{"id":1613,"date":"2024-04-16T16:48:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/?p=1613"},"modified":"2024-04-16T16:48:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:48:47","slug":"doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubting Thomas and Absent Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Every year, the gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter is that of John 20: 19-31, which includes the story of doubting Thomas. Every year, I think: \u201cThomas is getting a bum rap!\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, would any other apostle in the same situation have had more faith? If any other apostle had been absent when Christ appeared to those assembled, might that person have expressed the same doubts?<\/p>\n

You have to admit that the story of Christ\u2019s appearance was pretty incredulous. \u201cHey, Thomas! You\u2019ll never guess who dropped by while you were gone.\u201d Was this a joke? Were the other apostles pulling his leg and giving him a hard time for being away?<\/p>\n

We do not know much about the personal characteristics of each of the apostles, so we don\u2019t know if Thomas was known for being a doubter or a cynic. Maybe he was always the guy who brought up the negatives and was hard to convince.<\/p>\n

Needing to See to Believe<\/strong><\/h3>\n On the other hand, maybe any one of them would have reacted the same. It\u2019s human nature to doubt what you haven\u2019t seen for yourself. How many times have you said, \u201cReally? Let me<\/em> see.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus shows his wounds to Thomas\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 by Good News Productions International and College Press Publishing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Think about all the people who don\u2019t believe Americans traveled to the moon, or don\u2019t believe the Holocaust happened, or don\u2019t believe that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. If they can\u2019t see it for themselves . . . .<\/p>\n We are being somewhat hypocritical to point a finger at Thomas and say, \u201cOh ye of little faith!\u201d Thomas just serves as an example of how the rest of us behave, over and over again, unfortunately.<\/p>\n Maintaining Strength of Faith<\/strong><\/h3>\n Another important lesson from the Thomas the Apostle Affair was pointed out by our celebrant in his homily on the Second Sunday of Easter. Because Thomas missed a gathering of the apostles, it\u2019s possible that his faith weakened as a result.<\/p>\n Times were tough. Jesus had died. His resurrection was speculation. Without the support of his fellow apostles, under tremendous pressure from society, and while deeply grieving over the death of Jesus, Thomas was vulnerable.<\/p>\n Was Thomas away from the other disciples for very long? Was he alone long enough to start questioning everything? Could he have wondered if following Jesus had been one big mistake?<\/p>\n Joining together with the other apostles again gave Thomas new revelations about Christ. He had been seen! He had spoken to the apostles! Then the next Sunday, he saw Jesus for himself and learned a lesson from Him.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t that exactly what happens when we attend Mass? Our faith is bolstered by those around us. We learn lessons. We are in the presence of Christ.<\/p>\n Image by Dominic from Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n When we miss Mass, we miss the opportunity for a lesson in our faith, so it weakens, even if ever so slightly. Certainly, if we miss Mass a lot, our faith weakens noticeably. We feel the loss of community, especially the loss of being in communion with Christ.<\/p>\n Two Lessons in Faith<\/strong><\/h3>\n The moral to the story of Thomas is usually presented as \u201cBlessed are those who have not seen and have believed.\u201d The saying \u201cseeing is believing\u201d does not apply to matters of faith. Most of us have not seen a Marian apparition or a miracle, but we believe because of the testimony of others and our faith in Jesus, just as Thomas should have believed in the testimony of his fellow apostles and the promises of Jesus.<\/p>\n In addition, however, there is another very important lesson: \u201cGo to church! Go to church! Go to church!\u201d That means every<\/em> Sunday, just as God directed us to do in the Third Commandment: Keep Holy the Sabbath Day<\/em>.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t be sloppy, occasional church-goers whose benefit from attendance is not much more than taking the occasional vitamin. We need maintenance doses for continued health. We need a regular regimen of strength training to exercise the faith muscles.<\/p>\n Just as people go to a gym to learn from the trainer and work out with others with similar goals, so we go to church to learn from the Word of God, and we are motivated by the Christian community around us.<\/p>\n Thomas\u2019s doubts were a normal human reaction; nonetheless, they exhibit a weakness of faith that is a challenge to all of us. In addition, his absence from that critical gathering exemplifies the importance of going to Mass at every opportunity. It\u2019s always an event that we don\u2019t want to miss.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every year, the gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter is that of John 20: 19-31, which includes the story of doubting Thomas. Every year, I think: \u201cThomas is getting a bum rap!\u201d After all, would any other apostle in the same situation have had more faith? If any other apostle had been absent when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4580,"featured_media":1619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1457,1466,821,1454,1460,1463],"class_list":["post-1613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patheos-catholic","tag-absent-thomas","tag-believing-without-seeing","tag-church-attendance","tag-doubting-thomas","tag-second-sunday-of-easter","tag-seeing-is-believing"],"yoast_head":"\nDoubting Thomas and Absent Thomas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" and blessed are those who go to church regularly to maintain their faith.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doubting Thomas and Absent Thomas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" and blessed are those who go to church regularly to maintain their faith.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musings From the Pew\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lois.kerschen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-16T23:48:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1433\/2024\/04\/12_FB_GNPI_104_Appearance_Thomas_Thumbnail.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lois Kerschen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@llkerschen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lois Kerschen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/\",\"name\":\"Doubting Thomas and Absent Thomas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-16T23:48:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-16T23:48:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#\/schema\/person\/69dc96c459773f7eaf12d1f5bdfd1d44\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed\\\" and blessed are those who go to church regularly to maintain their faith.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2024\/04\/doubting-thomas-and-absent-thomas\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Doubting Thomas and Absent Thomas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/\",\"name\":\"Musings From the Pew\",\"description\":\"Commentary on being Catholic; 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