Let us also go, that we may die with him.

Today is the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. I wrote about Thomas in an earlier post, and how I think it's a bit sad that on his feast day we remember him for his weakest moment instead of his best (hence the title of the post), but this quote from St. Gregory the Great brings the reason for the Church's choice of scriptures into focus.

Dearly beloved, what do you see in these events? Do you really believe that it was by chance that this chosen disciple was absent, then came and heard, heard and doubted, doubted and touched, touched and believed? It was not by chance but in God’s providence. In a marvellous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the wounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief. The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened. So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ’s wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection. 

So, what St. Gregory is saying here is not what we often hear, that Thomas is a sort of example to us, or that those of us who have doubts can be healed by a participation in the suffering of Christ. All of this is true, but there is a subtle difference here. What he is saying is that it is the action of St. Thomas that heals us. It's reminiscent of Charles Williams theory of coinherence, and if you don't know what that means, well, I'm thinking that I should write about Williams in a couple of days.

St. Gregory goes on to say that the conversion of Thomas was more than just a movement from disbelief to belief in the Resurrection.

When Thomas saw and touched, why was he told: You have believed because you have seen me? Because what he saw and what he believed were different things. God cannot be seen by mortal man. Thomas saw a human being, whom he acknowledged to be God, and said: My Lord and my God. Seeing, he believed; looking at one who was true man, he cried out that this was God, the God he could not see.

I've been praying the Office of Readings for over 20 years, and yet I'd never seen this homily before.  The reason is that I always finish the readings for the day before I realize that there is a saint for that day. Since I started having trouble with my vision, I've been reading the Office here, because I can make the text as big as it needs to be. Since they always have the readings for the saints, I'm finding a lot of things I haven't read before.

AMDG