On this day we celebrate the great things that God did through His beloved Apostle Thomas. This wonderful man of God, who became known to us in history as "Doubting Thomas," is often villified and made to look like the Patron Saint of Skeptics.
However a more careful examination of the man will lead us to think differently, as well as giving us a wonderful example of how we should live.
Thomas was a Jewish man like any other when called to follow Christ, and he became a fiercely devoted disciple of our Lord.
Many look to Thomas and mock his doubting of Christs resurrection, but these people forget that it was Thomas who made the bold statement as Christ returned to Judea to go to the dead Lazarus, "Let us go with Him, that we may die with Him!" (John 11:16)
We look to Thomas, or Didymus (lit. "the twin") as he was also known, as a doubting, skeptical quasi-comical fool. However, this was a man who was willing to follow Christ to death. Christ was worth dying for for Thomas.
We poke fun at Him as a doubter, but how often do we doubt the promises of God, even this side of the resurrection?
How often do we deny Him as Peter did, when pressed against our own reputation or a circumstance we can't get out of?
How many times has our sin caused us to betray Him as Judas did? We must remember that WE are every bit as guilty of the blood of Christ as Judas was.
We learn from the examples of these men because we are just like them. We continue to deny, doubt and betray Christ every single day through thought, word and deed.
We should think about ourselves before we judge these men.
And as for St. Thomas, are we willing to say with him "let us follow Christ, so that we may die with him?"
Are we able to make that statement? And after all our doubting is passed, and the truth of Christ has been revealed can we echo Thomas, and dropping to our knees cry out to Jesus "My LORD and my God!"
Thomas was the first to make this monumentous statement of the faith. This doubting fool, as we like to think of him, was the first of all of the great Apostles to declare the complete divinity of Jesus as God.
Let us take the example of St. Thomas the Apostle and devote ourselves to Christ, seek Jesus as our God, and follow Him even to our death. And doing so let us find life eternal with Him, through Him, and in Him.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit +
As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be forever. Amen.
