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“The Incredulity of Saint Thomas“
by Caravaggio, 1601-02 |
Biographical Information about St. Thomas the Apostle [1]
Readings for the Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary:[3]
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.
CCC: Eph 2:19-22 756; Eph
2:20 857;
Eph 2:21 797
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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.” [4]
Using a refrain from St. Mark’s Gospel, the psalm is
one of praise for the Good News of God’s salvation.
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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.
CCC: Jn 20:24-27 644; Jn 20:26 645,
659; Jn 20:27 645; Jn 20:28 448
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Homily:
On July 12, 1835, or 186 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 this
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 twenty 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: Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[1] The picture is “The
Incredulity of Saint Thomas“ by Caravaggio, 1601-02.
[2]
S.S. Commemoratio[3]
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 republication is not authorized by USCCB and is
for private use only.
[4]
NAB footnote on Psalm 117.
