Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Showing posts with label St Thomas the Apostle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St Thomas the Apostle. Show all posts
GospelJohn 20:19-31 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
On the evening of that day, the first day of the
week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he
had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were
glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As
the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And when he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any,
it is withheld.’
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was
not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen
the Lord’. But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the
nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into
his side, I will never believe.’
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again,
and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood
among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your
finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.
Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’
Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed.’
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of
the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name.
It is true that Jesus says to St Thomas in today's Gospel, Do not disbelieve, but believe. But for many years I have thought that scholars and others have been unfair to this apostle. The expression 'Doubting Thomas' has come down to us in the English language to describe someone who is sceptical, who doesn't believe unless he sees.
That would describe Thomas at one level. But he said, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. He had the insight that if Jesus was truly risen he would carry the scars of his crucifixion. He seemed to grasp the extent of the sufferings of Jesus to redeem us sinners. And when he meets the Risen Lord eight days later he makes the most explicit act of faith in the whole Bible: My Lord and my God!
I learned this prayer when I was very young and it is part of the fibre of the Catholic faith here in Ireland. When the Mass promulgated in 1969 by Pope St Paul VI came out it introduced something new: the Acclamation after the Consecration. When the priest says The Mystery of Faith the people answer by singing or saying one of four acclamations. However, here in Ireland we have a fifth, the Act of Faith of St Thomas in today's Gospel: My Lord and my God! This is the one I always ask the people to use now when celebrating a public Mass, unless the choir has prepared one of the others acclamations. (The priest doesn't sing or say the acclamation as it belongs to the congregation / choir.)
When I was growing up the Mass was what's known now as the Traditional Latin Mass or 'TLM'. There were no official acclamations after the Consecration then but there was for me a very powerful unofficial one here in Ireland: the 'communal cough'. People literally held their breaths during the Consecration because they truly believed that through the power of the Holy Spirit acting through the priest the bread and wine became the Body and Blood of Christ, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity as we learned in kindergarten. After the elevation of the Precious Blood everyone coughed, letting out the tension of their awe-filled faith during the Consecration. This 'communal cough' was full, active participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and a deep expression of the faith of the whole community. The priest and people were fully united in worshipping God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In a meditation on the Easter Vigil published in Magnificat and also on Aleteiaon Thursday, English mystic Caryll Houselander (1901 - 1954) captured for me something of this awe, of the faith that people had in the reality of the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass. Here is the last part of her meditation. (Emphases are mine).
Once again bread and wine and water are brought into the sanctuary, and a Host is consecrated. At the elevation a peal of little bells rings out. It is not only worship of the soul, but the soul expressed through the body. The priest prostrates himself, beats his breast, lifts his arms up to heaven, makes the sign of the cross, speaks the mysterious words: 'This is my Body.' The congregation joins in this worship, and it is expressed by the body of each one: they know that when the words of consecration are spoken, the Word made flesh is there for each one of them; the same glory pours into the difficult worship of the old rheumatic woman at the back of the church as into the priest who is lifting up God in his hands. The glory of the Incarnation is equally in the aching of the old woman’s bones and the young priest’s ecstasy. The glory is not confined to the church where the Mass is offered: it extends in ring upon ring of light and circles the world.
St Thomas saw the glory of the Incarnation in the scars on the hands, feet and side of the Risen Lord. And his Act of Faith extends in ring upon ring of light and circles the world.
Readings(Jerusalem
Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand,
Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 20:19-31(New Revised Standard Version,
Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)
When it was
evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house
where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and
stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if
you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus
came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’
But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put
my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A
week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace
be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my
hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen
me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his
disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may
have life in his name.
We can read the words of Jesus to Thomas as a
gentle rebuke that has led to the nickname he may carry for all eternity:
'Doubting Thomas'. But I prefer to see him as the one who understood that the
Risen Lord must carry the scars of his crucifixion and who made the most
explicit act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my
God!
The First Reading today (Acts 2:42-47) opens with
the words They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 'The breaking of the
bread' is an expression used for the celebration of the Eucharist. We can see
in this sentence the essence of the Mass as we celebrate it today: listening to
God's word, praying and sharing in the Sacrifice of Jesus and sharing his Body
and Blood.
Some
commentators say that the failure of Thomas was not to listen to God's word as
related by his companions. Maybe he did fail here but did the others have the
same awareness as Thomas had that the Risen Lord must carry his scars for all
eternity?
In Evangelii Gaudium No
7 Pope Francis writes: I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very
heart of the Gospel: 'Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice
or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a
new horizon and a decisive direction'.
Thomas had been a companion of Jesus for two to three years but what he
experienced in today's gospel was precisely what Pope Benedict describes
as the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new
horizon and a decisive direction.
Celebrating Mass with American soldiers on 7 October 1950 during the Korean War. [Wikipedia] In his general audience in St Peter's Square on 31 October 2012
Pope Benedict said: I cannot build my personal faith in a private
dialogue with Jesus, because faith is given to me by God through a community of
believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers,
into a kind of communion that is not only sociological but rooted in the
eternal love of God who is in himself the communion of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is Trinitarian Love. Our faith is truly
personal, only if it is also communal: it can be my faith only if it dwells in
and moves with the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common
faith of the one Church.
Pope Francis re-echoes this in Evangelii Gaudium Nos 264 - 268: We need to
implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our
lukewarm and superficial existence . . . Sometimes we lose our enthusiasm
for mission because we forget that the Gospel responds to our deepest needs,
since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with Jesus and
love of our brothers and sisters . . . The word of God also invites us to
recognise that we are a people . . . Mission is at once a passion for
Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we
see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time,
unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love,
expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make
use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of
his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we
cannot understand our deepest identity.
What both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are saying is that while our faith is
in a person, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, it can never be a question of 'Jesus
and me'. Pope Benedict says, faith is given to me by God through a
community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of
believers. And Pope Francis emphasises that He takes us from
the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of
belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.
In other words, I can only know myself as a brother or sister of Jesus, as a
son or daughter of God the Father when I know myself as a member of their
family, which I have become through my baptism.
And that awareness of who I am is strengthened when I join other members of
God's family every Sunday as they devote themselves to the apostles’
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
During the current Covid-19 pandemic most Christians are not able to participate directly in the Eucharist. Yet we may do so in a real way - more than a 'virtual' way - through modern technology.
On Tuesday of this Easter Week 2020 - I participated in such a way in the funeral Mass of a friend named Helen Rickard who was a member of Our Lady of the Visitation Praesidium of the Legion of Mary in Navan, our local town. I'm the spiritual director of the praesidium. The celebrant, Fr Declan Hurley, emphasised that through her baptism Helen had become a sister of Jesus and that she had lived her faith out of that in prayer, especially in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, often in the middle of night, and in serving others. The following day I watched on Facebook part of the funeral Mass of a priest of the Prelature of Marawi, Philippines, who was my student in the 1970s, Fr Nilo Tabania. I didn't watch it live, but many others did. Like my friend Helen, Father Nilo was a man of great simplicity, a man without guile, like Nathanael in St John's Gospel. Please remember Helen and Father Nilo in your prayers.
I spent most of my life as a priest in the Philippines and was well aware of the fact that probably a majority of the people there, certainly in rural areas, aren't able to take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on a regular basis because they live so far away from churches where it is celebrated. The present situation enables us to share in their experience. Yet when we participate in Mass through television, online or listening to the radio, we hear the word of God proclaimed to us. This is as real as the voice of a loved one we are talking to on the telephone or through one of the modern internet forms of communication. The conversation is real, not 'virtual'. Yes, we cannot receive Holy Communion but we can be in true communion with the Risen Lord present body, blood, soul and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament when the priest says the words of consecration over the bread and wine that become the Body and Blood of Christ. Pope Benedict XVI wrote as follows about spiritual communion in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity) in No 55: Clearly,
full participation in the Eucharist takes place when the faithful approach the
altar in person to receive communion. Yet true as this is, care must be
taken lest they conclude that the mere fact of their being present in church
during the liturgy gives them a right or even an obligation to approach the
table of the Eucharist. Even in cases where it is not possible to receive
sacramental communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important,
meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a
desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion,
praised by Pope John Paul II and recommended by saints who were masters
of the spiritual life.
There is a very good post on spiritual communion on Catholic Strength.
In the suffering of so many throughout the world because of the Covid-19 pandemic we can see both the wounds of the suffering Christ and the scars of the Risen Christ.
May we have the grace to see, with St Thomas, the presence of My Lord and my God especially in suffering, our own and that of others, in whatever form it comes.
I learned the poem All in the April Evening in Fourth Class (Grade Four) when we had a wonderful teacher named John Galligan, a man who influenced my life greatly, though it was only years later I realised that. I think our class also learned to sing it that year - I'm not totally sure! - under a colourful woman named Mrs Agnes Boylan, who loved to wear large hats like the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of England. She was everyone's 'favourite grandmother'. I learned later that she was the mother of the late Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO, abbot of Roscrea Monastery in Ireland and author of a number of influential books on spirituality.
All in an April Evening by Katharine
Tynan
All in the April morning, April airs were abroad; The sheep with their little lambs Pass'd me by on the road.
The sheep with their little lambs Pass'd me by on the road; All in an April evening I thought on the Lamb of God.
The lambs were weary, and crying With a weak human cry, I thought on the Lamb of God Going meekly to die.
Up in the blue, blue mountains Dewy pastures are sweet: Rest for the little bodies, Rest for the little feet.
But for the Lamb of God Up on the hill-top green, Only a cross of shame Two stark crosses between.
All in the April evening, April airs were abroad; I saw the sheep with their lambs, And thought on the Lamb of God.
Canon Patrick Comerford, a priest of the Anglican Church of Ireland, has a very good commentary on the poem on his blog. He puts it in a Lenten context. But Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday. Katharine Tynan died on Good Friday 1931.
Gregorian Chant setting of the Communion Antiphon
Antiphona ad communionem Communion Antiphon Cf John 20:27
Mitte manum tuam, et cognosce loca clavorum,
Put your hand and feel the place of the nails,
et noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis, alleluia, alleluia.
and do not be unbelieving but believeing, alleluia, alleluia.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard
Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)
When it was evening on
that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the
disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he
showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw
the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if
you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
But Thomas (who was
called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’
But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put
my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A week later
his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the
doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my
hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have
you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and
yet have come to believe.’
Now Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this
book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may
have life in his name.
In 2007, during a visit
to Canada I was asked to give a talk to a prayer group. Afterwards, over
coffee, I was chatting with on of the members, an elderly immigrant from
Germany, who told me how she had become a Catholic. She had been raised as a
Lutheran and had been on the verge of joining the Catholic Church for a long
time but could not take the final step.
One weekday afternoon,
feeling somewhat down because of this she went for a walk. She happened to pass
by a Catholic church and decided to go in. While she was there a group of
teenage boys came in went up to the front of the church, genuflected before the
Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, knelt down for a couple of minutes, stood
up, genuflected again and went on their way. These boys were expressing what the Church has always taught: Do not,
then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in
fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your
senses may tell you, be strong in faith.
You
have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like
bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ. You
know also how David referred to this long ago when he sang: Bread gives
strength to man’s heart and makes his face shine with the oil of gladness.
Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and
bring joy to the face of your soul. (From The Jerusalem Catecheses, used in the Office of Readings for Saturday within the Octave of Easter.)
This is the reason that Fr Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain to the Paris Fire Brigade, rescued the Blessed Sacrament from the burning Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Holy Week.
The visit of those Canadian teenage boys to the Blessed Sacrament was the German
woman's My Lord and my God! moment. She became a Catholic
shortly afterwards. Those boys had no idea of how their simple
expression of their faith had so profoundly touched the life of a person whom
they may not have even noticed.
The moment that St Thomas
said My Lord and my God! was truly an 'eternal' moment. It led
to his martyrdom and to his living with God for all eternity.
My German-Canadian friend's moment is 'eternal' in the same way. It led her into a deeper relationship with
the Lord Jesus and with all the members of the Church and points towards
an eternity with God himself.
Every such moment
in our lives is meant to be eternal, a moment when we experience the presence
of God's love so clearly, a moment that we continue to carry with us, sometimes
consciously but perhaps more often not being aware of it, a moment that leads
us to eternal life.
I think that we my legitimately think of those many moments in the way St John in his gospel writes of the many other signs [miracles] that Jesus did, which are not written in this book. These moments are graces given by God so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
The Mar Thoma Sliva or Saint Thomas Cross, the symbol of the Syro-Malabar Church[Wikipedia]
I have met many Keralite Catholics here in Ireland and also in Britain and know how fervent they are in living their faith.There are Masses in the Syro-Malabar Rite every Sunday in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
May St Thomas the Apostle, whose My Lord and my God! is the most explicit expression of faith in Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament, continue to watch over them.
Antiphona communionem Communion Antiphon Cf John 20:27
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelJohn 20:19 - 31 (New Revised Standard
Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)
When it was
evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house
where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and
stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if
you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus
came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’
But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put
my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
A
week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.
Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace
be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my
hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen
me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his
disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may
have life in his name.
I carry a scar on one of my hips from surgery when I was 17. I can't even remember which hip. But the scar is there, along with a couple of smaller scars from accidents when I was young. I hardly ever think about them. But they are there. St Thomas's instinct was right: Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe. He knew that if the Lord was truly risen he would carry the scars of his suffering. And he carries them for all eternity. Scars are reminders of wounds that were. The Risen Body of Christ carries the scars of his Passion and Crucifixion but they are no longer wounds. But the Body of Christ that is the Church is being wounded daily. The world that God created is being wounded daily. In the first reading during the Easter Vigil (Genesis 1: 1 - 2:2) we heard these words: So God created humankindin his image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them . . . God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. But today we see much that he had made and that was very good destroyed or being destroyed. We see countless persons created in his image, in the image of God, being killed in endless conflicts. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we read: Or do you not know that your body is a templeof the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. On Easter Monday this year four members of a Catholic family were shot dead in Quetta, Pakistan, by members of the so-called Islamic State. The victims were Pervaiz Masih, Tariq Masih, Imran Masih and Firdous Bibi. They were killed because each was a templeof the Holy Spirit, a follower of Jesus, a Christian.
After leading the recitation of the Regina Caelion Easter Monday 2015 (Regina Caeli replaces the Angelus during the Easter Season) Pope Francis spoke especially about the persecution of Christians today. He went so far as to say, They are our martyrs of today, and there are many; we can say that there are more than in the first century.
Today is the last day of the Easter Octave, which Pope Francis spoke about before reciting the Regina Caeli on that Easter Monday: We are in the days of the Octave of Easter, during which we accompany the joyful climate of the Resurrection. It is curious: the Liturgy considers the entire Octave as one single day, to help us to enter into the mystery, so that His grace is imprinted into our hearts and into our lives. Easter is the event that brought the radical novelty for every human being, for history and for the world: the triumph of life over death; it is the feast of reawakening and regeneration. Let us allow our existence to be conquered and transformed by the Resurrection!
As St Thomas believed when he saw the scars that Jesus carried after his Resurrection, may we see the wounds of the Body of Christ, the wounds of God's creation, the wounds of those made in the image of God, the wounds of so many persecuted Christians, each a temple of the Holy Spirit, so that we too may believe and say, My Lord and my God!
And may that faith be lived in tending the wounds of others - and allowing others to tend to our own wounds.
Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia,
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
