Low Sunday (“A”) – April 23, 2017

Thomas is often called “Doubting” Thomas because he refused to believe the other disciples when they told him they had seen the risen Lord. We cannot always accept without question what a group of people tell us about something they say has happened even if they are all in the same place at the same time. Thomas wanted to verify with his own eyes what they said had happened. His doubts were reasonable. He was not left in uncertainty. Jesus appears again to the disciples when Thomas was with them. Because he can see the risen Lord, Thomas believes and his response is the fullest expression of faith found anywhere in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God!” Jesus then declares blessed “those who have not seen and yet believe”. This gives us assurance that faith does not depend on what we ase but on what is in our hearts or, as we read in the letter to the Hebrews, “Only faith can…prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.”