“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 he 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.’”

Thomas’s confession (20:28), scholars note, forms a literary inclusion with the first verse of the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “My Lord and My God!” from Thomas’s mouth is the greatest expression of belief. Our faith makes an extraordinary claim: a man named Jesus of Nazareth who lived 2000 years ago, not only rose from the dead, but was and is and will always be God. Since we have the example of generations who have believed before us, this extraordinary claim can seem less radical, but it is this very claim, blasphemous as it was, that led to Jesus’s death on a cross. Were he not raised from the dead, if Jesus is not God, that’s where the story would have ended: another revolutionary executed at the hands of the state, perhaps mentioned in history, but only as a minor note. Obviously, Jesus’s own disciples, even the twelve, had a hard time believing it, as attested to in today’s gospel. With the advent of the scientific method and our pride in reason, we may think that simpler minds in Jesus’s day would have more likely accepted the extraordinary claim. That is not the case. It was just as difficult for them to wrap their minds around a God-man who rose from the dead as it is for us. That John includes the event of Thomas in his gospel is an indication of the challenge of belief. It has never been easy. 

And, yet, Thomas did come to believe. The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and sent to proclaim the extraordinary good news. The faith did spread. Lives were changed, generation after generation. My own belief does stand upon my personal encounter with the living Jesus: his love, his freedom, and his grace. Supporting evidence, for me, however, is the historic growth and fidelity to the gospel through the millennium. Despite persecution, our frailty, and our best attempts to undermine it, the church has perdured and grown. The faith, our faith, has endured. The Holy Spirit continues to work. The gospel continues to change lives. Love never fails. In our darkest moments, we are not alone. In our failures, we are forgiven. In our weakness, we are made strong. Jesus, the God-man who rose from the dead, comes to heal, restore, and lift us up. He comes to us in the Eucharist. He comes to us in each of our lives. He comes to us here and now. Jesus Christ is alive! Alleluia! Alleluia!