Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. And when the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said, "Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Bring your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be faithless but faithful.
Thomas' response is an act of faith, of adoration and of limitless dedication: My Lord and my God! These are his four inexhaustible words. His faith springs, not so much from the evidence of Jesus, but from immense pain. It is not so much trials as love that leads him to adoration and to a return to the apostolate. Tradition tells us that the Apostle Thomas died a martyr's death for faith in his Lord. He spent his life in his service.
Thomas' first doubts served to confirm the faith of those who were later to believe in him. Do you think," comments St. Gregory the Great, "that it happened by pure chance that the chosen disciple was absent at that time, that on his return he heard the apparition told, and on hearing it he doubted, and doubting he felt it, and feeling it he believed? It was not by chance, but by God's disposition. The divine clemency acted in an admirable way so that, the doubting disciple touching the wounds of the flesh of his Master, healed in us the wounds of unbelief (...). Thus the disciple, doubting and feeling, became a witness of the true resurrection".
If our faith is firm, it will also support the faith of many others. It is necessary that our faith in Jesus Christ grows day by day, that we learn to look at events and people as He looks at them, that our actions in the midst of the world are enlivened by the doctrine of Jesus. But, at times, we too, like the Apostle Thomas, find ourselves lacking in faith. We need more trust in the Lord in the face of difficulties in the apostolate, in the face of events that we do not know how to interpret from a supernatural point of view, in moments of darkness that God allows us to grow in other virtues?
The virtue of faith is what gives us the true dimension of events and allows us to judge all things correctly. "Only by the light of faith and meditation on the divine word is it possible always and everywhere to recognize God, in whom we move and exist (Acts 17:28); to seek his will in all events, to contemplate Christ in all people, whether near or strange, and to judge rightly the true meaning and value of temporal realities, both in themselves and in order to the end of man."
Let us meditate on the Gospel of today's Mass. "Let us turn our eyes once again to the Master. Perhaps you too will hear at this moment the reproach addressed to Thomas: put your finger here, and search my hands; and bring your hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but faithful (Jn 20:27); and, with the Apostle, that cry will go forth from your soul with sincere contrition: My Lord and my God! (Jn 20:28), I acknowledge you definitively as my Master, and with your help I will treasure your teachings forever and strive to follow them faithfully.
My Lord and my God! My Lord and my God! These words have served as an ejaculatory for many Christians, and as an act of faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, when passing in front of a tabernacle, at the moment of Consecration at Holy Mass.... They can also help us to actualize our faith and our love for the Risen Christ, truly present in the Holy Host.
Hablar con Dios