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St. Thomas has gotten a bad rap. Too often labelled “doubting Thomas,” he was actually the first apostle to worship Jesus as “my Lord and my God.” “Have you believed because you have seen me?” Jesus asked him. The others were silent the previous Sunday when they had first seen the risen Jesus.
What is believing? John’s Gospel uses terms such as “to believe” and “believing” about forty times, always as a verb, never a noun. Believing is not an intellectual process but rather dynamic action. Earlier in the Gospel, when Jesus announced he would go to Bethany where Lazarus had just died, Thomas said, “Let us also go that we may die with [Jesus].” No doubter, Thomas was a bulwark of faith in Jesus. He was ready to give his life for Jesus; he worshipped Jesus when others were tentative.
Believing is discipleship. Thomas was open to the Spirit – the Spirit who came by the water and blood of the crucified Lord, as Saint John tells us in the second reading. The Spirit guided Thomas, in his believing, to the truth.
Thomas did not defend his reluctance to believe in the resurrection until he could put his hand in Jesus’ wounds. Instead, he saw, he changed and he worshipped. May we also be so forthright.