The Incredulity of Thomas, Caravaggio c. 1601, Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam, Germany.
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[Jesus] said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20: 27-28.
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How appropriate that Divine Mercy Sunday and today’s gospel go together! Thomas, in this gospel, stands for almost every one of us. Who would not have said “I don’t believe it” when told Jesus had been seen alive? He had been crucified, a spear slammed into his side, gubernatorial permission had been given to take the body down and it had been sealed in a stone tomb. Jesus was, quite simply, dead. Now it is not uncommon for someone crushed with grief will experience bereavement hallucinations, an acute sense that the deceased is present in some way. It is possible Thomas thought that his colleagues were undergoing exactly that. And frankly, who can blame him? It was utterly unknown for anyone to come back from the dead. It was unthinkable. Desirable – yes – but impossible. So Thomas was thereby given the epithet “Doubting” ever afterwards, or, more intellectually, incredulous. I suspect most of us would be able to stand in his shoes without much difficulty.
My preferred definition of mercy is “compassion on someone who does not deserve it”. There are more intellectual definitions, but that is my favorite. Jesus’ treatment of his doubting follower is exactly that. If Thomas truly believed that Jesus was the Son of God, which was confirmed by God’s voice at Jesus’ Transfiguration before his closest followers, he could at least have declared that to be desirable but remote possibility. But no: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Pretty clear, and, indeed, understandable, but…. Then the Lord appeared in their midst, and without any hesitation went directly to Thomas and invited him to test the reality of his physical presence. Now Scripture is silent about Thomas’ response to Jesus’ invitation (unlike just about every artist who has depicted this scene). I rather think he did not examine Jesus’ terrible wounds. The simple presence of the Lord, whom he basically claimed was dead moments before, must have overwhelmed him. Indeed, he then declared Jesus to be his Lord and his God. That is the one and only time Jesus is so addressed in all Scripture. Jesus’ silence declares his assent to such a declaration. But there he was, the Son of God, physically present with his followers after having been laid, dead, in a tomb only days before. The Resurrection the bedrock of our faith, the sine qua non of our religion. Without that unique event, there would be no Christian religion. Everything depends on it. So, in a sense, we are all Thomas, wondering, perhaps doubting, but in the end accepting this divine reality of God’s direct intervention in our world, in our life, in our soul. And we follow the one person who conquered death itself, and invites us to do as he did, and in so doing, gaining eternal happiness and fulfillment. So let us all declare, with Thomas, Jesus to be Our Lord And God. And on this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us ask God for the patience, love and strength to be as merciful as he was, and is, to all who seek him, that we might do likewise.
St. Thomas of India, Trinity Iconography Institute, Portland, OR, USA.
There is a very old tradition that St. Thomas brought the Christian religion to India.
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