Doubting Thomas

“Peace be with you.”

Thomas gets a bad rap of being the unbelieving Disciple, but a closer reading of the gospel will show that the first thing Jesus did when he appeared to the Ten in the upper room was offer his peace and then show them his wounds. Had Thomas been with them at that time, he too would have seen the wounds and would have believed as the others did. He was not alone in his doubt. All of the Disciples hid in the upper room because they failed to trust in Jesus’ promise to return to them after three days. All of the Disciples were unbelieving when the women returned from the tomb bringing the good news of Christ’s resurrection.

Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The word spirit in Greek means breath. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Breath of God. In the beginning, the Father used his Holy Breath to utter one word, which was Jesus. Through him all creation came into being. There are only two places in the bible where God breathed into man. The first was when God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. The second is when Jesus institutes the Sacrament of Reconciliation by breathing the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples, giving them his authority to forgive or retain sins.

How many Catholics have become Doubting Thomases? The latest research suggests that two-thirds of Catholics no longer believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Jesus stands before us, body, blood, soul, and divinity, at every Mass and yet 66% refuse to believe because they can’t put their hands in his side or their fingers in the nail holes.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and believed.”

To quote the late Flannery O’Connor, “If it’s just a symbol, the Hell with it.”

If I only want a symbol of my faith, I’ll put a fish sticker on my car. If I want to know Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the salvation and redemption of the world, I need to look no further than at the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith and if I truly trust in Jesus’ words that, “This is my body, given up for you,” I believe, without doubt, with my entire heart, mind, strength, and soul. When I stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, I echo the words of the doubting disciple when I say, “My Lord and my God.”

Do not be unbelieving, but believe.