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| “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas“ by Caravaggio, 1601-1602 |
Readings and
Commentary:[4]
Reading 1: Ephesians 2:19-22
Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
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Commentary on Eph 2:19-22
In this passage, St. Paul
describes the unity brought about among all believers in Christ. This unity is
formed under a common teaching flowing from the Hebrew Prophets, through the
Apostles, to Christ himself, who is described as the “capstone” or cornerstone.
This unity of spirit becomes the Church, the “dwelling place for God in the
Spirit.” The Church, in turn, is the unity of all Christians, those who
were formerly Jews, and those who were formerly Gentiles. They are, says the
apostle, joined through Christ on the same road to the Kingdom of God. They
share the same foundation of faith, transmitted to them through the Apostles,
and held firm by Christ the “capstone.” Together they form the “Temple of
the Spirit,” the essential understanding that the Church is the mystical
Body of Christ.
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Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm
117:1bc, 2
R. (Mark 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good
News.
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the
world and tell the Good News.
For steadfast is his kindness for us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the
world and tell the Good News.
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Commentary on Ps 117:1bc, 2
“This shortest of hymns calls on the nations to acknowledge
God's supremacy. The supremacy of Israel's God has been demonstrated to them by
the people's secure existence, which is owed entirely to God's gracious
fidelity.”[5] Using a responsorial
refrain from St. Mark’s Gospel, the psalm is one of praise for the Good News of
God’s salvation.
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Reading
II: Hebrews 11:1-7
Brothers and sisters:
Faith is the realization of what is
hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.
Because of it the ancients were
well attested.
By faith we understand that the
universe was ordered by the word of God,
so that what is visible came into
being through the invisible.
By faith Abel offered to God a
sacrifice greater than Cain’s.
Through this, he was attested to be
righteous,
God bearing witness to his gifts,
and through this, though dead, he
still speaks.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that
he should not see death,
and he was found no more because
God had taken him.
Before he was taken up, he was
attested to have pleased God.
But without faith it is impossible
to please him,
for anyone who approaches God must
believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who seek
him.
By faith Noah, warned about what
was not yet seen,
with reverence built an ark for the
salvation of his household.
Through this, he condemned the
world
and inherited the righteousness
that comes through faith.
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Commentary on Heb
11:1-7
The beginning of this reading gives
us a classic definition of faith: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped
for and evidence of things not seen.” We note that this definition
describes what faith does rather than a pure theological description. “Through
faith God guarantees the blessings to be hoped for from him, providing evidence
in the gift of faith that what he promises will eventually come to pass."[6] Looking at the translation
above it is instructive to look at the same verse as translated in the
Jerusalem Bible: “Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for,
or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.”
The author goes on to applaud the
faith of Old Testament figures. “The 'Praise
of the Ancestors,' in Sirach 44:1-50:21, gives a
similar list of heroes. The Cain and Abel narrative in Genesis 4:1-16 does not mention Abel's faith. It says,
however, that God 'looked with favor on Abel and his offering' (Genesis 4, 4); in view
of v 6 the author probably understood God's favor to have been activated by
Abel's faith. Though dead, he still speaks, possibly because his blood 'cries
out to me from the soil' (Genesis 4:10), but more
probably a way of saying that the repeated story of Abel provides ongoing
witness to faith.”[7]
A major point of this selection is
that Christians must believe, not only that God exists, but that he wants
behavior from them consistent with his decrees. To fail in this is a denial of
truth, defined in the Hebrew Scriptures as folly (see Psalm 53).
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Gospel: John 20:24-29
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the
Lord."
But Thomas said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with
you."
Then he 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!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because
you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
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Commentary on Jn 20:24-29
This story from St. John’s Gospel
is set just after Mary Magdalene has brought news to the disciples of the Risen
Christ, and his appearance to them in the locked room. He (the Lord) has
departed and now Thomas returns to find his friends speaking of Jesus’ return
from the dead.
Thomas acquires his nickname
("Doubting Thomas") by doubting what the other disciples tell him, and
he persists in doing so until the Lord again comes to the locked upper room. To
his credit, following the Lord’s own challenge, St. Thomas applies to Jesus the
title “My Lord and my God.” It is the first time this title, reserved
for God the Father, is given to the Son, proclaiming his divinity. The passage
concludes with Jesus acknowledging the title, but praising those not present
who will believe in him without requiring physical proof.
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Homily:
On July 12, 1835, or 181 years ago, about a block west of
here, Father Patrick O’Kelly celebrated the first Mass for the small Irish
Catholic faith community in Ann Arbor that would become St. Thomas the Apostle
Church. Sixty-four years later, in 1899,
this building was dedicated when Bishop Foley from Detroit started with prayer:
O Lord God, who although the heavens and earth cannot
contain Thee, are pleased to have thy dwelling on earth, in which thy name may
be perpetually invoked; we beseech Thee, by the merits of the Blessed Mary,
ever Virgin, of Thy Apostle Saint Thomas, and all Thy Saints, visit this place
with thy benign clemency, and purify it by the infusion of Thy grace, from all
defilement and preserve it undefiled; and O Thou who didst satisfy the devotion
of Thy beloved David in the performance of his son Solomon, be pleased to
hearken to our petitions and banish hence all spiritual wickedness. Through our
Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy
Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
I was not able to find a record of what motivated our
forefathers in faith to choose St. Thomas the Apostle as patron. But we pray that the living tradition of
faith which has been handed down to us is pleasing to our parish patron, whose
feast we celebrate today.
From a scriptural perspective, not much is known about St.
Thomas. His name occurs in all the lists
of the Synoptics (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but, as we
heard, in St. John’s Gospel he plays a distinctive part.
First, when Jesus announced his intention of returning to
Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin],
thinking about the danger to Jesus in Judea, loyally said to his fellow
disciples: "Let us also go to die
with him” (John 11:16). (As a side note, Thomas is thought to have been
called “the twin” because he strongly resembled Jesus, not because he was a
twin.)
Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the
Last Supper raised an objection: "Thomas said to him, ‘Master, we do not
know where you are going; how can we know the way?’" (John 14:5).
But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his
incredulity, proclaimed on his feast, when the other Apostles announced
Christ's Resurrection to him: "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." (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of
faith professing “My Lord and my God.” Even
so, the Lord chided him saying: "Have you come to believe because you have
seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." (John
20:29).
What does the scriptural record say about the faith of our
patron? He is continually saying more
than he knows. When he suggested that
the disciples should go and die with him in Judea, he could not have known
that, in light of what was to happen, all Christians would die with Christ and
rise with him at the resurrection. He
was the first to identify Christ as God in his profession of faith, even though
he doubted, winning him the unfortunate nickname “doubting Thomas” that has
followed him since.
We see in what is known of his later ministry that St.
Thomas was not always in agreement with his brother Apostles. According to
tradition, when the Apostles were planning their evangelistic directions, St.
Thomas was selected to go to India. He
immediately objected, saying he could not go.
At this point, his Master, Jesus, appeared in a supernatural way to
Abban, the envoy of Gundafor, an Indian king, and sold Thomas to him to be his
slave and serve Gundafor as a carpenter.
When he arrived in India, his apostolic zeal took over and
he accomplished great works throughout the northern part of the continent. He finally converted the wife and son of a
local king who, again, according to tradition, had our patron executed by four
of his soldiers who used spears to kill him.
How fortunate we are to have so human a
patron. His less-than-perfect faith allows
us to identify with him. As we heard in
the Letter to the Hebrews: "Faith is
the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” And faith is a gift from God, freely given
but in different measures. It is a very
fortunate few who have not had doubts about God, his presence, and his promise.
For many of us logic wars with faith, and we are forced to overcome our own
disbelief, fighting to force a reluctant mind to embrace what we know in our
hearts is true. Yes,
we believe. But do we all not wish we
could have the Lord stand in front of us so that we could see the nail marks in
his hands and put our hand into his side?
It is a great blessing for us to know that one as flawed as
we are in faith could be loved so deeply by our Lord and Savior. Today we
rejoice in God’s gift of St. Thomas. He
struggled to understand and in the end received the martyr’s crown; his faith
ultimately saved him. We consider those
who have worshiped in this space for the past hundred and fifteen years and
think of all the prayers offered up, asking our patron to intercede on their
behalf. Today we add our prayers to
theirs as we ask him to help our unbelief so that we, like him, might offer up
the profession: “My Lord and my God.”
Pax
In other years on this date: Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[1]
The picture is “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas“ by Caravaggio, 1601-1602
[3]
On Sunday, the second reading from Hebrews is added.
[4]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and
is for private use only.
[5]
See NAB footnote on Psalm 117
[6]
See NAB footnote on Hebrews 11:1-40
[7]
See NAB footnote on Hebrews 11:4
Comment by Deacon Dave Lawrence (St. Patrick, Brighton, Michigan) I found Bishop Foley’s prayer, resounding in the newly built walls of St. Thomas the Apostle Church so many years ago, particularly moving. In the age of rail, how many students and visitors to Ann Arbor must have been inspired by the structure while walking up the hill to get to campus and town?
ReplyDeleteRegarding The Saint Thomas: I taught a history course a few years back based on Warren H. Carroll’s “The Founding of Christendom”. (A very well footnoted text I’d be happy to lend you if you haven’t already read it.) He describes that during Saint Thomas’ mission to Northern India, there is a time gap that coincides with the approximate time of The Blessed Mother’s Assumption. He suggests that it was quite possible he returned, or was called, to Jerusalem to witness this miraculous event accompanied by all other living Apostles.
Professor Carroll also asserts that shortly thereafter, a navigator established a sea route to the south of India, shortening the journey greatly, and Saint Thomas finished his second and final mission in India.
It is possible…. no, probably probable in my humble opinion, that Saint Thomas himself planted the seed of faith that our dear friend Father Selvam maintains to this day… from his town in the South of India.