Homily- Friday of the 13th Week of
Ordinary Time, Year B/Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle
Readings: Eph 2: 19-22; Ps 117L1bc, 2; John 20:24-29
St.
Thomas the Apostles’ and His Long Walk to Faith!
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas, one of the
Apostles, whose faith confession is noted in today’s Gospel of John. It is an
interesting faith story of us, humans, which reminds me of the prophets,
especially Habakkuk, and of course St. Peter too. I would call the lessons of
today’s bible readings, “Thomas’ Long walk to believing!”
In the case of Thomas it took him a while to come to
terms with the resurrection of Christ since he was not there when Christ first
appeared to his colleagues, other Apostles. He needed to see the nails marks,
put his hands there in order to believe. What does that say to Us? Many things.
One of them could be our humanity. We are humans. We all want to see before we
believe. We are weak. We are usually afraid. It is easy for us to be skeptical
and to doubt! But the good news is that the Lord is patient with us even when
we doubt him. So was he patient with
Thomas. So was he forgiving to him. He gave him a second chance and said “peace be
with you” Thomas. He encouraged him. And Thomas finally confessed “My Lord and
my God.” What a long walk to faith!
In the case of
Habakkuk as I mentioned earlier it took him a while to realize that the
righteous shall live by faith (Emuhah, 2:4). Habakkuk in the first 2
chapters could understand why God was silent about the wickedness and the
unrighteousness of the Chaldeans, allowing them to robe and punish the
righteous! It was a long walk for Habakkuk. In the end of chapter 3, like
Thomas he discovered the hiddenness of God in his life and professed “My Lord
and my God.”
The wobbling Peter was the same, if I may say so. He
denied Christ many times but tat the end peter returned to faith.
We are today, in our various circumstance of trials of
pandemic, loss of our loved ones and jobs not to lose faith but to continue to
build upon the faith foundation of the Apostles, especially of that of Saint
Thomas. This is why St. Paul in that first reading, Ephesians 2:19-22 says,
“brothers and sisters, you are no longer strangers and
sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the
household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with
Christ Jesus himself as the capstone….”
No matter how long it may take, let us continue to walk
towards faith, and believing in Christ our savior who is the life and the
resurrection! And that with the Lord, the challenges, especially of this
pandemic, we face today will come and come and go!
Reflection Questions:
1.
How often are we
conscious of the “Thomas-like tendencies in us? And how do we handle them?
2.
How do we assist our
unbelieving family member and neighbor?
3.
Can we see ourselves
in Thomas, and the Prophets, especially Habakkuk and how?
4.
What faith challenges
do face today, in this era of pandemic?
