – put his hand in his wounds, touched him. He came back after a while. Doubting Thomas was one of the 12 disciples in the Bible. If you were part of a group who decided to perpetrate an elaborate hoax, what would be your motive? where I am, there you may be also.
Our inability to answer some of them with speed and certainty not only frustrates us, but confronts us with our limitations. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! As their hopes crumbled around them, there was no escaping the darkness brought on by the Crucifixion. Well, it can also be experienced in mercy, because mercy opens the in order to better understand the mystery of God and of our personal existence.
He saw and like the other, he believed.
The disappointment and disillusionment of Good Friday had not yet been transformed into the light of Easter. To grow into these is the journey of a lifetime. Thomas, however, insisted that they not let Jesus go alone, even if that meant risking their own lives: “Let us also go to die with him” (John 11, 16).
They saw an empty tomb, and he saw the wounds.For just when we find love let’s believe: Happy are they who have loved for they have seen what faith cannot see, and then they find faith.These reflections are written by Fr Donal Neary SJ, editor of the Sacred Heart Messenger magazine and they also have been published on the Logos Sunday Missalettes.
Whenever I board a plane, I take it on trust that the crew members are qualified to fly the plane.
Thomas left the community of the apostles and Mary, feeling let down, a bit down on himself.
He is a popular The Apostle Thomas did not stick his hand into the side of Jesus.
By making allowance for Thomas’ scepticism, the risen Jesus made it clear that he is open and ready to meet all of us, wherever we happen to find ourselves. One such appearance is to the disciples (John 20:26-31), among them Thomas, who is most often singled out as ‘doubting’. It’s the best! Reflection on John 20:24-29 ~ Years ago, I wrote a poem titled “Doubting Thomas”. In our journey with the saints, today we come across Doubting Thomas, as he is traditionally known. Doubting Thomas? But let’s not forget that John had already presented Thomas as a down-to-earth, plain-spoken man.
And we human beings will never achieve them perfectly. And for it they receive not privilege but persecution and death.Because it’s the truth.
This is where we encounter the fullness of the mercy we celebrate on this Divine Mercy Sunday.
Think for a minute. The history of scientific exploration and philosophical hypothesising is peopled with inquirers from Socrates to Galileo, from Marie Curie to Rita Levi-Montalcini, from Charles Darwin to Einstein.
I wonder what brought him back.The divine face looks kindly on every love. While others can inspire and encourage us, they cannot give us their faith.